Game Won't even start

[Donothan73]

When I hit the launch button, after a few seconds, the exe starts, but nothing is shown, and then it closes. I own the original Portal on steam, I have a supported RTX card. I've reinstalled the game, and verified the game file's integrity. Can anyone help?

[🦊Λℚ𝓤ΛƑΛᗯҜᔕ🦊]

The most common reason for this is either you do not have an RTX video card, or you have old drivers. You must have Nvidia drivers 527.56 or newer or the game will not start.

Did you read the system requirements on the steam store page and check to make sure your computer meets or exceeds the requirements posted?

[Marceloid]

Originally posted by Aquafawks:

The most common reason for this is either you do not have an RTX video card, or you have old drivers. You must have Nvidia drivers 527.56 or newer or the game will not start.

I second this advice - If you are sure your game files and system specs are fine, then definitely manually update your drivers.

"Only" one-month-old drivers got me stuck in the main menu, but updating them fixed the issue for me - I guess all the bleeding edge tech Portal RTX uses is ever-changing and still susceptible to hickups, so having your drivers up-to-date when using it is a must.

[🦊Λℚ𝓤ΛƑΛᗯҜᔕ🦊]

Originally posted by Marceloid:

I second this advice - If you are sure your game files and system specs are fine, then definitely manually update your drivers.

"Only" one-month-old drivers got me stuck in the main menu, but updating them fixed the issue for me - I guess all the bleeding edge tech Portal RTX uses is ever-changing and still susceptible to hickups, so having your drivers up-to-date when using it is a must.

I am assuming here but I think the developers also assumed that everyone always keeps their video drivers up to date on the latest version either automatically through windows update or by installing the "Nvidia GeForce Experience" optional add-in program that notifies us of new driver versions. The developers for this game do not state anywhere in any system requirements or on the game's store page or anything about needing any driver version. And yet it is a requirement. I had older drivers and I had this same issue: The game would not start at all. Click button in steam -> Nothing. Game appeared to be "running" for a few seconds then steam just gave me the "Start" green button again with no indication as to what happened. I came to the forums and searched the forums for "Game won't start" and found multiple threads telling others about the driver version. So I went to download the new driver (527.56) manually, install it, and suddenly viola -> Game starts, runs, and plays normally. So that most definitely is a requirement. Even if the developer doesn't tell us that it's needed.

[Donothan73]

I have a 2060 Founders Edition, with the most recent drivers. I was able to play it for a while, recently when I tried playing it is when it didn't work

[Donothan73]

But like the application doesn't really even open, it's on the task bar but not visible and then immediately closes

[Donothan73]

No errors or anything

[ilvor]

Just uninstall gfx driver using DDU and then clean install again

[🦊Λℚ𝓤ΛƑΛᗯҜᔕ🦊]

Originally posted by ilvor:

Just uninstall gfx driver using DDU and then clean install again

That was not necessary at all. They resolved it themselves just by re-installing the game (not the driver) in another thread.

See their other thread and the solution over here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/2012840/discussions/0/3821907263108509508/

[Grem]

Game doesn't start just updated my drivers yesterday
I have a GEFORCE RTX 4060 graphics card

[Shaggin'Wagon]

Originally posted by Grem:

Game doesn't start just updated my drivers yesterday
I have a GEFORCE RTX 4060 graphics card

Try disabling frame generation then try this again. FG is known to be bugged with this game and causes crashes, errors, instability, and poor performance.

[Поліція]

Game doesnt start. Have RTX 3070, R7 5800H, 32 Gb RAM. Drivers are updated. Nothing helped.

[ѮCave Johnson™]

Where the hell does this POS garbage game programmed by a baboon keep it's settings file? I touched the settings you're apparently not supposed to touch (yet they still let you because they have ZERO GREY MATTER) and now this game won't even launch, and reinstalling it doesn't remove whatever setting I changed.

[🦊Λℚ𝓤ΛƑΛᗯҜᔕ🦊]

Originally posted by ѮAgent 1™:

Where the hell does this POS garbage game programmed by a baboon keep it's settings file? I touched the settings you're apparently not supposed to touch (yet they still let you because they have ZERO GREY MATTER) and now this game won't even launch, and reinstalling it doesn't remove whatever setting I changed.

Are you uninstalled it did you go to the game's folder under steam and erase the game's folder? Sometimes Steam leaves some files behind after we "uninstall" games.

Also just refer to the PCGW website for this game. Everyone should always look there for all games. It usually has the information you want.

Configuration file(s) location • Link
System Location
Steam <path-to-game>\portal\cfg\
Windows HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Valve\Source\portal\Settings

https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Portal

Also according to PCGW your game settings will sync with the steam cloud so you'll need to turn that off to reset graphics settings.

[SiLenCe]

Type -vulkan on your game launch options. That fixed it for me.

PS: Now I have graphical bugs all over the place. So this is not a solution for me.

[illusdidi]

For me disabling Nvidia Share fixed it.