Here are the causes to some of the most common "can't start the game" problems as reported by tech support.

-Out of date video or audio drivers. Update them. Some reports required a complete uninstall of drivers to get this to work. Also and couple people had to rollback instead.
-No sound card or deactivated sound card (check your dxdiag report).
-Bad user input device (check your dxdag input tab, disable the offending HID device)
-Bad mod (uninstall mod, report in respective mod thread to have it updated/fixed)
-Left over files from a previous version of Sins. Uninstall, manually delete leftovers, reinstall.
-Graphics settings too high - reduce these manually in the user.setting file until game starts. Typical offenders are texture detail, multisampling level, bloom, and resolution. Start by reducing these all to 0, 0, off and 1024x768 respectively and raising until you isolate which one is causing your machine to crash.
-Corrupt install. Reinstall.
-Torrented game - unbelievably we get a large number of crash reports from people who torrented the game. This is why we need to have you send your cd key along with the report so the people who actually paid for the game get all our attention - there is nothing worse than spending 3 or 4 hours a day tracking down bugs that are caused by tampered exe's. The original seeders often maliciously modify the game to crash (among other things we've found hidden in them). Fix is to buy the game.

Remember to try in windowed mode too so you can any errors that may not normally show up.

Further details/suggestions are here: https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/?forumid=402&aid=174432.

Finally, if everything else fails send your cd key, a description of the problem and your dxdiag report to support@ironcladgames.com.

ankios it could be that the mod's are not compatible with the sins version that you have ie 7deadly sins is still only for 1.05( it is the biggest and most complex single mod) most other mods either are updated to atleast 1.1 or 1.15 some are out for entrenchment. the best answer is to post a query AFTER reading all of the thread for the mod somemods have over 30 pages so it is abit of a read but could save you the effort of posting and geting a"dumb f###" read the thread reply

hope this helps

harpo

If you're getting a minidump right at the start, before the opening cinematics, try updating entrenchment and SoaSE both, it fixed my problem

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EDIT: thank you for all the useful advice btw ^^ sped along my problem-solving

Why do you think spamming the same question on 4 old threads would help.   reported

support@stardock.com and wait your turn.