AndrewT

The previous game CK2 is free to play on Steam now. Does that work or have a similar problem?  

I don't know if that is a general bug or a glitch in your installation.

I guess check in the Bug Reports forum here if it has been reported before. If not, 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 with a new campaign,

In particular make sure there are no files or folders left under either the Steam CK3 or Documents CK3 locations, before installing again.

Good luck with that!  

Okay, but any of our games?  

I was thinking he must have Steam ports blocked by a firewall somewhere, but the stellaris_test branch uses different ports so that seems unlikely.

Has this always happened for him with this game? Or it was okay up to some point?

Does it also affect our similar games CK2, EU4 or HOI4? CK2 is free to play on Steam now FYI.

What happens when he tried to join, any error?

Any mods involved here?

Can he try from a different machine, either on the same network or elsewhere, as a test?  

Are there any other of our games in your Gamepass right now, if so do they work okay?  

You see portraits from a DLC you don't have, but not ones from a DLC you do have? It's ... hard to see how that is possible! Are you sure you don't have them mixed up? You can see them next to each other here:

Species - Stellaris Wiki

... Read more

It is certainly being vigorously investigated , although not during the present winter break. I expect work to restart by mid January.

Did you try a VPN? That seems to be the most reliable workaround.  

That's a login or MP error, I doubt it has anything to do with the game not starting.

It fails from both the Xbox app and the MS Store app?  

I see you haven't logged into the launcher. Can you try that please?  

It's hard to see how it's possible that only part of a DLC works, it should be all or nothing. But you don't give much detail about what exactly you believe is missing and how you are checking for that.


You may as well try 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 o... Read more

Please post that issue in this forum:

Stellaris: Console edition - Bug Reports

If you find a bug, report it! Please be as descriptive as possible and attach any pictures, error codes etc that can help us identify the issue! ... Read more

The game doesn't find any audio device:

[13:31:59][audio2_fmod.cpp:79]: PdxAudio2: FMOD:ebug_Initialize error (File not found.).

Which is weird given you have some, but I doubt that would cause the failure to run you see.

In fact there is no mention of this game in that dxdiag at all, which is unusual for a won't-start issue like this. Some other Windows errors there though, which I have not seen before:

+++ WER1 +++:
Pakiet błędów 1578184655022800377, typ 5
Nazwa zdarzenia: CLR20r3
Odpowiedź: Niedostępny
Identyfikator pliku CAB: 0

Podpis problemu:
P1: 3BMKP0HVMBJBM0WO3UU24TZQY4AH1YTH
P2: 1.1.19.6
P3...

Read more

The crash is in an AMD video driver:

Fault Module Name: atiumd64.dll

yet there is no AMD video listed in that dxdiag. Was there perhaps an AMD card that has been removed? If so yu should use this utility to remove its drivers:
https://support.amd.com/en-us/kb-articles/Pages/AMD-Clean-Uninstall-Utility.aspx  

The checksum you quote here is correct, but is that what you see in the main game menu? Or just in the launcher?


If you see something different in the main game menu, you need to 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 i... Read more

No obvious problems evident in those files; although the game is not supported on Intel video systems that would normally only make it run slow, not crash. Because it's Windows 7 we don't get any crash data in dxdiag.

If you exit the Steam app entirely then run stellaris.exe directly from File Explorer, do you see any Windows error when it crashes?

Our similar game Crusader kings 2 is free to play onSteam now, does it have a similar problem?  

Lots of DirectX 11 errors in that log, and I see you are on Windows 8.1 . Strangely my first suggestion is to update that Intel video driver from 2013, even though the game is not running on it. Start with the Acer support site, if no good then Intel themselves:

Drivers & Software

Download new and previously released drivers including support software, bios, utilities, firmware and patches for Intel products. downloadc... Read more

Your Windows 10 has had no major updates applied for over 3 years. Our games are only ever tested on Windows that is fully patched up.

Please run the Windows Updater, and look for a new Windows 10 version to apply. Apply it and reboot, run the updater again, apply everything it suggests, reboot - keep doing that until totally up to date. Boring I know but you have a lot of catching up to do!  

That means your AV app has quarantined it. You need to release it from quarantine, and tell it to leave it alone in future!  

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 .  

We now have reports of this on AVG, Avast and possibly Kaspersky.

You need to make sure all these apps are in its exceptions lists:

dowser.exe (in the Steam Stellaris folder)
C:/users//AppData/Local/Programs/Paradox Interactive/launcher-v2.2020.16/paradox launcher.exe
C:/users//AppData/Local/Programs/Paradox Interactive/bootstrapper-v2.exe

Good luck!