Loading error (exit code null), could not play game prior either

[SunsetPhoenix]

While trying to load the game after 1.5.10 the game would repeatedly freeze my entire computer while loading and the few times it did load it would take 10-15 minutes. My laptop reaches the spec requirements. I tried deleting the shadercache file and such but it would just reappear and the issue would stay.

I had to delete saves from the saves file in Paradox Interactive -> Victoria 3 -> save games due to an interface bug with deleting old saves and now it is giving me a loading error in the Paradox launcher v2.

I have verified files and even uninstalled and reinstalled the game but the error persists.

What can I do for either problem?

 

[prismaticmarcus]

Moved to Tech Support

 

[AndrewT]

Right click on victoria3.exe , properties, compatibility. Tick "disable fullScreen optimisations" untick every other box in that dialog, Apply and exit.
Then in the launcher Game Settings menu, select fullScreen display mode, Vsync off, cap refresh rate at 60.


If those don'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.

Please attach here your Documents/Paradox Interactive/Victoria3/pdx_settings.json .
From your Documents/Paradox Interactive/Victoria3/logs/ folder, attach here system.log , error.log , exceptions.log

 

[SunsetPhoenix]

Right click on victoria3.exe , properties, compatibility. Tick "disable fullScreen optimisations" untick every other box in that dialog, Apply and exit.
Then in the launcher Game Settings menu, select fullScreen display mode, Vsync off, cap refresh rate at 60.


If those don'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.

Please attach here your Documents/Paradox Interactive/Victoria3/pdx_settings.json .
From your Documents/Paradox Interactive/Victoria3/logs/ folder, attach here system.log , error.log , exceptions.log

Capping refresh rate and such has not worked. I think it is due to fact I erased some save data from the files rather than the game? It seems to want that data restored before it will load.

 

[SunsetPhoenix]

Right click on victoria3.exe , properties, compatibility. Tick "disable fullScreen optimisations" untick every other box in that dialog, Apply and exit.
Then in the launcher Game Settings menu, select fullScreen display mode, Vsync off, cap refresh rate at 60.


If those don'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.

Please attach here your Documents/Paradox Interactive/Victoria3/pdx_settings.json .
From your Documents/Paradox Interactive/Victoria3/logs/ folder, attach here system.log , error.log , exceptions.log

There is no exceptions.log in the folder

 

[AndrewT]

I think it is due to fact I erased some save data from the files rather than the game? It seems to want that data restored before it will load.

I'm not sure what you are saying there, sorry. Deleting a save file will not stop the game from running.


In any case, the issue may be that this machine does not (quite!) meet any of the game's hardware requirements:

Processor: Intel® Core™ i3-3250 or AMD® FX 8370 (AVX support required)
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Graphics: Nvidia® GeForce™ GTX 660 (2GB) or AMD® R7 370 (2GB) or Intel® HD Graphics 630 or AMD Radeon™ Vega 8

The closest is memory, so make sure you unload all other apps and processes before you start the game.

If that doesn't help, does reverting to the last game version that worked for you, get it going again?Or still a problem then?

 

[SunsetPhoenix]

I'm not sure what you are saying there, sorry. Deleting a save file will not stop the game from running.


In any case, the issue may be that this machine does not (quite!) meet any of the game's hardware requirements:


The closest is memory, so make sure you unload all other apps and processes before you start the game.

If that doesn't help, does reverting to the last game version that worked for you, get it going again?Or still a problem then?

I have tried many game versions and still it is citing missing data as the problem. I never have any other apps open or running while the game is. Would setting it as high priority in task manager help? This is the error if it helps (I have installed the things it has asked and verified files etc. but the error still persists).

 

[AndrewT]

That message does not mention missing data; it talks about 2 Windows packages that MAY need updating. It is a generic one that the launcher puts up when the game fails to start for any reason; the launcher has no way of specifically diagnosing what prevented the game from starting.

If your Windows was missing those DLLs or had older versions, we'd see them called out when you ran Victoria3.exe directly from File Explorer. But we don't;your issue is elsewhere.


