In case you experience frequent Dota 2 crashes while loading the game or during the game-play, then you need to read this article. You can follow all applicable solutions. These solutions are good for almost all operating systems. In case you face any issue in any of the steps, you can contact me and I can help/guide you with it. I have tested all these methods and those all work perfectly for me.

It is not necessary to apply all the solutions, but you can apply as many as possible or needed.

There are some predefined values in the game launcher settings. You can use those to fix some of the issues. So you can set the Auto Config mode as described and shown below:

Open Steam and click Library. Right-click Dota 2 and select “Properties”. A New Window will open like the image below. Click “Set Launch Options” as highlighted below. If there is there is any other lunch option already present, remove it and type “-autoconfig“.



Click OK and start your game now.

2. Set Safe Launch

Still, if you get crashes after Auto Config mode, you should try “Safe Launch Mode” the same way as we did above.

Repeat Steps 1-2 from the above paragraph. Click “Set Launch Options“, remove existing value (if there any) and type “-safe“. Click OK and restart the game. It will start your game in safe mode with normal settings and most probably issues will be fixed.

3. Change Process Affinity

This seems to be very geeky fix, but actually, it is not. Sometimes Dota 2 does not use the full potential of your CPU properly and you do not get enough power to run Dota 2. Therefore it crashes. Process Affinity can be changed very easily and it gives your game full power of your CPU and Processors.

Start Steam and Start Dota 2. Press Alt + Tab or Windows keys to minimize Dota 2 and switch to your desktop. Right-click the Taskbar, select “Task Manager”. If you are running Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7, then you will have to click the Processes tab. Windows 8 and Windows 10 users to click the “Details” tab. Find process “dota2.exe“. Right click on it and select “Set Affinity” as you can see in the image above. A New Window will open from where you can select how many CPU cores you want to allow Dota 2 to use. Select all cores available. As can be seen in the image below. Then click “Ok“. Close Task Manager and Check your Dota 2 now. It should fix your Dota 2 crashes problem.

4. Change the NVidia Control Panel Settings

NVidia Control Panel contains several graphical settings. You should set recommended settings in it because that works perfectly for most of the users. In case Recommended settings don’t work for you, you can always try other settings to tweak what works best for you.

Click the Start button. Next click NVidia Control Panel. Now click “Select a Task” on the left-hand side panel. Click 3D Settings then in next window click Manage 3D Settings and in next window click Program Settings. Click “Add” button under “Select a Program” category. Browse to the Dota 2 installation folder, where ever you have installed it. normally it is – C:Program Files (x86)/Steam/SteamApps/common/dota 2 beta/game/bin/dota2.exe Set Preferred Graphics: High-Performance NVidia Processor Finally, click Apply.

Same Settings can be applied for ATI Radeon graphics cards as well by following almost the same steps as of NVidia Graphic Cards.

5. Disable Switchable Graphics

If you do not have dual graphic Cards, then you should leave this step and skip to the next one.

Nowadays almost all the PCs and Laptops have 2 graphic Cards by default. What happens is, one graphics card is of ATI Radeon or NVidia and other is built in your motherboard, which is normally Intel HD Graphic Card. If there are 2 Graphics Cards in your system, then there must be an option in your BIOS settings from where you can tell your CPU about the way it should use your Graphics Card. Sometimes these graphics card issues also cause Dota 2 crashes. In this step, we will disable the switching process. We will make sure that our secondary Graphic Card (ATI Radeon or NVidia) should be used is more powerful.

Restart your computer. Go to BIOS settings by pressing F2, F12 or Delete key (Whichever is applicable to your system). BIOS Settings page will open. Search for a setting called “Switchable Graphics“. Disable it. Select Save settings and exit.

6. Reset Texture and Render Quality Settings

Sometimes your video setting in Dota 2 are too high and your system cannot bear that, which causes extra load on your Graphics Card and overall whole system too. So you must optimize those video settings completely according to your needs. Best is to reset the texture and render quality settings as shown below:

Start your Dota 2 game. Click Settings in top left corner, then come to Video Options.

Set lower Texture and higher Render Quality. Click the Save Settings button, exit and restart your Dota 2.

7. Verify Cache Files Integrity

Verify integrity of the game cache files.

Open Steam. Click Library Right-click the Dota 2 and select Properties. In top Menu, click on Local Files tab. Then select “Verify Integrity of Game Cache“. You must ensure that the game is not running at the time you are verifying the cache Files Integrity. Once the process is complete, click OK and you will be good to go.

8. Reinstall Steam

Sometimes Dota 2 crashes due to corrupt files. These may be corrupt Steam files or it may be corrupt Dota 2 Files. So let’s try the small solution first.

Exit Steam completely. Go to Control Panel, then Programs and select Uninstall a Program. Uninstall steam completely. Do not uninstall your Dota 2 at this step . I am just talking about reinstalling steam. Don’t worry, if you uninstall steam nothing will happen to your Dota 2 files. Go to Official Steam Site and install a new copy of Steam and once you have installed, it will automatically pick Dota 2. If you want to be safer, then you need to copy your Dota 2 files to some other drive. You can find your Dota 2 Folder in C:Program Files (x86)/Steam/SteamApps/common/dota 2 beta. This folder “Dota 2 Beta” is the main folder which has all your game-related files.

9. Reinstall Steam + Dota 2

If all above methods fail, then its time to take the sour pill. You have to uninstall and then reinstall your Dota 2 and Steam. It will hopefully fix your issues. The complete process of Reinstalling Dota 2 with the backup method is explained here.

10. Using VPN Softwares

WTFast is one of the best VPN software which is designed to reduce your pings and packet losses. It also takes care of your lags issue. If your game is unplayable even after changing your ISP, then its time for you to take it for a spin. The good thing is, it offers a free 7 days trial version with full options.

In case you are running Windows 10, then you should also have a look at this article Dota 2 on Windows 10 – Problems and Solutions. It will surely help you fix your lags and delays issues.