Cannot start game at all.

[LDante]

I can start the app, and I get the Bethesda logo screen, sometimes even a S.P.E.C.I.A.L. video.  Then it gives me the "Press any key to start" while playing the stock background loop of the camera moving around the garage, but if I actually press any button to continue, it immediately freezes.  I've tried everything I can find with the help of Google, but they all give the same advice (which I've tried them all).  I'm getting desperate.  I have no mods at all, just straight vanilla Fo4, and it won't even let me do anything with that.

Any help or insight you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

Edited May 3, 2022 by LDante
*Wrong version of "insight"*

[travelmedic]

Where did you get your copy of the game?

 

If it's from Steam, go to the Steam app, I think under the library tab and look for "verify game files" or something like that.  It's worth a try.

[LDante]

Yes my copy is from Steam.  I attempted that, as well as a full removal of the game, with all supplementary files, and re-installation.  This is one of the basic pieces of advice all of the tech supports recommend, along with updating video card drivers (done), re-configuring .ini files with minimum graphics settings (tried that too) and turning off your Anti-Virus (no luck there either).

Thank you for taking the time to try and help, though.

[Sgt. Marge]

4 hours ago, LDante said:

Yes my copy is from Steam.  I attempted that, as well as a full removal of the game, with all supplementary files, and re-installation.  This is one of the basic pieces of advice all of the tech supports recommend, along with updating video card drivers (done), re-configuring .ini files with minimum graphics settings (tried that too) and turning off your Anti-Virus (no luck there either).

Thank you for taking the time to try and help, though.

 

 

The freeze when hitting any key is normal, actually, but it should let you start a game after a few seconds at most.  It helps me to let the game music play for maybe 10 seconds or more before pressing the any key to continue.  If I don't touch anything for a little bit, and then press a key, the freeze doesn't seem to occur.  But if for you, it freezes and just sits there forever, like minutes, then... Something is definitely a problem either with the hardware on your computer, or some software is kicking in and locking things up

 

Are you running the game from a local hard disk, or are you trying to play it off of an external drive?

 

What are your system specs?

 

Are you able to play other games?

 

Tried turning off unnecessary background programs?

 

Make sure the game isn't trying to save files in "Microsoft Onedrive" ?

 

[LDante]

9 hours ago, Marg597 said:

 

 

The freeze when hitting any key is normal, actually, but it should let you start a game after a few seconds at most.  It helps me to let the game music play for maybe 10 seconds or more before pressing the any key to continue.  If I don't touch anything for a little bit, and then press a key, the freeze doesn't seem to occur.  But if for you, it freezes and just sits there forever, like minutes, then... Something is definitely a problem either with the hardware on your computer, or some software is kicking in and locking things up

 

Are you running the game from a local hard disk, or are you trying to play it off of an external drive?

 

What are your system specs?

 

Are you able to play other games?

 

Tried turning off unnecessary background programs?

 

Make sure the game isn't trying to save files in "Microsoft Onedrive" ?

 

I have over 600 hours logged on the PC version of Fo4.  I do know the difference between a hard freeze and a stutter.  This is a hard freeze, and it is consistent.

 

I am running from my primary NVME SSD.

 

My video card is an RX 590, aside from that, everything else in my computer is about a year old and top of the line.  32G ram, AMD Ryzen 5800X, 2TB PCIe Gen 4 NVME drive, plus a 2TB PCIe Gen 3 NVME secondary (only used for media, really). 

 

I can play almost any game.  After this, I checked Skyrim and discovered a similar issue of it locking up after the Bethesda logo.  But I have many other games that run just fine.  Battlefront II, Hellblade, Stardew Valley...  It seems to be a sudden issue with the Bethesda catalog.

 

I've tried turning off background programs, yes.  This was also a common suggestion with the other ones.

 

I have had "Microsoft Onedrive" disabled for the sake of my sanity for quite some time.

 

Again, thank you for your time and efforts.

[Oldwolf58]

1 hour ago, LDante said:

I have over 600 hours logged on the PC version of Fo4.  I do know the difference between a hard freeze and a stutter.  This is a hard freeze, and it is consistent.

 

I am running from my primary NVME SSD.

