multiplayer wont start

[elladoros]

in both steam and in-game, i cant start multiplayer. any help?

[lewosch]

(sorry for the late reply, I was busy patrolling other CoD forums)

does it show any error messages while this occurs? are you able to start campaign/zombies part of WaW?

[elladoros]

Originally posted by lewosch:

(sorry for the late reply, I was busy patrolling other CoD forums)

does it show any error messages while this occurs? are you able to start campaign/zombies part of WaW?

campaign starts fine, however multiplayer doesnt start, no error messages either.

[lewosch]

it's really strange, as campaign/zombies is often the more troublesome part which gives crashes at launch. I don't know what exactly causes this issue, but you might try several potential solutions mentioned below. I still can't guarantee any success, because for old PC games like WaW, it's usually not too easy to detect the reason behind the problems.

- you can run multiplayer part of the game on Win XP SP3 compatibility mode. to do that; go to where WaW is installed on disk and find "CoDWaWmp.exe" file. right click at it and hit "properties". there go to "compatibility" tab on little window and select "Windows XP Service Pack 3" from the list. lastly, click "apply" and then "OK" to complete the process.

by default, the game is installed at;
Program Files (x86) / Steam / steamapps / common / Call of Duty World at War

- you should also verify integrity of game files on steam, in case of any missing or corrupt files are leading to this problem. to do that; right click at WaW on steam library and select "properties". there go to "local files" tab and hit "verify integrity of game files". wait until the file validation is done and restart WaW multiplayer to see what happens.

- you can try carrying your original config file of WaW multiplayer to desktop, and launch the game to test it. if incompatible parameters exist in a config file, it may lead to crashes at launch. once you carry a config file to desktop (or another place), the game will create a new one with default settings (as soon as you start the game next time), and the broken things would be gone. if this method doesn't fix the issue, you can carry your original config file back to its default place, so you don't waste time while customizing stuff again (config files keep things such as video/audio options, keybindings etc).

"config_mp.cfg" is the name of the file for WaW multiplayer, and it must be located at;
Local Disk (C:) / Users / your windows username / AppData* / Local / Activision / CoDWaW / players / profiles / your in-game profile name

*if you can't find AppData folder where it should be, you'll need to enable visibility of hidden files through windows first. check this link if you don't know how it's done:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4028316/windows-view-hidden-files-and-folders-in-windows-10

- for some people, certain background applications may have conflicts with WaW. if you use such programs, you may try closing them temporarily before starting the game (for testing purpose). some known troublemakers are; MSI Afterburner w/RTSS, NZXT CAM, Fraps, Nvidia Shadowplay, certain mouse/keyboard utilities by Razer, various tools used for headset settings or multi-monitor setups etc.

- even though the campaign/zombies works fine, you might consider updating DirectX if you believe there aren't any kind of software conflicts. try going to where the game is installed on disk and find DirectX folder. open it and run DXSETUP.exe inside. once the installation is complete, retry launching multiplayer to see if that helped.

- despite WaW being a very old title, it's a good idea to ensure you're currently using the most up-to-date version of graphics and audio drivers. besides, if you keep them disabled for a long while, perhaps enabling windows updates could be useful, because sometimes windows updates can break old PC games and then microsoft soon releases a fix for them.

- I remember a few guys having crashes in WaW due to sound config on windows. I don't think it's the reason in your case, but it may be worth a try if you have nothing else to do. right click at speaker icon at system tray (bottom right of screen), and select "open sound settings". there click on "sound control panel" at right side of page, and select the audio device being used in WaW (at "playback" tab). hit "properties" and then go to "advanced" tab. select 24 bit - (either 44100 or 48000 Hz) from the list and click "OK" to complete the process.

hope this helps.