Can't play Dead Space 2 (Always end up in the Activation Wizard) **SOLVED**

[plm999]

I'm trying to play Dead Space 2. I bought it a few months ago, just tried to load it and play it. It downloaded and installed, went through activation, everything looks good, "Activation Sucessful", then.....nothing happens.
I go back to the Steam app, the game status is "ready to play", click it again, goes through activation process agan, says I sucessfully activated the game AGAIN. It just does that every time I try to play the game. It never launches the game.
How do I fix it?
Thanks.

[crunchyfrog]

Escrito originalmente por plm999:

OK, so Malwarebytes found something it didn't like, I removed it.
Set the UAC to OFF.
Went through the list of "Known to interfere", disabled Google updater and Google toolbar
Updated my BIOS from 2.8 to 2.9
all of my software is up to date
DEP is the one I couldn't do. Tried to set it to "Turn on all except.." then add steam to it, I get a message: "This program must run with DEP enabled..."
Will try disabling audio, etc. next

Long shot, but on that thread I linked, have you tried disabling the visual themes within Windows, as that has caused such errors?

[TastyToast]

are you opted into the steam client beta? if so maybe try opting out and restarting steam?

[crunchyfrog]

Escrito originalmente por TastyToast:

are you opted into the steam client beta? if so maybe try opting out and restarting steam?

I don't think that'd help, to be frank, as this is a specific Dead Space 2 problem.

[TastyToast]

Escrito originalmente por crunchyfrog:

Escrito originalmente por TastyToast:

are you opted into the steam client beta? if so maybe try opting out and restarting steam?

I don't think that'd help, to be frank, as this is a specific Dead Space 2 problem.

helped when my fiance was having a similar issue with a differetn game. almost identical issue.

[crunchyfrog]

Escrito originalmente por TastyToast:

Escrito originalmente por crunchyfrog:

I don't think that'd help, to be frank, as this is a specific Dead Space 2 problem.

helped when my fiance was having a similar issue with a differetn game. almost identical issue.

Fair enough then. In that case, worth a try.

[plm999]

OK, changed to plain Windows 7 desktop. Didn't do anything.
I think the main clue is that in safe mode, it at least tries to start the game. Out of safe mode, even with practically everything turned off, it goes straignt to this Validation process, so the game isn't even attempting to start yet.
I tried all the parameters e.g.
-nosound -windowed -etc
no change because it isn't even getting that far.
There's something it doesn't like. Right now I open my task manager and the list is as follows:
csrss.exe
dwn.exe
explorer.exe
IAStorIcon.exe (this is a mystery so I killed it, I hate mysterys anymore!)
igfxpers.exe
iusb3mon.exe
msseces.exe
nvtray.exe
nvvsvc.exe
nvxdsync.exe
RAVCpl64.exe (Realtec audio)
Steam,exe *32
taskhost.exe
taskmgr.exe
winlogon.exe

Anything out of place?

[TastyToast]

Escrito originalmente por crunchyfrog:

Escrito originalmente por TastyToast:

helped when my fiance was having a similar issue with a differetn game. almost identical issue.

Fair enough then. In that case, worth a try.

cant hurt right? =)
also if you cant get it to work, you can snag your cd key and make an origin account and activate it on there and try downloading it through there. if it doesnt activate the key on origin open a support ticket with them and tell them the key and ask them to add it to your account. nice back up plan.

[crunchyfrog]

Escrito originalmente por plm999:

OK, changed to plain Windows 7 desktop. Didn't do anything.
I think the main clue is that in safe mode, it at least tries to start the game. Out of safe mode, even with practically everything turned off, it goes straignt to this Validation process, so the game isn't even attempting to start yet.
I tried all the parameters e.g.
-nosound -windowed -etc
no change because it isn't even getting that far.
There's something it doesn't like. Right now I open my task manager and the list is as follows:
csrss.exe
dwn.exe
explorer.exe
IAStorIcon.exe (this is a mystery so I killed it, I hate mysterys anymore!)
igfxpers.exe
iusb3mon.exe
msseces.exe
nvtray.exe
nvvsvc.exe
nvxdsync.exe
RAVCpl64.exe (Realtec audio)
Steam,exe *32
taskhost.exe
taskmgr.exe
winlogon.exe

Anything out of place?

The only thing that still springs to mind is again that which I linked in that thread - to disabled the Nividia UI thingy (sorry, forgot what it's called).

I hope you did read that thread?

[spoof]

the list of software is not good enough to check I have 3 things in that list that I been using just as long as I use steam never a single problem with them.

you cant judge whats is good or bad on your system you showed that by now.
google the heck out of every single installed program or share it.

and saying what malwarebytes found is helpfull to see if you need to take more action on that side of things.

[plm999]

@spoof, Malwarebytes didn't like somehting called "Browsersafeguard". It removed it from the system.It's been accused of being spyware.

@crunchyfrog, I'm only running a single monitor with a single GTX660 Nvidia card, and I can't find a setup.txt file anywhere. Sorry, I must have missed the part about an Nvidia UI. I re-read the thread and didn't see it.

The major clue is, when I launch the game in "normal boot", all I get is the activation wizard.
When I launch the game in "safe mode" the game actually tries to launch, but fails because there is no video driver.
I'm not sure how it could be a Nvidia issue, but I guess it could.
Right clicking on the deadspace2.exe, selecting "Troubleshoot Compatibility", no matter which version of Windows I choose, launching the activation wizard. So I don't think this is a windows compatibility issue.
I'll see if a new video driver is available, as the major difference between safe mode and normal mode are video drivers, but it seems like a long shot.

[spoof]

thats just a PUP nothing to write home about.

[plm999]

It was the video driver all this time. Problem solved, the game loads. I feel like an idiot! My driver was August 2013. A new one was release in October. But it had nothing to do with graphics, it was "Validation"? Oh well, live and learn.

[spoof]

I stil ldont get the activation wizzard thing but I am all for fixes and do not question any of them.