I think you are saying that game versions that used to work no longer do, is that right? if so something must have changed in Windows or elsewhere on this machine since then! Hard to guess what though.

What antivirus app do you use? Make sure victoria3.exe is in all. its exceptions lists.

And you might try this Windows repair tool:

Use the System File Checker tool to repair missing or corrupted system files - Microsoft Support

Describes how to use the System File Checker tool to troubleshoot missing or corrupted system files in Windows.

support.microsoft.com

If those don't help, please install and run the free utility Speccy. Send its output to a text file and attach that here please.

Speccy - Free Download

Download Speccy - the System Information tool

www.ccleaner.com

 

[SunsetPhoenix]

I have tried all versions and the error still persists. Is there anything I can do other than this? I really want to be able to play the game.

 

[AndrewT]

So game versions that used to work on this computer no longer do. That pretty much has to be a Windows or other local issue!

I see you have Nortons; make sure victoria3.exe is in all its exceptions lists AND it is not doing realtime scanning of the Documents/Paradox Interactive/Victoria3 folders.

I'm still worried about the hardware specs, but again if older game versions used to run , they should still

I see OneDrive is running. Right click on Documents in the left column of File Explorer, just under This PC there. Go to properties, location. What does it say there? If it mentions OD that can be a problem too, especially if it is not syncing properly.

I don't see anything else in these files to cause this!

 

[SunsetPhoenix]

So game versions that used to work on this computer no longer do. That pretty much has to be a Windows or other local issue!

I see you have Nortons; make sure victoria3.exe is in all its exceptions lists AND it is not doing realtime scanning of the Documents/Paradox Interactive/Victoria3 folders.

I'm still worried about the hardware specs, but again if older game versions used to run , they should still

I see OneDrive is running. Right click on Documents in the left column of File Explorer, just under This PC there. Go to properties, location. What does it say there? If it mentions OD that can be a problem too, especially if it is not syncing properly.

I don't see anything else in these files to cause this!

I have played the game with Norton before this issue. The issue came about after I deleted a save file directly from the Victoria 3 -> savegames folder rather than in the game. Nothing had changed about my computer (I got everything set up prior) before this issue and I could play 1.5.11 fine before this happened (1.5.12 came out while this issue has been around). It says it has an exit code of null which I assume means that something has corrupted in the files. Can I delete everything inside Paradox Interactive -> Victoria 3 -> inside the folder and verify files on Steam to check?

 

[AndrewT]

Can I delete everything inside Paradox Interactive -> Victoria 3 -> inside the folder and verify files on Steam to check?

That folder is not created by Steam, and a Steam Verify will do nothing about it - that only checks files that Steam placed, which are all in the Steam/Vic3 folder.

That folder is made and populated by our launcher and the game.


But yes, we can do a full clean re-install:

- move any valued save games elsewhere
- "uninstall" in Steam-Vic3
- manually delete both the Steam/SteamApps/common/Victoria3 AND Documents/Paradox Interactive/Victoria3 folders
- re-install game in Steam, run a Steam Verify when done.
- add Victoria3.exe to the exceptions list of your antivirus app; ESPECIALLY if you have Windows Defender, add it to the Ransomware "Apps Allowed Through" list.
- start the game with no mods active and test

In particular make sure there are no files or folders left under either the Steam Victoria3 or Documents Victoria3 locations, before installing again.

 

[SunsetPhoenix]

The game still quotes 'exit code null' as the error. I have reinstalled both Victoria 3 and the Paradox Launcher but it still does not work.
Is there any way I can refund and repurchase or procure a second copy of the game by proving my original purchase? I really don't want to effectively waste money by the game sitting there non-functional.

 

[AndrewT]

Buying a second copy will not help, as it will be identical to the one you have.

Refunds can only come from the store you bought from, so it depends on their policy in that area. Steam eg will not refund after 2 weeks' ownership regardless.

