Update 41: Game doesn't start at all

Füßchen · March 11

After downloading and installing the update, my boyfriend is unable to start the game at all. If he clicks on play in the launcher, it seems like the game is opening, the display turns black and the wheel from the cursor goes around in a circle a few times, then it closes again and he's back at the launcher.
We tried restarting the launcher, his PC and to start a repair in the launcher, but that didn't change anything.

Füßchen · March 11

Update: The game still won't start not via launcher not via the "eso64.exe" in the gamefolder.
We checked windows and the drivers for the graphic card for updates and reinstalled the game in the meantime.
Removing the addons didn't change anything either nor did removing the "Elder Scrolls Online" folder in the documents folder completely or copying and pasting mine.
BIOS-update didn't change anything either.

And other games start without problems =/

omnidoh · March 11

If you're running ProcessHacker ESO will auto-close after 30-ish seconds.
Speculation:
Zenimax (or other authority hierarchy) have determined (deliberately or incidentally) that Update 41 for ESO shall not be permitted to run on any PC that is also running ProcessHacker.

You'll either have to:

Close the software while playing ESO (surrender your right to run software of your choice on your computer due to Zenimax Policy)
Implement a workaround (Will probably require some technical finagling)

Füßchen · March 12

omnidoh wrote: »

If you're running ProcessHacker ESO will auto-close after 30-ish seconds.

Thank you

I don't think he is and it's more like 5-ish seconds maybe 10 until it closes again, but I'll check with him tomorrow to be sure 👍

JLPDX · March 12

Interesting. I was getting the drop to desktop with no error message about 30 to 60 seconds after launching the game. Didn't matter if i logged in, selected characters or not , or tried to enter the game after selecting the characters. launching eso64.exe and waiting the time is all it took.

I couldn't figure out the root cause but i did fix it with a heavy handed approach which indirectly disabled process hacker from running in the background. I backed up, removed. recreated my windows profile and the problem went away. I had it set to launch with windows which went away with the new profile.

Shame on you ESO!!! It absolutely ridiculous there isn't some kind of error message... Process hacker despite it's name is a task manager replacement utility and more fully featured. Fine its your game and you can make this arbitrary call but at least generate an error message so people can fix it!

Braggar · March 12

Füßchen wrote: »

After downloading and installing the update, my boyfriend is unable to start the game at all. If he clicks on play in the launcher, it seems like the game is opening, the display turns black and the wheel from the cursor goes around in a circle a few times, then it closes again and he's back at the launcher.
We tried restarting the launcher, his PC and to start a repair in the launcher, but that didn't change anything.

Same here. Suggestions how to fix this problem, didn´t help. Game won´t start after launch. I´m kinda fed up of this. As a customer, I like to run a game simply play, and enjoy it. Not run into some extra problems, waste hours just to fix another problem. That should be prevented by the game company, in the first place. After all those years I wonder, why WE constantly has to turn our PC hardware/software upside down, just in order to run a game like ESO after a update/patch? It´s not worth it.

Füßchen · March 12

Braggar wrote: »

Same here. Suggestions how to fix this problem, didn´t help. Game won´t start after launch.

It is very interesting what we got as suggestions to fix this in the meantime. There are a lot of things I wouldn't have thought of, that apparently have caused problems for other players before or after this update:

problems with AntiVirus and/or Firewalls, where adding exeptions to those or disabling them altogether helped
problems with other programs that have overlays (overwolf, discord, steam,..), where those needed to be closed or at least the overlay needed to be disabled
problems with mod-managers and programs that overlook other processes (probably like the ProcessHacker that was mentioned above)
for some players an update of the graphiccard drivers and an utility program for the mainboard was needed after the update yesterday so that the game would start
(setting-)files in the document-folder that weren't functioning properly, so they needed to be deleted, manually changed or created newly
also problems with files in the hidden "AppData" folder that needed to removed for the game to start
problems where addons or savedVaribles needed to be removed for the game to start
problems caused by cloudsyncronisation from steam or Onedrive
someone mentioned they got a duplicate ".exe" file in their gamefolder while playing via steam that caused the game not to start until they deleted the duplicate
problems where it would help to install the game on another harddrive
problems with other programs that caused very high CPU usage in some situations that then caused problems with ESO
sometimes it could help to start the game with admin rights

Sadly even with trying most of those by now and investing a at least several hours by now, we still haven't found the problem and the game still won't start, while it was running without a problem before the update dropped.
There was no other update that happened nor did we install anything or changed anything before or during the update and we don't see any problems with other software or games on that PC, so we are pretty sure that it must be some change that was made with the game, that is causing this.

We were really looking forward to trying out the new dungeons and were in the middle of doing the wrothgar mainquests for the mount in the crownstore, but by now with everything we tried and how much time we used to search for a solution, I'm honestly not so positive anymore, that we'll even find the issue, get the game to start and get the chance to do any of that at all anymore.
And that's not even considering the stress for the lead of our raidgroup this evening, who now needs to find a replacement with very little time, because my boyfriend probably won't be able to be there because of this.

