Xcom Enemy Unknown/Within not launching

[Mayan Quetzalcoatl]

For months now I have been trying to fix this and still have not succeeded. When I click play Xcom just does not start, no error, no version selection/launcher. Nothing.

Before anyone says it, Yes I verified files, no it did not work.

[jackpelon7]

Hello friend, let's start with the characteristics of your PC or Laptop, it is very important to know this to look for certain incompatibilities or perhaps some drivers or * .dll files are missing.

I will be waiting to help you friend ... see you later ...

[Mayan Quetzalcoatl]

Thanks for the reply, I cant seam to remember how to grab my specifics specs but luckily I do still have a previous post about them. Hopefully this helps

Specs

Computer Information:
Manufacturer: CyberPowerPC
Model: C Series
Form Factor: Desktop
No Touch Input Detected

Processor Information:
CPU Vendor: GenuineIntel
CPU Brand: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-9700F CPU @ 3.00GHz
CPU Family: 0x6
CPU Model: 0x9e
CPU Stepping: 0xd
CPU Type: 0x0
Speed: 3000 Mhz
8 logical processors
8 physical processors
HyperThreading: Unsupported
FCMOV: Supported
SSE2: Supported
SSE3: Supported
SSSE3: Supported
SSE4a: Unsupported
SSE41: Supported
SSE42: Supported
AES: Supported
AVX: Supported
AVX2: Supported
AVX512F: Unsupported
AVX512PF: Unsupported
AVX512ER: Unsupported
AVX512CD: Unsupported
AVX512VNNI: Unsupported
SHA: Unsupported
CMPXCHG16B: Supported
LAHF/SAHF: Supported
PrefetchW: Unsupported

Operating System Version:
Windows 10 (64 bit)
NTFS: Supported
Crypto Provider Codes: Supported 311 0x0 0x0 0x0

Video Card:
Driver: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660
DirectX Driver Name: nvldumd.dll
Driver Version: 26.21.14.3648
DirectX Driver Version: 26.21.14.3648
Driver Date: 9 26 2019
OpenGL Version: 4.6
Desktop Color Depth: 32 bits per pixel
Monitor Refresh Rate: 60 Hz
DirectX Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660
VendorID: 0x10de
DeviceID: 0x2184
Revision: 0xa1
Number of Monitors: 1
Number of Logical Video Cards: 1
No SLI or Crossfire Detected
Primary Display Resolution: 2560 x 1080
Desktop Resolution: 2560 x 1080
Primary Display Size: 27.17" x 11.46" (29.45" diag)
69.0cm x 29.1cm (74.8cm diag)
Primary Bus: PCI Express 16x
Primary VRAM: 6143 MB
Supported MSAA Modes: 2x 4x 8x

Sound card:
Audio device: Sceptre P30 (NVIDIA High Defini

Memory:
RAM: 16300 Mb

VR Hardware:
VR Headset: None detected

Miscellaneous:
UI Language: English
Media Type: Undetermined
Total Hard Disk Space Available: 1181508 Mb
Largest Free Hard Disk Block: 120363 Mb
OS Install Date: Dec 31 1969
Game Controller: None detected
MAC Address hash: 839b3007c9a5479358faa7d6c8c2fe75fa81c0e3
Disk serial number hash: d75ca799

[Mayan Quetzalcoatl]

Also I should note that if I try to launch Xcom directly from the EXE I do get an error.

That being "The application was unable to start correctly (0xc000007b)"

[jackpelon7]

Hello friend, thanks for showing the characteristics of your PC. Well now I can tell you that the game can work well on your PC, so I will give you some solutions.
To solve this error you must do the following:
- Well that error number could be the root of the problem, for which you need to install the C ++ redistributibles that I show you in the image.
That being "The application was unable to start correctly (0xc000007b)"

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/47/f2/c8/47f2c823b888a80a7fe9fe9dae7503cc.jpg

- You must also install directx 9.0 and directx 9.0 sdk I will put the links here.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=6812
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=8109

- Install the StemWorks Common Redistributables and the StemWorks SDK Redist. (These files are redistributive necessary for the games they will help you a lot with the execution of all your games).

Finally friend, it is very possible that now if the game can work with all this. In case it does not work, let me know, I will be pending ...

[Mayan Quetzalcoatl]

Hi thanks for the reply back, Sadly that did not fix the issue. Same problem still.

