Game Crashes on Steam Launch

[Sarat]

I got a new computer today. Updated all the latest drivers and installed Divinity OS 2 Definitive Edition.

Excited to play, I launched the game from steam and on the next window, I choose Play Definitive Edition. Rather than launching the game, instead I received a black screen for a second, and then the game crashes. It then presents me with a window to provide my crash report to Larian.

If I keep trying, I get the same results. However, if I choose to play Classic Edition. It does load just fine.

I've been reading around. Many many people on these forums have had this issue, as far back as a year ago.

My computer:
- 2080 TI, i9-9900, Windows 10 Pro, 4k monitor
- First it crashed on NVidia driver 430.x or something, then I updated to the latest 441.08, which still didn't help.

My Attempts:
- There are no correlated errors in the Event Viewer.
- If I kill steam, and then launch the game from the .exe, it will load.
- I've disabled windows firewall. I don't have an antivirus
- I cannot launch the game with the .exe, as long as steam is running
- Running in compatibility with Windows 8 does nothing
- Running the .exe as an administrator makes no difference
- I tried to 1) Rename the game's data folder in my Documents (the one that get's automatically created) and at the same time 2) Uncheck the box to disable Steam Cloud. But, these two options didn't fix it.
- If I go to properties -> "Verify Integrity of Game Files" and let it run. I will then be able to boot up the game exactly 1 time. If I choose Quit, then close steam, and reopen steam. I am back to not being able to boot up the game as before.

The only thing that helps, is running the .exe when steam is NOT running.

Here is one of my CrashDump files, i have a million of them.:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/pk0rkulmoacps6y/CrashDump%20-%2010-30-2019%2002h%2034m%2045s.dmp?dl=0

Thanks,

[THE_RaBiD_CanuK]

You could try disabling the steam overlay. Sometimes that causes crashes. Right click on the game in steam, and choose properties. There should be an option to disable the steam overlay.

[Sarat]

I just tried that per your request, but unfortunately it changes nothing. Thank you though for trying.

[Raze_Larian]

The crash in that CrashDump is happening in the CassiniMLKDevProps2.dll file. If you shut down the Alienware Sound Center, does that make a difference?

Another person recently reported startup crashes where some of the crashes happened in this dll (the rest were in the game executable). However, exiting out of steam didn't help (it did start randomly once, IIRC, so that may have been connected to verifying files, and they didn't notice if they tried a bunch of stuff at once before testing).
In that case they were using an Alienware laptop, and the game would run on the integrated graphics.


Try doing a clean boot and then test the game. Click Start, or hit WinKey-R, type in msconfig and hit enter; in the General tab, click Selective Startup, uncheck Load startup items (if required) and leave Load system services and Use original boot configuration options checked. Next, click on the Services tab, check the box to Hide all Microsoft services, then click the Disable All button (maybe make a note of which are currently enabled/disabled), then click OK and reboot the computer.
Run msconfig again to switch back to the normal boot configuration.

Try changing the default audio output in Windows, if possible. A handful of people have reported crashes in the DE, but not Classic, which could be avoided that way (or in a couple cases fixed by changing, starting the game, exiting and switching back), some related to USB headsets.

​
Try renaming the My Documents 'Divinity Original Sin 2 Definitive Edition' folder again, then extract the replacement folder from this download[www.dropbox.com] into your '..\Documents\Larian Studios' folder, and see if that will let you start the game.

The graphicSettings.lsx file is set to 1280x720 Windowed mode, Very Low quality preset and low audio quality, which you can change in the options (manually, or hit autodetect) if this helps.
If the game still crashes, delete the replacement My Documents D:OS 2 DE folder and, rename the original back again.

Alternately, you could just rename your graphicSettings.lsx file, and extract the version in the download to test, since the profile, etc, is not part of the problem. There is an extra option set in the replacement graphicSettings.lsx file which can help if the issue is related to hardware acceleration for cloth physics (an issue that can cause a startup crash in DE but Classic is ok; this doesn't have the same interaction with Steam running or working once after verifying, but it can't hurt to try it).


Please email [e-mail] with a link to this discussion and a dxdiag report (WinKey-R, type in dxdiag and hit enter, then when it finishes loading click on the 'Save All Information...' button and save the report somewhere handy). Also check the '..\Divinity Original Sin 2\DefEd\bin' folder for the gold.log file, and zip a bunch of the CrashDump' files together to include.

