AndrewT

That Documents location looks okay, so the issue pretty much has to be antivirus. Place the attached userdir.txt file in the Steam folder where stellaris.exe is . It tells the game to write the user files and logs right there, instead of under Documents. Then exit the Steam app entirely and run stellaris.exe manually from File Explorer. Does the game start up that way, or what happens?  

What antivirus app do you use?

In File Explorer right click on Documents in the left column, just under This PC. Go to properties, location. What does it say in there?  

notNSANE said: I'm using a Sapphire HD 6850.

Just so you know, the game's published minimum requirement is the AMD® Radeon™ HD 7870, which is more than double the GPU power of the 6850. Whether that is part of your problem here I'm not sure!  

I don't know then. You don't get this with CK2 and EU4, you say?  

What antivirus app do you use? Add stellaris.exe to the exceptions list of your antivirus app; ESPECIALLY if you have Windows Defender, add it to the Ransomware "Apps Allowed Through" list. You should add steam.exe and C:/users//AppData/Local/Programs/Paradox Interactive/launcher-v2.2021.1/paradox launcher.exe to that list.  

Can you play with NO mods at all enabled? If not he has a corrupted installation and needs to do a clean reinstall.

If you can though, then enable just ONE mod and see if you can play. If so then enable another one and test, etc. That way you can pin down which one is the problem.  

That is Steam Cloud Sync, not Steam cloud saves, that you are disabling. Yes that needs to be on as Steam run the achievements.  

In the game launcher please set Display mode to Borderless.

IF that doesn't help, Has the game ever run successfully on this computer? Or never?

IF IT USED TO RUN:
Please do a full **clean** re-install:

- move any valued save games elsewhere, and user_empire_designs.txt from /Documents/Paradox Interactive/Stellaris/ if you have made any custom empires or races.
- "uninstall" in Steam-Stellaris
- manually delete both the Steam/SteamApps/common/Stellaris AND Documents/Paradox/Stellaris folders
- re-install game in Steam, run a Steam Verify when done.
- add stellaris.exe to the exceptions list of your antivirus app; ESPECIALLY if you have Windows Defender, add it to the Ransomware "Apps Allowed Through" list.
- start the game with no mods active and test

In particular you need to make sure there are no files or folders left under either the Steam Stellaris or Documents Stellaris locations, be... Read more

This machine has 6 audio outputs going through 3 different audio drivers. Does the problem change or go away if you switch the output to one of the devices using another driver?  

TheBloom said: Not to hijack a thread, but I have the exact same problem. I tested with my Bluetooth speaker, and it doesn't work either; if you look at my Volume Mixer, no sound is outputting; the green bar that usually represents the application volume is nowhere to be seen. Driver updates, reinstalls, nothing has worked.

Can I see your files too please?  

There's no relationship between Ironman/achievements and local/cloud saving. You can get achievements regardless of where you save the game.  

Are you running this game from the Xbox app or the MS Store app? Whichever one, please try the other!  

Your title says mods but I think you mean DLCs as per your text, yes?

If so, there is no way to use DLCs purchased from Steam in a GoG base game, and vice versa. Sorry about that!  

Please do - after all this happened on your machine not mine! Obviously keep backups of the files you edit just in case.  

I see. Can you borrow some speakers, or plain vanilla headphones, just for the sake of a test?  

2021-03-10 16:43:03 [repository] [WARNING] Error in response: Get : signing TTL received is too close to current time (threshold of 60 sec)

Windows is not on good internet time, which confuses our servers.

Go int the Date&Time control panel and make sure Set Time Automatically is ON. Then hit the Sync Now button.

Then run the game from the Stem PLAY button - does it update now?  

You only have the default MS usbaudio.sys sound driver, but I'm a little surprised it has not been updated since 2016. Can you check for an update for that in Device manager?

If you unplug those Razer earphones do you get sound out of the computer's speakers for this game?  

Did this happen after a game update? Or a Windows or driver update perhaps?

When you say the only game, that includes our similar games like CK2, EU4 and HOI4?


DXDIAG is a program you run from a command prompt or the Windows start menu 'run' dialog box (or 'search programs' in Windows 7 or later). After running it will open a window and start collecting info with a progress bar in the lower-left corner. When it completes click the 'save all information' button and save it to a file then attach that file here.

Please attach your Documents/Paradox/Stellaris/settings.txt and pdx_settings.txt .
From your Documents/Paradox/Stellaris/logs/ folder, attach system.log , error.log .  

Then we seem to have run out of possible candidates for what is causing this problem on your machine.

Do you have access to any other machine to test this one? Or can you make a new Windows user on this machine and test under that?