SFM crash on start (Like others)

[SolHakuuuuuu]

I'm the same as everyone, but I actually looked before crying.

My CPU can run SFM fine, I've used this PC for over 4 years with SFM and it recently started causing this issue in the beginning of this year. (I'll post my specs lower, the graphics card is quite old, but can run SFM and other fps games at a "good" 60 fps)

The only suitable "cure" that I have found to be effective so far is the "fastprox.dll to fastprox.dllold" method, which isn't a good cure due to fastprox.dll being a WMI file, and seemingly enough all WMI files are important. Having this file missing or disabled will cause some issues in the long term.
I do believe that the reason why I am running into the issue again is that when I went to process another issue of my PC not updating properly (a non SFM related case) I ran "SFC /SCANNOW" which reinserted "fastprox.dll" from where I had changed "fastprox.dllold". So I know that much.

However the current issue stands, and from what I've seen on the discussion boards it seems that there's some conflicts to the fastprox.dll's that cause SFM (and other source games) to crash on start, but as most of us are searching for, is a way to prevent the crash and move on with our SFM careers/hobbies.

What I have done is:

verified/checked SFM cache
uninstalled and reinstalled SFM (not willing to do that again)
winmgmt commands
error log checks and updates
fastprox.dll to fastprox.dllold - The only nessesary evil that I have taken into consideration to work.

If you have some other solution besides these I'm open to discuss about it.
Not calling you out or anything (even though I am), but Marco Skoll seems to be the "expert" about this issue from what I've seen. So if you could add in some help feel free to do so.

Specs

Edition: Win10 Pro (Upgrade from Win7)
Processor: Intel Core i7 CPU 920 @2.6GHz
RAM: 12.0 GB
System type: 64-bit Sys, x64 processor
Graphics card: GTX 560 Ti It's old

If you need anything else specs wise. I'll edit this post.

[Pte Jack]

I have a computer where SFM will not run unless I give Steam Administrator statis. (Probably the result of copiying Steam from one machine to another to avoid over 100gbs of downloads.)

But, have you tried...

Close Steam Completely.

Go to the win\program files (x86)\Steam folder.

Right Click Steam.exe

Select Run as Administrator.

Try SFM again.

[Marco Skoll]

Unfortunately, I can't really call myself an expert here.

I know fixes that have worked for some people, but unfortunately it seems to be a problem that can be caused in multiple ways, and troubleshooting solutions we don't yet know about is a massive pain in the butt to do one post at a time over an internet forum. (It would be a much easier problem were I directly sat in front of a problem PC and had a few hours to root through error logs and system files).

But I am slowly trying to see if I can join the dots between different users to see what the problems have in common, in the hope that a solution might eventually become clear.

- Can you check the Event Viewer to see exactly what the faulting module is when you're attempting to launch SFM? (I'm expecting shaderapidx9.dll, but it should be checked)

- What does dxdiag.exe say about your processor?
(In a lot of the cases of this problem we can't yet resolve, it's coming up as "N/A". If it's not, then we may have a new variant of this problem).

- What non-Windows background processes are you running?
We're talking anything like Discord, Razer Cortex, Avast, Malwarebytes - particularly anything that might be interfering with SFM by trying to screengrab it, allocate it more resources, virus check it or the like.

- What make is your motherboard?
(If it's a prebuilt computer, such as Dell, HP, etc, it's enough to know that).

[SolHakuuuuuu]

- It is shaderapidx9.dll
- DirectX12
- Discord (with BetterDiscord Plugin, please do not debate about BD), Malwarebytes.
- It's a custom build... so I'm not sure without taking it apart.

[Pte Jack]

Discord has known issues with SFM (though I have not run into any with it on my Win10 machines.) Turn it off and don't let it start with Windows Start.
Try SFM once the process doesn't exist.

Debate or not, if that is the issue, it has to be fixed.

