Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® 3 (2011) - Multiplayer

Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® 3 (2011) - Multiplayer

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MW3 Troubleshooting
By Danger and 1 collaborators
This guide was made to clear up any questions people may have about this game.
   
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Introduction
Hello to everyone. This guide was made to clear up any questions people may have about this game and providing solutions to some common problems.
Common Questions / Problems / Errors
Here we have some common questions, errors and problems:

Q) Does the PC version of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 has the Elite Service?
A) No. Elite was designed especially for consoles. PC will probably never get it.

Q) Is it possible to activate an English PC version of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 in Germany?
A) Nope, it's not possible.

Q) Does Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 has a server browser for the PC?
A) Yes it has. To enable it, start Modern Warfare 3 (MP), then options, then Dedicated Server and then Enable Server Browser.

Q) Why I am getting lag when playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (MP) (Not connection lag)?
A) Turn off the theater recording option in the video options. Also try to lower your settings.

Q) How can I fix the poor texture quality?
A) Go to Options, then Video, then Advanced Video then put Image Quality to "Native". The others you should put them on extra. Here is the diffrence between Native and Extra Image quality. The left Image is on Extra Quality, the right on Native:


Q) Why in the mission "Goalpost" I am receiving this error "error reliable command buffer overflow"?
A) There are 2 solutions. 1) The solution is to verify your game cache and play again the same mission. 2) The solution is not to go along the street but jump inside the building with broken windows on the right. There will be several enemies there, you will kill them, exit the building on the other side and the checkpoint will save. Going along the street in the open causes this glitch.

Q) Why Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 randomly crashes upon launching the game.
A) Check the minimum system requirements first. Try again. If the problem exists verify your game cache and update all of your hardware's drivers (BIOS Drivers should not be updated). Try again. If there is no progress so far try to install manually the DirectX installers located on C:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\Common\Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3\Redist. Try also setting a rule to the Windows Firewall. If there is no progress at all, you have to either contact the Steam Support or Activision.

Q) How can I get my NAT type from Strict / Moderate to Open?
A) I have made a special guide for this: https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=165136021

Q) Why the game it stucks on this message "Connecting to online services"
A) Probably a Firewall or an Antivirus is blocking traffic. Check your connection.

Q) Why it appears to me the following message "The Call Of Duty:Modern Warfare 3 server is not available at this time.Please try again later or visit http://www.callofduty.com/mw3/status for updates."
A) Either they are doing maitenance to the servers (which can be seen by just visiting the site) or you get banned. The reason of the ban is that you probably either cheated or moded the game even hosting a hacked lobby.

Q) Is the FOV changer safe to use?
A) According to what Candyslexia stated on this thread: http://community.activision.com/message/205674719 , yes it is.

Q) Why I am having bad graphics and lag while playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 on my laptop?
A) Go into the NVIDIA configuration menu and into the 3D Settings. That's where you select what program you want to run with either GPU processor. Default is auto detect. But with MW3 it seems to detect it wrong. So manually select the NVIDIA GPU instead of the integrated one. Browse for the program that you want to associate with the better NVIDIA GPU. For Modern Warfare 3 you need to pick the iw5mp.exe and the iw5sp.exe.

Q) Why it appers this message "This game is currently unavailable / Too busy - Please try again at another time.
A) Restart your Steam and try again. If the error exists, try changing your Download Region to see if it affects the issue. If there is no progress, verify your game cache and try again.

Q) I have the following error "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and DirectX encountered an unrecoverable error". How can I fix this?
A) Try to reinstall the DirectX 9.0c on your PC. You can download it manually from the Internet or can easily br found there: C:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\Common\Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3\Redist (I suggest you Verifying the game cache first in case that it's corrupted.). If there is no progress, in Steam Games Library, right-click the game, click Properties and go to the General tab. Click Set Launch Options and put in "-dx9" and that will make the game run in a more compatible DirectX 9 mode.

Q) Why I can not play PC Modern Warfare 3 Multiplayer but I can play everything else just fine?
A) This happens only to the disk versions. Go into your Steam games Library. Under Games click Activate a product on Steam and give Steam the info it needs. After this you'll be able to get the latest patches from Steam (singleplayer patch & multiplayer patch) and when finished, reboot your PC and start Modern Warfare 3.

