Freezes on title screen [Solved]

[cpc8472]

I need help, please. I had uninstalled the game a long time ago and reinstalled it after there had been many updates and now it won't load. It gets to the title screen with the man and women on the floor, but the words for the title and menu options never appear. It just gets stuck there forever (I walked away and came back an hour later more than once). The music plays but no words. That other screen with the loading files is also stuck. I have tried to load both in regular and compatibility mode. I also tried disabling the Steam overlay in game.

I am still running Windows 7. The game worked fine before I uninstalled it. I have reinstalled it multiple times, deleted all mods and saved games and every game file I could find on my PC and still when I reinstall it the game won't load all the way. Any helpful ideas? Maybe a missing FONT file? I've had that issue with another game before where a FONT somehow got deleted.

[Beard]

Try going to "C:\Users\YourUserName\Zomboid" and delete the "Lua" folder there.

[cpc8472]

Originally posted by Beard:

Try going to "C:\Users\YourUserName\Zomboid" and delete the "Lua" folder there.

It didn't work. I had also tried deleting the whole zomboid folder after I had uninstalled the game. I just tried setting game to the pre-vehicle build as my PC is 9 years-old. Still the same problem. It worked fine before I had uninstalled game many months ago. Here is a shot of where it's getting stuck loading.
https://imgur.com/a/pC97MvX

[Undead Llama]

After clearing your user\Zomboid dir cache as the above poster recommended, restart and check your worksshop subscriptions (if any). Some of them are no longer updated/supported, and can cause a CTD on launch.

I had this issue several months back, and it took clearing the user/dir 2 times, and reinstalling the game to clear whatever error was occurring.

If you are still experiencing this error, grab your console.log file and upload it to dropbox with a link for the devs to have a gander at.

[Beard]

Try verifying your game files as well in that case:
Steam Library > Right click Project Zomboid > Properties > Local Files > Verify Local Files

[cpc8472]

Okay. I unsubbed from all mods. Re-installed game. verified game files. Still gets stuck on loading screen. Picture and music - Yes. Text on screen - No.
I think this is the console log. https://pastebin.com/6yxrB6Ag

[Beard]

It looks like something broke your game install, it shows you have version 38, while trying to load build 41 files.

I recommend making a clean reinstall, not a standard one.
Meaning, first uninstall the game, then go to Steam\steamapps\common\ProjectZomboid and delete all files and folders still there.
After that, check that you are on the correct game version that you want to play, and then just install the game again.

[cpc8472]

I had switched it to version 38 as I read that older PCs have trouble rendering vehicles. Why would it then try and load build 41?

Anyway, I changed Beta to None. Uninstalled. Deleted all files and folders. Reinstalled. Same problem. I tried regular and compatibility mode.

[Beard]

Can you share your game log after doing that?

[cpc8472]

Okay. I had to load it again. Here you are.
https://pastebin.com/G7JprC30

[Beard]

Hm, it shows the exact same error, are you sure you deleted the correct files? You should not delete the Zomboid folder, but the Project Zomboid folder located in Steam, the error basically says that there are extra files there.

[cpc8472]

Okay, that did the trick. There were some folders for Project Zomboid within the Steam folder. I swear I did a system search for Project Zomboid and it didn't show them. I deleted them and now the game loads properly. Thank you for your time and assistance.