Game won't run, produces no errors, and customer support is giving me the run around. What do I do next?

[DEETS]

As the title says, I have a crash on startup where the game black screens, minimizes, then crashes. I've looked on Steam for official support (leading me to PopCap's website) where I opened a ticket. This ticket got an automated response telling me to go to Pogo games' support site. So, I opened a ticket there, and they've said I need to go to Steam since I purchased it there. Steam only has support listed with PopCap, so I opened yet another ticket there, this time under a different category in hopes I would recieve something other than an automated response. I got the same automated response from them, telling me to go to PopCap.

So, effectively, I've been told I can recieve no official support for this product, despite the developer (PopCap) and reseller (Steam) still being active companies involved with this product. I've continued my ticket with Pogo to see if they have an alternate means to contact the developing company (PopCap), but if that falls through, I need a plan B.

So my questions to the Steam community are "What steps do I take next?" and "Have I missed something?" Also, is anyone else experiencing this run-around?

UPDATE: I cannot get in touch with PopCap by any means. Even given this, Steam has rejected a refund request (kind've expected there, but still disappointing). This only leaves me with a few options, which I will be taking.

[DEETS]

Oh just a sidenote, here's what I've done to try to fix it:
-Running in every compatibility mode
-Various compatibility options, one of which worked, but very poorly (checking all except compatibility mode and DPI scaling)
-Adding "-changedir" to the launch options
-Modifying game settings via the registry, specifically 3d acceleration and fullscreen
-Verifying the game cache integrity
-Ensuring cloud storage was off and obtaining a fresh install after deleting all relevant local data
-Verifying bass.dll was not the cause of this error
-Changing screen resolution to 1024x768
-Unplugging second monitor and changing resolution to 1024x768
-Switching GPU out for an XFX R9 390x
-Running on a different computer (laptop, has previously successfully run Plants Vs Zombies on current install of OS)
-No antivirus software to interfere
-Confirmed all drivers are recent (as this computer was first booted up around 16 days ago)
-Attempted to run while in safe mode (not successful)
-Verified Flash, Java, DirectX (tried most versions from 9.0C-11), and C++ redistributables were up to date and not causing issues.

[Emily_Rose]

I get the same issue...just started about a week ago

[DEETS]

Originally posted by Poacher04:

I get the same issue...just started about a week ago

Did you end up going through the customer support/if you did, did you have any luck?

[Zackdickary Klondike]

Same issue. This seems to clearly be a Steam update issue. Someone at Steam please take a look.

Thanks,
Nick

[Thebigmix]

Mine was working fine about 12hours ago, then i got this new steam update when i came on today and its broken the Ui from loading, hopefully steam will fix this.

[DEETS]

Originally posted by Thebigmix - NoSound:

Mine was working fine about 12hours ago, then i got this new steam update when i came on today and its broken the Ui from loading, hopefully steam will fix this.

Honestly, at this rate I'm thinking about asking for a refund. No matter what you categorize your ticket under, PopCap tries to send you to Pogo, which sends you back to Steam. Almost a lost cause.

[Elektron]

Originally posted by Thebigmix - NoSound:

Mine was working fine about 12hours ago, then i got this new steam update when i came on today and its broken the Ui from loading, hopefully steam will fix this.

Same here! Has something to do with steam.

[david]

An unexpected error has occured! Pressing 'Send Report will send us helpful debugging information that may help us resolve this issue in the future.

You can also contact us directly at [e-mail].

The message above is what I get......anyone else????
Reinstalled and same

[imprelius]

I had the same problem, but I modified the registry and all go well. The other people is this post try doing this.

[imprelius]

Here explain how to

Originally posted by Camoran:

Originally posted by Camoran:

... try to open the game in windowed mode
Open this path via regedit:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SteamPopCap\PlantsVsZombies
open the ScreenMode file and change ScreenMode to 0 :)

[imprelius]

Here says that you had already modified the registery, but try once more to get out of doubts.

