Can't launch game

[StepwisePilot]

Ok, so I recently reinstalled the game to play it again. However, when I try to open it, it won't launch. The launcher won't show up or anything. Steam saying I'm in game, but I'm not. The worst part is, since steam thinks I'm actually in-game, I can't launch any other game either. Task manager doesn't help, as it doesn't show morrowind as running, nor as a currently active process.

I've tried verifying the game file. I've tried restarting. I've tried restarting steam I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling. I can't get the game to work at all. Also, the only solution I've found to getting steam to not think I'm currently in game is to restart the computer.

I'm stumped. Is there any advice?


EDIT: I forgot to update this, but I found a way to make it work. I just ended up uninstalling steam itself, and then reinstalling it. Then I reinstalled Morrowind, and it finally worked. A bit drastic I'll admit, but I guess it means the problem wasn't with the game, but rather somewhere within steam.

[mr.hemman; bedsh*ttin battletoad]

Same issue...open up task manager and look for a proccess called "rundll32" something something, and end that process. That will make it so it "closes" the game according to steam. To make it run i have to open the launcher once, then a few seconds later open it again. So essentially you're double opening the launcher a few seconds apart, and for me this makes it when i hit play it actually loads. I get the same issue with oblivion too. Not sure why, but this works for me.

[StepwisePilot]

Thanks. I'll try that later.

[StepwisePilot]

Ok, so sadly that didn't work. :/

I'll just look around and see if I still have my old discs perhaps.

[meheezen]

Originally posted by StepwisePilot:

I'm stumped. Is there any advice?

add Steam.exe and the game executables to your anti-virus/malware "trusted" list.

Steam uses "rundll32.exe" to load a DLL that tracks "playing time" for older games, but since modern anti-malwares see that as a treat, it fails to "attach" the DLL to the correct process, and never gets "unloaded" when you close the game


once done, restart your computer (or kill all rundll32.exe processes on task manager)

[Teralitha]

Try running as admin

[kzombified]

Teralitha said it - I had the same problem. After restart, go into the steam directory and find the .exe files for Morrowind and Morrowind Launcher. Enable compatibility mode and run as admin for both. Worked for me!

[Bou]

What worked for me: Enable compatibility mode Windows XP service pack 3. Select both the Morrowind Launcher and Morrowind.exe by holding CTRL + left mouse click. Once both are selected right click on one of them and run as admin.