How To Resolve High On Life Crashing Issues on Windows PC

Recently, High On Life dropped, and honestly, a bunch of folks were pretty excited to dive in. But no matter how cool the game looks with its quirky humor and crazy characters, it’s kind of a pain when it crashes or stutters on Windows. You’re probably here because your game keeps freezing, lagging, or just outright crashing out of nowhere. And yeah, that ruins the vibe fast. So, this guide’s about some simple fixes that actually work—nothing fancy, just tried-and-true stuff that might help smooth out those crashes and get you back to enjoying the madness.

How to Fix High On Life Crashing on Windows

Ensure Your PC Meets the Game’s Needs

First off, make sure your system isn’t setting you up for failure. If your hardware isn’t up to snuff, no patch or tweak will save you from crashes. Sometimes, people ignore the specs and try to force the game to run on ancient machines—spoiler: that’s asking for trouble. Check your specs against the game’s minimum requirements and see if you’re actually in the ballpark. Because of course, Windows has to make it harder than necessary by not warning you if your PC is borderline.

Here’s a quick peek at the bare minimum specs:

  • OS: Windows 10/11 64-bit
  • RAM: At least 8 GB
  • Storage: 50-70 GB free space
  • CPU: Intel i5-6402p or Ryzen 5 2600 or better
  • Graphics: NVIDIA GTX 1060 (3GB) or AMD R9 290x (4GB)
  • DirectX: Version 11

If your hardware checks out, moving on is time.

Restart Your PC—Seriously

Sounds simple, but sometimes just a quick restart can clear up enough memory and stop background stuff from hogging resources. It’s like hitting the reset button for your system to refresh memory and kill processes that are causing conflicts. Before messing with drivers or settings, give your PC a fresh start. On some setups, it actually helps make the game more stable.

Update Your Graphics Drivers

Nothing reeks of outdated drivers more than random crashes. Especially with a game that demands pretty decent graphics handling, if your driver’s old or corrupted, crashes are practically guaranteed. The fix is to update them, and lucky for everyone, it’s pretty straightforward:

  • Open Device Manager by right-clicking on the Start menu or pressing Windows + X.
  • Navigate to Display adapters.
  • Right-click your graphics card and pick Update driver.
  • Select Search automatically for updated driver software. Let Windows do its thing.

This might take a few minutes, but keeping graphics drivers current helps prevent crashes not just with High On Life but other games too. On some machines, this fixes the crash bug almost instantly—at least until the next driver update or system change.

Turn Off Overlay Apps and Programs That Eat Resources

Overlay apps—like Steam, Nvidia GeForce Experience, or Discord—are useful but often give your CPU and RAM a workout. If you notice lag or crashes, disable these overlays to free up resources:

Steam Overlay

  • Open Steam, go to your Library.
  • Right-click High On Life and select Properties.
  • In the General tab, turn OFF Enable the Steam Overlay while in-game.

Turn on Game Mode for Windows

  • Press Windows > Settings > Gaming > Game Mode.
  • Switch On the toggle to optimize Windows for gaming. Sometimes this helps with stability, but not always. Still worth trying.

Disable Nvidia GeForce Experience Overlay

  • Launch Nvidia GeForce Experience.
  • Click on Settings (gear icon).
  • Head over to General and toggle off In-Game Overlay.

Close Unnecessary Background Apps

Ever wonder if some random app is eating your RAM while you’re trying to enjoy your game? Probably. Hit Task Manager (press Ctrl + Shift + Esc) and look at what’s hogging resources. End those tasks—especially browsers, streaming apps, or background updaters—that aren’t needed right now. Just beware—closing some processes can cause issues, so don’t kill anything you’re not sure about. But freeing up RAM and CPU can stabilize gameplay quite a bit.

Verify the Integrity of Game Files

Sometimes the game files get corrupted or incomplete—especially if you’ve been switching between betas or interrupted downloads. On Steam, you can verify the game files to fix this:

  • Open Steam and go to your Library.
  • Right-click High On Life and select Properties.
  • Navigate to Local Files tab.
  • Hit Verify Integrity of Game Files. It may take a few minutes, but if there were issues, Steam will re-download or fix corrupted files automatically.

Temporarily Disable Your Firewall and Antivirus

This one’s a bit controversial, but sometimes, security software blocks certain game files or network traffic, causing crashes or lag. If you’ve tried everything else, turn off your firewall and antivirus protection briefly, then try launching the game. Make sure to turn them back on after testing. Here’s how:

Turn Off Windows Firewall

  • Go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Windows Security.
  • Select Firewall & network protection.
  • Click on your active network (Private or Public).
  • Switch Windows Defender Firewall off.

Disable Real-Time Threat Protection

  • From Windows Security menu, click Virus & threat protection.
  • Choose Manage Settings.
  • Toggle off Real-time protection.

Just remember, turn these back on after testing, because your PC’s safety is still a priority.

Update Windows

Windows gets patches and fixes that improve compatibility and stability. If your Windows OS is out of date, that might cause issues. To check:

  • Go to Settings > Windows Update.
  • Click Check for updates.
  • If any updates show up, download and install them. Reboot your PC afterward—sometimes just that extra update can stop crashes in their tracks.

Final Words

Most crashes with High On Life boil down to hardware, driver, or background stuff. These fixes are tried-and-true, covering the basics that often resolve the issue. If the game still crashes way too much, double-check your system specs or consider reinstalling the game. Sometimes, it’s just a matter of patience and clean setup.

Summary

  • Check hardware specs against game requirements
  • Restart your PC before diving back in
  • Update graphics drivers
  • Disable overlays on Steam and Nvidia
  • Close unnecessary background apps
  • Verify game files on Steam
  • Temporarily turn off firewall and antivirus
  • Run Windows updates

Wrap-up

Hopefully, one of these tips helps get High On Life running more stable on your system. Not always easy, but a lot of the time it’s the simple stuff that solves the problem. Good luck, and may your game stay crash-free!