PC GOG version crashes on start.

[Zizifothsi]

I bought the GOG version of this game a couple of days ago, but every time I try to play it, it crashes. I get a black screen with a gauntleted cursor, but that's as far as it goes - no logos, no music, etc.

 

I've tried pretty much every fix I could find online - uninstalling, reinstalling, assorted compatibility modes, updating drivers, you name it. Nothing has worked. If I run the game in 256 colour mode, it is able to generate an error log, which it doesn't do if I try to run it normally.

 

My computer has never had a problem running recent games, so I don't think it's a hardware problem, but I could be wrong.

 

I'm kind of tearing my hair out here, can anyone help?

[Zizifothsi]

DxDiag.txt output_log.txt

 

Here's my system information and the output log from the most recent crash; in the meantime I'm upgrading my graphics driver again and re-installing to see if that does anything.

[Aarik D]

Hello Zizifothsi,

 

Welcome to the Forums and I apologize for the inconvenience. It does appear that your graphics card may be the issue. Updating the drivers should stop the crashing from occurring. Let me know how it goes after you have done so.

 

Thank you for your support. 

[Zizifothsi]

I've updated my graphics driver, but now I have a different issue - the game doesn't launch at all! If I open the task manager, it shows that the pillarsofeternity.exe process is running, but not the application - and I can't get an error log because of this. 

[Aarik D]

Hello again,

 

Since you are playing from GoG, you wont be able to verify your game files, I suggest uninstalling the game and reinstalling it or download the Galaxy Client and play the game from there. 

 

Keep me posted, thanks!

[Zizifothsi]

I'm still having issues I'm afraid! I completely uninstalled Pillars of Eternity, and re-downloaded and re-installed it through the GOG galaxy client. I still cannot launch the game while running the most recent nvidia driver (GeForce 358.50) - again, the task manager says that the process is running, but the application doesn't show as running.

 

I tried going back to an earlier version of the graphics driver (GeForce 353.30) and with that I was able to get a black screen and then an error message again. I've attached the output log from that attempt. I also have an output log from an attempt to launch the game in 256 colour mode - would this be useful? 

output_log.txt

[Aurelio]

From the logs it looks like the game is not using the nvidia card but the inten HD3000 onboard graphics card.

 

OpenGL:
    Version:  OpenGL 3.1 [3.1.0 - Build 9.17.10.4229]
    Renderer: Intel® HD Graphics 3000
    Vendor:   Intel
    VRAM:     880 MB (via DXGI)

 

Maybe you can force it to use the nvidia card?

 

Maybe this helps:

Edited October 21, 2015 by Aurelio

[Zizifothsi]

I've set it now so it always uses the nvidia card, but the game still won't launch, even in 256 colour mode (sometimes 256 colour mode lets the game generate an error log when other modes don't). I'm going to see what happens if I leave the process running in the background for a while, but otherwise I'm stumped. I'm very grateful for all the help I'm getting here though, thank you! 

[Aarik D]

Hello Zizifothsi,

 

Try running the game or the client as an administrator and see if that works. 

 

Thank you for looking into this Aurelio. I appreciate your assistance. 

[Zizifothsi]

Unfortunately running the game and/or the client as an administrator makes no difference right now.

[Aurelio]

Does it create a different error log? The devs should tell if the card listed in the output log, is the card, the game tries to use.

 

Not sure if there is a different way to force the graphic card to use.

[Zizifothsi]

Unfortunately I can't get the game to generate an error log while running the Nvidia GeForce 358.50 - the process starts in the background, but the game doesn't launch, and thus cannot properly crash! 

[Aarik D]

Lets try something here.

 

1. Restart your computer

2. Open the Galaxy Client

3. Click on Pillars of Eternity

4. Click on More

5. Manage

6. Verify/Repair.

 

Once that finishes, play the game and see if that works for you. 

[Aurelio]

Just a few ideas... if you have any codec packs installed, try to deinstall them, to see if it helps.

I also read somewhere, that running a program called "gpu meter" forced the pc to use nvidia card. Worth a try.

 

Maybe it helps also to uninstall the both graphic drivers first, reboot the pc and install them again. The first output_log.txt shows serious errors trying to use the graphic card and seems to use a generic driver.

[Aarik D]

On top of Aurelio's suggestions, run Windows Update, it may have some critical files/software updates you may require. 

[Zizifothsi]

Aha - windows update is completely screwed, and hasn't installed the last 20 updates! I'm trying to get that to work at the minute, and I'm hoping that resolves my issues with Pillars of Eternity!

[Aarik D]

Great! Let me know if that works out for you.

 

Cheers.

[Zizifothsi]

Well, I ended up upgrading to windows 10 once I fixed windows update, and now Pillars of Eternity seems to be working! I haven't had a chance to play it properly yet but I think this might be fixed!

[Aarik D]

Fantastic! If anything comes up again, please let me know. Remember when upgrading to a new OS, make sure you have everything with the proper windows 10 drivers. 

 

Cheers!