Unable to Launch ESO

[quintinium.1]

I had problems months ago and was never able to resolve them when trying to launch the game. Because my message on the crash referred to a problem with the launcher, which led to me seeing no launcher file I reinstalled, then eventually went directly to ESO site to download the launcher. Issue is I bought the game though steam, so getting the launcher from ESO site may have felt like I got further but I didn't have the code that one would have if they bought the game form ESO on their site. So I always landed on some screen asking for a code. A friend told me to just wait, he'd heard Steam was working out issues with game and its less than reliable launch capability through their site when purchased with them.

My computer has all the requirements needed to run the game, before any one suggests I go down that rabbit hole. Been there done that kind of thing. I am well within the limits.

Now when I tried to run the game many months later after seeing the new add and thinking maybe my friend was right, and that the game had surely been updated since then (it had) so I tried it again this evening. It did a lot of downloading and I had to restart once and it then did a big update. After that update, I tried to run it and after it takes me to ESO's Start screen, and I then start it again from ESO's Interface, it immediately crashes.

I would love to try this game. Certainly much more than asking for a refund. Can anyone help me?

Thanks,
Ben

[Dreaminsomnia]

Ben,
There are currently a few lively discussions about this problem with the launcher in steam forums. Someone may have posted something that applies to your specific problem already. I don't know. One thing I saw was some kind of "Power management" conflict with ESO. Even possibly stemming from BIOS. Windows 11 seems to have the highest incidents involving the ESO client loader not working. I don't think there is a silver bullet fix due to the variety of system hardware and OS version combinations out there.
So... Help us help you.....What "Exactly" is going on when you launch the ESO launcher? (from steam or otherwise). What error messages are you seeing? What version of Windows are you running? Antivirus...Is it Webroot? Is your system Bios up to date? (Important for Windows 11 users) Is this is licensing issue?
~A~

[Svend_N]

There is this help which works (only step 3 and 4) to have Steam reinstalling the Launcher.
https://help.elderscrollsonline.com/#en/answer/66127

If it fails, generally at the step uncompressiong the Launcher, then you have the 'unable to load skin' bug.
There should be a setup file in the installation folder downloaded by Steam.
There is somewhere here a Steam discussion, in which a guy explain how to deal with 7z and the setup file to extract manually the Launcher and put it imanually in the installation folder.

Then if you run this Launcher, there is a possibility to have the skin bug again. Then you should try the 2 known tricks to force the Launcher to start. See here for the tricks:
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/674955/summary-unable-to-load-skin-error

[Dreaminsomnia]

I carefully re-read your original post for clues. You said you had problems months ago? So this is not a "new" install?
Thiese are the steps that I want you to try. Follow them exactly....
Make sure you have a system backup restore point
Make sure your "recycle Bin" is working (saving deleted items)
Step 1: Un-install the game from the steam client.
Step 2: After uninstalling, use file explorer to search entire "C:\" drive for anything that matches this search query "Elder" or "Elder Scrolls"
(if you installed the game on different drive search that one too) same query "Elder" or "Elder scrolls" and follow the same steps below for each drive involved.
Step 3: Delete anything that matches up with that search criteria. You should see hits in my documents and possibly under Users/Aodata directories...Unless you happen to have pics of your "Elders" on your computer there should be no other hits. Delete them all.
Purpose: We are looking for stray Elder Scrolls config files that do not get removed during steam uninstall process. You won't lose any previous character data because that information is stored server side on the ESO servers.
Step 4: From Steam Client, re-install the game. Use only the steam install system.
Step 5: After the download, stat the game from Steam library....
The ESO loader will now start and update itself to current version and then close.
Start the game again from steam.
The ESO client loader will re-download the current patched game. Takes a few minutes, it's a big update.
After the update (if I remember correctly, you'll have to do all of the Eula agreements...and it will continue with the normal setup screens and more Eulas to accept.
If you get along this far...Finish going through the initial configuration questions.
At this point ESO is indeed working normally.
Have fun!
~A~

[Svend_N]

Yes, that is the normal procedure and worth to try

But if he has the bug 'unable to laod skin', it will not work.
maybe even the installation will not finish after Steam has downloaded the files.

It happened to me when I tried to reinstall the game in March 2015

It would be interesting to know if the PC has W10 or W11
If W10, it is likely to work
If W11 and / or Intel core i9 proc, it is more likely to fail.