Originally posted by Lhoto:

Oh just a sidenote, here's what I've done to try to fix it:
-Running in every compatibility mode
-Various compatibility options, one of which worked, but very poorly (checking all except compatibility mode and DPI scaling)
-Adding "-changedir" to the launch options
-Modifying game settings via the registry, specifically 3d acceleration and fullscreen
-Verifying the game cache integrity
-Ensuring cloud storage was off and obtaining a fresh install after deleting all relevant local data
-Verifying bass.dll was not the cause of this error
-Changing screen resolution to 1024x768
-Unplugging second monitor and changing resolution to 1024x768
-Switching GPU out for an XFX R9 390x
-Running on a different computer (laptop, has previously successfully run Plants Vs Zombies on current install of OS)
-No antivirus software to interfere
-Confirmed all drivers are recent (as this computer was first booted up around 16 days ago)
-Attempted to run while in safe mode (not successful)
-Verified Flash, Java, DirectX (tried most versions from 9.0C-11), and C++ redistributables were up to date and not causing issues.

[DEETS]

Originally posted by imprelius:

Here says that you had already modified the registery, but try once more to get out of doubts.

Originally posted by Lhoto:

Oh just a sidenote, here's what I've done to try to fix it:
-Running in every compatibility mode
-Various compatibility options, one of which worked, but very poorly (checking all except compatibility mode and DPI scaling)
-Adding "-changedir" to the launch options
-Modifying game settings via the registry, specifically 3d acceleration and fullscreen
-Verifying the game cache integrity
-Ensuring cloud storage was off and obtaining a fresh install after deleting all relevant local data
-Verifying bass.dll was not the cause of this error
-Changing screen resolution to 1024x768
-Unplugging second monitor and changing resolution to 1024x768
-Switching GPU out for an XFX R9 390x
-Running on a different computer (laptop, has previously successfully run Plants Vs Zombies on current install of OS)
-No antivirus software to interfere
-Confirmed all drivers are recent (as this computer was first booted up around 16 days ago)
-Attempted to run while in safe mode (not successful)
-Verified Flash, Java, DirectX (tried most versions from 9.0C-11), and C++ redistributables were up to date and not causing issues.

Yeah trust me, I've already tried multiple things under multiple conditions. ScreenMode is associated with the fullscreen settings, and I've listed that as something I've tried. Thanks for trying to help though (really, it's appreciated).

[DEETS]

Originally posted by Cat Man Do:

An unexpected error has occured! Pressing 'Send Report will send us helpful debugging information that may help us resolve this issue in the future.

You can also contact us directly at [e-mail].

The message above is what I get......anyone else????
Reinstalled and same

Hey, you're lucky you even get one. That said, I'll try that email to see if I can actually get in touch with -someone- instead of an automated response telling me to go to Pogo. (Thanks for sharing info)

[Gelle and Hades]

So glad I am not the only one with this issue. I too, attempted to fix the registry with no luck. I sure hope someone is able to fix this soon. Good luck to everyone, myself included :P
.

[Chewy]

Windows 10 Home 64 bit
GTX 970
16GB DDR3

Getting access violation here. It was working completely fine a few days ago.

Now for the odd part. I got it working by messing with compatibility settings (randomly trying different settings, I do not remember which settings). It loaded up once flawlessly, then I close it and try to reopen it with same settings and I get access violation. I changed the compatibility settings again with different settings. It loads up perfectly, but as soon as I close it and try to open it back up I get another access violation. Now I tried pretty much every setting and combinations and nothing. I feel like this game was only meant to be started up a certain amount of times before it doesn't work. Obviously that can't be true, but that's what happend to me.

I recently reinstalled Windows 10 and basically just copied my Steam folder to another hard drive without having to reinstall Steam or any of the games. Could that be the problem? All of my other games have been working flawlessly GTAV, Dying Light, other graphic intensive games. Even Peggle still works... But not PvZ. I tried a few things mentioned, but I am honestly just not in the mood to deal with this at the moment.