HOI4 won't start past launcher

[koskiari]

Hello,

I guess this a better forum for this problem so here goes:

Today I decided to finally give Man the Guns a proper run, but found out HOI4 wouldn't start properly any more. I do get the launcher window and can see and select all the dlcs and/or mods to use (I have no mods installed), but after starting the game I just get a wait cursor that hangs on forever, until I click left mouse, at which point Windows tells me HOI4 has stopped responding.

I have tried verifying game files integrity, tried re-installing multiple times, no luck. Tried downgrading first to Ironclad 1.6.1, and eventually all the way back to Cornflakes and disabling Man the Guns, but that didn't help either. The last time I know for sure HOI4 worked was somewhere around February 2019.

I tried and found out that my older computer, which has the same Windows 10 64-bit installation with same VS C++ redistributables (from 2005 to 2015, both x86 and x64) installed, seems to run the newest version of HOI4 with no problems. The seemingly most relevant difference between the two computers is the older has AMD R9 290X GPU instead the NVIDIA RTX 2080 on my newer computer. So my best guess is this has something to do with NVIDIA drivers (which are up to date btw on my new computer).

Any help would be appreciated, cheers.

EDIT: By googling around I could find an exactly similar problem being encountered by someone else on 28th of March, so apparently it was around that time that a new version of NVIDIA driver came available that doesn't work with HOI4. I guess I'm facing a decision to either roll back my drivers to early March or wait until a fix comes along.

[bubbas]

Best option would be to contact their tech support at:
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?forums/hearts-of-iron-4-tech-support.952/
You will need a paradox account and sync it to steam to access that forum section.

[koskiari]

Thanks bubbas, I will do that in case my theory about NVIDIA drivers proves to be wrong. In case my guess is right about the drivers, I don't think there's much Paradox will do (or are even obliged to do), but it will be NVIDIA's business to sort it out.

[bubbas]

If it now is an NVIDIA driver issue then paradox support might know if a fix/workaround for it. So it won't hurt asking them ;)

[koskiari]

Even though I was pretty sure, based on what I found other people had experienced, that rolling back the RTX 20- series drivers would help, it didn't. I performed a clean install on February drivers, but still the same thing. I guess my only option is to contact Paradox support then.

[koskiari]

I did login to Paradox, and synced my Steam account to get access to Tech Support. I didn't submit a question, as there were quite a few similar problems already being posted, and I could find a solution from one of them. For anyone possibly suffering from the same problem, here is one possible solution. In HOI4 launcher, simply go in to settings, and choose to launch HOI4 in windowed mode instead of full-screen. As long as you choose the same resolution as your desktop native resolution, it will still be actually full-screen, but this made HOI4 run for me.

Thanks again bubbas for the tip to access Paradox forums (even though I thought they are quite a confusing mess to navigate at first to even have your account linked).

[TheChosenGear]

Originally posted by koskiari:

Hello,

I guess this a better forum for this problem so here goes:

Today I decided to finally give Man the Guns a proper run, but found out HOI4 wouldn't start properly any more. I do get the launcher window and can see and select all the dlcs and/or mods to use (I have no mods installed), but after starting the game I just get a wait cursor that hangs on forever, until I click left mouse, at which point Windows tells me HOI4 has stopped responding.

I have tried verifying game files integrity, tried re-installing multiple times, no luck. Tried downgrading first to Ironclad 1.6.1, and eventually all the way back to Cornflakes and disabling Man the Guns, but that didn't help either. The last time I know for sure HOI4 worked was somewhere around February 2019.

I tried and found out that my older computer, which has the same Windows 10 64-bit installation with same VS C++ redistributables (from 2005 to 2015, both x86 and x64) installed, seems to run the newest version of HOI4 with no problems. The seemingly most relevant difference between the two computers is the older has AMD R9 290X GPU instead the NVIDIA RTX 2080 on my newer computer. So my best guess is this has something to do with NVIDIA drivers (which are up to date btw on my new computer).

Any help would be appreciated, cheers.

EDIT: By googling around I could find an exactly similar problem being encountered by someone else on 28th of March, so apparently it was around that time that a new version of NVIDIA driver came available that doesn't work with HOI4. I guess I'm facing a decision to either roll back my drivers to early March or wait until a fix comes along.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I checked for windows updates and downloaded the most recent updates then restarted my pc, worked for me.

[Hitman47]

i solved the problem.

1. Go to installpath of hoi4 klick on installing launcher.msi and remove it.
2. Click again on install launcher and install it in the main directory of hoi4 and start the game.
3. Have fun.

Hope it works for you ;)

[cory_hess123]

Hey i have tried literally everything and I finally got my steam games I have installed to work anything you look up for hoi4 wont start etc and if none of those options work for you then try this 1 last thing make sure your graphics driver is updated or you have the most recent update for your computer thats all it took for me hope this helped anyone who has been trying to get back to playing there games like the good ole days

[Ikazuchi]

do the usual steps,
delete mydocuments/paradox/hoi4 folder
(reinstall visual c++ is done)
disable antivirus (just for 5 minutes to check if it causes the issue)

[Niko]

I know i am late but if anyone still has the problem try "-dx9" in start commands

[𝔉𝔩𝔞𝔫𝔤𝔢𝔩]

This is August now. And I still can't start. Ples Halp

[Scyobi_Empire]

Bumping as this issue has appeared to come back in the latest update, tried dx9, reinstalling. deleting folders and completely reinstalling everything to do with PDX but it doesn't work

[koskiari]

Originally posted by Scyobi_Empire:

Bumping as this issue has appeared to come back in the latest update, tried dx9, reinstalling. deleting folders and completely reinstalling everything to do with PDX but it doesn't work

Sorry to hear, there are apparently many possible reasons for this problem. Have you tried changing the settings so the game runs in borderless windowed mode instead of nominal full screen? This helped for me.

[koskiari]

Originally posted by koskiari:

I did login to Paradox, and synced my Steam account to get access to Tech Support. I didn't submit a question, as there were quite a few similar problems already being posted, and I could find a solution from one of them. For anyone possibly suffering from the same problem, here is one possible solution. In HOI4 launcher, simply go in to settings, and choose to launch HOI4 in windowed mode instead of full-screen. As long as you choose the same resolution as your desktop native resolution, it will still be actually full-screen, but this made HOI4 run for me.

Thanks again bubbas for the tip to access Paradox forums (even though I thought they are quite a confusing mess to navigate at first to even have your account linked).

@Scyobi_Empire This is my earlier post about solving my problem.