Unable to Load

[Ragranirk]

Coming back to the game since Astral Storms, snapped up the new DLC and have been unable to successfully launch the game from the V2 Paradox Launcher through my Steam installation. I have an endless loop of the Paradox Logo when launching from steam, and the launcher can't find the game executable when launched independently. The following troubleshooting items have failed to change any results:

1. Verify game integrity (no files missing/damaged)
2. Run launcher, steam, and/or Stellaris as administrator in all combinations of Compatibility mode (no changes)
2. Uninstall and reinstall V2 Launcher (no changes)
3. Install launcher direct from Paradox Interactive link, install Stellaris through launcher (fails to find game, gets stuck in install loop)
4. Full reinstall of Stellaris (clean installation, deleted all user files for all paradox titles including launcher)
5. Moved game and launcher files outside of Program Files (no changes)
6. Direct launch Stellaris to bypass launcher (crash from splash screen, no log file generated)
7. Launch from 3rd Party Mod Manager (Irony Mod Manager)

 

[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.

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

 

[Ragranirk]

Changing the compatibility settings allowed me to get past the first loading splash screen of the launcher, however I am now on "Please wait while we fetch your games" and a perpetual "Logging in..." spinner in the top right. When I launch the launcher independently I am logged in properly, however when I try to select the steam install folder for Stellaris I am returned with "There's no installed game in selected directory"

I am unable to get into game settings to try the additional settings.

My folder path for "Documents/Paradox Interactive/" returns an empty folder with no Stellaris settings. This may have been a result of the attempt at a clean installation. See attached for the DxDiag (zipped as text file doesnt seem to attach properly?), Launcher Export Logs, and Screen snip of the Documents folder path.

Thank you so much for your assistance with this

 

[AndrewT]

I don't see any issues in those launcher logs. But a failure to login there is typically a firewall getting in the way. If you use the Windows Defender one all these .exe files should be in both its Public and Private exceptions lists:

stellaris.exe and dowser.exe (in the Steam HOI4 folder)
C:/users/{username}/AppData/Local/Programs/Paradox Interactive/launcher-v2.2024.11/paradox launcher.exe (or 2024.12 if you see that there)
C:/users/{username}/AppData/Local/Programs/Paradox Interactive/bootstrapper-v2.exe

What happens if you run stellaris.exe directly from File Explorer? That bypasses Steam and our launcher.

 

[Ragranirk]

Permitting each of these files did not alter the result of perpetually logging in and fetching games unfortunately. Windows Defender is the only firewall I utilize. When trying to launch the game directly, I get a splash screen and an immediate closure without any crash reporting window.

Attached is a zip of snips for each program as being permitted in Windows Defender for public and private networks. Also included is a snip of the splash screen that appears for no more than 2 seconds when run normally or as an administrator. Unfortunately due to its file type I cannot attach a screen recording showing both of these methods being attempted.

 

[AndrewT]

I don't know then ... if you have a VPN please run that up before starting the launcher from Steam.

If not, make a new Windows user on this machine and log into it with that - any better?

 

[Ragranirk]

Making a new user worked actually. The launcher immediately succeeded at logging in and recognizing the install folder, and I had no issues launching the game. For the time being it looks like Stellaris gets its own dedicated account until I can narrow down what program is causing issues

 

[AndrewT]

In the problem user account, go into Startup Apps and disable everything, and reboot. Does that help there?

 

[Ragranirk]

Unfortunately no. attempting to launch regardless of method remains the same. The testing account still functions without issues when switching back and forth between them without logging out either.

 

[AndrewT]

I guess the problem user either has some registry settings causing this, or is bad or corrupted in some way. You can use Ccleaner or other such utility to check its registry.

If that's not the problem, I don't know how to fix that Windows user profile, I am sorry.

 

[Ragranirk]

I did have a concerningly large amount of registry errors that were resolved with CCleaner and command line disk image repairs, however my launcher is still in the same state.

Having a profile dedicated to just Stellaris isn't too bad however, and I am extremely appreciative that you found a workaround. Knowing its the profile itself, I will be sorting through my files to save on an external drive and doing a full format restore and fresh install of Windows at some point to see if that resolves the issue or if it is somehow even deeper than that, however I am satisfied with the current workaround!

 

[Ragranirk]

A reformat revealed the issue. The "My Documents" folder was tied to a file path that no longer existed due to a software-based RAID setup. Resetting the file path to defaults completely resolved the endless launcher loading and instant crash when direct launching.