[SOLVED] Game keeps asking for DirectX, despite it having already been installed (also, error 0xc000007b)

[LONELy Dog]

So, after months not being able to run the original version due to error 0xc000007b (I owe my apparent playtime to IdleMaster), I thought the Redux edition would finally solve all my problems.

Turns out, though, it doesn't run either. As soon as I finished installing the game from the Redux entry in my library, I tried to run it and, after Steam's prompt ("Play / Launch in Safe Mode"), it asked me to install DirectX. It's not like DirectX 11 wasn't already installed in my system to start with, but I agreed and then it opened the game's built-in DirectX installer. After the setup was complete, I eagerly clicked PLAY again on my library, but I got the same prompt from before, complaining about DirectX missing. However, if I agree and open the installer again, it only gives me the option to UNinstall DirectX, because it IS already installed.


TL;DR:

• Click play on Steam library;
  
• Steam prompt: http://imgur.com/wYR8fBb
  
• No matter which option I choose from the prompt above, this Windows prompt pops up: http://imgur.com/aftwpgM
  
• Clicking No, nothing else happens. Clicking yes, I get this: http://imgur.com/9QFbGTO

System: Macbook Pro Retina 15" mid-2012, Windows 8.1 x64

[76561198025235947]

Hi there,

did you manage to solve the problem?

Adrian Palma,
Support Manager,
The Astronauts

[LONELy Dog]

Hi, Adrian!

Unfortunately, not yet. I verified the game cache on Steam and everything was OK. I tried reinstalling it, but that didn't make a difference either. I have also verified that DirectX, .NET Framework, Visual Studio Redistributables and my drivers are all up to date. Still, I keep getting this UE4 Prerequisites problem.

Not sure if relevant for this specific problem, but I tried to execute the binary files in "...\The Vanishing of Ethan Carter Redux\EthanCarter\Binaries\Win64" manually and both give me the same 0xc000007b error I get when I try to run the original version of the game.

Please let me know if there's anything else you'd like me to verify on my system.

Thanks!

[76561198025235947]

Originally posted by LONELy Dog:

Hi, Adrian!

Unfortunately, not yet. I verified the game cache on Steam and everything was OK. I tried reinstalling it, but that didn't make a difference either. I have also verified that DirectX, .NET Framework, Visual Studio Redistributables and my drivers are all up to date. Still, I keep getting this UE4 Prerequisites problem.

Not sure if relevant for this specific problem, but I tried to execute the binary files in "...\The Vanishing of Ethan Carter Redux\EthanCarter\Binaries\Win64" manually and both give me the same 0xc000007b error I get when I try to run the original version of the game.

Please let me know if there's anything else you'd like me to verify on my system.

Thanks!

Did you install 2013 version of C++ Redistributable? Also, please take a look here.

Adrian Palma,
Support Manager,
The Astronauts

[LONELy Dog]

Originally posted by adrianpalma:

Did you install 2013 version of C++ Redistributable?

Yes, I've even uninstalled and reinstalled it, but no effect whatsoever. These are the related entries on "Programs and Features": http://i.imgur.com/NJybrrQ.png

Originally posted by adrianpalma:

Also, please take a look here.

I had already done steps 1 and 2 (see note below)*.

On step 3, nVidia Control Panel only recongnized the original version of the game. So I added the Redux version binary manually and checked the settings from step 4, but that didn't solve it either.

On to step 5, I changed the mentioned options from GameUserSettings.ini file, which isn't located in "...\AppData\Local\..." like in Eden Star's case, but in "...\SteamApps\common\The Vanishing of Ethan Carter Redux\EthanCarter\Saved\Config\WindowsNoEditor". Still no luck.

Step "LASTLY" doesn't really applies, as the only installer distributed with this version of the game seems to be the UE4 Prerequisites one, which I'm prompted to run when I try to play the game.

Step "Extra Lastly": No new entries are generated among System Logs, except for the Windows Update automatic updates pausing/resuming when the UE4 Prerequisites thing is being Uninstalled or Renstalled. There are a few interesting entries among the Application Logs, though:

These are the entries when I try to run the game with UE4 Prerequisites being already installed (like in the 3rd imgur link from my original post) and I choose to uninstall it: http://pastebin.com/hFJUbs0x

And these are for trying to run the game after uninstalling UE4 Prerequisites as above and agreeing to reinstall it: http://pastebin.com/vjkUSgJn


*Note: Even though the DirectX web installer says I already have the most recent version of DirectX installed (and I have already played games using DirectX 9, 10 and 11 on this system), there's no entry for DirectX on the Programs and Features list. I'm not even sure there should be, anyway, but I found this curious.


