[2021] Windows 8.1 cannot launch the game after updating patch 1.30

This may be an issue with that nVidia driver, as it has not been updated for 3 years on 8.1 . Any chance you can go to Win10?  

KaiserRobertIII said: I have the same problem. I downloaded and installed an nvidia driver from 2020, and everything else that all the forums say to try, no effect. It worked fine on CKIII 1.2.2 and earlier.

I found they released a driver on March 30, 2021 for windows 8.1 as well. I installed it, no effect.

Then you do not have the same problem as the OP. Please in future start your own fresh thread, thanks.

What happens if you exit the Steam app entirely and run ck3.exe directly from File Explorer? Do you see any Windows error when it fails then?  

That's because you lodged it in Bug Reports, but that is not going to be a game bug.

When launching from the exe, I get the additional errors "The procedure entry point MiniDumpWriteDump could not be located in the dynamic link library C:\Windows\System32\dlumd11.dll" (and the same for dlumb10.dll and dlumd9.dll).

I've never seen those errors before but they seem like pretty serious Windows ones. Googling them shows quite a few hits with various apps and games, but I didn't see any particular known cause or fix.

What's the history of this problem, has this game ever worked on this machine?

Does CK2 run okay?

Given it seems to be video-related let's try a clean reinstall of the nVidi adriver:

- uninstall the existing nVidia driver and all other nVidia software
- reboot
- install the latest by fresh download from here:
Download Drivers | NVIDIA - reboot again

I hope that does it for you!  

Did you try the clean nVidia reinstall I described? You don't mention it either way.  

KaiserRobertIII said: tried now, no effect

That's a shame, we are edging towards needing a Windows reinstall here!

But first please attach here new copies of all the text files: dxdiag.txt , error.log , system.log , pdx_settings.txt , debug.txt .  

KaiserRobertIII said: I want to know what changed between CK3 1.2.2 and 1.3.1

In technical terms, all I know of is later versions of Visual C++ 2015/17/19 and some video drivers.

But your issue is something else:

When launching from the exe, I get the additional errors "The procedure entry point MiniDumpWriteDump could not be located in the dynamic link library C:\Windows\System32\dlumd11.dll" (and the same for dlumb10.dll and dlumd9.dll).

Either those Windows system files are missing or corrupted, or are older versions than the game can use. I doubt the latter as your Windows 8.1 is quite up to date, and we are not seeing this particular error with other Win 8.1 users. Indeed I've never seen it before with any game in the 20 years I've been doing this!

You can try some Windows update/repair tools:

The latest supported Visual C++ downloads

This article lists the download links for the latest versions of Visual C++. support.microsoft.com And run the x86 and x64 installers there.

SCANNOW:

Use the System File Checker tool to repair missing or corrupted system files

Describes how to use the System File Checker tool to troubleshoot missing or corrupted system files in Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows 7 or Windows Vista. support.microsoft.com
If that doesn't help, and you don't want to do a Windows reinstall or update to Win10, then I suggest you seek some professional Windows support help in dealing with those Windows system files.  

I see, that is a shame. I take it you still don't want to do a reinstall of either Win 8.1 or go up to 10?