BSOD on first run then game won't start

from Sins Forums

I received a BSOD after running the game after first activation.  After this the game won't try to start.  The exe stays in task manager for about a half second before disappearing when I try to run the game.

Thus far I've tried verifying cache, deleting the folder and then validating cache to get it to restore, and at this moment I deleted all local content and am redownloading hoping that will resolve the problem.  I've tried running exe's from command prompt tosee if they generate errors and they don't.  Are there any logs/etc I can check if just redownloading doesn't fix it?

 

6,252 views 13 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

Ok, re-downloading didn't fix the problem unfortunately, it still does nothing when I try to run.

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

BSOD is pretty serious. Haven't even seen that one yet.

Any issues with other games?

Groupy 2 - Organize multiple applications into grouped tabs on your Windows desktop
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top

No issues with any other games, and I have various on the system including ME3, SC2, etc.

 

 

Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top

What are your system specs?

Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top

BSOD means you have a driver error. Reinstall your drivers. This means going to ATI/Nvidia site and downloading the latest official driver and during the install process check FRESH INSTALL. This will completely uninstall everything and install the fresh driver. Should fix your issue instantly.

 

F.Y.I. - Work in I.T. so if any issues anyone can PM me.

Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top

BSOD might mean driver or hardware error, but it's unlikely to not reoccur and just do nothing especially when other games still work.  That said, I will try reinstall and report back as I've got no response from the powers that be either.  I think the BSOD occuring during activation procedure may have disrupted something.  I can't see the key anywhere where I normally would see it in the steam client.  I didn't see it prior to activation either though which I thought was abnormal.

 

Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top

Hey xanas37122,

I had the exact same problems as you for the past 6 months since I got these games on my new machine, and noone in support or any forums offerend any real help. I BSOD'd probably about 6 times trying to fix it myself, and all my tickets to support turned out fruitless or simply got ignored. Eventually after a ton of trial and error, what I did today has fixed my issues.

I decided to, once again, completely uninstall the game and reinstall it. This time, I made sure to manually delete the Ironclad Games (at C:/Programdata/Ironclad Games ) folder prior to launching the game. For whatever reason, this seems to have fixed the issue. The game prompted me to register again, and upon completion of registration, launched. It blackscreened and crashed once, but since then it's been playing fine. I've already completed a game.

 

So I recommend going to C:/Programdata/Ironclad Games  and deleting the "Ironclad Games" folder, then attempting to launch the game. You might not even need to reinstall or do anything else.

Hope this helps!

Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top

Ok, I can confirm clean install didn't work, although I appreciate the idea as I didn't try it before.

Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Mordrith, reply 7
Hey xanas37122,


So I recommend going to C:/Programdata/Ironclad Games  and deleting the "Ironclad Games" folder, then attempting to launch the game. You might not even need to reinstall or do anything else.

Hope this helps!
End of Mordrith's quote

You are the man Mordrith.  I knew it had to be something with the registration/activation as that's the only thing that made real sense. This issue probably deserves a sticky.  Looking at program data didn't even occur to me but I noticed I was not seeing anything in the registry or under c:\users\.. that showed the info.. I guess I need to start thinking of this folder too.. annoying that windows has 5 different places to put info like this... 

 

Reply #10 from Sins Forums Top

Yeah, it was pretty ridiculous to track down. Glad it helped though! This solution should be stickied somewhere, with how hard it is to find and with most of the threads about these issues sinking to the bottom with no replies.

 

Have fun!

Reply #11 from Sins Forums Top

Well, if you got a BSOD, then what was the error? Did it mention a driver or a file?

There should be something like UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME or PAGE_FALT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA and stuff.

Reply #12 from Sins Forums Top

I don't remember what I got with my BSOD's. They stopped eventually after a lot of tampering with the game files and all manner of things I no longer remember, which then prompted the failure to start issue. Quite some time later I stumbled across the program data fix.

I know the original BSOD happened when I attempted to change my resolution from whatever abysmal value it was to my monitor's native resolution (1680x1050). This was with the basic sins module, as it was the first I installed from Impulse. After that resolution change, attempting to start the game or any of its modules (including rebellion from steam) cause a BSOD, even after I manually reverted the resolution change by altering the settings files.

I no longer recall what changed the nature of the beast from BSOD to failure to start, but I believe the initial BSOD was caused by resolution changes, which persisted even after countless GPU updates and settings tweaks.

Reply #13 from Sins Forums Top

To NR2001, I don't remember the BSOD either, it was right at/during activation though.  Very odd..