Can't open Chrome after starting ESO?

Dagoth_Rac · March 2022

If you download and run the Chrome Installer exe, it will start up Chrome just fine as part of the install. But if you close Chrome and try to restart Chrome, it immediately crashes. But using the installer will get you a Chrome session without having to reboot.

Alastrine · March 2022

Dagoth_Rac wrote: »

If you download and run the Chrome Installer exe, it will start up Chrome just fine as part of the install. But if you close Chrome and try to restart Chrome, it immediately crashes. But using the installer will get you a Chrome session without having to reboot.

I could see where that would work but to be honest, I'd rather just reboot. I leave a web page open when I start ESO so I can usually just go from there, I'm not opening and closing the game a lot. It is still a pain though, because of course I'll often close the web page by accident.

Not sure about others, my experience with Support has been only to be asked to do a laundry list of tasks that give the feeling of just wasting time and trying to look responsive. I am done with that.

No one has yet posted here to recognize there is an issue and Update 33 has caused it somehow. I highly doubt that all of us affected suddenly have the same outdated driver or startup program that is causing the issue all of us have.

Just cancelled a second Plus account in honor of all this. So glad I had not yet purchased Ascending Tide or High Isle, yea that can wait.

So I agree with posters who say they don't think there will ever be a fix for this. I simply think it's not big enough or game-interfering enough for ZoS to even bother to look at, sadly.

Tandor · March 2022

Alastrine wrote: »

Dagoth_Rac wrote: »

If you download and run the Chrome Installer exe, it will start up Chrome just fine as part of the install. But if you close Chrome and try to restart Chrome, it immediately crashes. But using the installer will get you a Chrome session without having to reboot.

I could see where that would work but to be honest, I'd rather just reboot. I leave a web page open when I start ESO so I can usually just go from there, I'm not opening and closing the game a lot. It is still a pain though, because of course I'll often close the web page by accident.

Not sure about others, my experience with Support has been only to be asked to do a laundry list of tasks that give the feeling of just wasting time and trying to look responsive. I am done with that.

No one has yet posted here to recognize there is an issue and Update 33 has caused it somehow. I highly doubt that all of us affected suddenly have the same outdated driver or startup program that is causing the issue all of us have.

Just cancelled a second Plus account in honor of all this. So glad I had not yet purchased Ascending Tide or High Isle, yea that can wait.

So I agree with posters who say they don't think there will ever be a fix for this. I simply think it's not big enough or game-interfering enough for ZoS to even bother to look at, sadly.

Agreed, and bear in mind that I have the problem on both my machines, one of which is Windows 7 and the other is Windows 10 (version 21H1, the machine being originally upgraded from Windows 7) so they have different setups and drivers. After running ESO, Chrome and Steam run ok on the Windows 10 machine but not on the Windows 7 machine, while the Glyph launcher fails to open on both machines. They all run normally on both machines if ESO hasn't been run since switching them on.

Alastrine · March 2022

I know Tandor, it doesn't make sense. I doubt any support staff have taken the time to read through this thread to see the scope of this.

They are insisting I update drivers that I know will cause issues in other areas - because I did that awhile back and it took a long time to fix again. I won't do that. So I've been advised that they can take the investigation no further unless I complete the "trouble-shooting steps" they have requested... and basically that if I change my mind I can restart the process.

In all my time playing I've had only two big issues - a couple of little ones, but only 2 major ones. The last one was solved in a thread like this BY the players, not support either.

Closing my ticket and giving up on this. One day soon I imagine it will catch me in the wrong frame of mind when I'm playing and that will be it - uninstall time. On the upside, I get computer space back for some other game

I'm just done with this process. I wish you all luck though and will keep an eye on the thread just in case another player finds the solution!

K9002 · March 2022

I never submitted a ticket because I knew it would end up like this. Customer support is outsourced, the people handling such tickets probably don't have all the insider information about what was changed in the game client, let alone about the future direction of such reworks. And the actual developers refuse to comment on this in any way.

I'm of the opinion that games originally released for any given platform should continue to work on it, even if the platform is no longer supported by its respective developer. ESO worked on Windows 7 for 8 years and it's still essentially the same game. Update 33 was never advertised as a technological leap or conversion. Hell, the updated PS5 and Xbox S versions didn't cause the older gen console versions to suddenly break older consoles.