[Mr. Alf]

tldr
couple of steps that can help:
vpn, launch steam as admin, dns, delete onedrive completely
w10 and w11 are trash by default (especially 11), have to tweak them a lot like deleting microsoft store, xbox, disabling win defender and etc.

[Хромосомик]

If you have an Intel series 13/14 this could be a problem because idk why it has some malfunction with a launcher.

I had an 13700kf, obviously it degraded somehow, you can google some details about the reasons if you really want.

When I switched to AMD Ryzen the problem had gone forever.

P.S. The error was like `cannot load a skin`

[Dreaminsomnia]

Originally posted by Svend_N:

Yes, that is the normal procedure and worth to try

But if he has the bug 'unable to laod skin', it will not work.
maybe even the installation will not finish after Steam has downloaded the files.

It happened to me when I tried to reinstall the game in March 2015

It would be interesting to know if the PC has W10 or W11
If W10, it is likely to work
If W11 and / or Intel core i9 proc, it is more likely to fail.

Windows 10 64bit
MSI Meg Trident X
z590 chipset I9 (119000k)
Nvidia 3090
Full disclosure... I have never had any problems loading the game. My main problem was the "Addons" EULA not triggering on game re-install. Therefore, my addons were add disabled.
I was also unable to fix the (accessibility option) "screen text narration option. You cannot narrate any books, letters and such without instant game crash. I have an ESO support ticket in on that one. I don't think they consider a broken "Accessibility" feature as a high priority though.
Regarding the "Skin" loading error loading problem. Someone mentioned that turning off the "Fast Stepping" features in bios fixed the problem on a Win 11 box. I don't know if I can personally recommend doing this.That's a scary prospect when you have to mess with Bios settings just to make a game to work. You shouldn't have to do that...That is a software issue not a hardware one.. ESO needs a serious over haul of its game loader system. I think one day they will get it right. Based upon what i've read in forums it seems as though there seems to be a "line" in the technology sand between 12th and 13th gen intel w10/W11. Systems. Between the z600 series and z700 series intel chip sets. Problems seem to be statistically more likely to occur on more advanced systems crossing his "12th/13th gen Intel tech" line.
I think the game loader is built on old code and geared for "older" computers like mine. So 11th and 12th gen intel chip sets up to z600 series boards.. I think going higher on the ladder of machine and OS specs (13th / 14th gen z700 Chip sets presents a special problem for the ESO game loader program itself. Windows 11 was built to use the advanced Bios features of the new z700 sets. The loaded program was not designed for these future designs in mind. There needs to be a new loader built for these newer systems. Backwards compatibility might be problematic at best.
~A~
~A~

[gingamans_daughter]

Originally posted by quintinium.1:

I had problems months ago and was never able to resolve them when trying to launch the game. Because my message on the crash referred to a problem with the launcher, which led to me seeing no launcher file I reinstalled, then eventually went directly to ESO site to download the launcher. Issue is I bought the game though steam, so getting the launcher from ESO site may have felt like I got further but I didn't have the code that one would have if they bought the game form ESO on their site. So I always landed on some screen asking for a code. A friend told me to just wait, he'd heard Steam was working out issues with game and its less than reliable launch capability through their site when purchased with them.

My computer has all the requirements needed to run the game, before any one suggests I go down that rabbit hole. Been there done that kind of thing. I am well within the limits.

Now when I tried to run the game many months later after seeing the new add and thinking maybe my friend was right, and that the game had surely been updated since then (it had) so I tried it again this evening. It did a lot of downloading and I had to restart once and it then did a big update. After that update, I tried to run it and after it takes me to ESO's Start screen, and I then start it again from ESO's Interface, it immediately crashes.

I would love to try this game. Certainly much more than asking for a refund. Can anyone help me?

Thanks,
Ben

I am having possibly the same issue with launching. I do not receive a skin error. It's actually related to the launcher itself. The game does not launch at all and I receive the message below.

"Timeout waiting for window to load. Please try to restart the launcher."

Did anyone figure out why or how to resolve this issue? I reinstalled a few times and looked into other ways to fix it without any success (lead to dead-ends).

[Dreaminsomnia]

Yeah, stop trying to run it under windows 11....
~A~