Sins stopped launching on Steam

from Sins Forums

I bought Sins: Trinity on Steam yesterday and it was working fine for a few hours, I was able to play it no problem. Then when I quit the game, a message appeared saying "Saved Minidump" in a temp directory in C:\USers, and it said Sins of a Solar Empire had stopped working. Now any time I try and launch the game, I get a black screen, but if I try and exit it, I get the same minidump message, and the error that Sins has stopped working. I've tried deleting and re-installing already but that hasn't helped.

technical
6,396 views 15 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top

Check if all files are correct - Steam / Library / right click on Sins and select "properties" / local files / Verify intergity of game cache

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

I'm very sorry you have to go through all this. 

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Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top

Thanks for the reply. I've just tried verifying the cache integrity and that hasn't solved the problem, it's still not launching.

Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top

Are you launching it through Steam or are you manually using the .exe to launch it? The later methoding (going to the Sins folder then launching the Diplomacy/Trinity.exe) maybe more reliable, or at least it worked for someone.

Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top

Aren't y'all glad you got steam now? 

Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top

Hmmm, manually launching by the .exe seems to work, thanks. Still an odd one though.

Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Doctor_Jackstraw, reply 6
Hmmm, manually launching by the .exe seems to work, thanks. Still an odd one though.
End of Doctor_Jackstraw's quote

Yeah, I don't think everyone has that problem, but its something they (don't know if its Stardock or Valve) should look into.

Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Doctor_Jackstraw, reply 6
Hmmm, manually launching by the .exe seems to work, thanks. Still an odd one though.
End of Doctor_Jackstraw's quote

Well, you can make 3 shortcut on your desktop for sins/ent/dip .exe ... sins have no drm at all and you don't need Steam running for play... in fact, shutting down all you don't need ( Steam, impulse, skype, etc ) can only free more ram and CPU resource for your game...

As for the quiting game problem, it have always exist for a few people... in my case, when i play a complex map with a lot of player, when game end, i can reach the statistic screen... but when i quit, the computer frooze, ctrl-alt-del not working, only a hard reboot work... once i am on the statistic screen, i hit ctrl-alt-del and kill sins in the "task beheer"... better this that other people who have mini-dump during the game itself !!!

Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top

I have not been able to get Sins to launch since I bought it on Steam.  I have tried running it from every different location, using normal mode, Administrator mode, and XP mode.  I have deleted my local files through Steam and re-installed.  I have rebooted repeatedly.  Nothing seems to matter.

I have a Dell XPS 1645 w/720QM and 6GB, running Win7/64 Professional.  I should have more than enough machine; indeed, some time back I installed and ran the Sins demo for several weeks with no problems.

When I launch the game, from any source (including Steam), the same thing happens: I get the "working" cursor for 2-4 seconds, after which the computer seems to "forget" that it was trying to do something in the first place.  No new tasks ever appear within Task Manager at any point in the process.

I am growing very frustrated with the whole process.  I was really looking forward to finally playing Sins over the holiday.

Reply #10 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting BigDMT, reply 9
I have not been able to get Sins to launch since I bought it on Steam. I have tried running it from every different location, using normal mode, Administrator mode, and XP mode. I have deleted my local files through Steam and re-installed. I have rebooted repeatedly. Nothing seems to matter.

I have a Dell XPS 1645 w/720QM and 6GB, running Win7/64 Professional. I should have more than enough machine; indeed, some time back I installed and ran the Sins demo for several weeks with no problems.

When I launch the game, from any source (including Steam), the same thing happens: I get the "working" cursor for 2-4 seconds, after which the computer seems to "forget" that it was trying to do something in the first place. No new tasks ever appear within Task Manager at any point in the process.

I am growing very frustrated with the whole process. I was really looking forward to finally playing Sins over the holiday.
End of BigDMT's quote

I would make a new thread in the technical forum or even better send an e-mail to support to make sure someone sees it. The devs may not see it attached to an old thread.

Reply #11 from Sins Forums Top

If you're having issues starting Trinity/Diplomacy, please open a ticket with support directly.

Reply #12 from Sins Forums Top

Well, it seem more a Steam installer problem that a Stardock one... the sins demo ( who is very old ) can only be found by Stardock and it work...

Reply #13 from Sins Forums Top

I'm having the same issue, purchased it on Steam since I didn't want to dig around and find discs for my old retail version, and get the black screen/minidump window every time. I got it on steam so I could launch it from steam along with all the other games I have in my library :/

Reply #14 from Sins Forums Top

well the launching from exe in game folder worked for me.... So there is a Steam /Stardock problem...

Reply #15 from Sins Forums Top

**** POTENTIAL FIX ****

Uninstall Impulse

When I did that and tried running the Sins Trinity.exe from my steam folders it prompted me saying a shortcut to impulse was now invalid and could be deleted.

I said yes to deleting the shortcut and now Sins Trinity loads up directly from steam without problem.

I would hesitate to consider this a guaranteed fix unless someone else repeats the process and confirms it worked for them.  This was using Win 7 x32