Fix Assassin’s Creed 3 Crash, Poor FPS, Error Messages, Black Screen, Lagging: Troubleshooting Guide

Hello Friends. I was doing some searches on web today morning regarding the latest hit from Activision “Assassin’s Creed 3” and found many users facing lots of error messages such as msvcr71.dll, msvcr100.dll, unable to install, cannot load the game, few are facing freezing problem at various point of the game, someone’s game is freezing while loading save game, many are facing Crash to Desktop problem, whereas many are facing Poor FPS issues. So I thought to make a Troubleshooting guide for Assassin’s Creed 3 so that those gamers can enjoy the game with full enjoy. So lets start:

As we always say, the very first thing we need to check in order to get rid of these problems is our System Configuration. See whether it meets the minimum system requirements of the game as mentioned by the developer. Here are the same:

AC3 Minimum System Requirements:

• Operating System: Windows Vista 32bit
• CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 2.66GHz OR AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 6000+
• Memory: 2 GB
• Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3 OR AMD Radeon HD 3870
• DirectX: DirectX 10
• HDD Space: 17 GB

AC3 Recommended System Requirements:

• Operating System: Windows 7 64bit
• CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6400 2.13GHz OR AMD Phenom 9550 Quad-Core
• Memory: 4 GB
• Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 OR AMD Radeon HD 5770 512MB
• DirectX: DirectX 11
• HDD Space: 17 GB

If your system meets above mentioned requirements then lets troubleshoot each and every problems individually.

Assassin’s Screed 3 Crash and CTD Solution:

Most of the time it is the game itself which comes with few bugs that cause the crash and many times it use to be our system which causes these problems. If it is related to the game, developer will surely launch some patches to fix it but we have to first make sure it there is not the problem from our end itself. Hence, follow the below steps:

• The very first thing to fix Crash or CTD is to update our graphics driver. Just visit nVidia Official site, enter your OS version, select graphic card, download and install the drivers. If you are using AMD/ATI drivers, then do the same on their official website.
• If updating the drivers wont fix than probably you might need to roll back to earlier drivers. It has been observed that rolling back to driver 301.42 and 306.23 has helped many to get rid of Crash as well as improved performance.
• Also many times it could be your Antivirus and Firewall that can make it crash. So, if you are facing Crash problems with Assassin’s creed 3 and your Antivirus is enabled, try disabling the same. Especially when you have Norton Antivirus installed.
• Most of the crashes with games are associated with Video Cards itself, hence if still you face Crash with the game, then you should try Turning Off SLI / Crossfire, disable anti-aliasing and filtering, disabled V-sync and then restart the game again.
• If still the Crash or CTD occurs, make sure you have the latest version of DirectX installed on your system. You can download it from here: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=35
• Until now your crash problem should have been fixed. In case, it is still crashing then there might be some program running in background that is causing the problem. Just right click your task bar, select Task Manager, click on Process Tab and kill every unwanted process that is not required during playing Assassin’s creed 3.
• Also open your graphic cards control panel and turn off one GPU. Yes, run the game on only One GPU. You can also try out running the game in Windows Mode. This will surely fix the Crash problem because if trying above all steps wont work that means your system is not compatible for running AC3 and running in windowed mode will need very less resources which enable you to play the game comfortably.

Assassin’s Creed 3 Crashes on Steam:

Many users around the world also playing Assassin’s creed 3 on steam and they also face Crash problems. If you are one of them, then just follow below steps to fix it:

• Launch Steam on your computer.
• Go to Library and select Assassin’s Creed 3.
• Right click and select Properties. Click on the Local files tab.
• Here you will find a button for “Verify integrity of game cache.”
• Click the same and wait for few minutes until the job is done.
• Once completed, start the game again. Hopefully Crash problem will be gone.

Assassin’s Creed 3 CTD (Crashes to Desktop) on Steam and Windows while launching:

No matter you are playing this on local Windows computer or on Steam, is the game is crashing right when you double click the Game desktop shortcut icon, then try launching the game from its originally installed location.

• On Windows 7, Go to Program Files > Ubisoft > Assassin’s Creed 3> and right click the AC3 EXE file, select “Run as Administrator”
• On Steam for 32bit: C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\ and Right click AC3 EXE file, select “Run as Administrator”
• On Steam for 64bit: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\ and Right click AC3 EXE file, select “Run as Administrator”
• If still the game is crashing to Desktop while launching from the Desktop than try running the game in Windows XP SP3 Compatibility mode. You can do this by right clicking the EXE file, select Properties, click Compatibility Tab and select “Run this game in compatibility mode for” and select Windows XP SP3.

