SFM won't start. [SOLVED]

[Dekania]

Whenever I open SFM, the program appears on Task Manager for a few seconds before disappearing. Nothing else opens up on the taskbar nor the desktop. This has only been occuring since I upgraded to Windows 10.

I also have a Radeon RX 470 graphics card with AMD Radeon Settings installed, if that helps any.

[Dekania]

Small bump since I never got any reply.

[Marco Skoll]

Hmm. I'm not holding out a lot of hope, as there's been a lot of people who've reported issues after "upgrading" to Windows 10, many of which we've not been able to fix.

Still, try this. (Bear in mind that this is not a fix, it's a diagnostic).

- Attempt to start SFM again. Take a note of the time on your computer's clock.
- Once that's (presumably) failed, go to the Start menu, search for "Event Viewer" and open it.
- On the left hand left under "Windows Logs", open "Applications" (not "Application and Services Logs", which is its own category).
- Once that's opened, on the right hand side, click on "Filter Current Log".
- Tick the checkboxes for "Warning", "Error" and "Critical", then apply the filter.

Now see if there's a recent log entry from when SFM crashed. It will probably list SFM.exe as the program/module that's caused the issue, but it's also possible it might mention something else, such as something to do with your graphics card drivers or DirectX.

If so, post that log entry here.

[Dekania]

Looks like there was a log entry. It shows

"Faulting application name: sfm.exe, version: 0.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x5459816b
Faulting module name: KERNELBASE.dll, version: 10.0.14393.479, time stamp: 0x58256d37
Exception code: 0xc00000fd
Fault offset: 0x000c92b1
Faulting process id: 0x2640
Faulting application start time: 0x01d29071956d0059
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\SourceFilmmaker\game\sfm.exe
Faulting module path: C:\WINDOWS\System32\KERNELBASE.dll
Report Id: 31bae985-e0ae-45d5-a256-14e5811781c9
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:"

[Dekania]

Another bump

[Marco Skoll]

Before it potentially irks a moderator, I should point out that thread bumping is against community rules. (It's also kind of pointless when your thread is still on the top page).

Anyway - I've seen people report Kernelbase.dll errors before, but unfortunately, I don't know where the detailed WER (Windows Error Reporting) logs are in Windows 10 in order to properly debug it.

The thing is, such an error can relate to corrupted/missing system files, be a side effect of specific updates on your system, come from a conflict with other programs or drivers... there are far too many possibilities to work it out without the logs.

They used to be found at [user profile folder]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportArchive\ (which is exactly where it is on my Windows 7 machine) but I've had several people report that they can't find that folder on Windows 10.

If you can find the WER report folder (or whatever it's now called) with the detailed error logs, then I might be able to help more. You'll probably have to consult Google and hunt around on your machine.
But as I don't have a Windows 10 machine, I can't do a lot of hunting or searching myself to get an idea of where those logs might now be.

[episoder]

that folder exists in windows 10 too. i'm not sure it's writing stuff in there tho. mine is empty. i had a bunch of soft errors already, not alot of criticals i can remember tho. (but offtopic - maybe it doesn't work cause i disabled a bunch of services and the telemetry. mmh.) and...

just btw... is it possible sfm leaves the dmp in the sfm.exe's (game) folder? mine does that sometimes. when it crashes on closing. this kernel error seems to be a system error tho.

and another btw... event viewer 'said' this archived app report files are in 'c:\programdata\microsoft\windows\wer\reportarchive'. you gotta show hidden folder for that. the files (atleast my lil 612k here) are useless for a diagnostic tho. it's just the cheap ui text and some lists of loaded modules. no dmp, no dbg, no nothing for endusers or peops who don't care. minimal waste.

just gotta lovehate that event viewer spam. microsoft apps spam the log. they can't update me anymore. the door is closed and cortana is dead. the system is still searching for the corpse. nothing left of it.

[Dekania]

Originally posted by Marco Skoll:

They used to be found at [user profile folder]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportArchive\

Apologies for the late reply, and for the intentional bump. Past the WER folder is one called ERC. There's nothing in it as well, not even any hidden items.

[Dekania]

So I have some more information. This error happens with any program that requires a specific version of KERNELBASE.dll and ntdll.dll. Some games can run just fine without any error. I suppose downgrading to Windows 8 is available?

[Marco Skoll]

You may have already tried this, but what happens if you try setting SFM to run in compatibility mode for an older version of Windows?

[Dekania]

Originally posted by Marco Skoll:

You may have already tried this, but what happens if you try setting SFM to run in compatibility mode for an older version of Windows?

...Huh, it seems like it was already in compatibility mode. I switched it off, and it actually opened!

[Dekania]

For some odd reason, Steam games will only load if I open them directly through the folder.

[Grababana]

I'm not sure if you'll see this message, but what folder?

[Dekania]

the folder where the data's installed to, opening the exe directly instead of opening it via steam

[hambletonthenoble]

I have the same error code but It does not run in compatibility mode and opening the EXE through the game directory works but it says it needs a connection to steam