Payday 2 crashes before even starting

[ThatGamerGuy]

As the title says, clicking on "Play" in steam makes the button turn blue and say "launching" on the side but after a few seconds it goes back to "Play". I opened task manger and saw that the process comes up, stays for a few seconds and closes automatically.

I've tried running in Windows 7 compatibility mode, running as admin, disabling full screen optimisations, verifying file integrity, updating drivers, restarting my laptop and checking for the render_settings file (it doesn't exist). Also tried putting "dx12" in launch options and disabling all overlay programs, including Steam overlay and Xbox Game Bar, but even though AWCC (Alienware Command Centre) isn't actively running, it has some background processes that keep running, and reopen immediately if I close them from task manager. Not sure if this could be causing an issue.

Nothing helped so far, can someone please suggest what I can do next?

EDIT - Not using any mods whatsoever. Also, I had a copy of the game on Epic Games Store (claimed free), and that one works :)

No clue at this point what the issue is, but it's not present in the EGS version, only Steam. Is there any way to raise this to the devs?

Specs - i9 13900HX
RTX 4070 Laptop GPU
32 GB RAM
Windows 11 with latest updates


EDIT 2 - Posting crash log after using steamMM launch argument. Previous crash logs would all just say "cannot fetch call stack: and show the current thread as "Main". Well at least there's some change now.


Sun Jul 23 23:37:27 2023


Application has crashed: access violation

-------------------------------

Callstack:

d3d9 (???) Ordinal23
d3d9 (???) Ordinal23
d3d9 (???) ???
d3d9 (???) Ordinal23
d3d9 (???) Ordinal23
gameoverlayrenderer (???) OverlayHookD3D3
payday2_win32_release (???) ???
payday2_win32_release (???) ???
payday2_win32_release (???) ???
payday2_win32_release (???) ???
payday2_win32_release (???) ???
payday2_win32_release (???) ???
payday2_win32_release (???) ???
payday2_win32_release (???) ???
payday2_win32_release (???) zip_error_code_system
payday2_win32_release (???) zip_error_code_system
KERNEL32 (???) BaseThreadInitThunk
ntdll (???) RtlInitializeExceptionChain
ntdll (???) RtlClearBits


-------------------------------

Current thread: Renderer

-------------------------------

System information:
Application version : 1.141.213
CPU : 13th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-13900HX (16 cores); SSE; SSE2; SSE3; SSSE3; SSE4.1; SSE4.2
DirectX : 12.0
GPU : NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPU / nvldumd.dll[31.0.15.3667]
Language : english
Memory : 32452MB 720KB
OS : 6.2.9200 () 0x300-0x1 (64 bits)
Physics : threaded
Renderer : DX9 threaded
Sound : Realtek Semiconductor Corp. (Headphones (Realtek(R) Audio))

[Guinea Pig Lover]

If youve used mods you have to delete all of them, including wsock, and reinstall superblt and beardlib

[tesha]

i got same issue first download today and not working

[Mewo]

Remove your mods. No other way to solve it sadly, move your mods to a diffrent place and slowly add them back to see which one is causing the crash.

[ThatGamerGuy]

Originally posted by Ei_Chihuahua:

If youve used mods you have to delete all of them, including wsock, and reinstall superblt and beardlib

I edited my post to address this, but I've not modded the game at all. It's as vanilla as can be.

[ThatGamerGuy]

Originally posted by Mewo:

Remove your mods. No other way to solve it sadly, move your mods to a diffrent place and slowly add them back to see which one is causing the crash.

Don't have any. Vanilla game, just wanted to play with friends

[ヤクザファン]

As I understand you, I have already tried all the fixes, removed and added dll, looked for a problem in the files and nothing. It seems to me that this is the problem of the developers themselves due to the connection of the game to EGS

[Blockhead]

If you attempt to run the game's exe file from the game folder, in Admin mode, does it give you an error code?