 

My video card is an RX 590, aside from that, everything else in my computer is about a year old and top of the line.  32G ram, AMD Ryzen 5800X, 2TB PCIe Gen 4 NVME drive, plus a 2TB PCIe Gen 3 NVME secondary (only used for media, really). 

 

I can play almost any game.  After this, I checked Skyrim and discovered a similar issue of it locking up after the Bethesda logo.  But I have many other games that run just fine.  Battlefront II, Hellblade, Stardew Valley...  It seems to be a sudden issue with the Bethesda catalog.

 

I've tried turning off background programs, yes.  This was also a common suggestion with the other ones.

 

I have had "Microsoft Onedrive" disabled for the sake of my sanity for quite some time.

 

Again, thank you for your time and efforts.

This may sound like an obvious but for some it isn't , is steam installed in the default directory (ie: C:\Programs) ? If so that could be the problem. I had a similar problem a long time ago. I removed steam (backed up the \Steam\steamapps\common folder first) then re-installed steam on my other SSD  d drive. Then after logging into steam I exited steam and logged out, then replaced the \Steam\steamapps\common folder with the one I had backed up. Relogged into steam and everything worked just fine. you might consider trying this if you haven't already.

 

Microshit has a death grip on the boot drive and most of the newer games have found ways to get around that but older titles like Fallout skyrim etc can't so the change of drives for the steam directory breaks microshits death grip.

Edited May 4, 2022 by Oldwolf58

[steelpanther24]

This just happened?  You said you have 600 hours logged already on FO4.     The issues you are experienced are ones of a complex nature, making it unlikely that those willing and wishing to help you will be able to do so as you have provided little in the terms of technical information.   Also, are you able to kill the process or do you need to restart your computer? 

 

Next you mention that you turned off background programs.........which this statement gives me pause.    What programs?  Do you mean processes?  Please do not  be offended as I am not trying to sound patronizing, but when offering help, many of us have to gauge the level of IT experience of the person we are attempting to help.    I believe your issue is a process, not a program.    As you suggested, I would suspect a call process to the Steam client is hanging, as long as you are able to kill the FO4 process and return to windows with no issue.

 

Next, look at the registry.   Steam does NOT uninstall register entries (you have use a registry cleaner)  but be warned that going that far requires you to take precautions like having a restore point established and a backup registry file.

 

Getting afar from the issue, but worth considering is a bad sector on your RAM or hard drive.   As implied  above, Steam does not do a good job of "deleting" game files.    As you know, deletion is simply "losing the memory address file", but (and I may be wrong on this) Steam doesn't really "lose" those addresses and keeps them ready as to minimize the time it takes to download the game is lessened (as well as load and time on Steam's server......making it profitable to Steam).

[LDante]

11 hours ago, Oldwolf58 said:

This may sound like an obvious but for some it isn't , is steam installed in the default directory (ie: C:\Programs) ? If so that could be the problem. I had a similar problem a long time ago. I removed steam (backed up the \Steam\steamapps\common folder first) then re-installed steam on my other SSD  d drive. Then after logging into steam I exited steam and logged out, then replaced the \Steam\steamapps\common folder with the one I had backed up. Relogged into steam and everything worked just fine. you might consider trying this if you haven't already.

 

Microshit has a death grip on the boot drive and most of the newer games have found ways to get around that but older titles like Fallout skyrim etc can't so the change of drives for the steam directory breaks microshits death grip.

Yes, everything is installed in default locations.  Thank you for your time.

 

10 hours ago, steelpanther24 said:

This just happened?  You said you have 600 hours logged already on FO4.     The issues you are experienced are ones of a complex nature, making it unlikely that those willing and wishing to help you will be able to do so as you have provided little in the terms of technical information.   Also, are you able to kill the process or do you need to restart your computer? 

 

Next you mention that you turned off background programs.........which this statement gives me pause.    What programs?  Do you mean processes?  Please do not  be offended as I am not trying to sound patronizing, but when offering help, many of us have to gauge the level of IT experience of the person we are attempting to help.    I believe your issue is a process, not a program.    As you suggested, I would suspect a call process to the Steam client is hanging, as long as you are able to kill the FO4 process and return to windows with no issue.