[Sarat]

Readers,

We took this conversation over to email for a while. Now I have a resolution and want to post it back on here.

So, I have a recent Alienware Desktop (Aurora R9). Evidently this computer uses a motherboard that is compatible with some pre-installed software, call Nahimic Audio. While I'm not 100% clear on it's purpose, as near as I could tell, I was not using it for anything. I had a service on my computer called "NahimicService", which was running in the background.

(You can go to Task manager, click the "Services" tab, sort by the "Name" column, and try to find "NahimicService")

So, I disabled "NahimicService", and that was it. I can launch / re-launch DOS 2 DE as often as I like.

Now, I also have a 1 year old Alienware 17 R5 Laptop. This laptop runs the game just fine, and does not appear to have this "NahimicService" installed. So, maybe this is a recent feature?

As far as the service goes, their website claims that the software can improve the audio quality during gaming. With it disabled, I cannot tell the difference. None of my other expensive computers even have it, so I'm doubting that it's something important.

Their website claims we can find this "audio solution" on: MSI, Dell, Aorus & Gigabyte. So, even if you don't have an Alienware, it's possible that your PC may still have this service.

I want to add one thing. I do not actually have the Nahimic App installed. There is no Nahimic software that I can launch. It seems like I only have the service.

Thanks. Hope this helps someone else.

[ExcitableEmu]

How did you disable it or did you just end process?

[Sarat]

No, I didn't end the process.
What I did was 3 things:

Do what I said regarding the task manager (Services Tab). When you find the service, right click and "Stop".

Also, I went to (Windows Key + R), then I typed 'msconfig'. I clicked the 'Services' tab and find the "Nahimic service" row. I ensured it was unchecked there.

Finally, I opened the start menu and typed 'Services'. When I opened that App, I located 'Nahimic Service', right clicked, 'properties' and ensured that the 'Startup' choice said 'Disabled'.

[Raze_Larian]

Another person with an Alienware system reported fixing this by disabling Alienware Command Center before playing.

[Sarat]

I've been reading these forums for 2 days. It's amazing how many people have this issue, and the crazy solutions that solved it. It's always disabling something, running spotify in the background when they launch, not using headphones or unplugging their microphones, etc.

An alternative solution would be for the DOS 2 developers to not expect players to run their game in a bubble and allow people to play DOS while other software is running on the PC, given that every other steam game has no issues.

What's next? We have to buy our certified PC's straight from Larian in order to run the next DOS? Fortnite runs on every platform, tablet, phone, microwave, operating system, nintendo switch. Meanwhile, DOS won't run if your PC has lights on it.

No you can't listen to music while you play. Hey what were you thinking trying to run notepad.exe in the background. Of course you have to disable the task bar and empty your recycle bin before launching the game.

[Raze_Larian]

People who don't have issues don't come to the forum to report that.
If you search for Fortnite startup crashes, you will find them, as well.
Other Steam games not having an issue on your system doesn't mean they don't have any issues.

If there are known conflicts, they are looked into to determine if it is possible to fix them in the game code. It is neither feasible or reasonable to add workarounds for every driver issue or background program that can cause a problem with the game. For example, the original Nahimic conflict was fixed by the Nahimic developers, because it wasn't an issue with the game itself. Graphics driver updates have had and fixed stability issues with lots of games.
Anti-virus programs have had exclusion lists long before D:OS 2 existed, due to real time scans causing conflicts and other issues with software in general.

[sarouman]

Look like we are many with this problem.
I had a nahimic service running too. But stoping it don't resolve the crash.

[melta]

I searched for CTD on startup threads, and found an older one from this very forum. The solution for one player was to have Spotify open in the background(you read that right, Spotify, the music streaming service). After exhausting every option available, I opened Spotify and opened DOS2, and for some inexplicable reason it didn't crash on startup.

As ridiculous as it seems, having Spotify open works for me. Good job Larian...

https://steamcommunity.com/app/435150/discussions/6/1473096694453157531/

[The_spyder]

I have previously had no problems playing DOS2. With the recent drop of the new Switch patch, the game apparently completely uninstalled on my system and had to be reinstalled. Upon reinstalling, I can't get the game to boot up at all. Double click on the desktop icon and it loads steam, verifies the install and then nothing. Attempting to run through Steam interface and it goes from Play to Start to Play in a matter of about 10 seconds.

