Games won't launch at all, even on recommended specs.

The last game I actually managed to finish was Dead Island—it ran perfectly fine until the very end when, for no apparent reason, it started lagging like crazy and crashing constantly. After that, I couldn't even get back into Dead Island at all, so I just uninstalled it. Given that my GPU and CPU aren't exactly high-end, I don't bother with modern AAA titles, but the real headache is that my older games have stopped working too. I used to run Outlast, Grand Theft Auto V, and FR4 without any issues on low settings. Now? It’s a disaster. I tried installing some newer titles that my rig technically meets the requirements for—like Corn—but the PC won't even launch them; there's zero response to the command. I install the game, hit play, and... nothing. Absolutely nothing happens. 🤔 Then, in an attempt to troubleshoot, I tried reinstalling games I've already beaten just to see if they'd still glitch out. To my shock, even Far Cry 4 refused to launch. This is a game I used to play for ten hours a day a year ago! Outlast eventually opened, but it's completely unplayable. A year and a half ago, everything worked flawlessly. What on earth is going on?

Maybe you could drop your specs and what kind of OS you're running... I mean, have you actually swapped out the OS since you last sat down for a gaming session?

Did you try a clean install on those GPU drivers?

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Andrew Peterson2 said:Maybe you could drop your specs and what kind of OS you're running... I mean, have you actually swapped out the OS since you last sat down for a gaming session?

Did you try a clean install on those GPU drivers?

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AMD Phenom II X4 955 3.20 GHz
64-bit Windows 10
4 GB AMD Radeon HD 6670
32-bit 60 Hz

I've been using AMD Catalyst 15.11.1—though a few months back I was on 15.7.1. I specifically remember switching to that older version just so I could actually get Wolfenstein: The Old Blood to run. Ever since I moved up to AMD Catalyst 15.11.1, everything has gone to hell—and no, it's not even because of the driver itself.🤔

Maybe try grabbing some fresher drivers and running the install

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Andrew Peterson2 said:Maybe try grabbing some fresher drivers and running the install

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I'm currently downloading the latest driver for my GPU—we'll see if it actually makes any difference.

If the drivers don't end up doing the trick, you might want to try cleaning up your PC with CCleaner—maybe run an antivirus scan or Malwarebytes too? It could help to optimize things a bit... and if you're still running an old-school hard drive, giving it a quick defrag wouldn't hurt either.

Larry Ortiz5 said:If the drivers don't end up doing the trick, you might want to try cleaning up your PC with CCleaner—maybe run an antivirus scan or Malwarebytes too? It could help to optimize things a bit... and if you're still running an old-school hard drive, giving it a quick defrag wouldn't hurt either.

I run updates constantly—once a week I run a full antivirus scan, my firewall is always active, and I use CCleaner after every single session online. I keep the disk clean, too; there isn't a single virus in sight. I actually installed a newer driver for my graphics card, which finally got the game running normally, but here's the catch: I can't play for long. Every hour or ninety minutes, the game just crashes with a "program has stopped working" error. Now I'm stuck hunting for solutions online. Honestly, I might just have to accept that my PC is ancient and stick to browser games until I can afford an upgrade.

Does anyone know of any good free online games?

Go ahead and download CrystalDiskInfo so we can check out what's going on with that hard drive... Once you've got the program installed, just grab a screenshot for us

Joseph Kim said:I run updates constantly—once a week I run a full antivirus scan, my firewall is always active, and I use CCleaner after every single session online. I keep the disk clean, too; there isn't a single virus in sight. I actually installed a newer driver for my graphics card, which finally got the game running normally, but here's the catch: I can't play for long. Every hour or ninety minutes, the game just crashes with a "program has stopped working" error. Now I'm stuck hunting for solutions online. Honestly, I might just have to accept that my PC is ancient and stick to browser games until I can afford an upgrade.

Does anyone know of any good free online games?

The issue is either that your graphics card is on its last legs, or those new drivers simply aren't compatible with your hardware. I dealt with something almost identical with an old Radeon R7 260x 1GB; games would crash after ten minutes, sometimes after thirty. I tried everything under the sun. It turns out that card actually ran best on ancient drivers—the newer the software, the less stable it became. Honestly, I was happiest once I finally retired it and swapped it out for something else.

When it comes to graphics and drivers... well... Nvidia is definitely the much better bet here.