Maybe this will help:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/218620/discussions/14/3809529155528539104/#c3809529155528943652

Or:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/218620/discussions/8/3809529155535757703/#c3809529155535808253

Or perhaps this:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/218620/discussions/8/3809529155537137293/

[Clip]

Originally posted by Blockhead:

If you attempt to run the game's exe file from the game folder, in Admin mode, does it give you an error code?

Maybe this will help:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/218620/discussions/14/3809529155528539104/#c3809529155528943652

Or:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/218620/discussions/8/3809529155535757703/#c3809529155535808253

Or perhaps this:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/218620/discussions/8/3809529155537137293/

first solution worked for me even though its dumb as hell

[ThatGamerGuy]

Originally posted by Clip:

Originally posted by Blockhead:

If you attempt to run the game's exe file from the game folder, in Admin mode, does it give you an error code?

Maybe this will help:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/218620/discussions/14/3809529155528539104/#c3809529155528943652

Or:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/218620/discussions/8/3809529155535757703/#c3809529155535808253

Or perhaps this:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/218620/discussions/8/3809529155537137293/

first solution worked for me even though its dumb as hell

I was trying to follow those steps and just had one question, when I selected Windows 98/95 compatibility mode, do I click apply and then launch the exe? And after the program is launched and starting in the background, when unchecking those options, do I again click apply after unchecking or not?

[ThatGamerGuy]

Originally posted by Blockhead:

If you attempt to run the game's exe file from the game folder, in Admin mode, does it give you an error code?

Maybe this will help:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/218620/discussions/14/3809529155528539104/#c3809529155528943652

Or:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/218620/discussions/8/3809529155535757703/#c3809529155535808253

Or perhaps this:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/218620/discussions/8/3809529155537137293/

the first one maybe I'm not doing properly (see reply to Clip), but it's not working at the moment.

The second and third one definitely don't work for me, even with slow a$$ internet I re-downloaded the game to another folder but it did nothing. Same with "steamMM" as a launch argument.

[Blockhead]

Yes, you need to click Apply or the changes aren't registered.

[evicted single mother of 3]

did you get anything to work? im having the same issues.

[Blockhead]

Didn't see your edit in your first post:

d3d9 (???) Ordinal23
d3d9 (???) Ordinal23
d3d9 (???) ???
d3d9 (???) Ordinal23
d3d9 (???) Ordinal23
gameoverlayrenderer (???) OverlayHookD3D3

This could be a problem with Direct X, or it could be a problem with an Overlay that's currently active (the game hates Overlays).

To check, you should have one Direct X dll file in your Payday 2 game folder, and it should be called: D3DX9_40.dll

If you have any additional D3DX9 dll files, delete them.

[ThatGamerGuy]

Originally posted by Blockhead:

Didn't see your edit in your first post:

d3d9 (???) Ordinal23
d3d9 (???) Ordinal23
d3d9 (???) ???
d3d9 (???) Ordinal23
d3d9 (???) Ordinal23
gameoverlayrenderer (???) OverlayHookD3D3

This could be a problem with Direct X, or it could be a problem with an Overlay that's currently active (the game hates Overlays).

To check, you should have one Direct X dll file in your Payday 2 game folder, and it should be called: D3DX9_40.dll

If you have any additional D3DX9 dll files, delete them.

I do see the dll you mentioned, and not any others.

As for overlays, I closed/turned off all the ones I could (discord, steam, Afterburner) and the only thing running is AWCC but I doubt that would cause issues because playing the EGS version of the game I can see that there is a dedicated option in game settings to enable AlienFX, which means Alienware overlays/drivers are well integrated into the game. AlienFX does not run without AWCC so both must be supported.

[ThatGamerGuy]

Originally posted by Blockhead:

Yes, you need to click Apply or the changes aren't registered.

Tried with this method but still no luck. I'm getting kinda tired at this point *sigh*

It should not take this much troubleshooting to get a game to even start.