How to Fix The OBS Crashing in Windows 10 (Full Guide)
OpenBroadcaster Studio is one of those rare apps that are free, incredibly powerful, better than most of its paid counterparts, and reasonably easy to use. We’ve recommended it often for various fixes and hacks because it is so powerful and works well with a large number of other apps.
OBS is a great app but it’s a screen recording and broadcasting app. These types of apps are prone to problems simply because they are so complex. If you were to go digging through OBS’ settings, you’d end up spending hours learning about features and things you can change.
OBS Crashing in Windows 10?
OBS runs into problems now and then; sometimes you get a black screen when you try to record and sometimes the app crashes on launch or mid-way when it’s recording or broadcasting. Here are a few simple things you can try to fix it.
Fix the OBS Crashing Issues (Step-by-step Guide)
1. Rollback to older version
OBS updates fairly regularly but not all updates will work on all systems. An update, no matter how minor, may not work on all systems. This often has to do with the version of the OS, the drivers installed on the system, or even the other apps that you’re using OBS with being incompatible with the new version. The list is long and hard to troubleshoot.
- Open Control Panel.
- Go to Programs>Uninstall a program.
- Select OBSand click Uninstall.
- Download an older version of OBS from the official Github page and install it.
2. Disable other screen recording tools and overlays
OBS will generally work fine with other apps that can record the screen but there will be exceptions depending on your system’s settings, configurations, and its hardware capabilities.
- Turn off the Game Bar from the Settings app.
- Disable the Nvidia Game overlay.
- Disable any other third-party overlayhttps://www.addictivetips.com/windows-tips/enable-discord-overlay-in-game/ that appears when you record the screen or run an app.
3. Reset graphics card settings
If you have a GPU on your system, you have the option to change its settings and optimize it so that your games run better. This may cause problems with OBS though. Reset the graphics card settings back to their default configurations. If you can, backup the settings you have to a different profile before you reset everything.
The resetting process is different for different GPUs but for an Nvidia GPU, you can follow these steps.
- Open the Nvidia control panel.
- Go to the Manage 3D settings tab.
- Click the Restore button.
- Restart the system.
For an Intel graphics card, follow these steps.
- Open the Intel Graphics Command Center.
- Go to the System tab.
- Click the Restore to original settings button.
- Restart the system.
4. Run OBS in compatibility mode
OBS is compatible with Windows 10 and has received several updates since the release of the OS. That said, when the app doesn’t work, compatibility mode is often the quickest fix.
- Create a desktop shortcut for OBS.
- Right-click the shortcut and select Properties from the context menu.
- Go to the Compatibility tab.
- Enable ‘Run this program in compatibility mode for’.
- Select Windows 7 from the dropdown.
- Click Apply and then OK.
- Use the shortcut to open OBS.
OBS Windows 10: Conclusion
If you have plugins installed with OBS, make sure they are up to date.
If an update for a plugin isn’t available then you should run an older version of OBS that the plugin works with, find an alternate plugin, or disable it.
