CK3 keeps crashing

[Amel12]

I have the game on steam. Bought it recently and didn't even start a single game yet. The game takes about 10 Minutes to load, until it crashes after the "Initializing" screen.

What I tried so far:

-Uninstalling and reinstalling
-Veryfying the game files

Here is the error log. Help would be much appreciated.

 

[AndrewT]

Right click on ck3.exe , properties, compatibility. Tick "disable fullScreen optimisations" untick every other box in that dialog, Apply and exit.
Then in the launcher Game Settings menu, select fullScreen display mode, Vsync off, cap refresh rate at 60.


If those don't help:
DXDIAG is a program you run from the Windows search box on the task bar. 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 here your Documents/Paradox Interactive/CK3/pdx_settings.txt .
From your Documents/Paradox Interactive/CK3/logs/ folder, attach here system.log , exceptions.log

 

[Amel12]

Right click on ck3.exe , properties, compatibility. Tick "disable fullScreen optimisations" untick every other box in that dialog, Apply and exit.
Then in the launcher Game Settings menu, select fullScreen display mode, Vsync off, cap refresh rate at 60.


If those don't help:
DXDIAG is a program you run from the Windows search box on the task bar. 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 here your Documents/Paradox Interactive/CK3/pdx_settings.txt .
From your Documents/Paradox Interactive/CK3/logs/ folder, attach here system.log , exceptions.log

Thank you for your reply. I tried the first option, unfortunately didn't work.

Here are the files. The system.log file is empty, and exceptions.log isn't there. There is a folder called exceptions which is also empty. I will just attach the files from the "logs" folder that are not empty.

 

[AndrewT]

There's no mention of this game in that dxdiag, which tends to point to a cause outside the game.

Unload GeForce Experience if running, then run ck3.exe directly from File explorer. What happens then, any error show?

If nothing, make a new Windows user on this machine and log into it with that. Does the game work there?

 

[Amel12]

There's no mention of this game in that dxdiag, which tends to point to a cause outside the game.

Unload GeForce Experience if running, then run ck3.exe directly from File explorer. What happens then, any error show?

If nothing, make a new Windows user on this machine and log into it with that. Does the game work there?

GeForce Experience was not running. I tried to run ck3.exe from the file explorer, but it still crashed. Tried running it as administrator but that too didn't work.

Making a new Windows user also didn't work unfortunately.
Is there perhaps something else I can try?

 

[AndrewT]

I tried to run ck3.exe from the file explorer, but it still crashed.

Was any error shown at that point?

Making a new Windows user also didn't work unfortunately.
Is there perhaps something else I can try?

In that new Windows user go into the Windows Startup settings and disable everything, and reboot. If the problem still happens then,
install and run the free utility Speccy. Send its output to a text file and attach that here please.

Speccy - Free Download

Download Speccy - the System Information tool

www.ccleaner.com

 

[Amel12]

Was any error shown at that point?



In that new Windows user go into the Windows Startup settings and disable everything, and reboot. If the problem still happens then,
install and run the free utility Speccy. Send its output to a text file and attach that here please.

Speccy - Free Download

Download Speccy - the System Information tool

www.ccleaner.com

When starting as administrator, the game just crashes without a message afterwards. Disabling everything in the startup settings also didn't work.

Here is the text file.

 

[AndrewT]

When starting as administrator, the game just crashes without a message afterwards.

You should not be starting ck3.exe as the Windows Admin user, that causes problems all by itself. What happens if you run it without doing that? Any error show?

I see you use Norton AV. While not known to be a problem per se, make sure ck3.exe is in all its exceptions lists, AND that it is not doing realtime scans of the Documents/Paradox Interactive/CK3 folders

Then, I see Windows 10 was installed more than two years ago but no further updates seem to have been applied - can that be right? Because our games are only developed and tested on the latest Windows builds. If I'm right about that, is there something stopping you from patching Windows up?

 

[Amel12]

You should not be starting ck3.exe as the Windows Admin user, that causes problems all by itself. What happens if you run it without doing that? Any error show?

I see you use Norton AV. While not known to be a problem per se, make sure ck3.exe is in all its exceptions lists, AND that it is not doing realtime scans of the Documents/Paradox Interactive/CK3 folders

Then, I see Windows 10 was installed more than two years ago but no further updates seem to have been applied - can that be right? Because our games are only developed and tested on the latest Windows builds. If I'm right about that, is there something stopping you from patching Windows up?

I made sure the "Paradox Interactive" folder isn't being scanned any longer and that ck3.exe is in the exceptions list.

As for the Windows updates, that is very odd. Upon checking, the system tells me that I have the latest version of Windows 10 installed. I did check for updates, it says everything is good. Could there perhaps be any additional updates that I am unaware of? I downloaded some optional updates, non of which had anything to do with Windows however.

Also, do I need to use the Paradox Launcher v2?

I just started the game it it seemed to work for 10 minutes until it crashed again.

 

[AndrewT]

As for the Windows updates, that is very odd. Upon checking, the system tells me that I have the latest version of Windows 10 installed. I did check for updates, it says everything is good. Could there perhaps be any additional updates that I am unaware of? I downloaded some optional updates, non of which had anything to do with Windows however.

I said that because Speccy normally lists all Windows updates that have been applied since installation in a separate section in its output - there was no such section in the file you uploaded. I don't recall ever seeing that before. Running the Windows Update utility doesn't find anything to do?

Also, do I need to use the Paradox Launcher v2?

The launcher allows you to choose mods, game settings, and disable DLCs. If you don't want to do any of those things you don't need it, not ... BUT Steam will decide at some point that your DLC ownership needs authenticating and will disable all DLCs until you next run the game via Steam rather than from CK3.exe

I just started the game it it seemed to work for 10 minutes until it crashed again.

You mean from CK3.exe ? Or via the launcher?

But this is quite a change from crashing while starting up ... !

 

[Amel12]

Running the Windows Update utility doesn't find anything to do?

No, it still says I have the latest version of Windows 10.

You mean from CK3.exe ? Or via the launcher?

Via the launcher. Is there anything else I can try?

 

[AndrewT]

it still says I have the latest version of Windows 10.

We're not looking for a new Windows version; we're looking for updates, patches, to your current version. Nothing like that? I had a major Windows 10 patch just in the last week or so.


If the game now runs , that is you can play it for 10 minutes okay before crashing, that seems a different problem than you have here originally. Let's get new copies of all those .log and .txt files please.

And run this Windows Repair tool please

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

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