Game crashes on startup (2024)

I haven't played Stellaris in many months and tried to launch the game again today. I had to update the launcher twice, version is now 2020.13. After that, I am no longer able to start the game. Ever time I hit the play button in the launcher, the splash screen comes up and a few seconds later, I see the Paradox crash reporter, before the actual loading screen of the game starts. I sent like 6 reports already, so you might check your inbox

I tried everything that is mentioned here, without success:

AndrewT said:

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.

Click to expand...

My DxDiag is attached. I hope you can help me fix this.

There are some other files you may want to include so they can narrow the cause down

settings.txt [Documents\Paradox Interactive\Stellaris]
pdx_settings.txt [see above]
system.log [located within the Logs folder of the above]

That's an odd one .. some of the Stellaris crashes are in LightFX.dll (which I've not seen before) and some in the Windows module ntdll.dll . Not sure what to make of that to be honest!

Exit the Steam app entirely and run stellaris.exe by itself. Is there any error when it fails now?

MordridBlack said:

See Also

(Quick Fix) How to Fix Stellaris Won't Launch Problem? - GameTacoHow to Solve: Stellaris Crashing at Launch in Windows - MiniTool Partition WizardStellaris crashing on launch[SOLVED] How to fix Stellaris crash? - Driver Easy

There are some other files you may want to include so they can narrow the cause down

Click to expand...

Done!

AndrewT said:

Exit the Steam app entirely and run stellaris.exe by itself. Is there any error when it fails now?

Click to expand...

Same thing unfortunately. The splash screen comes up normally, a few seconds later when the game loading screen is supposed to be displayed, I see a white window for a split second and then the Paradox crash reporter.

I was looking through everything and I spotted something...odd.

Your Nvidia Driver seems to be on an update that, if I'm looking at their site correctly, doesn't exist.

The last driver update for your card was on Oct 7th this year, and it is version 456.71 yet somehow you are on version 5671

Double check that you have the most up to date version of your Nvidia Driver

if GeForce experience isn't showing an update then you may need to uninstall that previous driver update and redownload the one on their site that is the most up to date

This must be an issue with dxdiag, both my system information and GeForce experience show the correct driver version.

I did a re-install of the driver just in case, but it did not change anything.

Hm had to make sure just in case

There are 2 other things I can think of before I suggest a last ditch effort fix

1) Try running Stellaris without any mods active (I remember you saying in your other post that you had checked the mods, but I'm not sure if you did this. If you have, then just skip this entirely)

2) Uninstall Stellaris and remove/delete any left over files/folders from your PC pertaining to Stellaris and do a clean reinstall [then run the game, no mods, and see if issue persists]

I'll hold off on giving out that last ditch effort fix in hopes one of the mods here can find another solution

MordridBlack said:

Hm had to make sure just in case

There are 2 other things I can think of before I suggest a last ditch effort fix

1) Try running Stellaris without any mods active (I remember you saying in your other post that you had checked the mods, but I'm not sure if you did this. If you have, then just skip this entirely)

2) Uninstall Stellaris and remove/delete any left over files/folders from your PC pertaining to Stellaris and do a clean reinstall [then run the game, no mods, and see if issue persists]

I'll hold off on giving out that last ditch effort fix in hopes one of the mods here can find another solution

Click to expand...

I did both before writing my first post here, so go ahead

I'll tell you the last ditch effort fix, but you might want to give it a week to see if the mods might have any other suggestions

Last Ditch Effort fix
Warning: To be used as...well...a last ditch effort

Factory Reset your computer

once you have factory reset your PC

get all your system updates first
then updates for your graphics card
then reinstall steam and stellaris
make sure all mods are disabled in the launcher
start up stellaris and see what happens

if that doesn't fix your problem, then I'm flat out of ideas

MordridBlack said:

The last driver update for your card was on Oct 7th this year, and it is version 456.71 yet somehow you are on version 5671

Click to expand...

Those are the same version ...

Annihilat0r said:

No other ideas?
I am not going to format my PC just for Stellaris. I have lots of other games, I am also using it as a work station for homeoffice and I have no issues whatsoever.

Click to expand...

I now see you have a gamepad plugged in, please try unplugging that before starting the game.

IF that doesn't help, In the game launcher please set Display mode to Borderless.

IF that doesn't help, Please do a full **clean** re-install:

- move any valued save games elsewhere, and user_empire_designs.txt from /Documents/Paradox Interactive/Stellaris/ if you have made any custom empires or races.
- "uninstall" in Steam-Stellaris
- manually delete both the Steam/SteamApps/common/Stellaris AND Documents/Paradox/Stellaris folders
- re-install game in Steam, run a Steam Verify when done.
- add stellaris.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 you need to make sure there are no files or folders left under either the Steam Stellaris or Documents Stellaris locations, before installing again.

Also if you have FRAPS or the MSI Gaming App or Rivatuner installed, disable it as it clashes with this game.

If that doesn't help:
DXDIAG is a program you run from a command prompt or the Windows start menu 'run' dialog box (or 'search programs' in Windows 7 or later). 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 your Documents/Paradox/Stellaris/settings.txt and pdx_settings.txt .
From your Documents/Paradox/Stellaris/logs/ folder, attach system.log .

AndrewT said:

I now see you have a gamepad plugged in, please try unplugging that before starting the game.

Click to expand...

I don't know why, but that solved it. Thank you.