(Solved-for some) Why does this game crash upon start up now, even without mods?

[jeradjohnso]

Fresh install, haven't played in about a year or so.

-Rebooted
-Turned off 3rd party overlays, and run with admin
-updated drivers
-deleted workshop content and verified integrity through steam so that content is up to date.
-turned off all mods from the launcher
-There is no mod content that I can see in the game's data folder, contrary some articles.

Still crashes after hitting play from the launcher with no warning or error messages.

Any suggestions?

___________________________

(Update: got the game running

Thanks for Ming for the registries solution that worked for myself and some others. Here is a link to the Total War forums where I wrote everything out in detail, along with the thing that worked for me. If the problem persists for you, please keep the discussion alive, and hopefully you will find something.

https://forums.totalwar.com/discussion/279276/crash-on-startup-with-fresh-install-and-no-mods#latest

[Cat®]

Well, you've done all the stuff that isn't a pain in your butt. I'd say at this rate try updating your video drivers, and if that doesn't work I guess it's time to uninstall, delete all files, and reinstall. A mod might have left something behind that is messing with it.

Other than escalating the troubleshooting process I couldn't say. But unless you've changed hardware or done something particularly strange with your rig I'd put my money on there being some residual files from a mod. Might be worth deleting even your configs and saves just in case something strange has happened.

[davidsmithpsn]

So I had this happen a lot during my old computer days who died during a puppy rampage (RIP old computer) I would verify game files (doesn't work a lot but it is something to try fast) Then look at your scripts the one you want to delete starts with a P (it's been a while since I had to do it) Its like Preferred scripts or Personal scripts. All it does is change the settings you prefer like adviser settings and graphics. Game should be fine. You could delete it all too and just reinstall but that takes time. Another thing I found that helps is the launcher. Opt out of the new launcher in the betas (I think it is where you change it.) It used to happen to me alot but my new hardware it hasn't happened in the longest time. AS Cat said check drivers again. Good luck. There should still be a forum somewhere about which file to look up.

[jeradjohnso]

-Deleted Steam cache
-Installed Kaedrin mod manager, in order to properly clean all the mods, and launched from the manager a few times, then tried the game launcher. Then deleted the mod manager.
-Played around with my refresh rate as per some stupid comment in the forums, no effect.
-I have located my appdata/ roaming / creative folder and deleted everything, the whole thing.
-Deleted some dll files I thought might be leftover reshades, but I was wrong, they were just game files, and verified integrity again.
-Opted into the beta through steam, no effect, opted out.

No change, still crashes.

Side note, the level of support on the official forums is deplorable. I am shocked by how many people post about this issue with no response from the devs.

Another factor since last year when I played frequently, I have upgraded from a budget LG monitor to an Alienware gaming monitor. This is the only hardware change I've made since the game ran fine.

I will be trying a couple more last resorts, and will update in a bit.

[jeradjohnso]

Originally posted by davidsmithpsn:

So I had this happen a lot during my old computer days who died during a puppy rampage (RIP old computer) I would verify game files (doesn't work a lot but it is something to try fast) Then look at your scripts the one you want to delete starts with a P (it's been a while since I had to do it) Its like Preferred scripts or Personal scripts. All it does is change the settings you prefer like adviser settings and graphics. Game should be fine. You could delete it all too and just reinstall but that takes time. Another thing I found that helps is the launcher. Opt out of the new launcher in the betas (I think it is where you change it.) It used to happen to me alot but my new hardware it hasn't happened in the longest time. AS Cat said check drivers again. Good luck. There should still be a forum somewhere about which file to look up.

Yes I tried verifying 4 or so times this morning already, as I mentioned. Its not really a factor besides deleting things and redownloading to make sure they are actually up to date such as workshop content.

Keep in mind, I mentioned in my first post that this game failing to launch is happening on a completely fresh install with all mods turned off.

[Lady MacBeth]

So sounds like you may need to go the full nuclear option. So uninstall like you have already. Then go into your steam folders and delete the warhammer 2 folder. Get rid of the app data folder for the game again. Then you are going to clean your registry with CCleaner or a similiar program(this is the most important step of this process generally). Repeat with the cleaner till you get no registry errors. Restart computer. Reinstall game.

[jeradjohnso]

-Upon reinstalling the game... I uninstalled through steam while being very thorough to check some things, navigated to my steam common folder and deleted the entire game folder (the only leftover files were launcher version data with one or two lines of code which I deleted), also checked the workshop folder and yes everything was gone, and then reinstalled the game making sure steam isn't leaving any oopsies behind.
-Double checked that steam cloud sync was turned off, phew that setting is a nightmare if It is what I think it is.
-Manually checked Nvidia site to make sure the latest driver was what was listed in Geforce Experience. It was.