Thanks a lot for your help so far. Looking forward to hear from you again.

Ivan

[LONELy Dog]

Eureka! :P

Originally posted by LONELy Dog:

Not sure if relevant for this specific problem, but I tried to execute the binary files in "...\The Vanishing of Ethan Carter Redux\EthanCarter\Binaries\Win64" manually and both give me the same 0xc000007b error I get when I try to run the original version of the game.

Thinking about that, I started digging the original version's install folder and found that this happened only when I tried to run "...\The Vanishing of Ethan Carter\Binaries\Win64\AstronautsGame-Win64-Shipping.exe", which apparently was the one Steam was calling. But if I tried "...\The Vanishing of Ethan Carter\Binaries\Win32\AstronautsGame-Win32-Shipping.exe", nothing happened at all (from the point of view of an end user).

Anyway, although I thought error 0xc000007b was an unrelated issue which I would still have to deal with after solving the DirectX problem, I decided to go back to it, just in case. Which is when I found this thread: http://answers.unrealengine.com/questions/12975/unreal-engine-wont-launch-error-code-0xc000007b.html. So, following 0xDEADBEEF's answer from there, I downloaded Dependency Walker and run it with each of the 4 executables, generating the logs below (please note I removed some information I judged irrelevant in the Module Dependency Tree section of each file, making them about thrice smaller, but I explicitly marked where I did so):

Logs for AstronautsGame-Win32-Shipping.exe (UE3)[pastebin.com]
Logs for AstronautsGame-Win64-Shipping.exe (UE3)[pastebin.com]
Logs for EthanCarter-Win64-Shipping.exe (Redux)[pastebin.com]
Logs for EthanCarter-Win64-Console.exe (Redux)[pastebin.com]

While the Win32 file seems way more chaotic, all of the Win64 logs have a single [] tag in the Module Dependency Tree, which is in the line:

[] c:\windows\system32\XINPUT1_3.DLL

Also, the three of them have the exact same two lines before the last one:

Unloaded "XINPUT1_3.DLL" at address 0x0000000000400000.
Second chance exception 0xC000007B (Unknown) occurred in "NTDLL.DLL" at address 0x00007FFADE83C4E0.

That made it clear: the problem was xinput1_3.dll

OK, problem diagnosed. Now on to fix it!

xinput1_3.dll is a dinamic library from DirectX, but I had already reinstalled DirectX previously, without solving the problem. So, this is what I did:

1. Uninstalled UE4 Prerequisites when the game prompted me to install it;
   
2. Renamed the xinput1_3.dll files in both C:\Windows\System32 and C:\Windows\SysWOW64 folders to xinput1_3.dll.BACKUP;
   
3. Tried to run the game again and reinstalled UE4 Prerequisites (and thus, DirectX) when prompted.

Profit! The DirectX installation included in UE4 Prerequisites placed new xinput1_3.dll files in both directories, completely fixing both UE3 and Redux versions of the game.

But what may have caused this problem in the first place?

Well, the old DLL from System32, the old DLL from SysWOW64 and the new DLL from SysWOW64 all have the exact same size, while the new DLL from System32 is bigger. I didn't check any hashes, but if I had to guess, I'd say the xinput1_3.dll from both folders were the 64bit one, before reinstalling. This also explains why Dependency Walker only complained about C:\Windows\System32\XINPUT1_3.DLL.

I'm not sure how the 64 bit file could have ended up in System32, but I may have had some other problem in the past, which I don't remember, and solved it by copying the file from SysWOW64, replacing the correct one. Seems weird, but this fellow on this other thread apparently did the same with another DLL to partially solve another problem, and he had to undo it to get rid of error 0xc000007b as well.

@adrianpalma

Maybe you'd like to include the link for that UE forum thread on the "c000007b error" section of this FAQ, since the whole Dependency Walker thing can be quite useful in tracing the root cause of this error. The d3dx9_43.dll file currently mentioned in there is just a specific case of the same problem.

Thank you very much for your help. I hope this thread can be useful for others having a similar problem in the future. :)

[LONELy Dog]

Originally posted by ForceSight:

It's pretty rare to see someone who solves its problems sharing it with the community ! Thanks for everyone even if I don't have the problem.

Thanks! Since there seems to be very little (useful) information about this problem online, and it simply prevents users from even opening the game, I just thought I could contribute with what I found, to at least get people started on solving it, instead of asking for refunds or leaving negative reviews blaming the developers for a problem that's actually in their own PC.

