Crash on startup

[Brolaire of Astora]

Whenever I launch this game it boots to a black screen and crashes immediately.
I reinstalled the whole thing, verified the game cache and looked for answers on the forum, where the only dev response is "please send us your dxdiag".
What's going on here? I thought this game came out 2 years ago?

[3phemeral]

Hey there - sorry for the trouble!

There are a few things you can check to see if you can any other programs running that may be conflicting with the game. This is a recent occurrence that we're actively investigating the cause but it's been difficult to pinpoint.

First, check to see if you have RivaTuner or MSI Afterburner. For some reason, having one or both of those running can sometimes cause the game to error out. This usually has an affect on users who have windows 7 or 8.

Second, if you head directly to the game's exe:

Go to where ShovelKnight.exe is located (c:\program files (x86)\steam\steamapps\common\shovel knight\)

Make sure Steam is closed completely. Then run the exe file. If it takes you to a dr dump page, please email the link to:

[e-mail]


Lastly, return back to the location for Shovel Knight's exe. Then:

Right click on ShovelKnight.exe
Select the "compatibility" tab
Near the bottom of the window, select "Run this program as administrator"
There seems to be a memory conflict occurring that we're investigating but this method allows the game to run.

Let me know what if running it as admin works out for you. This is a temporary solution until we can figure out the source of the error. Also, I look forward to you sending that link so we can get a better analysis of what's going on!

[pheNOM]

I tried that solution and it did not work. :-\

[3phemeral]

Originally posted by HxCDuckSauce:

I tried that solution and it did not work. :-\

Which solution? Did you try this one?

Right click on ShovelKnight.exe
Select the "compatibility" tab
Near the bottom of the window, select "Run this program as administrator"
There seems to be a memory conflict occurring that we're investigating but this method allows the game to run.

[pheNOM]

I've already tried that. unfortunately, it didn't do anything. When I run it locally, without steam, it runs, but it doesn't sync to steam, obviously. So, I can't use my saved data and achievements.

[3phemeral]

Try keeping the game "Run as Admin" enabled.

Then log out of Steam, reboot and log back into Steam. There was another user that experienced this same issue but only logging out/rebooting seemed to actually allow this process to work.

[pheNOM]

Ok, I'll give it a shot and comment back if it helped! I've still been trying to mess with it here and there with no luck, keeping Run as Admin, even trying compatibility mode and other things...the only way it works is locally, without running through steam, but I can't load my save game from Steam and I have a lot of time from Steam...so, I'll comment back!

[3phemeral]

Originally posted by HxCDuckSauce:

Ok, I'll give it a shot and comment back if it helped! I've still been trying to mess with it here and there with no luck, keeping Run as Admin, even trying compatibility mode and other things...the only way it works is locally, without running through steam, but I can't load my save game from Steam and I have a lot of time from Steam...so, I'll comment back!

Yeah, it seems Steam is doing something different because I believe most people with this issue have all said it runs if you just run the exe by itself without Steam running. You wouldn't need to "Run as admin" if you're just running the exe by itself. I have some suspicions as to what's causing it but I need to verify it.

For the most part, "Run as admin" has been a way to circumvent this problem for most. I think I've only spoken to one person who's needed to reboot and logout/login to Steam before it took effect.

Let me know if doing so fixes it as I hope it does!

[pheNOM]

Yeah, the solution didn't work :-\ The logging out and back in one that you suggested.

[Imiduno]

It's the same thing with me... Like DuckSauce, the game keeps crashing when I launch it from Steam (even with "Run as admin"). But it works from the game folder. The problem is that we can't use the steam community when we're playing nor the screenshot tool, nor the cloud save nor... :(
I've closed every software with an overlay, i've close every software i could, but nothing changed.

[3phemeral]

Do either of you mind providing a dxdiag and setting it to [e-mail] ? Additionally, it would be helpful if you could provide a list of running processes that may be conflicting with the game during runtime.

For DXdiag:
On Windows, the best way to get us this information is with the DxDiag utility. To run the utility press WindowsKey+r, type dxdiag, and hit enter. Once open, click "Save All Information". Either attach the generated text file to the email, or copy and paste the contents into the email itself.


For processes:
To make a list of your running programs, perform the following and attach it to your reply:

On the root of your C drive, create a new folder and name it "YCG". Open your Command Prompt by searching for cmd. Once open, copy/paste the following line (all of it):

tasklist > "C:\YCG\ProcessList.txt"

Press enter and then navigate to the folder you created. There should be a new text document there. Attach it to the email and I'll be able to see what running process may potentially be causing this (at the very least, it will help me compile a list of programs that I can compare to other users experiencing the same issue).

[Imiduno]

Thank you Ephemeral, I've send an email to [e-mail] with these informations.
I hope it will be useful. :-)

[3phemeral]

Another thing I wanted to add:

With these memory access violations, there's usually a program associated with these errors that are causing a memory conflict. This is why run as admin is a temporary solution to this problem.

Is there any app that you installed recently which uses an overlay?

If you head into your Program Installation/Uninstall settings in Windows and you arrange them by date installed, is there something that stands out that may be acting as an overlay or controlling an audio/video process in the background?

Applications that we've found that cause this are RivaTuner and MSI Afterburner. Those are usually the applications that cause it and uninstalling them will correct the error. However, there have been other applications, like Xonar Soundcard.

These are typically difficult to diagnose as they can be a variety of programs that have similar types of access.

If there's anything you have installed recently that circumvents your systems default controls over hardware like sound or graphics, try uninstalling or disabling them completely to see if it resolves anything.

If you you discover the source of this problem, please reply back.

[3phemeral]

Update!

Can everyone check their Task manager by pressing Ctrl+alt+del and checking to see if they have a process called taskhostw.exe

If so, end the process and see if you can run the game?

[pheNOM]

I do not have that :(

[RMS-099 Rick Dias]

Hello,

I wanted to let you know that switching to Admin mode as a win10 user has MOSTLY fixed my problem. Game loads up and all that. It even saves local data just fine. However, it refuses to sync with Steam. Any advice on this you can offer?