Launcher won't start after graphics driver update

[Ulon]

Very weird. Varifying game integrity, deleting all mods and other regular methods did not help.

[Laladen]

There are a lot of things here, please try them all!

Also if something works for you, please reply back to this thread stating what worked.

Some have reported the latest Nvidia drivers are causing some issues. Roll your drivers back a few versions and try that. Source[forum.paradoxplaza.com]

Evolve and MSI Gaming App are known to cause problems. Deactivate them when you want to play the game if the are installed on your computer.

Kaspersky Anti-Virus gets a false positive on the EU4.exe. If your game suddenly closes without any warning and won't launch, you need to add an exception in the AV exception list for the EU4 folder and then verify the game cache for steam to re-download the exe file.


Do you have any other Paradox games? Try and start one of those. If you experience the same issue, it's likely your C++ libraries. For these you can try reinstalling the libraries. If that doesn't work, install Adobe Reader DC from adobe.com. It seems to be fixing a registry problem with the C++ libraries that Windows is having.

Please go to C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Europa Universalis IV\_CommonRedist\DirectX\Jun2010\ and run dxsetup.exe
Please go to C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Europa Universalis IV\_CommonRedistvcredist\2010\ and run vcredist.exe and vcredist_x64.exe
Please go to C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Europa Universalis IV\DotNet\4.0 Client Profile\ and run dotNetFx40_Client_x86_x64.exe

If those do not work. Please try a clean install using the directions below.

Manually delete the personal EU4 directory (see step 3a below) and afterwards verify the game in Steam.

If that doesn't fix the problem try a clean reinstall, i.e. all of the following and in that order:
0) unsubscribe from all mods (Favoite them first so they are easy to find and re-subscribe afterwards)
1) delete the game's local content in Steam (i.e. uninstall the game)
2) exit Steam
3a) manually delete your personal EU4 directory---its path depends on the OS:
(Note: You might want to make a backup of the local savegames in there before doing that!)
- [Windows] \Users\<username>\Documents\Paradox Interactive\Europa Universalis IV\
- [macOS] /Users/<username>/Documents/Paradox Interactive/Europa Universalis IV/
- [GNU/Linux] /home/<username>/.local/share/Paradox\ Interactive/Europa\ Universalis\ IV/
3b) manually delete your EU4 Steam directory (if it still exists...)---its path depends on the OS:
- [Windows 64bit] C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\Steamapps\Common\Europa Universalis IV\
- [Windows 32bit] C:\Program Files\Steam\Steamapps\Common\Europa Universalis IV\
- [macOS] /Users/<username>/Library/Application Support/Steam/SteamApps/common/Europa Universalis IV/ (hidden on macOS 10.7+; this[www.macworld.com] might be helpful)
- [GNU/Linux] /home/<username>/.steam/steam/steamapps/common/Europa\ Universalis\ IV/
4) restart Steam
5) reinstall the game
6) verify the game


IF THIS DOES NOT WORK THEN:


I would create a thread on the Paradox EU4 technical support forums: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?forums/euiv-technical-support.812/

Please do the following first however:

Before doing anything else check out this thread[forum.paradoxplaza.com] and the Known Issues and Solutions thread[forum.paradoxplaza.com] for common problems.

Then search their forum to see if anyone already reported the issue (and maybe got a solution as well). Do this by clicking "Search Forum" in the top right of your screen and search for your error message or description of the problem (see point 2).
But do not hijack someone else's thread unless you are 100% sure your problem is identical to theirs! If in doubt always start you own fresh thread with full problem and system details.

Use proper naming of your thread! A thread name should provide a brief description of the issue. If you can fit your platform and/or an error message in there it's even better.

• Example of bad thread name: "HELP PLEASE!"
  
• Example of a good thread name: "[Windows 7] Freeze on initializing map logic"​

Provide proper information on what you were doing when the problem occurred. Quote any error messages you receive, attach crash logs and provide a screenshot if possible. Anything you can to explain what exactly is the problem.

Provide a specification of your system. See the bottom of this post[forum.paradoxplaza.com] how to obtain a dxdiag log (assuming your on Windows)

Provide the logs associated with the particular issue you are having found in "...\Documents\Paradox Interactive\Europa Universalis IV\logs\"

[Ulon]

Wow... Thank you. I will try these measures tomorrow and write you again.

[mischa.zehnbauer]

I had the same problem two days before. Since I changed several things I can't pinpoint it, but start with your drivers. If the game worked before the update but doesn't afterwards, that's a highly probable answer. For me the october build is fine.

[Ulon]

I just noticed there was another new update for the NVIDIA driver. I installed it, bt the game still does not start. I will try to load an older driver tomorrow and then try the other points in the list above if it still does not work.

[lukas]

If you have a Intel CPU with an integrated GPU (pretty much all Intel CPUs have one nowadays) and an Nvidia card make sure to revert to a Nvidia driver from October or earlier. (If that fixes your problem do me a favor and write to Nvidia that the have to fix their drivers.)

[Ulon]

I just tried to start the game with older NVIDIA drivers active. Still doesn't work.

I have no problems with any other Paradox games.

[lukas]

What do you mean by 'older'? If they are from November or December they won't work.

[Ulon]

Really? My game still worked a few weeks ago...

[lukas]

Yeah, according to Paradox' Support only the drivers from October and earlier work (and the problem only affects EU4, no other games from PDS).

[Ulon]

I did not discover any official Paradox statement. Well, I will install the October driver via the Hardware-Manager next as soon as I reinstalled the game.

[Nex]

I seem to have a similar problem, can't get the launcher to work at all. It'll show that it's running momentarily then vanish yet it works perfectly fine on a beta build like 1.10 or any other old one. Not sure if that'd mean it'd be graphics related.

[lukas]

引用自 ULON：

I did not discover any official Paradox statement. Well, I will install the October driver via the Hardware-Manager next as soon as I reinstalled the game.

If you have a synced[forum.paradoxplaza.com] Paradoxplaza account you can read more about it in the source that Fedaykin provided (if you don't have a synced Paradoxplaza account you won't be able to access that thread).

@emo: Read Fedaykin's post above.

[Ulon]

So... I tried installing october driver a few times over the hardware manager and it did never work out. I downloaded the driver seperately and installed it that way. The installer claimed however that the installation of the "Update Core" failed (maybe because it was already installed idk) while the driver installation suceeded. The hardware manager now says the driver would be from november for some reason (it definitely is the october one) but that's not a big deal.

I also had reinstalled the game before that, but it still did not work.
Now it does.

I can run the game, the launcher opens and I can play.

[Ulon]

Thanks for helping me out all of you guys.

[Nex]

Just reverted back to an october build of Nvidia graphics and it finally runs. neat but confusing.