Game will not start

[randomdave19]

I have been trying for a couple of years to log into the game now without success. I have posted on here in the past and been unable to find a solution. I thought I would try again as I miss playing the game and would love to get back on it. I believe everything is up to date. I have finished the story line in the past, playing on the same computer.

Any help would be appreciated, word of warning however I am not good with how computers work so I may need step by step instructions.

Thanks in advance. Very keen to get back to playing.

[mcsupersport]

First steps are to explain exactly what is going on, what happens when you press play and what the exact problem it.  Just saying it doesn't work, isn't much help.  Second step is a DxDiag file so we can see a bit about your system hardware and fault errors(located at bottom of the DxDiag). 

Probably the two most common issues causing DAI to not start, are Avast/AVG antivirus programs and hardware below spec(sometimes accidentally being used..ie system updated and changed settings).

So please post back with the above and let's see if we can help you.

[randomdave19]

When I start the game it crashes. It crashes at different points. Sometime it gets to a black screen with the inquisition sign in the bottom corner and crashes, sometimes it gets to character creation and crashes.

I have attached DxDiag file. I play other games at high spec, LOTRO being the most commonly used.

Thank you for your response and potential time in helping me.

[mcsupersport]

Nothing stands out as a gotcha in the DxDiag file.  You have a few crashes related to telementry, one to Mcafee Truekey and a few misc ones. 

Now the telementry ones are usually related to Windows anti-virus, and of course the McAfee is another AV program so if you have multiple ones installed and both functional, they can fight and cause issues.  So you may want to check your settings and make sure only one AV program is functional, and then a temporary measure, you may want to disable that one for a limited duration and see if it allows your game to work.(Antivirus programs have played havoc with DAI in the past....AVG and Avast are worst offenders).

Your Video driver lists Oct 2017 as release date....SHOULD be a newer one out by now, so you may want to do a clean driver install to make sure it works best. 

Also you list 16GB on your main drive, you can try to free up some space to about 30 Gigs if you can and then set your Virtual memory to a flat 16G space reserved....sometimes if a system needs extra memory during loading and the virtual memory isn't set up then it crashes the system.....MOST times the Op system can handle this fine, but with the drive pretty full, and odd occurrences, this is something to check.

[randomdave19]

Hi, I think I tried all this previously and did not work but I will try again.

AV is disabled/uninstalled. 

The video driver was last updated in OCtober when a friend tried to help resolve this issue so updating it then did not work but will happily try again.. just not sure how to do that.

I don't use Dragon age on my main drive. I used it on my secondary drive as that has the most space. I have got the main drive up to 18gb free space but I can't get rid of anything else on there. I can try uninstalling a game on there and moving it to the secondary drive, hower the whole point of having the first drive was because it was SSD drive.

Thanks again for your help, anything else would be great. Just tried game again and still not working.

[mcsupersport]

Three steps this time, and sorry for taking so long to get back with you.  Life happens and I wanted a bit of time to think your issue over as it doesn't have an obvious cause.

1)  On your C: drive you should find C:\Users\YOUR USER NAME\Documents\BioWare\Dragon Age Inquisition\Save.  I want you to rename this file to "save backup"  or something similar so you know which is back up and which is being used currently.  This will reset all in game options to default and remove all saves, starting you over with a clean slate.  I also want you to run a repair at this time....yeah again...and then when that is all complete, restart the game.  When you restart the game it will remake the save folder so don't worry, but this will eliminate save corruption and settings corruption.  IF the game works, cool, you can slowly move over save files until you get an issue and then you have found your issue, or you get lucky and it isn't saves but settings.

2)  Second step is to run a clean boot.  https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/929135/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows This will hopefully weed out any program interference by starting the computer up with a limited program set and hopefully seeing if another program is causing issues or if it is more hardware/driver compatibility issue.

3)  Third step is to be used only if first two don't.  Create another user profile on your machine with admin privileges and load only Origin and DAI on the profile.  Start the game and see if it works.  If this step works then it isn't a hardware compatibility issue but a combination of settings and programs on your main profile causing issues.  If it still crashes here, then most likely something in your hardware/driver system hates the game.....

[randomdave19]

Hi,

Option 1 I do not have any saves any more. I have had to delete everything as instructed by EA help.

Step 2 I will try

Step 3 I have tried already but does not work.

I have found EA help infuriating. It seems they just want me to go away. I have spoken to roughly twelve people and they have just made things worse. As a result of their "help" I now have no video driver an I do not know the information I need to reinstall it.  product type, product series, product etc.

They suggested unistalling direct x 12 and installing direct x 11 but they do not know how to do that.

Any help as always is greatly appreciated.

[mcsupersport]

https://www.nvidia.com/Download/driverResults.aspx/138567/en-us

That should be the link for your video driver, maybe it helps.

If you haven't already you need to run a scannow/sfc https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/929833/use-the-system-file-checker-tool-to-repair-missing-o...

This command tells windows to check your windows install and see if everything is right with it and the files of Windows.  Read the article carefully and follow the steps exactly to run the test.  If it fixes anything then you can recheck and see if it worked for you, if not....then....

The bad thing for you is that you have tried the new user profile and it doesn't work.  That tells me it is more specific to your hardware and driver setups....meaning your machine doesn't like DAI.  You get lucky and you set virtual memory to twice your RAM, update your video driver and it works....you get unlucky and you find your Motherboard manufacturer,  update everything on it, including Bios, update everything else on your PC and it still crashes due to a quirk of your hardware and the game.....  It could also be something going bad, such as a power supply degrading on one specific channel that happens to supply something that is stressed at just the right time by DAI that it crashes the game.  Partly it comes down to how badly do you want to play from here, and how much time(and money) do you want to invest. 

If you have reinstalled, cleared the saves folder, tried both clean boot, and the more radical new user profile, updated all drivers and bios that you can, then you start having to really look at hardware and possibly just something about one of your components that DAI just doesn't like.

So from here, how much time do you want to spend?  Next step....update all of your PC drivers and bios....If you have to open the machine up to find the models for updates and make sure everything is seated in with cables, memory and all cards, plus cleaning out all dust and debris in the case....( I am assuming this is a PC desktop....if laptop, ignore this and look up updates through model and manufacturer, but DxDiag file looks like desktop....)

[randomdave19]

Hello again,

If i remember correctly nvidia would not let me update drivers. I entered all the details in correctly and it would not work. As I say, all other games work on my system other than DA Inquisition. I have been trying for ages now and nothing works. I even called up EA help and they could not find a solution. I have now become fed up of calling up, re-explaining the situation every time and explaining what everyone else has asked me to do and for them to then say try this and the call is ended. Then that does not work and I have to repeat the process.

Any help would be appreciated and again I know nothing about computers so step by step instruction would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[randomdave19]

It may possibly have something to do with Direct x 12 but i cannot figure out how to uninstall it.