Game crashing while loading

[nicotinamine]

I recently bought Stellaris since it was on sale on Steam and had issues with starting the game. I've tried the below:

If you have problems starting the game in any way, try the following:

• Set the game to run in windowed mode instead of fullscreen
• Disable any user made mods
• Verify the game cache (right click Stellaris in Steam -> Properties -> Local Files -> “Verify integrity of game cache”)
• Delete the …\Documents\Paradox Interactive\Stellaris -folder on your computer (make sure to backup any save files you may have in there)
• Restart the Steam client
• Go to ...\Steam\steamapps\common\Stellaris\ and starting stellaris.exe by right clicking and selecting "Run as Administrator"
• Add 'stellaris.exe' to exclusion list on any anti-malware or anti-virus software. Stellaris will try to write to your 'Documents' -folder, which may cause some security software to react.

If the game still won’t start after doing the above steps, then completely reinstall the game.

I have also tried it with fullscreen, VSync off and 60 refresh rate and have also tried to run the game with a new Microsoft user to no avail.

Could I get some guidance on this issue? Thank you in advance.

 

[AndrewT]

Right-click on stellaris.exe, properties, compatibility. Tick "disable fullscreen optimizations" untick every other box in that dialog, Apply, and exit.
Then in the launcher Game Settings menu, select the fullScreen display mode, Vsync off, refresh rate 60.


If that doesn't help:
DXDIAG is a program you run from the Windows search box on the task bar. After running it will open a window and start collecting info with a progress bar in the lower-left corner. When it completes click the 'save all information' button and save it to a file then attach that file here. IF dxdiag.txt fails to attach here, rename it to dxdiag.log , or zip it up. Thanks.

Please attach here your Documents/Paradox Interactive/Stellaris/settings.txt and pdx_settings.txt .
From your Documents/Paradox Interactive/Stellaris/logs/ folder, attach here system.log , error.log , exceptions.log

 

[nicotinamine]

It tells me my error.log is empty and my exceptions.log is nonexistent. I will just send what I can for now.

 

[AndrewT]

The settings changes I gave you are in pdx_settings.txt but not settings.txt , indicating the game itself did not start - only the launcher.

You haven't described what the actual problem is though - when you hit PLAY in Steam do you see our launcher? What exactly happens?

if you do see our launcher, what happens when you hiit play in it?

 

[nicotinamine]

The launcher comes up and then when I hit play it loads for a while, maybe until around 50%, then crashes. I've never played the game before so that might be why I don't have some files?

 

[AndrewT]

Even so the game should write to settings.txt immediately. Hmmm.

Your Intel Xe video driver dates from 2021, please check with HUAWEI for an updated version, failing that with Intel

Download Intel Drivers and Software

Download new and previously released drivers including support software, bios, utilities, firmware and patches for Intel products.

downloadcenter.intel.com

And In your Steam Library right-click on this game and choose Properties. In the Launch Options line, paste this in there:
-dx9

If those steps too don't help, make a new Windows user on this machine and try the game under that - any better?

 

[nicotinamine]

I did the above and it does seem to load completely now but when it finishes loading, it's just a black screen. It's also a sort of pixelated black screen while it's loading.

 

[AndrewT]

Can we get new copies of all those files now please.

Then, make a new Windows user on this machine and try the game under that.


If still a problem, Please install and run the free utility Speccy. Send its output to a text file and attach that here, thanks.

Speccy - Free Download

Download Speccy - the System Information tool

www.ccleaner.com

 

[nicotinamine]

Here are the files, I'll check it out on a new user after it posts.

errors.log is still empty and exceptions.log still doesn't exist

 

[nicotinamine]

Good news, it works on a different user.

 

[AndrewT]

You said above you'd done the steps I gave you, but that Intel Xe video driver is still the old one? Was it that you can't find a newer one, or it won't install or something?

In any case as it works on a new user, that is not the problem. The old user must have some app or utility running that is getting in the way, or a registry problem, or it is bad or corrupted in some way.

In that old user go into Startup Apps and disable everything, and reboot. If the problem is still there, run Ccleaner or similar utility to clean up the registry of that user.

Good luck!

 

[nicotinamine]

Ah? That's weird, I did install it but I guess something went wrong? Sorry, was very sleep deprived while doing the installations I don't remember what exactly happened but I do remember an Intel launcher app open.

Anyway, I will do the above and hope for the best. Thank you so much for helping!