Try this if some games won't start and you've tried everything

[Leah96xxx]

I've recently been encountering an issue where some games will simply refuse to start. At first I thought these issues were in the game themselves or were caused by compatibility issues, I even built a new computer but still had the same problem. I trawled the Steam Community and Google for help but nothing I found worked. Then, after a little bit of trial-and-error, I discovered what seems to be the cause of an issue that many people seem to have overlooked by thinking it's a problem with hardware or drivers etc..

It turns out that if you use RivaTuner Statistics Server (RTSS) (included with MSI Afterburner) to display in-game system information, some games will simply refuse to start due to slightly over-protective anti-cheat systems - even with RTSS running in stealth mode.

To fix this simply open RTSS, click "Add", navigate to the game's folder in the steamapps directory and select it's exe file. This will create a new RTSS profile for that application. Select the new profile then set the "Application detection level" to "none" and voila, your game should start.

I'm guessing that many of you already know this, but I'm posting this for those of us out there who, like me, have a limited understanding of how RTSS works and how it is affected by certain anti-cheat systems.

If you don't have RTSS or Afterburner installed then I'm afraid that your issue probably is a hardware, driver or compatibility problem.

[vessel]

whats RTSS?

[Leah96xxx]

Originally posted by PastelGalaxy:

whats RTSS?

RivaTuner Statistics Server (RTSS) is an application that provides an in-game on-screen display allowing you to monitor system information from MSI Afterburner, HWiNFO or other hardware monitoring apps. It is included with MSI Afterburner and is also available as a standalone app.

If you're not concerned about keeping an eye on your temperatures and system loads then you probably haven't installed it, unless you accidentally installed it when you installed Afterburner to control your graphics card's fan speed.