Game Crashes During Initialization - No Longer Playable

[hobochiken]

I've started having this issue since about a week or so ago, essentially the game crashes on launch every time I try to open it. It starts initializing and there's a brief cut in the music at some point and then game crashes.

I've scoured the internet and applied every known fix but nothing seems to work. I've tried:

-Uninstalling
-Deleting the CK3 folder in Docs
-Running as Admin
-Adjusting VSYNC compatibility settings
-Verifying integrity of files via Steam
-Removing all mods

Not sure what else I can do...I have 400h in the game and its one of my go tos so it's a big hit for me so if anyone has any solutions I'd be really grateful. Thanks.

 

[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:

Please attach here your Documents/Paradox Interactive/CK3/pdx_settings.txt .
From your Documents/Paradox Interactive/CK3/logs/ folder, attach here system.log , error.log , exceptions.log

 

[hobochiken]

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:

Please attach here your Documents/Paradox Interactive/CK3/pdx_settings.txt .
From your Documents/Paradox Interactive/CK3/logs/ folder, attach here system.log , error.log , exceptions.log

I already tried that but did it again to test if it works on 1920 x 1080 resolution. Crashed with both resolutions.

pdx_settings and error logs attached but I dont have an exceptions log and it says my system log is empty. Could this be related?

 

[AndrewT]

"setting_framerate_cap"={
version=0
value="off"
}

Did you set the frame rate cap to 60? What fps are you seeing in the game before it crashes?

Then, try changing the renderer to Vulkan, and separately using the Intel video system instead of the nVidia one for the game. Do either of those make a difference?

 

[hobochiken]

Did you set the frame rate cap to 60? What fps are you seeing in the game before it crashes?

Then, try changing the renderer to Vulkan, and separately using the Intel video system instead of the nVidia one for the game. Do either of those make a difference?

You can see that I changed the settings in the launcher but when I take a look at a pdx_settings it remains unchanged. Could that be the issue? What would the parameter need to read in order for the frame rate to be capped? Then I can try manually updating the .txt file.

Also tried running with Vulkan + Intel card but no change, still crashes on the initial loading screen.

 

[AndrewT]

Those settings should have taken effect as I described, not sure what is going on there.

What fps do you see in the game just before it crashes? Anything over 60?

 

[hobochiken]

Those settings should have taken effect as I described, not sure what is going on there.

What fps do you see in the game just before it crashes? Anything over 60?

It never crosses 60 FPS. Highest it went on 3840 x 2160 was 56 and crashed on 45. For 1920 x 1080 it went up to 58 and crashed on 25.

Anything else I can try?

 

[Nadicarry]

Hey, im having the exact same issue!

 

[AndrewT]

Hey, im having the exact same issue!

Please start your own new thread, with full problem history and system details. Thanks.

 

[AndrewT]

It never crosses 60 FPS. Highest it went on 3840 x 2160 was 56 and crashed on 45. For 1920 x 1080 it went up to 58 and crashed on 25.

Anything else I can try?

In your dxdiag.txt we see one AppHang on ck3.exe but no crashes. Which tends to point to somethign outside the game.

Make a new Windows user and log in as that. In there go into the Startup settings and disable everything you can, then reboot and log in as that new Window suser again. Do you still get the same problem there?

If so, 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

And look in your Windows Event Viewer - are there any ERROR or WARNING entries at the time of the crash?

 

[hobochiken]

In your dxdiag.txt we see one AppHang on ck3.exe but no crashes. Which tends to point to somethign outside the game.

Make a new Windows user and log in as that. In there go into the Startup settings and disable everything you can, then reboot and log in as that new Window suser again. Do you still get the same problem there?

If so, install and run the free utility Speccy. Send its output to a text file and attach that here please.


And look in your Windows Event Viewer - are there any ERROR or WARNING entries at the time of the crash?

Game crashed in the same way on the new user so no luck there. Disabled everything trying to open on startup as well.

Also, I used event viewer and I noticed Im getting the same two warnings each time I open the launcher. Attached are the warnings and the results from Speccy. Thanks!

 

[AndrewT]

Those COM Server errors are very common and not significant - there is nothing in there relating to the game itself, rather than the launcher?

I see you have 3 antivirus apps all enabled:

Antivirus
Windows Defender
Antivirus Disabled
Virus Signature Database Up to date
Kaspersky Security Cloud
Antivirus Enabled
Virus Signature Database Up to date
Bitdefender Antivirus
Antivirus Enabled
Virus Signature Database Up to date
Norton 360
Antivirus Enabled
Virus Signature Database Up to date

Is that deliberate? You ought to uninstall any you don't actually want or need, use Ccleaner or Revo Uninstaller to make sure they are completely gone. For the rest, make sure ck3.exe is ion all their exceptions lists, AND that they are not doing realtime scans of the Documents/Paradox Interactive/CK3 folders

Lots of other stuff running in there - Oculus, the Asus apps, Hamachi and so on - but nothing that I know of that can cause problems like this.

 

[hobochiken]

Those COM Server errors are very common and not significant - there is nothing in there relating to the game itself, rather than the launcher?

I see you have 3 antivirus apps all enabled:

Is that deliberate? You ought to uninstall any you don't actually want or need, use Ccleaner or Revo Uninstaller to make sure they are completely gone. For the rest, make sure ck3.exe is ion all their exceptions lists, AND that they are not doing realtime scans of the Documents/Paradox Interactive/CK3 folders

Lots of other stuff running in there - Oculus, the Asus apps, Hamachi and so on - but nothing that I know of that can cause problems like this.

Hey Andrew, I'm assuming those are just leftover files from old antiviruses I used to have.

I tried to run it again and check the event viewer and I found new errors relating to the crash itself rather than the launcher. Do these tell you anything?

 

[AndrewT]

Two totally different errors there, as you can see. One appears to be a Windows or hardware fault "Disk 1 has been surprise removed.", the other certainly a Windows issue "Autopilot.dll WIL error was reported". Googling that gives some pretty concerning possibilities!

Try this Windows repair tool

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

AND remove those excess AV apps using Revo Uninstaller and Ccleaner.


Good luck!

 

[hobochiken]

Two totally different errors there, as you can see. One appears to be a Windows or hardware fault "Disk 1 has been surprise removed.", the other certainly a Windows issue "Autopilot.dll WIL error was reported". Googling that gives some pretty concerning possibilities!

Try this Windows repair tool

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

AND remove those excess AV apps using Revo Uninstaller and Ccleaner.


Good luck!

I ran the system file tool and it repaired some corrupted files but unfortunately it didn't fix the crashing.

Do you know if Paradox is aware of the issue as it seems like it's a wide spread concern? Is there a fix in the pipeline? Thanks again for all your help.

 

[AndrewT]

So far as I know you are the only one having experienced those two particular (and unrelated) errors, and I do almost all the support here!

There are plenty of users having crashes, sure, but not like yours and I think unrelated. I believe you have a Windows, hardware, or both problem I'm afraid! Do you have some form of Windows support you can contact about those errors?