Crashing immediately after Launch

[Torpid]

I've been noticing quite a few people are having a problem with DOW in which as soon as they try to launch the game it immediately crashes after opening. Essentially meaning they can't play. This happens on both retail and elite. Does anyone have a clue what causes this?

[DarnedDragoon]

Maybe a Steam sync problem.

[Atlas]

Maybe a Steam sync problem.

Confirmed. I had this exact same issue where it was stuck at "preparing to launch" because Steam couldn't link with the local content properly.

[Torpid]

Maybe a Steam sync problem.

Confirmed. I had this exact same issue where it was stuck at "preparing to launch" because Steam couldn't link with the local content properly.

How is that remedied given that other games on steam are working?

[Atlas]

I can't remember the exact method I did since this was a while ago, but making sure your local content is verified is a start. I'll try to dig this back up since it was a while ago, but I think it was a registry issue.

[Torpid]

I can't remember the exact method I did since this was a while ago, but making sure your local content is verified is a start. I'll try to dig this back up since it was a while ago, but I think it was a registry issue.

Ah that would be really appreciated Atlas as I know three people with this issue and I've never come across it before.

[Atlas]

Got it I remember now, the issue I had in particular is that most of the games I liked to play (Dow2, Civ 5 etc etc) were stuck either at preparing to launch or at main screen and it was not actually a problem with Steam but with the fact that DX9 wasn't installed correctly. I'm pretty sure I fixed it by going directly into the DoW2 files and into dxsetup and ran it manually from there. After that it worked fine iirc.

I would still try the steps mentioned in https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=6218-USFX-5568 and https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=3134-TIAL-4638 though.

[Torpid]

Thanks guy these tips collectively have worked! Might even be worth a sticky as it's obviously quite a huge problem to not be able to launch the game even.