I remember somtimes having problems after updates before since we began playing around 5 years ago (I think), but usually the issue was way easier to find and usually it helped to do a repair in the launcher or maybe reinstall the game after deleting everything for it to start and run again. Now though we're running out of ideas what to try and since there are apparently at least some 3rd party programs that prevent ESO to launch since the update (at least according to other players) and there isn't a list of those that we could find, it feels a lot like searching for a needle in a haystack without the prospect of success 😔

Braggar · March 12

Füßchen wrote: »

Braggar wrote: »

Same here. Suggestions how to fix this problem, didn´t help. Game won´t start after launch.

It is very interesting what we got as suggestions to fix this in the meantime. There are a lot of things I wouldn't have thought of, that apparently have caused problems for other players before or after this update:
problems with AntiVirus and/or Firewalls, where adding exeptions to those or disabling them altogether helped

problems with other programs that have overlays (overwolf, discord, steam,..), where those needed to be closed or at least the overlay needed to be disabled

problems with mod-managers and programs that overlook other processes (probably like the ProcessHacker that was mentioned above)

for some players an update of the graphiccard drivers and an utility program for the mainboard was needed after the update yesterday so that the game would start

(setting-)files in the document-folder that weren't functioning properly, so they needed to be deleted, manually changed or created newly

also problems with files in the hidden "AppData" folder that needed to removed for the game to start

problems where addons or savedVaribles needed to be removed for the game to start

problems caused by cloudsyncronisation from steam or Onedrive

someone mentioned they got a duplicate ".exe" file in their gamefolder while playing via steam that caused the game not to start until they deleted the duplicate

problems where it would help to install the game on another harddrive

problems with other programs that caused very high CPU usage in some situations that then caused problems with ESO

sometimes it could help to start the game with admin rights

Sadly even with trying most of those by now and investing a at least several hours by now, we still haven't found the problem and the game still won't start, while it was running without a problem before the update dropped.
There was no other update that happened nor did we install anything or changed anything before or during the update and we don't see any problems with other software or games on that PC, so we are pretty sure that it must be some change that was made with the game, that is causing this.

We were really looking forward to trying out the new dungeons and were in the middle of doing the wrothgar mainquests for the mount in the crownstore, but by now with everything we tried and how much time we used to search for a solution, I'm honestly not so positive anymore, that we'll even find the issue, get the game to start and get the chance to do any of that at all anymore.
And that's not even considering the stress for the lead of our raidgroup this evening, who now needs to find a replacement with very little time, because my boyfriend probably won't be able to be there because of this.

I remember somtimes having problems after updates before since we began playing around 5 years ago (I think), but usually the issue was way easier to find and usually it helped to do a repair in the launcher or maybe reinstall the game after deleting everything for it to start and run again. Now though we're running out of ideas what to try and since there are apparently at least some 3rd party programs that prevent ESO to launch since the update (at least according to other players) and there isn't a list of those that we could find, it feels a lot like searching for a needle in a haystack without the prospect of success 😔

Really a PITA! No doubt. I guess we has to wait, until ZOS fixed this. Gasp!

Yes many different suggestions, by people with different hardware/software. I heard a process in the Taskmanager, cause the ESO launcher to crash. Is the solution that simple? Is MSI Afterburner guilty? Turn if off? I just know this after spending years with ESO, and never ending problems. If the game cause too much problems, play something else. Don´t try to mess up your PC, cause of a game. In the end you create even more problems, and the game still don´t run. And as I can read, you are still out of luck. Sorry to hear that. My ESO launcher still refuse to work as well. ESO is a bloated pixel monster. Too much changes, too much installed extras. Huffing and puffing.

Sucks big time. Your boyfriend must be angry. I need to enter the game for some reasons, and can´t. True usual heavy update problems. Yes. After a new patch, hah crazy graphic issues. I still got images with super heavy graphic bugs, after a certain patch. Was it 33 or 34? My game was a graphic mush, for 2 days. Then it changed back to "normal". Microsoft fired quite a few people in the game industry while ago. I guess ZOS has now even a smaller group to work with? Which leads to more problems. But be as it may. If a company can´t guarantee, that their product works, the customers leave. I wished I could help you. ZOS has to fix update 41 ASAP. If not...so long guys.

I hope you can play again soon.

etchedpixels · March 13

Some similar problems

Workaround at this point is to run it under Steam and Proton on Steamdeck or Linux. That works, the officially supported OS does not 8)

Füßchen · March 13

Ok, we finally found what was the cause of this for my boyfriend, but I think the chance that it's the same cause for others here is pretty slim =/

My boyfriend had problems with some drivers several weeks ago. While trying to fix those he started Windows in Test Mode and forgot to deactivate it again after. Apparently it was possible to run ESO while the Windows Test Mode was activated before the patch and isn't possible anymore after.
We deactivated it and ESO starts without problems again.

Just to be sure I activated Windows Test Mode again and when trying to launch ESO I got a black screen again that closed after a few seconds and I was back at the launcher.
I'm just glad, that deactivating it again for the second time, made it possible to start ESO again too and nothing unexpected happend ^^