How To Fix Rust Keeps Crashing Issue

Rust is a popular multiplayer survival video game that’s developed by Facepunch Studios. The game basically pits you against other players and the open world environment with the sole aim of survival. Although this is a solid performing game there are instances when certain issues can occur which we will be addressing today. In this latest installment of our troubleshooting series we will tackle the Rust keeps crashing issue.

How To Fix Rust Keeps Crashing Issue

Before performing the recommended troubleshooting steps for this particular problem I suggest that you try restarting your computer first. This will refresh the operating system as well as remove corrupt temporary data and is quite effective in fixing most software related issues.

There are several factors that can cause this particular problem ranging from  old graphics drivers to low virtual memory. Listed below are the recommended troubleshooting steps you need to do to fix this problem.

Opt out of Steam Beta Participation

One of the main causes of this problem is a bug in the Steam software and this bug can be introduced in your system if you are running a beta version of Steam. This beta version is made available ahead of the stable version release as it allows the developer to check if it has bugs. You should try to opt out of the Steam beta participation and only use the stable version of the software.

  • Start the Steam client by double-clicking it on the Desktop
  • Click the Steam option from the menu at the top of the client’s screen and choose Settings. In the Settings window make sure you stay in the Account tab and click the Change button under the Beta participation.
  • A new window should open so look again under Beta participation and click to open the drop-down menu. Choose the “NONE – Opt out of all beta programs” setting and Apply the changes you have made.
  • Click the Steam option at the top left part of the Steam client and choose Exit in order to exit Steam completely.
  • Reopen Steam.

Check if the Rust keeps crashing issue still occurs.

Increase the Size of Your Paging File

A paging file, also known as a swap file is a file in your hard drive that is usually used by Windows whenever your RAM becomes full. Increasing the paging file size of your computer will usually fix this particular problem.

  • Right-click on the This PC entry which can usually be found on your Desktop or in your File Explorer. Choose the Properties
  • Click on the “Advanced system settings” button at the right of the window and navigate to the Advanced Under the Performance section, click on Settings and navigate to the Advanced tab of this window.
  • Under the Virtual memory section, click on Change. If the check box next to the “Automatically manage paging file size for all drives” option is chosen, uncheck it and choose the partition or drive where you wish to store the paging file memory.
  • After you have selected the correct disc, click on the radio button next to custom size and choose the Initial and Maximum. The rule of thumb to solve the problem with this error is to allocate two gigabytes extra than you already used.
  • Make sure you set the initial and maximum size to the same value to avoid major changes. 

Check if the Rust keeps crashing issue still occurs.

Try running the gaming using DirectX9

If you are running the game on DirectX11 then try running it on DirectX9 then check if the problem still occurs.

  • Start up Steam on your PC by double-clicking its entry on the Desktop 
  • Navigate to the Library section in the Steam window by locating the Library tab at the top of the window, and locate Rust in the list of games you have in your library.
  • Right-click on the game’s entry in the list and choose the Properties option from the context menu which will show up. Click the Set launch options.
  • Type “-dx9” in the bar. If there were some other launch options located there from before, make sure you separate this one with a space. Click the Ok button in order to confirm the changes.
  • Try launching the game from the Library tab 

Check if the Rust keeps crashing issue still occurs.

Update your graphics card driver

One factor that can cause this problem is an outdated graphics card driver. To ensure that you have the latest driver version installed you need to uninstall the graphics driver and install a new version from the official website.

If you have an NVIDIA graphics card then follow the steps listed below.

  • Press Win+R (Windows logo key and R key) at the same time to invoke the Run box.
  • Type msconfig and click OK. Then the System Configurations will open.
  • When System Configuration opens, click the Boot tab. Under Boot options, check Safe boot then click OK.
  • When you’re prompted to restart your computer to apply these changes, click Restart then you will boot into Safe Mode.
  • Go to your local hard disk by clicking on This PC then Local Disk C. You should be able to see the NVIDIA folder right there. Right-click on it and choose Delete.
  • Click Start and type Run. Select Run, the Run dialog box will appear.
  • Type “devmgmt.msc” in the run box and click the OK button which should open the Device Manager Window.
  • Expand the “Display Adapters” field. This will list all network adapters that the machine has installed. Right click on the Nvidia adapter you want to uninstall and select “Uninstall”.
  • Click “OK” when prompted to uninstall the device. This will remove the adapter from the list and uninstall the driver.
  • Press Win+R (Windows logo key and R key) at the same time to invoke the Run box.
  • Type msconfig and click OK. Then the System Configurations will open.
  • When System Configuration opens, click the Boot tab. Under Boot options, uncheck Safe boot then click OK.
  • When you’re prompted to restart your computer to apply these changes, click Restart.
  • Download the latest NVIDIA driver for your computer from here https://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx.
  • Run the setup file and follow the instructions which appear on screen. Choose the Custom installation option and check all the boxes in the custom install options windows. Also check the box which states “perform clean install”.
  • Restart your computer 

If you have an AMD graphics card then follow the steps listed below.

  • Download the AMD Cleanup Utility from here https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/faq/gpu-601.
  • Locate the file where it was saved and double-click on the “AMDCleanupUtility.exe’ file.
  • A dialogue box should appear stating AMD Cleanup Utility has detected the system is not in safe mode and provide an option to reboot the system to run the Utility in safe mode:
  • Click “Yes” the system will be rebooted and AMD Cleanup Utility will run in safe mode.
  • The next dialogue box provides a warning message stating that the AMD Cleanup Utility will remove all AMD driver and application components.
  • Click “OK” to continue
  • After clicking “OK” the Utility will be minimized to the notification area (system tray) and the progress will be displayed as a tool tip.
  • The cleanup process will continue to run in the background.  To check the progress, hover the mouse over the AMD icon in the notification area.
  • Once the cleanup process is finished, a message is displayed stating it has successfully completed. Click “View Report” to see the list of components that were uninstalled, otherwise click “Finish” to exit the Utility.
  • Reboot your computer.

Once the drivers have been uninstalled it’s time to install the latest driver update. You can do this with the help of the AMD Driver Auto-detect tool  which you can download from https://www.amd.com/en/support

  • Visit the AMD Driver and Support page and see section Auto-Detect and Install Radeon Graphics Drivers for Windows.
  • Click the DOWNLOAD NOW button to begin downloading the executable file for the tool.
  • Once download is complete, run the file to launch the Installer.
  • Click Install to extract the needed files.
  • After file extraction is complete the tool should automatically launch.
  • Review the End User License Agreement and information about the User Experience Improvement Program.
  • Click Accept and Install to continue or close the window to exit the AMD Driver Auto-detect tool.
  • After clicking Accept and Install, the tool will attempt to detect the installed AMD graphics product and operating system.
  • Upon successful detection of your system configuration, the tool will display the latest Recommended and Optional driver packages that are compatible with your graphics product, as well as the currently installed driver version 
  • Select the desired version and choose Express installation.
  • After the driver package has been downloaded, installation should begin automatically. 
  • Restart your computer

If you have an integrated graphics (Intel)

  • Press the Windows Logo key + R to launch a Run
  • Type devmgmt.msc into the Run dialog and press Enter to launch the Device Manager.
  • In the Device Manager, expand the Display adapters
  • Right-click on your graphics drivers, click on Uninstall and then go through the uninstallation wizard to uninstall the drivers. 
  • Restart your computer. Once your computer boots up, it should automatically reinstall the same version of the graphics drivers. 

Check if the Rust keeps crashing issue still occurs.

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