 

Next, look at the registry.   Steam does NOT uninstall register entries (you have use a registry cleaner)  but be warned that going that far requires you to take precautions like having a restore point established and a backup registry file.

 

Getting afar from the issue, but worth considering is a bad sector on your RAM or hard drive.   As implied  above, Steam does not do a good job of "deleting" game files.    As you know, deletion is simply "losing the memory address file", but (and I may be wrong on this) Steam doesn't really "lose" those addresses and keeps them ready as to minimize the time it takes to download the game is lessened (as well as load and time on Steam's server......making it profitable to Steam).

I hadn't played for quite some time, and when I go that long without playing, I find it easier to restart my modding journey from scratch rather than trying to piece my way through what's been updated and what's been broken among the mods, so I did a full uninstall and reinstall, including manually deleting the actual Fallout 4 folder in my Steam folder, and the ini folder in My Documents.  Then on the reinstall, it started glitching.

 

I have no issues using the task manager to kill the process when it freezes, I don't need to reboot.  The only stuff that regularly runs in my background are Dropbox, iCue, and Razer audio controller.  Killing them has no effect on things.

 

One thing I noticed, not sure if it's the issue or not, but I'm not getting the Bethesda messages in game about what's up on Creation Club.  I feel like I remember seeing that before the "Press Any Key to Continue" message.  Could be mistaken.

 

As for the memory address file issue, I'd assume that's not an issue with me manually deleting the folder location on my SSD, though I'm not an expert.  I know enough to be dangerous to myself and my computer, but not enough to be useful.  I don't know how to check registry stuff, but I'll look into it.

 

Thank you both for your time and efforts.

[Oldwolf58]

One note about moving the Steam directory away from the boot drive (which is commonly recommended btw) did your problems start before or after the latest MS updates came out? Even with my Steam being on a different drive some of the more recent MS updates have caused trouble.

[LDante]

I completely misread that earlier advice.  I thought he was saying to make sure it was on the default drive, when he was saying to try it on the alternate drive.  Will test this after work.  Thank you.

[steelpanther24]

14 hours ago, LDante said:

I have no issues using the task manager to kill the process when it freezes, I don't need to reboot.  The only stuff that regularly runs in my background are Dropbox, iCue, and Razer audio controller.  Killing them has no effect on things.

 

One thing I noticed, not sure if it's the issue or not, but I'm not getting the Bethesda messages in game about what's up on Creation Club.  I feel like I remember seeing that before the "Press Any Key to Continue" message.  Could be mistaken.

 

As for the memory address file issue, I'd assume that's not an issue with me manually deleting the folder location on my SSD, though I'm not an expert.  I know enough to be dangerous to myself and my computer, but not enough to be useful.  I don't know how to check registry stuff, but I'll look into it.

 

Thank you both for your time and efforts.

 

 

Ok, now it seems that you are zeroing on one issue, the call to Bethseda to update the CC stuff.  Yes you should see a message as this past month it was Beth celebrating April Fools Day with some "funny" mods.    Though........this shouldn't cause a pause.     I don't think you have a freeze per say, just a process that is waiting for a response that is not coming.

 

With that bit of knowledge, I would resort to Wire shark  and the following tutorial.   

 

 

 

Warning, I am an Engineer and have been, in the past, accused of solving simple issues in the most difficult manner possible.   

 

So before diving into the whole network issue, do you know what version of .net are you using?

 

If you were following the AAF guide (which links to other mods with the requirement for .net), then you should have been asked to download the correct version of .net.    Unfortunately, I am a novice Unity programmer so I have no clue which version is required for FO4 (as I have to run several with different versions of Unity.)

 

Second, I think you are on the right track as it is dealing with Beth.    I have never tried it but I wonder if FO4 can be ran in an "offline" mod.   I suspect not because I also think that it is part of Beth's DSM check to make sure you aren't using an illegal copy.

 

 

 

 

[LDante]

Okay.  I didn't try either the wireshark tip, or the changing install locations tip, so I'm not sure what's going on, only that it's working again.  I hate technology with the fiery passion of a thousand suns.  Thanks to everyone for the ideas of stuff to try.