All ArmA games do not launch with no error

[Generic Player 10]

Hi there,

I recently downloaded ArmA 2 and OA along with the beta onto my PC, and have been playing fine for a few weeks. Now when I try to start up any of the ArmA 2 games they fail to launch and appear to be frozen. In task manager the memory (private working set) is always stuck on a small amount so the game is stuck and won't start. I've tried looking at the .rpt of the games, but they only display the last working session.

I've tried reinstalling and using 3rd party launchers such as DayZ Commander and PlaywithSIX, but they have no effect. Running Steam as admin also has no effect, and verifying integrity of game cache is the same.

I was wondering if you could look into this problem for me, I'll post my specs below:

Intel Core i5-3470 @ 3.2GHz

MSI NVIDIA GTX 660 Twin Frozr III

500GB Seagate Barracuda HDD

ASRock H77 Pro4/MVP Motherboard

4GB RAM

Thanks :)

[orcinus 121]

Is there anything in the Windows event viewer logs? If the game load is freezing because Windows encounters a problem like a bad block it should be in the logs.

It's worth running a full disk check (fix files & surface scan) in any event. I check my disks & partitions at least weekly.

Make sure the game is not running. After backing up the game configs (arma2.cfg, arma2OA.cfg) delete the originals and restart the game so it can write new ones.

Is this under Win 8? Do other large programs run OK? Have you run a memcheck?

Check the size of your pagefile as well. If you have a 64-bit OS your RAM is on the low side (though that does not obviously account for the low RAM usage).

[Generic Player 10]

Hi Orcinus,

My operating system is Windows 7 64 Bit, and a full disk check before has shown no threats. Also, not having this PC long, about a month, ive not downloaded anything other than ArmA 2 Mods such as DayZ and @TCG for playing Island Life.

Under very tight circumstances I can get ArmA 2 OA to launch, by opening the .exe right as the computer loads into the desktop, if it is left any later the symptoms above occur. This is however not convenient for if i want to play DayZ or other mods.

Because of this the game has written new .cfg files. All other large programs run fine EXCEPT Grand Theft Auto 4, which I have consistently had problems with, exact same symptoms to this problem.

Also, how would one find the Windows event viewer logs? Maybe this could find the issue. Thanks for your help so far

[orcinus 121]

One possibility is that something that the OS fires up just after the boot, or some other program that has an entry in the start-up folder, is interfering.

Event viewer is an important tool not just for troubleshooting but for monitoring the health of your system. It's in control panel->administrative tools->event viewer. I keep a shortcut on the desktop as I check the main logs - system, security & applications on a daily basis even when everything seems fine. There may also be a log for your video card (never used NVIDIA so have no idea).

In the Windows Start menu Run box, type "msconfig". In the "Boot" tab, put a tick in "Boot log". That will create a file in C:Windows called (IIRC) ntbtlog.txt at the next boot. Ignore any request to restart.

Now open the "Startup" tab & make a note of what programs are loading at boot.

NB there's a box on the Services tab in msconfig that says "Disable all" - utterly demented option (it's been there since NT3 at least) because that guarantees your system will never be able to start. At all.

Don't ever tick it. Indeed, do not use msconfig to change services, use the Services tool:

control panel->administrative tools->computer management->Services and Applications->Services, or type "services.msc" (without the quotes) in the Windows Start menu run box.

I'm lazy so I make a desktop shortcut to the control panel sub-menu. I mention this as you may need to look at what services are running.

There are several services that can safely be disabled - see Black Viper's guide (but don't change anything yet); a local copy is useful, either a file, Firefox Scrapbook entry, or just print it.

Peculiar that the RPT file only shows the last run - normally it just grows til it reaches ~2MB. Anyway....

Delete the RPT (perfectly safe to do so).

Reboot. Wait until the system has fully initialised. Try to start the vanilla game (not the beta!) - offline, SP, no mods at all - easiest by creating a desktop shortcut to arma2OA.exe in the main game folder.

Let's assume it will hang. Kill it. Open the RPT & look for warning & error messages. If you find any, copy & paste them into a spoiler (if there are hundreds, zip the RPT instead & upload it to somewhere like mediafire).

Open the event viewer & check the logs for errors and warnings that happened from the boot til the time the game crashed.

Make a zip of the boot log & upload it to, e,g. mediafire.

Post your startup list in a spoiler.

[Generic Player 10]

While I restart my PC with all the things you've said to do above, I've noticed that the game will launch itself when there is another instance of it running at any time. Deleted the RPT and had a look to see if one was created after a faulty start - nothing was generated. This could explain for the last run of the game only being displayed.

EDIT: Dunno If I waited long enough, 1 minute into desktop and an instance of the game launched?

Edited August 11, 2013 by Generic Player

[Generic Player 10]

Found an error associated with OA and have the boot log file in a rar on mediafire for you to have a look at in a link here http://www.mediafire.com/download/jcwd3dfp4k1p440/Error_Logs.rar

[orcinus 121]

No idea why that Trusteer file is loading 6 times at the end of the boot. I used to use it but dumped it because it screwed up some proprietary programs (I dumped online banking a while ago also after attending a seminar at the Cambridge Computer Lab). Several possibilities:

"The error 0xc0000005 is generated when an application tires [sic] to access a memory location that it should not access." Suggested solution: reinstall the program (MS Office).

Some memory location is physically inaccessible - run memory testing s/w repeatedly (5+ runs) to detect any faults.

Malware. Download & run Malwarw bytes' MBAM; start it via "Chameleon" & let it update. Once the quick scan has finished, run a full scan (without closing Chameleon).

Make sure the game is set to "run as administrator".