Desperately need help with game start issues

[tekmagika]

As in, my game won't start, and I really am desperate for help!

The issue started about nine (edit: now ten) days ago. Click on the green Play button in Steam, the game acts like it's getting ready to start, the Play button switched to blue and says "STOP", the game list on the left says "Fallout 76 - Running", the task manager says that Fallout 76 is an active process (but with 0's across the board as far as CPU/Memory usage). Then a minute or two later, it all switches back to how it was before clicking Play and the game never starts.

I have played the game nearly daily for the last year and have never experienced this issue before. I have poured over the internet and, although I've found others reporting similar issues as long as 2-3 years ago (and some more recently), I have not found any hard fixes.

I have a ticket in with the Bethesda help desk, but they have not replied in four days and have yet to offer any actual fixes.

I have tried the following:

Restarting computer.

Uninstalling Fallout 76 (including deleting every single F76-related file I can find on the computer), and reinstalling.

Verified game files through Steam.

Verifying that Fallout 76 is listed in my firewall exceptions.

Adding Fallout 76 to my port forwards in my router.

Run it in Admin mode.

Made sure I'm not running any overlay apps.

Made sure I'm not running any antivirus software.

Made sure I'm running the latest drivers and DirectX.

Run it in Windows 8 (and 7) compatibility mode.

Run it with all browsers closed.

Made sure UAC is enabled. or disabled. tried both.

Made sure Windows 10 was updated.

Reset my DNS and set a static IP.

Checked other Steam games to make sure they will run. They will (Fallout 4 included).

Verified that the line 'bSteamEnabled' in Fallout76.ini = 1.

Probably some other things that I have forgotten about.

I am running Windows 10, have an AMD Ryzen 5 1600 and a Radeon RX 580 Series graphics card. The only things I haven't tried are rebooting in safe mode, and reinstalling Windows 10. I have a feeling it's something really really simple but just overlooked (as they often are).

Please, please, please, if you have any idea what could be causing the issue, chime in. Or if you're just really knowledgeable and can offer some suggestions on possible fixes or things to try. I'll take any help I can get. Thanks in advance.

[tekmagika]

the gent - downloading that driver release and DDU and will give it a shot. Thanks!

teksuo - will try that next.

[4mysou1just1]

Originally posted by tekmagika:

krumble -I'll try it!

denym - I feel ya, man! And I will be posting here in all caps if I ever find a solution.

virpyre - thanks for the tips! Those are all the suggested fixes I started out with when it first happened. None of them worked, unfortunately.

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIt's

It's not always you!.
Beth, Steam, AMD, Nvidia, Microsoft all make minor changes without telling you.
Notice every time you open Steam, it updates.
Ran for a year. Good...
But they all made changes till it conflicted with something or some software.
Now it's reached it's breaking point.
Now not enough something on your end.
Conflict between software.
Video rendering problem.
More memory needed, just enough to freeze a process.
That cascades more processes.

[4mysou1just1]

Hmmm?
I noticed something about You.

[tekmagika]

the gent - I downloaded the files, ran the DDU in safe mode, and then received Error 182 when trying to install the 23.12.1 driver. So had to reinstall the standard driver set from AMD. Game still won't start.

It's been 16 days now since the game would start for me. And no replies from the support team in the last nine days.

I do appreciate all the help I've received so far. Just frustrated that nothing has worked.

[4mysou1just1]

What is your mobo again???

[ARMRARR]

did you check the windows log files? perhaps it's telling the problem there?

[Serrel]

Originally posted by tekmagika:

I have 64gb DDR4 3200 RAM (2 32gb sticks, 288 pin)

Two hard drives:
WDC WD1001FALS-75J7B0 (930gb capacity, 123gb available)
WDC WD110EZEX-08WN4A0 (916gb capacity, 218gb available)

Personally. I would buy a cheap SSD on amazon for 20 quid and put windows on it. HD suck these days unless as storage horses.

I would find fallouts config file, back it up and delete it. I think personally it could be a corrupt setting or ones thats not updated especially if you have the .ini file write protected.

Obviously you've tried verify and such. The ini I think is in my documents and not the game folder and also, look in Appdata. Type: %appdata% into the start bar and look through roaming and local, Backup before deleting anything. Do not delete the main folders, just look for fo76 related files and folders.

[DDA]

AMD has 2 ways to limit frames.
If you use fullscreen exclusive you can use Frame Rate Target control in Gaming - Graphics.
Or else use Chill. Select Gaming - Games - Fallout76 and turn on Chill. Set minimum to something like 30 fps and max to 60 fps.
I doubt this will fix your issue, but something to try

[virpyre]

My PC is almost identical to your PC: Windows 10, Ryzen 7 1700, 32BG RAM, DX12 and an AMD RX 580 8GB

Last ditch effort here:

Go-to Documents/My Games/Fallout 76 and delete "Fallout76" and "Fallout76Prefs" files, then launch your game.

If that doesn't work Check the Windows Event Viewer for an error with Fallout76.exe. Then goto - https://discord.gg/bethesdastudios and post the error in their 76-bug-reports section and someone with Bethesda will get with you shortly.

[tekmagika]

Hey, virpyre.

I tried deleting those .ini files and checking the event viewer early on. Didn't work then, but tried again because you never know! But, nope, didn't work this time either.

The only event showing up in the event viewer that happened around the same time that I tried to start the game was a long series of Security events, multiple events per second seemingly, with the Source listed as "Microsoft Windows security auditing.", and an event ID of 5379. The event details do not list any reference to Fallout76, but state:

"Credential Manager credentials were read.

Subject:
Security ID: MAINCONSOLE\MyName
Account Name: MyName
Account Domain: MAINCONSOLE
Logon ID: 0x75ECF
Read Operation: Enumerate Credentials

This event occurs when a user performs a read operation on stored credentials in Credential Manager."

Reading a thread on the microsoft forums is making me think it could possibly affect FO76, even though the game isn't specifically listed as part of the security audit - https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/excessive-security-log-events-event-id-5379/8eb0c350-ce2f-4521-9cfd-f7b816d54715?page=2

[vior wolfkin]

this last couple of weeks the game seems to be falling apart ! I am guessing that the new tv series has encouraged an awful lot pf people to buy the game and jump in ! ,,, Result is the servers are overloaded and the system simply cannot cope ! .. The devs are run off their feet and far too busy to try and help ! ...I have not had your problem .. but all sorts of silly things that have made the game a pain to play ! ...

[tekmagika]

Reading deeper, there seems to be debate as to how normal/abnormal these events are, and if they are a cause or merely a symptom of other things going wrong with a system.

[splinterz]

Do you have a system restore point prior to your issues? I'm out of ideas but thought of this.

[4mysou1just1]

Originally posted by splinterz:

Do you have a system restore point prior to your issues? I'm out of ideas but thought of this.

goodgoodgood goodgoodgood goodgoodgood goodgoodgood goodgoodgood
Good idea!
I forgot too...

[tekmagika]

Unfortunately not ... looks like I only have one saved, from earlier this morning.

Beginning to think that I might be screwed. Was going to be building a new system this year anyway. Might be a forced break until I'm able to do that!