Tomb Raider Crash Problem

[Orangello]

So, I have a problem with a problem the game not launching.

I pre-downloaded Tomb Raider last week and attempted to play it yesterday. When pressing play, there is a brief loading icon next to my mouse but afterward there is no response. If I press play again, is says "Failed to start game (app already running)" though it is not visible nor does it show under running programs or processes. I believe it is crashing as there is a crash MDMP file in the local game file.

Steps I have taken:

I have verified the integrity of the cache and it finds no problems.
I have run in compatability mode and as administrator.
Created a backup and tried to run offline
Completely uninstalled and reinstalled the game
Completely uninstalled and reinstalled steam and then the game

I still get the same error. This is the only game I am unable to launch, all of the others work fine.

As a side note, when I create a desktop shortcut, it is created as Tomb Raider.url, which when I open asks if I want to allow Steam to open a program on my computer with Address:steam://rungameid/203160

At this point, I'm not sure what step to take next, any help or direction would be appreciated.

Thanks

[Felix]

Follow the instructions given in this Support Article and see if it helps:
Steam Support -> Games do not run after 'Preparing to Launch'

I understand you have already done a few steps listed here, but try the others.

[Chunk of Norris]

I've had lots of trouble too. But it works now. I was first running win 8 and I couldn't even go to options from the launcher without the game crashing. After going back to win 7, I was able to go into options and disable "exclusive fullscreen" and the game worked. It still runs in fullscreen so I don't know what the "exclusive" part is.

The game still crashes from time to time, but it's playable. There seems to be many others having problems with the game as well.

Hope this helps you!

[Chunk of Norris]

Found a good article on the subject too:
http://noble-press.com/2013/03/tomb-raider-pc-issues/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=tomb-raider-pc-issues

[Orangello]

Thanks Guys,

This might seem like a silly question, but how do I open the Setup menu where the "exclusive fullscreen" button is?

[Orangello]

I'm assuming that's in the splash screen, but it's not opening for me for some reason.

[Chunk of Norris]

It's in the options from the splash screen. If you can't open that I'm not sure. I had to go to win 7 before it let me. Try following the other instructions first maybe.

[Orangello]

I firgured it out, I had to Change my NVIDIA driver for the splash screen to come up and then change the fullscreen setting.

Thanks you very much, that link was great!

[aidzbruhh]

Hey Orangello, I have the exact same problem you had! I can't even launch the damn game!

I updated to the latest nvidia drivers (314.21) before installing the game. I don't know if this has anything to do with it, but I notice that in the install folder it is creating a new .mdmp file every time I try to start the game! I really don't know what to do!

How did you change your nvidia driver? I've been trying to fix this for three days straight to no avail... :(

[Chunk of Norris]

With the 314.21 driver it works just fine for me. Don't even have to uncheck the "exclusive fullsceen". Sorry I can't help you.

[AnonVendetta]

I've had issues with exclusive fullscreen so i disabled it. I think that means that the game expects to have exclusive control of your whole screen while it's running, so any other programs that try to make use of your monitor may cause a crash. Every game I've played that can use exclusive fullscreen has been crash prone until i turned it off in the game settings, it's not just TR. Regular fullscreen is just where the game runs in fullscreen, Alt-Tabbing tends to cause less issues in this case. The game runs fine for me now and rarely crashes. I have the latest NVIDIA drivers (stable) installed, 670M.

[TechnoZ]

Try change this settings:

Launch the Registry Editor (open the Start screen/Start menu, type regedit, hit Enter).
Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Crystal Dynamics\Tomb Raider\Graphics
Modify RenderAPI value to 9.

Note: Revert to 0 for DX11, anything else will result in DX11 renderer with some DX11 features disabled.