AndrewT

How far do you get into the game before this happens?

Does it happen in the identical place in 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/CK3/pdx_settings.txt .
From your Documents/Paradox/CK3/logs/ folder, attach system.log , error.log  

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

Please try the following:

- unsubscribe from all mods
- delete the folder Documents/paradox/Stellaris/mod/
- delete the file Documents/paradox/Stellaris/mods_registry.json
- delete the file Documents/paradox/Stellaris/launcher-v2.sqlite

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.

- subscribe to a few mods
- run the game up and see if those mods are now available to you.

I hope that does it for you!  

Definitely a problem in the Windows sound setup here:

[21:45:55][audio2_fmod.cpp:392]: PdxAudio2: couldn't load bank 'sound/banks/Ambience.bank' (Operation could not be performed because specified sound/DSP connection is not ready.)

Although not one I've seen before.

That dxdiag shows 15 different audio channels, using 5 different audio drivers ... I've never seen a setup like that before. I expected to see RealTek drivers but there are noe.

It seems this is your current sound output:

Description: Headphones (2- Arctis Pro Wireless Game)
Default Sound Playback: Yes

Does it make any difference if you use any of the others?   ...

Please do a full **clean** re-install:

- move any valued save games elsewhere
- "uninstall" in Steam-CK3
- manually delete both the Steam/SteamApps/common/CK3 AND Documents/Paradox/CK3 folders
- re-install game in Steam, run a Steam Verify when done.
- add CK3.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 make sure there are no files or folders left under either the Steam CK3 or Documents CK3 locations, before installing again.  

Both those lines for the launcher look wrong, AND are for old launcher versions.

It should be exactly this:
C:/users//AppData/Local/Programs/Paradox Interactive/launcher-v2.2021.1/paradox launcher.exe  

That's not a common setup but I have seen it before. But I have not seen that borderless only runs on the Intel, that is really odd!  

Illuminarchie said: something going wrong, mostly in reference to a file of msiexec?

This is a Windows problem: I've seen it a few times but I don't know what causes it.

Please go to C:/windows/system32/ folder and copy (NOT move!) msiexec.exe to the Steam folder where stellaris.exe is.

Then run the game from the Steam PLAY button. That should do it for you!  

I'm afraid it must be AVG still. You can try going through post #2 again, but I suspect nothing but disabling it or setting it up to allow the game and launcher to read and write to the Windows user Documents folders will do it. You may need help from AVG support to ensure that.

Good luck!  

Please try this:

- exit the Steam app entirely
- uninstall Paradox Launcher v2 from the Windows "Apps and features" utility, if still present.

Delete the following folders if still present:

- C:/users//AppData/Local/Programs/Paradox Interactive/
- C:/users//AppData/Local/Paradox Interactive/
- C:/users//AppData/Roaming/Paradox Interactive/launcher-v2/
To see the AppData folder you'll need to enable View Hidden Items in File Explorer.

- run steam.exe as the Windows Admin user

- run the game from the PLAY button in Steam

IF that doesn't help, in this folder are some .log files:
C:/users//AppData/Local/Paradox Interactive/launcher-v2/
Please attach them here.

Note that you can run ck3.exe directly from Windows Explorer, which bypasses the launcher.  

Has it ever worked with this game for you? Or never yet?

Is that all sound - music, ambients, sound effects?


Run the game up to the main game menu then alt-tab to the desktop. Right click on the speaker icon in th etask bar and go into Volume Mixer. Scroll across until you see the game and check it is not muted or at a low volume.

If that is not the problem 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/CK3/pdx_settings.txt .
From your Documents/Paradox/CK3/logs/ folder, attach system.log , error.log  

Please try the following:



- unsubscribe from all mods

- delete the folder Documents/paradox/CK3/mod/

- delete the file Documents/paradox/CK3/mods_registry.json

- delete the file Documents/paradox/CK3/launcher-v2.sqlite



Add ck3.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.



- subscribe to a few mods

- run the game up and see if those mods are now available to you.



I hope that does it for you!  

That first screenshot shows an older launcher version still, 2020.14 . Yet i see the current one 2021.1 downloading in cpatch.log. Is there an orange or red dot up the top left of the launcher?


As for the game, what happens if you exit the Steam app entirely then run ck3.exe directly from Windows Explorer? Any Windows error show then?  

Do you happen to use nVidia Prime Render Offload?

If so please see this thread where that is being discussed:

...

Read more

So you never see our launcher, is that right? If so Please try this:

- exit the Steam app entirely
- uninstall Paradox Launcher v2 from the Windows "Apps and features" utility, if still present.

Delete the following folders if still present:

- C:/users//AppData/Local/Programs/Paradox Interactive/
- C:/users//AppData/Local/Paradox Interactive/
- C:/users//AppData/Roaming/Paradox Interactive/launcher-v2/
To see the AppData folder you'll need to enable View Hidden Items in File Explorer.

- run steam.exe as the Windows Admin user

- run the game from the PLAY button in Steam

IF that doesn't help, in this folder are some .log files:
C:/users//AppData/Local/Paradox Interactive/launcher-v2/
Please attach them here.

Note that you can run stellaris.exe directly from Windows Explorer, which bypasses the launcher.  

You may need help from AVG on how to allow the game and launcher through it, as I'm sure you don't want to run with no AV protection!  

I've seen that caused by outdated mods, but also having a game controller or joystick plugged in .


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, before installing again.


If that doesn't help:
DXDIAG ... Read more

It is nVidia's job to make that choice, so it is definitely odd that it only affects this one game.

You forced stellaris.exe to "high performance nVidia" option in Manage 3D settings, is that right?

nVidia driver and utilities all up to date with 2021 versions?  

You are missing some Microsoft DLLs in your Windows installation. Please go here:

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.


That should fix that problem!  

Your launcher is fairly old, so lets update that . Please try this:

- exit the Steam app entirely
- uninstall Paradox Launcher v2 from the Windows "Apps and features" utility, if still present.

Delete the following folders if still present:

- C:/users//AppData/Local/Programs/Paradox Interactive/
- C:/users//AppData/Local/Paradox Interactive/
- C:/users//AppData/Roaming/Paradox Interactive/launcher-v2/
To see the AppData folder you'll need to enable View Hidden Items in File Explorer.

- run steam.exe as the Windows Admin user

- run the game from the PLAY button in Steam

IF that doesn't help, in this folder are some .log files:
C:/users//AppData/Local/Paradox Interactive/launcher-v2/
Please attach them here.


As for the game, it fails running from ck3.exe directly, is that right? We see many GPU errors in that error log, so let's check that out:
DX... Read more