Q) How can I get the maximum frames for the game?
A) If you can’t get the max / stable frame rate in Modern Warfare 3, make sure you have Vertical Sync set to off.

Q) How can I fix this error "SaveDevice_PC - TempSaveGame: cannot open file for saving"
A) You have to update your GPU.

Q) Why my DLC maps are corrupted?
A) Verify your game cache first. Then first start singleplayer and then go to the multiplayer.

Q) How can I disable my DLC when I am searching for games?
A) Hit down the F1 button.

Q) I have just joined a hacked lobby. My Crosshair and minimap disappeared. How can I fix this?
A) Go to: C:\program files\steam\steamapps\common\call of duty modern warfare 3\players. Now locate and delete the "config_mp.cfg" file. Restart your game and you're done.

Q) How can I report a cheater?
A) You can do it on his profile page by clicking "Report a Violation" or sending an email to report@infinityward.com or message infinity ward on Twitter: https://twitter.com/IWEnforcers

Q) How can I kick a hacker from the game?
A) You can do this if you are using a tool called MW3SA and being a host of the match of course. I have recently contacted the developper of it and he mentioned to me that "abuse of this program will lead the the users to the blacklist of it". So use it responsibly and kick only the hackers. It's safe and you won't get VAC banned for this.
Epilogue
Hopefully this guide will have cleared a lot of things up for you all. If you have your answers please rate it and favourite it. I will keep this guide up to date daily. You can help me a lot by leaving a comment at the end. If you have further questions leave a comment and they will be add to the guide with their answers. Thanks everyone.
49 Comments
ONLY AT TheNovimatrem@gmail.com 12 May, 2023 @ 11:17am 
If your CoD: MW3 freezes/crashes on launch, try seeing if closing RivaTuner Statistics Server (RTSS) [comes with MSI Afterburner] fixes your problem. Closing that, my game started working again.
Architector #4 1 Jan, 2020 @ 12:38pm 
Try starting the game, then using CTRL+ALT+DELETE or CTRL+SHIFT+ESC to open the task manager. Go to "Processes" page on Windows 7 or "Details" page on Windows 10, find "iw3sp.exe" or something similar(it will have MW3 logo), right-click it, and end the process. Next time you start it, it will ask for safe mode.
★☯Starseeker☯★ 1 Jan, 2020 @ 12:25pm 
when i launch the game i get a black screen, BUT when i hover my mouse i can hear that i can click on things but i don't see anything on my screen. I tried Compatibility modes verifying integrity of game files but nothing worked. Tried deleting the ".exe" file then reacquiring it again but nothing helps. I don't know if running it in safe mode will do anything but i can't try that because I can't get the massage box that asks you if you want to boot the game in safe mode... Help... Pls... :winter2019neutralbulb:
Behind you❓❗シ  [author] 5 Jan, 2018 @ 7:15am 
That tool has it's own sub-forum, better go ask there:
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/groups/MWxsa
schmeling65 20 Dec, 2017 @ 1:47am 
is mw3sa still in 2017 safe? would be great if you can show us a proof of the steam support or the COD MW3 developers so IF someone gets banned he can proof it via the written stuff of them
Behind you❓❗シ  [author] 24 Nov, 2017 @ 8:26am 
Just delete or rename the config file.
Game will create a new config file with default parameters next time you start the game.
HaPpyWidoW 26 Jul, 2017 @ 7:45am 
COD_MW3_MP cannot be opened because of a problem.
HaPpyWidoW 20 Jul, 2017 @ 9:08am 
I cannot start the game at all since few weeks now. Says: COD MW3 MP cannot be opened because of a problem. Im on Mac OS X 10.10.5
Architector #4 11 Jul, 2017 @ 5:19pm 
It doesn't say "1 VAC ban" or anything like that in your profile, so I guess you just got internet problems.
Pobblebonk 11 Jul, 2017 @ 9:37am 
Hello, I don't think I'm VAC banned or just banned, mine is getting stuck on connecting to online services, but it wasn't until a few days ago.