Assassin’s Creed 3 Poor FPS, Freezing and Lagging solution:

If you are facing lag or freezing issues with AC3 or getting poor/low FPS, then just go through the following troubleshoot steps:

• Launch the game, open Video Settings and try lowering the Graphic Settings.
• Turn Off Vsync from game settings and start the game again.
• If you are nVidia card user the Turn Off FXAA as well.
• Another reason could be unwanted process running in the system background and hence AC3 is not getting enough CPU/memory resources that can result in poor FPS, lag or freezing\zing issues. Hence Open Task Manager and kill all unwanted process. Just leave running on the required programs for the game play.
• Also in task Manager, go to Process Tab, select Assassin’s respective process, right click, Select Priority and set it “Above Normal” Or “High”.
• If you are playing Assassin’s Creed 3 online (Multiplayer) or on Steam, then most probably it could be your Internet Connection creating issues with FPS, Lag or freezing. So just make sure that you have pretty good internet connection. Minimum 1MBps connection is recommended.
• If your system is connected to WiFi network, better disable the same and connect your computer directly to the router over Ethernet cable or Lan. Also make sure no other devices on the network are eating up the bandwidth.
• Most of the times it use to be our Firewall program or Antivirus blocking the connection as well. So better Disable them both before starting the game.

Assassin’s Creed 3 No Sound or Weak Sound Solution:

Along with above mentioned problems, users may also face (infact I’ve seen many users facing) Sound problems with Assassin’s Creed 3. If you are one of them, here is the solution:

• The very first thing you need to do is update your Sound Card driver. Visit the manufacturer’s official website, select your sound card model and update the drivers.
• Ensure to have latest DirectX installed. You can update the same from here  http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=35
• If still not getting proper sound, then go to Start (Win7 and Vista), type “dxdiag”, press Enter key. In the opened window, go to sound tab and Reduce Sound Acceleration.
• If you are a Realtek user, then open Sound Manager, Click Properties, Advance Settings and change the settings to set 44k Stereo settings. Once done, restart the game.

Assassin’s Creed 3 Error Messages and Solutions:

• There are various types of error messages that may occur before or during gameplay, whiles installing Assassin’s creed 3, few errors also occur due to graphic card, etc. Here we cover all of those error messages with solution.

Error: “Disc is Un-readable”

• I saw few users facing this problem while trying to install the game. Most probably the cause of this error could be either game DVD or your DVD drive. So you need to check both of them individually by running DVD on some another computer and running some another DVD on your computer. If the problem is with DVD, then obviously you will need to get replacement for the same. But before that try copying DVD contents in a folder (on another system which can read the disk), copy that folder on your PC and try to run the setup directly from root of this folder. See if it can install the game now.

Error: “Activation Code Not Valid From Uplay”

• Due to this error you won’t get your game copy activated. If you come across this error, there is nothing to worry about. Just close Uplay, wait for few minutes, restart and try again.

Error: “D3Dx9_27.dll Error”

• When you get this error, that means your system’s DirectX is out of date and you need to update it. You can do this by clicking this URL: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=35

Error: “The Application failed to initialize properly (0xc000007b). Click Ok to terminate.”

• This is very common error with almost all high end video games. And the only reason behind it is Visual 2005, 2008 and 2010 Run Time Error. SO the simplest way to fix this error is to first uninstall Microsoft Visual 2005, 2008 and 2010 (whichever or all installed on your computer) from Add and Remove Applet. Restart the computer and download/install the latest Visual C++ component. That’s it.

Error: “You are not allowed to continue because your do not have the proper privileges. Please log in using an account with administrator privileges and try again.”

• While trying to run the game, this error may occur with you as well. If you come across this, there is nothing to panic. Just go to the games original installation folder under program files, right click the AC3 respective EXE file and select “Run as Administrator.” You wont be getting this error more.

Error: “The application was unable to start correctly (0xc0000142)”

• If you face this error and Assassin’s creed 3 is unable to start, then you may need to Install or Re-install Microsoft .NET 4 again. Do it and error will disappear.

Error: “Failed to create D3D device”

• This is one of the most common error usually related to your graphic cards. And the only simplest solution is to update your DirectX to the latest version and your Video card drivers as well. If you are using nVidia Card, then click here to update and for AMD ATI Graphic Cards, click here.

Error: “AC3SP.exe stopped working”

• This error is related to Steam gamers. If you are facing this error with Assassin’s Creed 3 on Steam, then go to this location /steamapps/common/assassinscreed3. Here you will see two exe files whom you need to right click and select “Run as Administrator.” Along with this you also need to clear your local PC’s temp folder. You can do this by typing %temp% in Start > RUN.