[Marco Skoll]

Publicado originalmente por Ｔ | Ｅ | Ｔ | Ｏ :

- DirectX12

That's not what I meant. To rephrase, what specific CPU does the dxdiag.exe application show that you have?

(I know you've already listed your CPU, but it is important to know specifically what CPU dxdiag.exe thinks you have).

- Discord (with BetterDiscord Plugin, please do not debate about BD), Malwarebytes.

I'd agree with Pte Jack. We need to try without Discord running.

- It's a custom build... so I'm not sure without taking it apart.

That's still informative. One of my things to rule out is whether this is in anyway tied to a specific manufacturer's drivers.

It's unlikely, and that answer makes it more unlikely, but I'm still trying to work out how many pieces there are in this jigsaw puzzle.

[SolHakuuuuuu]

Is the "DxDiag 10.00.16299.0015 64-bit unicode" what you need?

[Pte Jack]

I suspect that the issues started around the same time you installed and started running Discord! Have you tried turning it off and use SFM yet?

(or am I just being ignored here, cause I have other things to do if I am.)

[SolHakuuuuuu]

No, you're not, I'm just half assing things because some of my friends wanted to do some CSGO.

Running Steam and SFM as admin didn't help either.

As for right now, it's not affected by discord.

edit: And you don't have to help if you don't want to, it's just better this way so we can at least dive into the issue, or give advice for others seeking to solve the same issue

[Marco Skoll]

On the main "System" page after you run dxdiag.exe from the Start menu, one of the categories should be "Processor".

For you, it should say "Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-920 CPU @ 2.6 GHz (8 CPUs)" (or something close), but for a lot of people who have this problem, it will instead say something like "N/A (8 CPUs)".

As dxdiag being unable to ID the CPU is a common enough correlation with this problem, one of my current theories is that the two problems are somehow linked and the error is specifically within the DirectX installation rather than other Windows files, but if your system says something different, then you either have a different problem or it blows my theory out of the water.

[SolHakuuuuuu]

Well to follow, it does say what the processor is:

Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 920 @2.67GHz (8 CPUs)

But I can garuntee it's most likely a .dll file issue, if that.

[Marco Skoll]

Right. I'll need to do some more research then, as that's not what I was expecting.

(It will however have to wait, as it is already stupid o'clock and I should be in bed).

[Pte Jack]

Quick question here, when is the last time you checked or cleaned your registries? (program like cclean or some other "reliable" registry cleaner) There could be a residual process hanging around in the registry from something you've installed or uninstalled that is causing the problem.

[SolHakuuuuuu]

I think the last time i cleaned my registries was two days ago, there had been a persistant issue with another program on my pc.

But before then it has been a while.

edit: and no, nothing came up

[Pte Jack]

Dag nab it. I'm going to assume you've taken control (ownership) of the fastprox.dll like in the tutorials, correct?

I never recommend taking exculsive control of a Windows System file. It only opens things up for problems like this.
I see that you done the SFC /SCANNOW process (which always fails and hasn't worked properly since XP was replaced with Windows Vista.)

But there is another windows command that will rebuild broken or corrupted system files (which I can never remember the name of off the top of my head, you'll have to google it.) It pulls from the windows CAB files and actually replaces the corrupted files. But the process only works in a safe mode despite the techno garble you get from the Windows Technicians on the Ask Microsoft webpage.

Windows has gotten so hard to repair since Windows7, which is why I stay away from recommending anything to do with registries and repairing system files. Microsoft has taken extreme measures to ensure that USERS can't do much other than a Clean install to fix things and I absolutely Hate that. 90% of the MS recommended procedures to fix something fail because of system protections now and try to find some of the of PowerUser tools I used to use is almost impossible; they're buried so deep behind cryptic command line calls.

Other than what Marco has suggested, I'm out of ideas.

[SolHakuuuuuu]

Yeah, I've just now realized that Windows is a piece of ♥♥♥♥ somedays and requires constant care and knowledge of what you have to do before you break it, just in general.

Thanks for helping, even if it's just a little.