Tandor wrote: »

Agreed, and bear in mind that I have the problem on both my machines, one of which is Windows 7 and the other is Windows 10 (version 201H1) so they have different setups and drivers. After running ESO, Chrome and Steam run ok on the Windows 10 machine but not on the Windows 7 machine, while the Glyph launcher fails to open on both machines. They all run normally on both machines if ESO hasn't been run since switching them on.

Out of curiosity - is the Win 10 machine a fresh system installation, or was it upgraded from a prior Win 7 or 8 installation?

Tandor · March 2022

K9002 wrote: »

Out of curiosity - is the Win 10 machine a fresh system installation, or was it upgraded from a prior Win 7 or 8 installation?

It was upgraded from Windows 7.

(I've just edited the description to cover that and correct the version number).

Tandor · March 2022

@ZOS_Kevin Are you able to confirm please whether this issue is being actively investigated by the technical team?

Sorinth · March 2022

Tandor wrote: »

Looks like they are. Recent reply to my ticket included the following:
"In regards to the issue with your browsers, we are investigating an issue where Chrome may crash or fail to launch while ESO is running on Windows 7 64 bit machines. The developers are aware and are looking into the issue. We hope to have a resolution to this as soon as possible."
I updated them that it happened on my clean W10 laptop too and wasn't limited to just Chrome and was informed that they forwarded it to the dev team, who are looking into that as well.
Their response implied they'd received lots of tickets over this issue, so it's not something they're ignoring.

Tandor · March 2022

Sorinth wrote: »

Tandor wrote: »

Looks like they are. Recent reply to my ticket included the following:
"In regards to the issue with your browsers, we are investigating an issue where Chrome may crash or fail to launch while ESO is running on Windows 7 64 bit machines. The developers are aware and are looking into the issue. We hope to have a resolution to this as soon as possible."
I updated them that it happened on my clean W10 laptop too and wasn't limited to just Chrome and was informed that they forwarded it to the dev team, who are looking into that as well.
Their response implied they'd received lots of tickets over this issue, so it's not something they're ignoring.

Thanks for the info.

Alastrine · March 2022

Sorinth wrote: »

Tandor wrote: »

Looks like they are. Recent reply to my ticket included the following:
"In regards to the issue with your browsers, we are investigating an issue where Chrome may crash or fail to launch while ESO is running on Windows 7 64 bit machines. The developers are aware and are looking into the issue. We hope to have a resolution to this as soon as possible."
I updated them that it happened on my clean W10 laptop too and wasn't limited to just Chrome and was informed that they forwarded it to the dev team, who are looking into that as well.
Their response implied they'd received lots of tickets over this issue, so it's not something they're ignoring.

Well that is wonderful news!
After my last note to them - which I admit was a bit of a diatribe - I did hear back and the next support just asked for an updated game client file. No mention of asking me to update drivers (that cause me grief). It is a hopeful sign that you got the response you did.

It's important to send at least one ticket, even if you know how it's going to go. It validates the problem when they get a lot of tickets for the same thing. If only a couple send in, they are more likely to think its an individuals system issue and not a game issue.

Gargath · March 2022

After patch my Chrome also cannot start when I am running ESO.
Only solution for me is to use web browser on external device like smartphone.
The other is to open Internet Explorer 11, which doesn't take so much of remaining memory, like Chrome does.
Still with Windows 7 64b.

Gargath · March 2022

I just noticed that I can't open Chrome even for a half an hour after logging off and closing ESO to desktop.

Chrome icon blinks and appears as a process in Task Manager, but a second later it disappears from Task Manager.

On the other hand, IE11 starts without problems.

It has to be patch-related.

Dosska · March 2022

Has this issue been fixed? A friend of mine was having the same problem so I've been checking back here for her.

Tandor · March 2022

Dosska wrote: »

Has this issue been fixed? A friend of mine was having the same problem so I've been checking back here for her.

Not in yesterday's patch, no.

Dosska · March 2022

Tandor wrote: »

Dosska wrote: »

Has this issue been fixed? A friend of mine was having the same problem so I've been checking back here for her.

Not in yesterday's patch, no.