Versions of this game that used to run on this machine no longer do. Therefore something in the machine has changed to cause that!


Nortons is still my top suspect here - it may well have worked before but will have been updated for sure. In extremis we may need to uninstall it completely, get the game working, then install it again - AV apps tend to trust apps that are already on the machine when they are installed, more than ones installed later. But I'm not sure we're there yet.

Reading back I'm not sure we tried running victoria3.exe directly from File Explorer? What happens when you do that?

And, can you confirm it is in all Nortons exceptions lists? I don't know that app but some AV apps have more than one such list.


Also: try making a new Windows user on this machine and log into it with that - is anything different when you try the game like that?

 

[PDX_Sosanna]

There is a curious line in one of the logs
"[01:46:17][pdx_mod_metadata.cpp:191]: Mod metadata read error. File: C:\Users\NOTRELEVANT\Documents\Paradox Interactive\Victoria 3\mod\pdx_57236/.metadata/metadata.json
Error: Failed to open file for reading: C:\Users\NOTRELEVANT\Documents\Paradox Interactive\Victoria 3\mod\pdx_57236/.metadata/metadata.json"

@SunsetPhoenix Could you try deleting all contents of "C:\Users\NOTRELEVANT\Documents\Paradox Interactive\Victoria 3\mod" and try to start the game again?

 

[SunsetPhoenix]

There is a curious line in one of the logs
"[01:46:17][pdx_mod_metadata.cpp:191]: Mod metadata read error. File: C:\Users\NOTRELEVANT\Documents\Paradox Interactive\Victoria 3\mod\pdx_57236/.metadata/metadata.json
Error: Failed to open file for reading: C:\Users\NOTRELEVANT\Documents\Paradox Interactive\Victoria 3\mod\pdx_57236/.metadata/metadata.json"

@SunsetPhoenix Could you try deleting all contents of "C:\Users\NOTRELEVANT\Documents\Paradox Interactive\Victoria 3\mod" and try to start the game again?

This plus another reinstall works, although only via running the .exe straight from the file. Thank you and @AndrewT !

 

[SunsetPhoenix]

Sorry to come back to this thread so late, but I played the game from the physical file for a while and without access to achievements it sort of feels like there isn't an aim to the game.

Is there any way that has been found to get rid of the 'Exit Code null' bug in the Paradox Launcher? Old threads I have found online either have gone unanswered or the strategies don't work on the current version. Currently my achievements in-game appear as 0 and on Steam are locked at 8, alongside my hours being inaccurate. It's quite annoying because I do really enjoy the game but can't access one of the core functions

 

[AndrewT]

Well it is not a launcher bug, or all users would have it! There's something in your system preventing the launcher from starting the game, even though you can do that.

Are we stillon Nortons? Have you added the 2024.4 Paradox Launcher.exe to all its exceptions lists?

If so can we get new launcher logs please.

 

[SunsetPhoenix]

After adding the Paradox Launcher to the exceptions lists the same error persists - here is the file received when using the 'export launcher logs' button.

 

[AndrewT]

I see it's been a few months since we did a clean install of it, let's try with an updated installer:


- uninstall Paradox Launcher v2 from the Windows "Apps and features" utility, if still present.

Delete the following folders if still present:

- C:/users/{userName}/AppData/Local/Programs/Paradox Interactive/
- C:/users/{userName}/AppData/Local/Paradox Interactive/
- C:/users/{userName}/AppData/Roaming/Paradox Interactive/launcher-v2/
To see the AppData folder you'll need to enable View Hidden Items in File Explorer.

THEN use this updated installer:

https://launcher.paradoxinteractive.com/v2/paradox-launcher-installer-windows

THEN

- exit the Steam app entirely
- run steam.exe as the Windows Admin user
- run the game from the PLAY button in Steam

IF that doesn't help, in this folder are some .log files:
C:/users/{userName}/AppData/Local/Paradox Interactive/launcher-v2/
Please attach them here.
To see the AppData folder you'll need to enable View Hidden Items in File Explorer.