Teams freezes & crashes when 3D modeling software application is running

Hi Jen, 

Thank you for the detailed description of what you and your teammates are experiencing.  

The freeze when the camera turns on, followed by the computer shutting down or CET crashing, points to a resource and graphics conflict when Teams competes with other applications on the device. 

To resolve the issue, please follow these steps(The following guidance is for Windows devices. If you are using a different device, please let me know): 

1.  Close applications consuming device resources 

• Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open Task Manager. 
• Select the Processes tab. 
• Click the Memory and CPU columns to see which applications are using the most resources. 
• Select any application that you are not actively using (for example, background browsers, recording tools, or video apps) and click End task. 

2. Clear the Microsoft Teams cache 

• Right click the Teams icon on the taskbar and select Quit to fully close the app. 
• Press the Windows logo key + R to open the Run dialog.  
• Enter this path and select OK: %userprofile%\appdata\local\Packages\MSTeams_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCache\Microsoft\MSTeams     
• Delete all files and folders inside that location.  
• Restart Teams and allow a little extra time for the history to rebuild on first launch.  

3. Set Teams to the power saving graphics option  

• Open File Explorer, go to C:\Program Files. 
• Select View > Show > Enable Hidden items to see the WindowsApps folder. 
• Go to Settings > System > Display > Graphics. 
• Open the Add an app dropdown, select Desktop app. 

• Then browse to C:\ProgramFiles\WindowsApps\MSTeams_<version>_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe 
• Select ms-teams.exe 

• Choose Options, set it to Power saving, and save. 

• Fully quit and reopen Teams, then test the camera in a meeting. 

4. Contact Microsoft Support 

If the issue persists after trying these steps, the best next step would be to have your IT administrator open a support ticket with Microsoft via the admin center. A technical support engineer can then initiate a remote session, review backend settings, and run diagnostics. If needed, they can escalate the case to specialized engineering teams who are well-equipped to perform advanced troubleshooting and provide targeted solutions.  

As moderators, our primary goal is to provide helpful guidance and support through general troubleshooting steps. While we don’t have access to internal systems or administrative tools required to resolve account-specific or backend issues, we truly appreciate your understanding of these limitations. We genuinely hope the information we share helps point you in the right direction, and we're always here to assist as much as we can within our scope.  

For guidance on how to request support in the admin center, please refer to: Get support - Microsoft 365 admin.      

I hope this information is helpful. Please follow the steps above and let me know if it works for you. If not, we can continue working together to resolve the issue.  

Should you have any questions or need additional assistance, please don’t hesitate to reach out so I can continue to support you. If you found the response useful, please consider marking it as accepted, as this may help other community members who are looking for similar guidance.  

Thank you for your patience and understanding. I look forward to continuing the conversation.

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