[Mayan Quetzalcoatl]

I've been doing some more digging on my side and noticed something more strange recently, everytime I try to Verify integrity there is always a missing file or two. Maybe that info might help?

In addition it seams to always be 17.55 mb for the files it tries to download.

[jackpelon7]

I understand then you must uninstall the game, once that is done, enter regedit and delete all the instructions that refer to xcom. Once the regedit is clean, restart your PC and reinstall the game that fixes that problem friend ...

On the other hand, your STEAM must be installed in another unit, for example unit D: / or E: /. The C: / drive is generally for the operating system and programs and sometimes you have to have administrator privileges to replace and download files there.

Once you install STEAM on another drive proceed to install the game on the same drive where you installed STEAM, for example: drive D: /, E: /, or F: /. To avoid administrator permissions and that the windows firework or your antivirus block game files.

It happened to me and I solved it by installing the game and STEAM in another unit. I'll be watching friend ...

[Mayan Quetzalcoatl]

Sadly even after deleting all associated files and moving steam and xcom nothing has changed. I have a feeling my PC is just cursed to not play Enemy Within/Unknown.

I appreciate the help either way.

[jackpelon7]

I don't think so because your PC is good, if you follow my steps that I recommend I think so, bear with him ... I play it even in core 2 duo with a video card from those years hahahahaha, really just friend Follow the instructions I gave you and it will work, and if you can record a video, upload it to YouTube and pass your link to see that it really does not work ... hahahahaha

My friend, you will achieve it with a lot of patience, do not forget to enter the "regedit" and delete the xcom instructions.
Also don't forget to disable or uninstall your antivirus for a while, while doing the tests ...

In the worst case once I formatted my laptop and installed everything again. From c ++ redistributibles to net framework, I know you will make it ... patience patience patience ... ...

[AnneFrankFanfiction]

Yeah, if somebody starts out by asking whether your system meets the game's requirements they probably have no idea how to help.

I and several other people have had this issue and managed to resolve it by verifying the integrity of the files; it always seems to be two files that are the culprits. I wish Steam would give us the option of seeing exactly which files they are because it would be a big help in cases like these where a game has a persistent issue like this one, and where verifying file integrity doesn't seem to help everyone.

So you've tried verifying and you've tried reinstalling. It seems like, for whatever reason, Steam just isn't grabbing these files for you the way it's supposed to, or isn't retaining them properly. I have no idea how to help with that but it's at least a clue as to what direction you should be looking in.

Sometimes during the installation step, Steam will, for mystical reasons not apparent to anyone, delete files that are in the game's folder, usually .dll files. One thing maybe you can try is to do a fresh installation of the game, then backup the folder to another location (minus the .exe), then try to launch the game at its normal location. Let Steam go through its installation process, then if (or when) it fails to run, compare the folder to the back-up to see if anything is missing. That would at least get you more information.

[Mayan Quetzalcoatl]

Thanks for the advice. I’ll try it out and see if it works. If all else fails I’ll probably have to deal with gog or the console ports, or worst ios port.

[Mayan Quetzalcoatl]

Sadly nothing seams to work, I think its just gg there mates. Thanks for the help though.

For anyone else having the same issues, There is most likely no way to fix it.

[red255]

theres probably a way to fix it, but its really a job for tech support.

I could likely do something if I was at your PC, did it run on your machine before?

[Mayan Quetzalcoatl]

Not this one no, my old ass laptop somehow yes

[jackpelon7]

Hello friend, I'm sorry about what happens. The game should load on your PC, since you meet more than the minimum requirements. Something must be wrong, could you tell us everything you have tried? ...

You keep getting the error: "The application was unable to start correctly (0xc000007b)".

That was because you were missing * .dll files from c ++ and Directx 9.0.

As for the rest, could you tell us what appears when you start xcom now? ...

- Did you try deleting the Binaries folders? D: \ STEAM \ steamapps \ common \ XCom-Enemy-Unknown \ XEW
Y
D: \ STEAM \ steamapps \ common \ XCom-Enemy-Unknown \

When you delete them, do a local file verification with steam and everything will be downloaded again in order and test the game in this way.

It's honestly too weird for this to happen to you ...

- I forgot in the following path: D: \ Documents \ my games
There are some folders: XCOM - Enemy Within and XCOM - Enemy Unknown, these files contain a "log" file, for now also delete those folders so that they are recreated again when you start the game ...

Tell us how it went ... I will continue to listen to what you tell us ...