Technical Support - what we do here, how and what to post, common technical problems

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AndrewT

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Please make sure to follow these instructions to the best of your abilities or you may find your post being removed!
  1. Before doing anything else check out this thread and the Known Issues and Solutions thread for common problems.
  2. Then search this forum to see if anyone already reported the issue (and maybe got a solution as well). Do this by clicking "Search Forum" in the top right of your screen and search for your error message or description of the problem (see point 2).
  3. But do not hijack someone else's thread unless you are 100% sure your problem is identical to theirs! If in doubt always start you own fresh thread with full problem and system details.
  4. Use proper naming of your thread! A thread name should provide a brief description of the issue. If you can fit your platform and/or an error message in there it's even better.
    Example of bad thread name: "HELP PLEASE!"
    Example of a good thread name: "[Windows 7] Freeze on initializing map logic"
  5. Provide proper information on what you were doing when the problem occurred. Quote any error messages you receive, attach crash logs and provide a screenshot if possible. Anything you can to explain what exactly is the problem.
  6. Provide a specification of your system. See the bottom of this post how to obtain a dxdiag log.
  7. Provide the logs associated with the particular issue you are having found in "...\Documents\Paradox Interactive\Europa Universalis IV\logs\"


The Technical Support forum is not for gameplay issues - use the main forum for questions, Bug reports or Suggestions forums for those matters. Tech Support is to help you diagnose and fix issues that stop you running the game at all, or for crashes or performance issues - things that are likely to be specific to your machine rather than general game problems that everyone will likely see, or everyone in a certain situation will likely see (eg: all Linux users, everyone playing a certain religion or country, etc).

We do not support mods or modded games here at all. If the problem does not occur in an unmodded game, contact the mod's author in the User Modifications forum.

General Technical Problems

More specific issues are covered in the Known Issues and Solutions thread.

GAME CANNOT RUN AT ALL:
You never get to the main game menu. Critical question: has it always done this ever since you've had the game (or last done a Windows re-install), or did it used to work and now does not? These are entirely different technical situations.
- HAS NEVER RUN: almost always means missing Microsoft modules (see below).
- USED TO RUN: almost always means a corrupted installation; do a full clean re-install (see below).
- IF NEITHER OF THOSE HELP: describe exactly what stage of loading it gets up to, and post hardware data (see dxdiag instructions below).



CRASHES:
It crashes at some point after having got to the main game menu. Critical question: is the crash repeatable from any particular action or event?
- ALWAYS CRASHES WHEN I CLICK ON SOMETHING: if this is repeatable in any game (new or old), probably a bug. But try a full clean re-install first (see below).
- ALWAYS CRASHES WHEN I TRY TO LOAD THIS SAVED GAME: almost certainly a bug or corrupted save file (which are sometimes the same thing!). To ascertain this post a link to the problem save game file, which you have compressed (if not already compressed in-game) and uploaded to any public file-hosting site like Dropbox.



POOR PERFORMANCE:
- GAME IS SLOW TO LOAD OR SAVE: very dependent on hardware, mostly CPU and hard disk. Critical questions: has it always done this ever since you've had the game, or did it used to load fast and is now slow? Is the slowness in load time, day-to-day time passing, scrolling speed or what?
- If it used to be OK but now runs slow, and a full clean re-install (see below) doesn't fix it, there's probably nothing we can do here.
- It it's always been slow update video driver, reduce graphics settings as much as possible. Possibly try a low-res graphics mod such as Flat Map.

- TIME PASSES SLOWLY IN GAME: very dependent on hardware, mostly CPU, GPU (video) and memory. Critical question: has it always done this ever since you've had the game, or did it used to run fast and is now slow? How are you measuring it? If a full clean re-install (see below) doesn't fix it, post hardware data (see dxdiag instructions below).

- MAP SCROLLING SPEED TOO SLOW: very dependent on hardware, mostly GPU (video). Critical question: has it always done this ever since you've had the game, or did it used to run fast and is now slow? If a full clean re-install doesn't fix it (see below), post hardware data (see dxdiag instructions below).

- GRAPHICAL STUTTERING: can be any number of things, unfortunately. Critical question: has it always done this ever since you've had the game?
-- YES: update video driver, check GPU temperatures. If dual video system, check game is running on the High Power (nVidia or AMD) option not the Intel option. If no progress, post hardware data (see dxdiag instructions below).
-- NO: What change or update seemed to trigger it? If dual video system, check game is running on the High Power (nVidia or AMD) option not the Intel option. If a full clean re-install doesn't fix it (see below), post hardware data (see dxdiag instructions below).​

- SOUND STUTTERING: Critical question: has it always done this ever since you've had the game?
-- YES: update sound driver, change sound output channel (if more than one available), check CPU temperatures. If no progress, post hardware data (see dxdiag instructions below).
-- NO: If a full clean re-install doesn't fix it, post hardware data (see dxdiag instructions below).​
- Does it affect each of the game's music, sound effects, and ambient sounds? Or which?
- Does it happen in other comparable games (CK2, EU4) or at least their demo if you don't have the full game?
- If you mute the sound in-game and play music externally, does it still happen to that?



Missing Microsoft modules said:


How to do a full clean re-install said:
- move any valued save games elsewhere
- "delete local content" in Steam-EU4
- manually delete all files and folders left under Steam/SteamApps/common/EU4 AND Documents/Paradox/EU4
- re-install game in Steam, run a Steam Verify when done.
- start the game with no mods active and test


How to obtain a dxdiag log said:
If you have Windows XP, you get the dxdiag like this:

* Click on your "Start" button.
* Select "Run".
* Type "dxdiag" (without the quotes).
* Click "OK".
* A box called "DirectX Diagnostic Tool" should open.
* At the bottom of this window, you will find a button called "Save
All Information".
* Click this button.
* A box will pop up prompting you to save a file called "dxdiag.txt"
* Save this file to your "Desktop".
* Now you should see a text file called "dxdiag.txt" sitting on your
Windows desktop.

If you have Windows Vista, 7 or 8, do like this:

* Click on your "Start" button.
* Write dxdiag in the search field. If you are running 64-bit Windows, use dxdiag /64bit
* A box called "DirectX Diagnostic Tool" should open.
* At the bottom of this window, you will find a button called "Save
All Information".
* Click this button.
* A box will pop up prompting you to save a file called "dxdiag.txt"
* Save this file to your "Desktop".
* Now you should see a text file called "dxdiag.txt" sitting on your
Windows desktop.

If you have Mac or Linux, instead go to Steam-Help-System Information. Paste everything from there into your post here, except the Installed Software list at the end.

Please use code tags ([noparse]
Code:
[/noparse][/b][i]<paste here>[/i][b][noparse]
[/noparse]
) when pasting logs into your post. (See here for more info on how to use BB Code to tag your content.)
 
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A graphical how to on how to post a DxDiag

Open a run dialog

upload_2015-9-3_19-28-1.png



and then hit OK

upload_2015-9-3_19-25-40.png


Click save all information and choose to put it someplace you can find

upload_2015-9-3_19-26-13.png

on the forum after you hit reply, click "upload a file" and attach the file you just saved
 
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