Windows 8.1 cannot launch the game after updating patch 1.30

[boazcschan]

I have updated the Nvidia Driver and windows os and closed the windows defender, but the game still cannot launch (with a red caution near the play button). Does anyone face the same problem? I think it is a particular problem faced by 8.1 users. The problem is failed creating render backend.

 

[AndrewT]

This may be an issue with that nVidia driver, as it has not been updated for 3 years on 8.1 . Any chance you can go to Win10?

 

[KaiserRobertIII]

I have the same problem. I downloaded and installed an nvidia driver from 2020, and everything else that all the forums say to try, no effect. It worked fine on CKIII 1.2.2 and earlier.

I found they released a driver on March 30, 2021 for windows 8.1 as well. I installed it, no effect.

 

[satoru]

I have the same problem. I downloaded and installed an nvidia driver from 2020, and everything else that all the forums say to try, no effect. It worked fine on CKIII 1.2.2 and earlier.

Not sure why you necroed this but post your dxdiag and outlog

 

[KaiserRobertIII]

how do I do outlog? dxdiag attached

 

[KaiserRobertIII]

the logs which seem relevant, from documents\paradox interactive\crusaderkings iii\logs\, all other files here are 0kb

 

[AndrewT]

I have the same problem. I downloaded and installed an nvidia driver from 2020, and everything else that all the forums say to try, no effect. It worked fine on CKIII 1.2.2 and earlier.

I found they released a driver on March 30, 2021 for windows 8.1 as well. I installed it, no effect.

Then you do not have the same problem as the OP. Please in future start your own fresh thread, thanks.

What happens if you exit the Steam app entirely and run ck3.exe directly from File Explorer? Do you see any Windows error when it fails then?

 

[KaiserRobertIII]

I had started a new thread but wasn't getting any response

CK III - Failed creating render backend (fails to launch)

Short summary of your issue Failed creating render backend (fails to launch) Game Version 1.3.1 What OS are you playing on? Windows What platform are you using? Steam Do you have mods enabled? No Have you tried verifying your...

forum.paradoxplaza.com

details there, including starting from exe

 

[AndrewT]

That's because you lodged it in Bug Reports, but that is not going to be a game bug.

When launching from the exe, I get the additional errors "The procedure entry point MiniDumpWriteDump could not be located in the dynamic link library C:\Windows\System32\dlumd11.dll" (and the same for dlumb10.dll and dlumd9.dll).

I've never seen those errors before but they seem like pretty serious Windows ones. Googling them shows quite a few hits with various apps and games, but I didn't see any particular known cause or fix.

What's the history of this problem, has this game ever worked on this machine?

Does CK2 run okay?

Given it seems to be video-related let's try a clean reinstall of the nVidi adriver:

- uninstall the existing nVidia driver and all other nVidia software
- reboot
- install the latest by fresh download from here:

Download the latest official NVIDIA drivers

Download the latest official NVIDIA drivers

www.nvidia.com

- reboot again

I hope that does it for you!

 

[KaiserRobertIII]

yes everything else works and always has, ckiii worked as well, and still works, if set to version 1.2.2 or earlier. ck2 works. ckiii only on 1.3.1 fails.

 

[AndrewT]

Did you try the clean nVidia reinstall I described? You don't mention it either way.

 

[KaiserRobertIII]

tried now, no effect

 

[AndrewT]

tried now, no effect

That's a shame, we are edging towards needing a Windows reinstall here!

But first please attach here new copies of all the text files: dxdiag.txt , error.log , system.log , pdx_settings.txt , debug.txt .

 

[KaiserRobertIII]

Windows reinstall is not an option, I want to know what changed between CK3 1.2.2 and 1.3.1, nothing else has a problem.

 

[AndrewT]

I want to know what changed between CK3 1.2.2 and 1.3.1

In technical terms, all I know of is later versions of Visual C++ 2015/17/19 and some video drivers.

But your issue is something else:

When launching from the exe, I get the additional errors "The procedure entry point MiniDumpWriteDump could not be located in the dynamic link library C:\Windows\System32\dlumd11.dll" (and the same for dlumb10.dll and dlumd9.dll).

Either those Windows system files are missing or corrupted, or are older versions than the game can use. I doubt the latter as your Windows 8.1 is quite up to date, and we are not seeing this particular error with other Win 8.1 users. Indeed I've never seen it before with any game in the 20 years I've been doing this!

You can try some Windows update/repair tools:

Latest supported Visual C++ Redistributable downloads

This article lists the download links for the latest versions of Visual C++ Redistributable packages.

support.microsoft.com

And run the x86 and x64 installers there.

SCANNOW:

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

If that doesn't help, and you don't want to do a Windows reinstall or update to Win10, then I suggest you seek some professional Windows support help in dealing with those Windows system files.

 

[KaiserRobertIII]

the dll's were there, not modified since 2018. i ran the dism and sfc scans, no problems found. i did some digging and found where to download the latest version of displaylink drivers, so did so and rebooted. now those dll's are more recently updated versions.

i'd already done the visual c++ stuff from an earlier browse of forums about the issue, but no effect. I tried again anyway.

same error at every step.

 

[AndrewT]

I see, that is a shame. I take it you still don't want to do a reinstall of either Win 8.1 or go up to 10?

 

[KaiserRobertIII]

It now works. I UNinstalled all the visual c++ stuff later than 2013, and didn't reinstall anything. I initially installed them to try to fix it, so not sure what was there before, or why 1.2.2 worked with it and not 1.3.1.