SW:BF won't start, activationUI.exe starts/closes several times, then nothing

[Adan_Kasra]

Platform: PC

OS: Windows 7 64bit

See title, nothing happens, no error message, no freeze on black screen, nothing. Drivers are up to date, NET framework is up to date, game files were verified several times, Origin reinstalled, no antivirus software is interfering. Nothing on my machine that I know about changed since my last successfull start of the game.

In taskmanager activationUI.exe starts and closes several times, then disappears for good.

Please help?

[EA_David · Accepted solution]

@adankasra If activationUI is blocked, i'd guess it's security software related. You address this already, but can you try disabling your AV if you didn't previously? Sometimes they can quietly update, and then block things they didn't before. 

I hope this helps as you've mentioned the standard steps we'd normally check first. 

[EA_David · Accepted solution]

@adankasra If activationUI is blocked, i'd guess it's security software related. You address this already, but can you try disabling your AV if you didn't previously? Sometimes they can quietly update, and then block things they didn't before. 

I hope this helps as you've mentioned the standard steps we'd normally check first. 

[Adan_Kasra]

Thanks for your suggestion, actually my Windows Defender is broken somehow, can't disable it, get error message 0x80004002.

Your tip about the exe being blocked led me to try to start Origin in admin mode - and the game works again.

[EA_David]

Thanks for the update post. It's a bit outside the scope of support here, but this page contains some steps if you want to chase up on your Windows Defender issue. 

https://support.microsoft.com/en-ie/kb/918355