While this doesn’t completely fix the crashing issues trying to get Battlefield 3 up and running in multi-player, here is a copy-paste post I just made on the Battlefield 3 forums.

If you are constantly getting the below APPCRASH, having the game fail to load with an APPCRASH, have the game crashing while changing maps, etc,  I THINK I have FOUND THE SOLUTION, thanks to another gamer which SO FAR is working like a charm!

Note this doesn’t fix the occasional CTD’s, or the APPCRASH that happens when trying to join servers sometimes.

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name:    APPCRASH
Application Name:    bf3.exe
Application Version:    1.0.0.0
Application Timestamp:    4ec142d8
Fault Module Name:    bf3.exe
Fault Module Version:    1.0.0.0
Fault Module Timestamp:    4ec142d8
Exception Code:    c0000005
Exception Offset:    0001bf0c
OS Version:    6.1.7600.2.0.0.256.1
Locale ID:    1033
Additional Information 1:    0a9e
Additional Information 2:    0a9e372d3b4ad19135b953a78882e789
Additional Information 3:    0a9e
Additional Information 4:    0a9e372d3b4ad19135b953a78882e789

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SOLUTION:, This is a memory issue from all research I have done, and even though I have 4GB of available RAM (well 3GB with the “memory hole” 32bit systems have”, and am running a nVidia 460 GTX with 1GB of video memory, I was occasionally getting “Out of Video Memory”, or “DX11 Failure due to not enough video memory, make sure you have at least 512MB of video card memory”. While this error was very rare, the APPCRASH listed above, was a CONSTANT thing, especially after yesterday’s “Patch”, I wasn’t able to finish ONE SINGLE MATCH, and usually it was taking at least 20 tries just to log onto a damned server.  Frustration doesn’t begin to describe my anger at this issue as BF3 MP is FAR better than MW3 IMHO, at least in the multi-player aspect of the games.

The fix, I was running “Custom” video settings with all set to High, 4X AA, 8X Anso, and High for everything else. I had also tried “Auto”, which changed almost all my settings to “Ultra” or “High”, with nothing on lower than “High”.

While the hardcore gamer in me cringed at the thought, and per another MP gamers advice when asking if everyone else’s MP was crashing as much as mine, he suggested lowering my video settings. So I lowered ALL settings to MEDIUM, set AA to 2X, Anso to 2X and disabled AA Post Processing.

LOW AND BEHOLD, the next game started right up, with no crashes, it finished the round, and even switched maps!!! YAY!

I tried fiddling with some of the settings trying to find the culprit, and with everything set as above, setting smoke effects to High almost immediately resulted in the above APPCRASH.

I Plan to keep messing with the settings, It’s possible there is a memory leak/shader code error, etc, somewhere in the smoke settings, or maybe the Post Processing for AA is too much for my system, either way, I have played for 2.5 straight hours now and untold matches and map changes without a single crash!!!

Maybe there is hope for this game after all.

So, if you are getting the APPCRASH with the above codes in it “Mainly the c0000005 which pertains to memory”, try lowering all your settings to Medium, and then play with them from there. I noticed almost no change in the detail of the game which was a welcome sight, having a mediocre gaming system that usually plays Crysis 2 on High detail would have sucked to have to lose all the eye candy BF3 has to offer.

SYSTEM: Dell XPS 720 with E6750 CPU running on nVidia 680i-SLI chipset (Yes I know it’s old), 4 GB of Crucial memory, and a nVidia 460 GTX video card. All Stock Clocks, and Yes, it will play Crysis 2 and BF3 on all High settings with very playable frame rates (30-40′s)

UPDATE: Well, I have been playing quite a bit since posting this fix, and while I still get the APPCRASH upon starting the app (IE you click a server, it will get to “Loading Level”, and stick there, upon clicking the game icon you have the crash to “Close program or Find a Solution”), otherwise, NO crashes, hope others are having as good results as I.