Thanks for the reply.

etchedpixels · March 2022

Alastrine wrote: »

On the Store page for buying the game under RECOMMENDED REQUIREMENTS,
PC RECOMMENDED SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
Operating System: Windows 7 64-bit

If Win 7 is the RECOMMENDED requirements then they should be fully supporting that OS and any problems the game causes for Win 7 players. At least in my book.

They also say it only needs 3GB of RAM, and that's not true either. I've reported it to them several times and crickets, so I wouldn't believe anything their system requirements page says - I don't think it's been updated since 2014!

Jaraal · March 2022

etchedpixels wrote: »

Alastrine wrote: »

On the Store page for buying the game under RECOMMENDED REQUIREMENTS,
PC RECOMMENDED SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
Operating System: Windows 7 64-bit

If Win 7 is the RECOMMENDED requirements then they should be fully supporting that OS and any problems the game causes for Win 7 players. At least in my book.

They also say it only needs 3GB of RAM, and that's not true either. I've reported it to them several times and crickets, so I wouldn't believe anything their system requirements page says - I don't think it's been updated since 2014!

Well, they did allow 32 bit systems until shortly after Morrowind, so there's that.

And ESO is still locking out Chrome on my Win 7 rig as of today.

cncurbanmonk · March 2022

Still same crap here, along with all the Repair crap I had to go thru after yesterdays patch....popup "buy the new in advance and get this " one.......you guys funny

though a formal response here would be nicer than crickets. Even if a "yes we know and no we can't fix it" would still be better compared to nothing said on it.

Tandor · March 2022

cncurbanmonk wrote: »

Still same crap here, along with all the Repair crap I had to go thru after yesterdays patch....popup "buy the new in advance and get this " one.......you guys funny though a formal response here would be nicer than crickets. Even if a "yes we know and no we can't fix it" would still be better compared to nothing said on it.

We have had an acknowledgement indirectly, as per post #69.

Merlin13KAGL · March 2022

ZOS_Bill wrote: »

@Alastrine

If you run into any further issues with your support ticket, please feel free to post it in this thread. We can then check on the status and ensure it is being handled correctly.

@ZOS_Kevin @ZOS_Bill What's the status on this?

Ticket #220317-003232

Provided the requested msinfo and responses and have heard nothing back from support or via thread.

Shouldn't have to relog to allow browsers that should never be affected by a game patch to operate again each time.

ZOS_GinaBruno · March 2022

Hey all, just wanted to let you all know that the team is investigating this issue. We'll let you know if we need additional information, but in the meantime, we're working on figuring out what's causing this to occur.

Ek1 · March 2022

This is all worrying and all but one thing to keep in mind.
Windows 7 support ended on January 14, 2020

So its nice and all that you want to play the game on win 7 but the _operating system_ itself has has not seen security or other kind of updates for couple years now so its a increasingly troubling battle for game developer to provide support to a system that has not been supported by the systems creator itself for several years.

Be reasonable.

Dosska · March 2022

Ek1 wrote: »

This is all worrying and all but one thing to keep in mind.
Windows 7 support ended on January 14, 2020

So its nice and all that you want to play the game on win 7 but the _operating system_ itself has has not seen security or other kind of updates for couple years now so its a increasingly troubling battle for game developer to provide support to a system that has not been supported by the systems creator itself for several years.

Be reasonable.

I'm on win 10 and not affected by this problem (my friend is) but it's not unreasonable to expect a game advertised as a win 7 game to run on win 7 without major problems. If they don't want players to have that expectation they need to stop advertising it as a win 7 game.

Tandor · March 2022

Ek1 wrote: »

This is all worrying and all but one thing to keep in mind.
Windows 7 support ended on January 14, 2020

So its nice and all that you want to play the game on win 7 but the _operating system_ itself has has not seen security or other kind of updates for couple years now so its a increasingly troubling battle for game developer to provide support to a system that has not been supported by the systems creator itself for several years.

Be reasonable.

Simply untrue, I'm afraid. Microsoft still support Windows 7, albeit not for free, and it's also supported by 0patch. Moreover, according to the website it is still the recommended Operating System for ESO!

