Fix: Hearthstone not Responding

Hearthstone is a game developed by Blizzard which was previously called Heroes of Warcraft. It gained a lot of fame and quickly climbed the charts given its link to the flagship series of Warcraft. It has relatively fewer issues regarding the in-game mechanics because it does not require too many resources.

However, there have been many reports by users that their game goes into a not-responsive state. In this state, the game freezes and turns white with a dialogue box of ‘not responding’. This issue is very common and is not only limited to low-end PCs. In this solution, we will go through all the causes and then check which solutions to implement to make the game work. This issue is often accompanied by the “Hearthstone has stopped working”.

What causes Hearthstone not to Respond?

After receiving various user reports and checking the issue ourselves personally, we came to the conclusion that this issue was caused due to several different reasons. The reasons why Hearthstone goes into a not responsive state are but not limited to:

Before we start with the solutions, make sure that you are logged in as an administrator on your computer. Furthermore, you should have your Hearthstone credentials at hand because you might be required to log in again.

Solution 1: Waiting it Out

Usually, when the game gets ‘white’ and the not-responding prompt appears at the top, Windows is automatically troubleshooting what is causing the game to not respond. The game is also troubleshooting in the background and tries to solve the issue itself.

Before we start with the technical stuff, you should consider waiting for the issue out. Usually, within a minute, the game fixes itself and launches successfully without any issues. This is common behavior for Blizzard applications including World of Warcraft, Starcraft etc. If your waiting time goes above 2 minutes, it means that there is probably some other issue and you should proceed down to the solutions.

Note: When the game goes into a not-responsive state, make sure that you do not open other applications. Just leave the game as is and try to wait for the issue out.

Solution 2: Repairing Hearthstone

Hearthstone might be corrupt or have incomplete installation files. This is a very common issue and occurs in various Blizzard games. The corruption usually occurs if you have moved the Hearthstone directory manually or the update process of the game was disrupted in between. In this solution, we will open the Blizzard application and use the Scan and repair tool to search for discrepancies in the game and automatically fix them.

1. Open the Blizzard application. Now click on the Games tab and select Hearthstone from the left navigation pane. Now click Options and select Scan and Repair.

2. Now when the scan starts, you will see a progress bar at the bottom of the page. This process might take a while so sit back don’t cancel any stage. After the scan is complete, try playing the game and see if the problem is fixed. Also, consider restarting your computer.

Solution 3: Disabling Antivirus Software

Antivirus software is known to cause issues in the game. Even though they are put into place to monitor the computer for harmful content, they often flag a correct application (also called a false positive). In this scenario, the Antivirus software ‘assumes’ that the program is harmful even though this is not necessarily the case.

You should temporarily disable all antivirus software running on your computer. You can check our article on How to turn your Antivirus off. If the game doesn’t go into a not-responding case after the Antivirus software was disabled, consider adding an exception. If you cannot add an exception in your Antivirus of Hearthstone, you can go ahead and search for other antivirus alternatives and uninstall the current one.

Solution 4: Disabling the Streaming Option in Blizzard App

The Blizzard application has a ‘streaming’ option which allows users to stream their gameplay without the use of third-party software when playing. As said in their official correspondence, the streaming service is an ‘intensive’ action and consumes a lot of PC resources. We saw several cases where Hearthstone was not responding because the Streaming option was enabled even though the Streaming was not taking place (the game didn’t even start!).

It seems that the Blizzard application tries to open the game in the ‘optimal’ streaming environment but fails to do so which causes the game to go into a not-responding state. In this solution, we will open your Blizzard application and disable Streaming.

1. Click on the icon present at the top-left side of the application and click on Settings.

2. Now select the Streaming option from the left side of the window and uncheck the option Enable streaming.

3. Press Done to save changes and exit. Restart your computer and check if the not responding issue is solved.

Solution 5: Deleting Blizzard Configurations

Every game saves temporary configurations in your computer which define the initial parameters the game should turn on with. If these configurations are corrupt by any chance, the game will try to fetch the settings but will not be able to. When this happens, the game goes into a not-responsive state and mostly crashes later on. In this solution, we will navigate to the application data in your computer and try to delete the Blizzard configurations. When the game engine finds out that there are not temporary files, it will attempt at recreating them from scratch with default values.

Note: When the new config files are being created, there might be some pause in the game/game engine. Hence you should be patient and let the process complete in the background.

1. Press Windows + R, type “%appdata%” in the dialogue box and press Enter. A directory will open. Move a step back and you will see three folders namely:

Local

LocalLow

Roaming

2. Navigate into each directory one by one and delete the Blizzard This will delete all the temporary configurations of the game.

