My game was continuously crashing in the middle of activies, seemingly at random (sometimes I’d go a half hour without crashing, sometimes I’d get kicked within just a couple minutes). It appears that some people also receive this error in the menus or even when launching the game. Some people receive the error because of frame rate, some because of 3rd party software, & some because of a brief error that could fix itself but the game shuts down too quickly. Whatever the case is, I tried most of these methods, & only two worked (and only one was actually an acceptable solution). However, some people in various different threads that I have encountered across multiple websites have reported each of these methods to help them. In any case, I figured I’d share my successful operation & also compile a list of the other solutions & fixes that did not work for me, but may work for you. (Please Note, I play through the Xbox app/Windows Store, not Steam)
MY ACCEPTABLE SOLUTION - UNDERCLOCK GPU & RAM | Firstly, I had my memory overclocked in my bios, so I had to revert that back to default. With MSI Afterburner I then underclock my gpu & memory, only for when I’m playing the MCC. This is quite simple overall, just download MSI Afterburner & on the “core clock” & “memory clock” meters, just move it all the way to the left. Mine maxed out at -90 & -201. I have had absolutely no crashes now with multiple sessions of 3+ hours of play. My PC (980ti, Ryzen 2700, 3000 c16 RAM) still has had no issue even with the underclocking running the game with “enhanced” graphics @ 60 fps, which is no surprise considering how old the game is.
MY UNACCEPTABLE SOLUTION - V-SYNC ADAPTIVE (Half) | I did have another solution I ran across that worked for me, but after having played the game in all of it’s 60 fps glory, I found this solution to be completely unacceptable, but I’ll still list it here for those who don’t care. If you go into the NVidia settings, you can add the MCC as a game & adjust its v-sync setting. One of the options is “Adaptive (half refresh rate)”. If you have a 60Hz monitor, this will essentially lock your fps in game to 30fps. I played on this for about an hour and a half with no crashing, but the difference in quality was too drastic for me to accept.
SOLUTION 3 - UNINSTALL RAZER SYNAPSE | This was reported to work for several people who had this software installed. I actually did have it installed as well (Razer Anansi keyboard), but uninstalling it did not halt the crashes for me personally.
SOLUTION 4 - WINDOWS 7 FIX | I’m sure if you’ve had this issue in Windows 7 you probably found the solution without having to come here, but just in case, you reportedly need to install the update for KB2670838 (Download Update for Windows 7 for x64-based Systems (KB3080149) from Official Microsoft Download Center)
SOLUTION 5 - NVIDIA DEBUG MODE | You can try to run the GPU in debug mode by going to the NVIDIA Control Panel, selecting Help > Debug Mode. I believe this stays active if you close the window, but on resetting the computer this does turn off. I didn’t have any luck with this, but a couple people did.
SOLUTION 6 - TDRDELAY | You can go into the registry by going into your windows search bar, typing in “regedit”, allowing the program to make changes, & then going to Computer>HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE>SYSTEM>CurrentControlSet>Control>Graphics Drivers. Here, create a new > DWORD (32-bit) Value & rename it to “TdrDelay”. Next, adjust the value to “10” & make sure the “Base” is set to “Decimal”. Click OK & try to play. If you encounter the crash again and it does not resolve itself, the crash will take longer to complete, but that means this did not work. If it fixes itself then this is a solution. If it ends up not working, make sure to go back in & delete this value, otherwise the crashes will now take the extra 10 seconds to fail which can get quite annoying.
SOLUTION 7 - ADJUST WINDOW MODE | This solution has completely mixed results, so this is something you’ll have to experiment with. Some people reported that playing in Fullscreen fixed their issues, some people reported that playing in Borderless fixed theirs, & some people reported that playing in Windowed fixed theirs. The point is, you can try to swap between these and see if any of them work better for you. I do want to note, from my experience, changing the video settings in the MCC on the PC doesn’t seem to actually change the video settings until you actually close & restart the game. In any case, I found that Fullscreen survived the longest on average, but the game crashed with each, & quite frankly playing without Borderless when I frequently use my second monitor while in game would have been quite annoying, so I’m glad this didn’t work for me.
SOLUTION 8 - DISABLE V-SYNC/UNLIMITED FRAMES | This is basically the exact opposite of what I had to do to fix my issue, so it definitely didn’t work for me, but some people have stated that if you turn v-sync off in game & remove the 60 fps cap, this may fix your issue. Doesn’t hurt to try, but remember like I said in Solution 7, it’s worth closing the app after making your changes and re-opening to make sure that it’s actually running with your changed settings. Also, make sure that your NVidia settings aren’t overriding your game’s settings & enabling v-sync anyway.
SOLUTION 9 - REINSTALL | I highly doubt you need me to tell you this, but a few people here and there have reported that simply uninstalling their game completely & then reinstalling it again has fixed their issue. I did this twice & it did nothing for me, but just in case, here you go.
SOLUTION 10 - UPDATE GPU DRIVERS | Another obvious one that you’ve probably already checked, but make sure your drivers are completely up-to-date. Might as well make sure your Windows is as well.
SOLUTION 11 - EASY ANTI-CHEAT DISABLED | This, unfortunately, is not a solution for multiplayer, but if you don’t care about matchmaking, then you can launch the “mod” version of the game that has the anti-cheat disabled. Some people have reported that this has solved their crashing as well.
SOLUTION 12 - EASY ANTI-CHEAT REPAIR | Go into your C: Drive directory, & then head to Program Files (x86)>EasyAntiCheat. In this folder there will be the EasyAntiCheat application, launch it & select Halo: The Master Chief Collection from the dropdown. Click the “Repair Service” button. This is more likely going to work if you’re running into the issue where you cannot even load into games.
That’s all I’ve got for now, I think there might have been a couple I saw that didn’t apply to me, such as Steam Launch Option changes. If I receive any new information I’ll update this, good luck.