Alastrine · March 2022

Merlin13KAGL wrote: »

ZOS_Bill wrote: »

@Alastrine

If you run into any further issues with your support ticket, please feel free to post it in this thread. We can then check on the status and ensure it is being handled correctly.

@ZOS_Kevin @ZOS_Bill What's the status on this?

Ticket #220317-003232

Provided the requested msinfo and responses and have heard nothing back from support or via thread.

Shouldn't have to relog to allow browsers that should never be affected by a game patch to operate again each time.

My ticket was closed by ZoS after informing me that the issue had been kicked up to the development team and they were working on it.
No word since then but at least they acknowledge it and that it needs fixing.
Fingers crossed!

Merlin13KAGL · March 2022

Ek1 wrote: »

This is all worrying and all but one thing to keep in mind.
Windows 7 support ended on January 14, 2020

So its nice and all that you want to play the game on win 7 but the _operating system_ itself has has not seen security or other kind of updates for couple years now so its a increasingly troubling battle for game developer to provide support to a system that has not been supported by the systems creator itself for several years.

Be reasonable.

@Ek1 , what's reasonable is that an update for a piece of Windows 7 software (ESO) should have zero effect on a completely unrelated piece of Windows 7 software (chrome variants.)

This is something that recently occurred, so a simple comparison to see what files were affected from one patch to the other should help isolate the issue. This isn't something that is caused by various software, just this one.

Your argument might have some merit if this were an actual Windows issue.

Ek1 · March 2022

Tandor wrote: »

Simply untrue, I'm afraid. Microsoft still support Windows 7, albeit not for free, and it's also supported by 0patch.

So is Win7 supported for home users or not? Talking about enterprise level answer (ESU - extended security updates) to consumer scale issue is quite far fetched try to say win7 is still supported by Microsoft. Especially as this 'solution' costs 3-20 times yearly as much as one Windows 10 licence.

Tandor wrote: »

Moreover, according to the website it is still the recommended Operating System for ESO!

That is true, so is also the magical sentence "System requirements are subject to change" so that could be updated in couple mins.

Btw, friend of mine swapped from Win7 to Win10 during the winter and his DpS increased by 20k overnight. Talk about magic.

SathuDuwa · March 2022

I have recently this issue across Chrome, Brave, Opera and also having blank Steam windows. So it is caused by ESO?

After closing Chrome, I can't start it up again unless I access the directory and execute the EXE directly. Same for Brave. However, Opera still doesn't work with this method.

May be unrelated but I also think my desktop Viber is giving issues because of this. Calling someone gives me the ringtone but the display still shows the chat screen instead of the black background calling screen.

Win764bit

Tandor · March 2022

Ek1 wrote: »

Tandor wrote: »

Simply untrue, I'm afraid. Microsoft still support Windows 7, albeit not for free, and it's also supported by 0patch.

So is Win7 supported for home users or not? Talking about enterprise level answer (ESU - extended security updates) to consumer scale issue is quite far fetched try to say win7 is still supported by Microsoft. Especially as this 'solution' costs 3-20 times yearly as much as one Windows 10 licence.

Tandor wrote: »

Moreover, according to the website it is still the recommended Operating System for ESO!

That is true, so is also the magical sentence "System requirements are subject to change" so that could be updated in couple mins.

Btw, friend of mine swapped from Win7 to Win10 during the winter and his DpS increased by 20k overnight. Talk about magic.

Windows 7 extended support is available to home users, albeit it's expensive as you say. However, I have 0patch support on my Windows 7 machine and that only costs about £20 per year and has the advantage of being both more reliable than Microsoft's patching and being run/micro-patched entirely in the background. I have 2 desktops, one with Windows 7 and the other with Windows 10, and they run ESO with identical performance.

brimits · March 2022

I have this problem with my Win 7 laptop both Chrome and Edge do not Start once ESO64.exe has been run.
For your information, if I leave my browser running, It will continue to work when ESO is running but once closed the browser will not restart unless I reboot or relog windows.

It is good that ZOS are looking at the problem.

The comments about security on Win 7 are irrelevant. That's what AV software provides regardless of what Microsoft do and running Chrome or Edge gets Win 7 users an up to date browser. Eventually I will get a nice new device with a new Win version but for now I will make do with Win 7 which I still consider to be a really good version of Windows.