Tomb Raider Underworld crash on launch

[MiKE41]

Hey all,

I spent the past few days troubleshooting an issue where my main system wouldn't launch Tomb Raider Underworld. After trying numerous things, I finally found something that worked.

The issue appears to be that the game is unable to address 32 (or more?) CPU cores, which puts the Ryzen 3950x right on the limit. I can get the game to launch if I either turn off CPU cores in BIOS, or if I launch the game with the affinity set to 31 CPU cores (or fewer).

I'm using a command like this to launch the game with the affinity set to 31 CPU cores (The folder may change based on where you have the game installed).

cmd.exe /c cd /d "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Tomb Raider Underworld" && start /affinity 7FFFFFFF tru.exe

Hopefully this helps someone in future.

[QHD_144hz_MLED_5ms]

Doesn't the Ryzen 9 3950X have like 16 cores, 32 threads? Then again, my Core i5 9300H was detected as octa-core by SteamVR benchmark when my processor really just has 4 cores but 8 threads.

[simone.harada]

Thank you so much MiKE41 for your tip, I just updated my PC with your same CPU and thought it was a video card problem and was about to give up ...

[Lt Cmdr Dota]

Thanks - had the same problem with a 5950x. Would never have guessed core count was the problem. Just played a little bit of all of the TR games going right back to the original. The only one that gave me technical problems was of course the most recent. Sods law!

[prensyabgu]

Good solution.

[Arrow_Raider]

This fixed it for me. How does 7FFFFFFF represent 31? It is 2,147,483,647 in decimal

[The Fifth Horseman]

Originally posted by Arrow_Raider:

This fixed it for me. How does 7FFFFFFF represent 31? It is 2,147,483,647 in decimal

Write it out in binary.

[derebelizer]

Still doesn't work for me (Ryzen Threadripper 1950) and yes - I even corrected the path

[Arrow_Raider]

I found that if you change the affinity of Steam, the game will launch. Open Task Manager, right click on Steam and choose Set Affinity. Deselect some cores and then TRU will be able to run. There is no way to keep the setting, so everytime Steam is launched, this must be performed.

[derebelizer]

@Arrow_Raider: Perfect, thanks, that worked!

[Krimzon Knight]

Originally posted by Arrow_Raider:

I found that if you change the affinity of Steam, the game will launch. Open Task Manager, right click on Steam and choose Set Affinity. Deselect some cores and then TRU will be able to run. There is no way to keep the setting, so everytime Steam is launched, this must be performed.

I just encountered this problem for TRU, and this fixed it. I'd had similar problems with Lara Croft: Guardian of Light and so I tried this and that allowed the game to Launch properly!

I tried Lara Croft: Temple of Osiris as well and it crashed when set to all cores, but when set to 30 or fewer it seemed to run fine.

So I would say that this is the fix for Tomb Raider Underworld, Guardian of Light, and Temple of Osiris.

(Primarily posting so that if anyone is encountering an issue with the Lara Croft games not starting properly they can find and try this)

[Raven ♥ [UK]]

i tried the command line but it keeps saying it cant find file tru.exe, even though its right there under k:\steamlibrary etc.... cant the same command be used for steam and just add to launch parameters under the game?

[Raven ♥ [UK]]

nope i tried disabling cpu 4 node 1 to cpu 27 node 1 to only have 31 cores active on the steam.exe it still didnt work ie only cpu 1 node 0 to cpu 27 node 0 cpu 0 node 1, cpu 1 node 1, cpu 2 node 1 and cpu 3 node 1 working.

[Raven ♥ [UK]]

well that sux everytime i wanna play this game i have to disable the secondary intel Xeon CPU ie cpu 0 node 1 to cpu 27 node 1 in order to play the game everytime cant get command lines to work have to go through task manager every fcking time.

[Raven ♥ [UK]]

there has to be a an affinity patch for this by now surely?

[Thanathos]

damn I remember when my Gateway FX laptop could barely run this game back in the late 2000's and now with my ryzen 7950x I can't even open lol, times have changed lol