Need for Speed Hot Pursuit (NFS:HP) PC Crash Fix

For a long time, I’ve been avoiding posts with fixes I discover myself but I’ve noticed that people need these fixes and I should make them public. When I started playing Need for Speed Hot Pursuit on the PC, I had a certain issue at times when the game would crash either on the start or when pressing “Enter Any Key” screen.

Criterion has released 5 patches since the launch of the game and none of the patches fix this issue. However, I’ve found the culprit behind the problem and that’s the config files for the game. If you’re experiencing this issue, follow these steps:

Navigate to “DocumentsCriterion GamesNeed for Speed™ Hot Pursuit” folder. (Win7/Vista – ³²⁄₆₄ both).
You should be able to see a file called “config.NFS11Save“. Delete that file.
Move inside the folder called “SaveDefault“.
You will find another config file called “controls.NFS11Save“. Delete that file as well.
Launch the Game now.

There’s really no need to save or backup the files deleted because they will be recreated by the game. It will definitely work. Enjoy.

To explain what’s wrong; Well, it’s probably because the game tries to actively map the hardware configuration IRQs or handlers from these config files without checking if the hardware is actually connected at the correct addresses and thus crashes. Criterion, if you’re reading this, please fix it.