[76561198025235947]

Originally posted by LONELy Dog:

Originally posted by ForceSight:

It's pretty rare to see someone who solves its problems sharing it with the community ! Thanks for everyone even if I don't have the problem.

Thanks! :smile: Since there seems to be very little (useful) information about this problem online, and it simply prevents users from even opening the game, I just thought I could contribute with what I found, to at least get people started on solving it, instead of asking for refunds or leaving negative reviews blaming the developers for a problem that's actually in their own PC.

Thanks so much for sharing the solution with the community. Wonderful job! :)

Adrian Palma,
Support Manager,
The Astronauts

[brender]

Originally posted by LONELy Dog:

Eureka! :P

Originally posted by LONELy Dog:

Not sure if relevant for this specific problem, but I tried to execute the binary files in "...\The Vanishing of Ethan Carter Redux\EthanCarter\Binaries\Win64" manually and both give me the same 0xc000007b error I get when I try to run the original version of the game.

Thinking about that, I started digging the original version's install folder and found that this happened only when I tried to run "...\The Vanishing of Ethan Carter\Binaries\Win64\AstronautsGame-Win64-Shipping.exe", which apparently was the one Steam was calling. But if I tried "...\The Vanishing of Ethan Carter\Binaries\Win32\AstronautsGame-Win32-Shipping.exe", nothing happened at all (from the point of view of an end user).

Anyway, although I thought error 0xc000007b was an unrelated issue which I would still have to deal with after solving the DirectX problem, I decided to go back to it, just in case. Which is when I found this thread: http://answers.unrealengine.com/questions/12975/unreal-engine-wont-launch-error-code-0xc000007b.html. So, following 0xDEADBEEF's answer from there, I downloaded Dependency Walker and run it with each of the 4 executables, generating the logs below (please note I removed some information I judged irrelevant in the Module Dependency Tree section of each file, making them about thrice smaller, but I explicitly marked where I did so):

Logs for AstronautsGame-Win32-Shipping.exe (UE3)[pastebin.com]
Logs for AstronautsGame-Win64-Shipping.exe (UE3)[pastebin.com]
Logs for EthanCarter-Win64-Shipping.exe (Redux)[pastebin.com]
Logs for EthanCarter-Win64-Console.exe (Redux)[pastebin.com]

While the Win32 file seems way more chaotic, all of the Win64 logs have a single [] tag in the Module Dependency Tree, which is in the line:

[] c:\windows\system32\XINPUT1_3.DLL

Also, the three of them have the exact same two lines before the last one:

Unloaded "XINPUT1_3.DLL" at address 0x0000000000400000.
Second chance exception 0xC000007B (Unknown) occurred in "NTDLL.DLL" at address 0x00007FFADE83C4E0.

That made it clear: the problem was xinput1_3.dll

OK, problem diagnosed. Now on to fix it!

xinput1_3.dll is a dinamic library from DirectX, but I had already reinstalled DirectX previously, without solving the problem. So, this is what I did:

1. Uninstalled UE4 Prerequisites when the game prompted me to install it;
   
2. Renamed the xinput1_3.dll files in both C:\Windows\System32 and C:\Windows\SysWOW64 folders to xinput1_3.dll.BACKUP;
   
3. Tried to run the game again and reinstalled UE4 Prerequisites (and thus, DirectX) when prompted.

Profit! The DirectX installation included in UE4 Prerequisites placed new xinput1_3.dll files in both directories, completely fixing both UE3 and Redux versions of the game.

But what may have caused this problem in the first place?

Well, the old DLL from System32, the old DLL from SysWOW64 and the new DLL from SysWOW64 all have the exact same size, while the new DLL from System32 is bigger. I didn't check any hashes, but if I had to guess, I'd say the xinput1_3.dll from both folders were the 64bit one, before reinstalling. This also explains why Dependency Walker only complained about C:\Windows\System32\XINPUT1_3.DLL.

I'm not sure how the 64 bit file could have ended up in System32, but I may have had some other problem in the past, which I don't remember, and solved it by copying the file from SysWOW64, replacing the correct one. Seems weird, but this fellow on this other thread apparently did the same with another DLL to partially solve another problem, and he had to undo it to get rid of error 0xc000007b as well.

@adrianpalma

Maybe you'd like to include the link for that UE forum thread on the "c000007b error" section of this FAQ, since the whole Dependency Walker thing can be quite useful in tracing the root cause of this error. The d3dx9_43.dll file currently mentioned in there is just a specific case of the same problem.

Thank you very much for your help. I hope this thread can be useful for others having a similar problem in the future. :)

Thanks, fix this problem