#Friend's game is crashing on startup (Unmodded)

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

dim elk
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"So I can launch the game (most of the time) fine, but when I try to load into any game, single-player or multiplayer, it freezes, blackscreens, then dies immediately"
Is what he told me and it's been doing this ever since the B42 update for some reason, even if we downgrade back to B41 it still does it

sacred monolith
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Same issues as me

remote tundra
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If you have any problem in build 42, the usual recommendation is to uninstall and make sure you delete all the folders (the game’s installation folder and everything inside “Zomboid” except the “saves” folder). This is because “leftover” files from build 42 can remain and cause crashes, although ideally you should post your logs.

If the crashes didn’t generate logs showing the cause of the failure or an hs_err_pid, you may still have a dump or an entry in the Reliability History, and you might even have a dump in AppData\Local\CrashDumps. Whatever you have, it would be good to upload everything so a tech support person can take a look and help you.

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(Even if you change versions, it's also recommended to make sure you've removed all traces of build 42)

gloomy wyvern
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Can they try doing a full reinstall?

First, uninstall the game, then go to "Steam\steamapps\common\ProjectZomboid" and make sure there are no leftover files or folders there.

After that, go to “%UserProfile%\Zomboid” and delete everything there except the “Saves” folder.

Then just install the game again and see if that helps.

dim elk
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i can try the saves thing

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ok here's what he said

image.png
gloomy wyvern
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Can you ask them to send their logs.zip from %UserProfile%\Zomboid

dim elk
dim elk
gloomy wyvern
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the whole %UserProfile%\Zomboid folder is completely empty or there is no logs.zip file?

dim elk
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he said it was completely empty

gloomy wyvern
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Can you ask them to go to their Steam Library > Right click Project Zomboid > Properties > Set Launch Options > Type -cachedir= C:\Zomboid > Start the game

dim elk
dim elk
gloomy wyvern
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Are they checking "C:\Zomboid"?

dim elk
gloomy wyvern
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Can you have them check Windows Reliability Monitor for any crashes (just search Reliability Monitor in the start menu), if there are can they double click on the error and send a screenshot of the Problem Details page that shows up?

dim elk
gloomy wyvern
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Can they send a video of what is happening? This is incredibly hard to diagnose with what little information they're able to provide.

remote tundra
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%LOCALAPPDATA%\CrashDumps
In case of a crash, a dump should normally be saved in that location. If they have PZ crash dumps, something should also appear in the Reliability Monitor. Still, I think the most appropriate thing would be for your friend to have direct contact with tech support so their issue can be handled (if it’s even fixable) as soon as possible. I don’t know your friend’s level of technical knowledge, but if it’s low, they might have missed something simply due to inexperience.

There should be some kind of record of the failure somewhere — either in Windows, in the PZ folder, in the logs, in the Reliability Monitor, in the dump files, or in the hs_err_pid files. It’s also quite strange that their folder was “empty” after running PZ, since I believe that as soon as you launch the game, the files in the “Zomboid” folder are generated. And based on previous comments, it seems they even reached the option to load a save.

There is a known issue that causes crashes, but it doesn’t happen 100% of the time — it’s almost like flipping a coin. However, that issue does leave a record at the Windows level. In your friend’s case, with the little information provided, it could be anything.

A quick suggestion: if they haven’t been able to enter the save at all since a certain moment, one possible solution would be updating (or rolling back one version) their GPU drivers. At this point, I don’t think we even know what kind of graphics card they have.

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%LOCALAPPDATA%\CrashDumps
They can put this into the search bar and it will take them directly to a location like this:

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C:\Users\Their username\AppData\Local\CrashDumps

dim elk