I am not running an Alienware rig and as I have said, prior to last week I had no problems at all running the game. Now it flat won't start.

I tried repairing my C++ files and rebooting. no luck. I shut down everything running in the background and still no luck. Any ideas?

[melta]

I think it's audio related. I'm using 7.1 surround through an Asus ROG mobo.
With any secondary audio source it doesn't CTD on startup. Why? Idk, I'm not technically adept enough to explain what's going on in the background.

[Raze_Larian]

Originally posted by doot:

With any secondary audio source it doesn't CTD on startup.

Please email [e-mail] with a link to this discussion and a dxdiag report (WinKey-R, type in dxdiag and hit enter, then when it finishes loading click on the 'Save All Information...' button and save the report somewhere handy). Also check the '..\Divinity Original Sin 2\DefEd\bin' folder for the gold.log file, and if there are any 'CrashDump' files being created, zip a few together to include.

Originally posted by The_spyder:

I have previously had no problems playing DOS2. ... Any ideas?

Try exiting out of the Steam client, and starting the game directly from the '..\SteamApps\common\Divinity Original Sin 2\DefEd\bin\EoCApp.exe' program file, by right clicking and running as administrator.

Try starting the launcher from the '..\SteamApps\common\Divinity Original Sin 2\bin\SupportTool.exe' executable.

If the launcher doesn't start from the executable, try deleting the config.xml file in the '..\Divinity Original Sin 2\bin' folder, as well as 'C:\Users\<UserName>\AppData\Local\LarianLauncher' (copy and paste %LocalAppData%\LarianLauncher into Windows Explorer to quickly open that folder).
After that, try verifying local files: in the Steam library, right click on the game and select Properties, switch to the Local Files tab and then click on the 'Verify Integrity of Game Cache...' button.


Are you shutting down all non-essential programs (especially anti-virus) before starting the game? Firewalls can cause conflicts (generally on startup or loading screens) and overlays from graphics tweaking/monitoring programs or chat programs can also caused issues.

If you have any generic or obscure USB controllers (or other devices) plugged in, that you were not using when the game was working, try disconnecting them. Crashes on startup with faulting module names of ntdll.dll and EZFRD64.DLL, can (particularly for the latter) be related to USB controllers or PS2 to USB adapters (for various games).

If you check the Event Viewer, does that give an error code or 'Faulting Module' file name that might help identify the cause of the crash?
- click Start (or WinKey-R), then type "event viewer" into the search box. in Windows 10, 'event' should bring up 'View event logs'.
- after starting the Event Viewer, expand 'Windows Logs' in the left column and select 'Application'
- in the center column, look for a recent error for the game (maybe sort by Date and Time, or search for 'EoCApp')
- check the information under the 'General' tab below the list of events, starting with "Faulting application name..."


If applicable, disable Steam cloud support either globally (in the client click on the Steam menu and select Settings, and then Cloud) or just for this game (in the library right click Divinity: Original Sin 2 and select Properties, then switch to the Updates tab and check the Steam Cloud section).
Alternately, exit out of the Steam client and just start the game directly from the executable when required.

Next, try browsing to the '..\Documents\Larian Studios' folder and rename the 'Divinity Original Sin 2 Definitive Edition' subfolder.
This folder contains the saved games, configuration files and a level cache folder. Deleting or renaming it will get the game to recreate it on startup; playing the game from a different Windows user account would effectively do the same thing. With Steam running and cloud support enabled, the client would just download the cloud copy of your existing profile.
After that, see if you can start D:OS 2 DE. If so, create a new profile and maybe check that you can start a new game and save/load. If that works, exit and copy a couple saves from the renamed folder into the newly created profile's ..\Savegames\Story folder. If that continues to let you start the game and load the saves, move the rest of the saves over.
If the game still crashes, delete the new My Documents D:OS 2 DE folder and rename the original back again.


If that doesn't help, please email support, as above.

[The_spyder]

@Raze_Larian - thanks. Launching without the Steam overlay and in Admin mode seems to work. It is interesting that this is the second application that I have had issues with that went away with the Steam overlay being disabled. I wonder if there is a connection.