3. Restart your computer you have deleted all the temporary configurations and launch the Blizzard app. Now launch the game and check if the issue has resolved.

Solution 6: Resetting In-Game Options

There are various options in almost every game which allows you to change the game’s settings according to your need. These settings might include Graphic settings, in-game actions, personal preferences etc. We observed similar cases where these settings were causing issue probably because they were conflicting with other modules. Hence we will try to clear the in-game settings using the Blizzard application and see if this makes any difference.

Note: This solution will erase all your in-game preferences and the settings will be set to default. You will have to set them according to your need manually later on.

1. Click on the Icon present at the top-left side of the screen and select Settings.
2. Once the Settings window is opened, click on Game Settings. Now all the game settings will be listed here. Scroll down and look for Overwatch. When the section comes, click on Reset In-Game Options.

3. Click on Done after this is done. Now Restart the Blizzard application and run your game. Check if the issue is resolved.

Solution 7: Updating Graphics Drivers

Another probable reason why Hearthstone goes into a not responsive state is because the graphics drivers are not working properly in your computer. They might either be corrupt or be in an error state on your computer. Graphics drivers are the main components which carry out the jobs required by your game by communicating and using the hardware installed on your computer. In this solution, we will first remove the graphics drivers from your computer and then install the latest version.

1. Download and install DDU (Display driver uninstaller) from its official website.
2. After installing Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU), launch your computer in safe mode. You can check our article on how to boot your computer into safe mode.
3. After launching the DDU, select the first option “Clean and restart”. This will uninstall the current drivers completely from your computer.

4. Now after the uninstallation, boot your computer normally without safe mode. Press Windows + R, type “devmgmt.msc” in the dialogue box and press Enter. Right-click on any empty space and select “Search for hardware changes”. The default drivers will be installed. Try launching the game and check if this solves the problem.
5. In the majority of the cases, the default drivers will not work for you so you can either install the latest drivers through Windows update or navigate to your manufacturer’s website and download the latest ones.

6. After you have installed the drivers, restart your computer and check if the problem is solved.

Note: Also consider uninstalling NVIDIA GeForce Experience from your computer. This is known to cause issues.

Solution 8: Using Selective Startup

There is a unique case with Blizzard applications where several third-party applications conflict with the launcher/game and problems occur due to it. The only way through which we can pinpoint the application/software which is causing the issue is by turning your computer on in ‘selective startup’ mode. In this mode, all the third-party applications are disabled by default and only the necessary ones are loaded.

When we are in the selective startup, you can then try to enable the applications one by one and troubleshoot which one was causing the problem.

1. Press Windows + R, type “msconfig” in the dialogue box and press Enter.
2. Once in the settings, select “selective startup” and uncheck the option “Load startup items”. Press OK to save changes and exit.

3. Navigate to the Services tab present at the top of the screen. Check the line which says “Hide all Microsoft services”. Once you click this, all Microsoft related services will be invisible leaving behind all the third-party services.
4. Now click the “Disable all” button present at the near bottom at the left side of the window. All the third-party services will now be disabled.
5. Click Apply to save changes and exit.

6. Now navigate to the Startup tab and click the option of “Open Task Manager”. You will be redirected to the task manager where all the applications/services which run when your computer starts will be listed.

7. Select each service one by one and click “Disable” at the bottom right side of the window.

8. Now restart your computer and check if the issue still persists. If the error message goes away and you are able to play your game without any problems, it means that there was either a service or an application which was causing the problem. Enable a chunk of these and check again. If the problem comes again when you enable a chunk, you would know who the culprit is.

Solution 9: Reinstalling your Game

If all the above methods don’t work out, it probably means that your game installation files are corrupt. This happens all the time and there is nothing to worry about. Installation files might get unusable if they are interrupted when updating or when you have deleted some. Make sure that you have all your credentials at hand as you will be asked to enter them.

1. Press Windows + R, type “appwiz.cpl” in the dialogue box and press Enter.
2. Now locate Warcraft from the list, right-click on it and select Uninstall.

If you are using the game using the Blizzard client, then uninstall the game from there. If you are just using the game from the folder which you copied from somewhere else, delete that folder. Also, make sure that you delete all the temporary files stored against your profile.

Now navigate to the Official Blizzard Download page and download the Hearthstone client from it. After downloading the game, install it using an administrator. Restart your computer, launch the game and enter your credentials. Now check if the issue is solved.