@Ming, haha you beat me to it, I nuked everyting I could find. Sadly no effect. I will make a note to check into the registries in a bit though.

I am currently opting into all the beta's available through steam, and testing them. Kind of a slow process. But will report back. I've read articles that say that the launcher beta tends to not recognize DLC, so hoping that's old news.

[jeradjohnso]

-Live Beta
-Launcher Beta

No effect.

[jeradjohnso]

-Another side note I forgot to mention, is when I nuked the Creative folder in App data / roaming, I also checked the error logs... and none of these crashes have been even been logged there. I think the last ones were from over a year ago when I was modding things.

[jeradjohnso]

-1.10.1

no effect.

[jeradjohnso]

-1.9.2 rollback

no effect. :(

[Lady MacBeth]

Originally posted by jeradjohnso:

-Upon reinstalling the game... I uninstalled through steam while being very thorough to check some things, navigated to my steam common folder and deleted the entire game folder (the only leftover files were launcher version data with one or two lines of code which I deleted), also checked the workshop folder and yes everything was gone, and then reinstalled the game making sure steam isn't leaving any oopsies behind.
-Double checked that steam cloud sync was turned off, phew that setting is a nightmare if It is what I think it is.
-Manually checked Nvidia site to make sure the latest driver was what was listed in Geforce Experience. It was.

@Ming, haha you beat me to it, I nuked everyting I could find. Sadly no effect. I will make a note to check into the registries in a bit though.

I am currently opting into all the beta's available through steam, and testing them. Kind of a slow process. But will report back. I've read articles that say that the launcher beta tends to not recognize DLC, so hoping that's old news.

The thing about the registry is you don't want ANYTHING installed from this game when you do it. I listed things in a very particular order for a reason.

[jeradjohnso]

Originally posted by Ming:

Originally posted by jeradjohnso:

-Upon reinstalling the game... I uninstalled through steam while being very thorough to check some things, navigated to my steam common folder and deleted the entire game folder (the only leftover files were launcher version data with one or two lines of code which I deleted), also checked the workshop folder and yes everything was gone, and then reinstalled the game making sure steam isn't leaving any oopsies behind.
-Double checked that steam cloud sync was turned off, phew that setting is a nightmare if It is what I think it is.
-Manually checked Nvidia site to make sure the latest driver was what was listed in Geforce Experience. It was.

@Ming, haha you beat me to it, I nuked everyting I could find. Sadly no effect. I will make a note to check into the registries in a bit though.

I am currently opting into all the beta's available through steam, and testing them. Kind of a slow process. But will report back. I've read articles that say that the launcher beta tends to not recognize DLC, so hoping that's old news.

The thing about the registry is you don't want ANYTHING installed from this game when you do it. I listed things in a very particular order for a reason.

@Ming, hey I am sorry for not trying this sooner, I wanted to wait until I could try a couple things before reinstalling, and it took a long time to download.

Seems like cleaning my entire registries with the free version of the program you mentioned did the trick. Thank you so much. I will make sure to mention this on the forums as well.

-Uninstalled the game...Used CCleaner free version, cleaned registries. Rebooted. Cleaned registries again. Installed the game.

Game seems to launch to main menu no problem :) Thanks again.

[Lampros]

I am having the same issue; I've never seen this before.

[Cat®]

Originally posted by jeradjohnso:

Originally posted by Ming:

The thing about the registry is you don't want ANYTHING installed from this game when you do it. I listed things in a very particular order for a reason.

@Ming, hey I am sorry for not trying this sooner, I wanted to wait until I could try a couple things before reinstalling, and it took a long time to download.

Seems like cleaning my entire registries with the free version of the program you mentioned did the trick. Thank you so much. I will make sure to mention this on the forums as well.

-Uninstalled the game...Used CCleaner free version, cleaned registries. Rebooted. Cleaned registries again. Installed the game.

Game seems to launch to main menu no problem :) Thanks again.

Mark it as the solution in case someone googles onto the thread.

[Lampros]

Originally posted by Cat®:

Originally posted by jeradjohnso:

@Ming, hey I am sorry for not trying this sooner, I wanted to wait until I could try a couple things before reinstalling, and it took a long time to download.

Seems like cleaning my entire registries with the free version of the program you mentioned did the trick. Thank you so much. I will make sure to mention this on the forums as well.

-Uninstalled the game...Used CCleaner free version, cleaned registries. Rebooted. Cleaned registries again. Installed the game.

Game seems to launch to main menu no problem :) Thanks again.

Mark it as the solution in case someone googles onto the thread.

It didn't work for me :(