[SOLVED] Please help me get Arma to work again.

[GremlinTheGreat 3]

So a few days back while playing Arma 3 my computer froze and would not do anything. Even after leaving it for a while it was still frozen. So I just powered it off. Ever since then I have been running into problems trying to play Arma.

 

To make a really long story short(er)

 

These are the problems I have:

 

Cant delete Steam/Arma folders because a program is using them. Even though nothing is open.

Launcher says close game to manage mods but game isnt running.

Cant install steam because folder must be empty.

After the last install I got into the game but got this message.

“Problem occurred when saving profile data. File may be set to read only or can be blocked by another instance of the game.”

Cant change permission of save folder. Well I can but it changes right back.

 

Things I have tried

 

Verified game files through steam.

Unsubscribed all mods.

I have uninstalled and reinstalled the game 3 times now. It takes me 6 hrs to install it.

I have uninstalled and reinstalled steam.

Manually deleted steam and Arma files using regedit.

Tried repairing windows 10 files.

 

I think something is putting files in the Steam and Arma folders that don't belong there. But I am out of ideas beyond that and dont know what else to do. Can some one please help me? I just want to play Arma.

 

[pierremgi 4864]

I'm afraid you went too far to self-harming concept. It's usually a bad idea, playing with regedit.

First of all, restart your computer.

Check Windows, be admin.

Verify your disks (access, free space), video settings (your card), and all devices in device manager.

Then check Steam.

steam comes with parameters like install folders for its game library. Try to make Steam work. The folders must be consistent with the game directories, but you have plenty of choices. Usually, games like Arma are far more efficient on SSD disk if you have one;

If you only have Arma as Steam game, try to repair it. If you have some other games, check them.

be sure you have official products, no weir copy.

There are plenty of reasons to crash, not saying poor configurations, but a rotten disk (bad clusters) or even a rotten motherboard (at PCI ports) can affect the access to you game folders then crash.

That's for a beginning of answer. Give your config and more details on your Windows, Steam, games, then Arma behaviors.

[GremlinTheGreat 3]

Thanks for the reply pierremgi.

So I have restarted my computer, I checked to make sure I am admin. Im not sure what you mean by verify disks. I ran CHKDSK if that is what you mean. I have 331gb free of 464 gb on my c drive. In devise manager it says the disk is working properly. Again I am not sure what to do with the video card settings. In devise manager it says the video card is working properly. I did a google search and all I came up with was verifying drivers with devise manager. Is that what you mean?

 

Im sorry if this stuff seems basic but I know very little about computers. I am trying to learn though.

 

Unfortunately I don't have an ssd

 

I thought verifying game files through steam would repair them. I tried that already.

 

I was able to get another game from steam to work but its a very simple game with no multiplayer or anything.

I am not sure what a weir copy of a game is. I purchased Arma through steam and downloaded it from steam so I assume its an official product.

 

As far as config goes I guess you mean my computer specifications.

optiplex 990

i5-2500

8gb ram

4 month old seagate 500gb hard drive

gtx 960 windforce gpu

corsair cx430 psu

I am running windows 10

 

[GremlinTheGreat 3]

I do have trend micro for anti virus but even with it turned off I still have the same problems. I got this computer to play Arma so that is mostly what I use it for. I do some Internet searches from time to time and I use discord some. I also use a word processor here and there but that is about it.

[chrisb 196]

Use task manager to turn running programs off if they won't turn off themselves. Right click on the your taskbar (bottom of your screen), then open task manager, highlight the items you want to turn off ie. Steam then click bottom right of the window on 'end task'.

 

If ever you have problems with steam turning off or telling you a game is running when it isn't use the task manager. 😉

[pierremgi 4864]

So, I guess you can run Arma, then it crashes.

You must have some rpt files in arma in your C:...\<your user name>\appData (hidden folder)\local\Arma 3 folder.

Or better, you are invited to send a complete report (and you can access to it).

So any information on the way you crash + report(s) could be helpful.

Read also:

 

Another point: Your config (CPU) is rather old for Arma.

see also:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=228562734

 

[GremlinTheGreat 3]

Thanks again for the replies.

 

I am sorry if I was unclear with my first post. I was pretty tired when I made it I guess I left out some details.

 

I only had the one crash which is where my problems started. After my computer crashed I noticed that when I opened up the Arma launcher in the mods screen it said to close the game to manage my mods. The thing is the game wasnt running. So I did what chrisb said and opened task manager. I did not see anything Arma related running. Now I will grant you that I dont know half of what the stuff in task manager is as far as background processes or windows processes.However I do recognize some things like program names and stuff for my mouse and gpu. From what I could tell nothing was out of the ordinary. Still the game would freeze when trying to load as if I was trying to launch it twice. I have accidentally launched it twice in the past and it behaved the same. What I am trying to to say is that from what I could tell the game was not running but my computer was acting like it was. At this point I figured I would have to uninstall the game to get rid of the problem which I did however after installing it again after installing it again I was having the same trouble. So I figured I would need to unistal both Steam and Arma to get it to work. However when reinstalling Steam it said that the destination folder for Steam had to be empty. I thought "well, I will delete it and make a new folder". When I tried to delete it, It said a program was using it. So I when into task manager and ended everything that I knew would not interfere with my computer running I went back to the folder to try to delete it but I still had the same  problem. So I searched for instructions on how to uninstall Steam. This is where  I found how to delete the the folders using regedit. So I deleted the folders through regedit because there seemed to be no other way. I then reinstalled Steam and Arma. After that install I found that even though the launcher still said the game was running I could start it up and run it but on opening the game it said  “Problem occurred when saving profile data. File may be set to read only or can be blocked by another instance of the game.” At this point I turned it off again because if I cant save anything there is no point in playing the game. I read several tutorials on how to change folder permissions and followed them but could not change save folder from "read only". Because all the trouble I am having seems to be folder related (not being able to delete folders or write to folders) I came to the conclusion that, as I said in my first post "I think something is putting files in the Steam and Arma folders that don't belong there. But I am out of ideas beyond that and dont know what else to do."

 

I have also today, tried to restore the system. That didnt help either.

 

As far as the system config pierremgi I know its kind of old. Unfortunatly it was all I could afford. Upgrading, though I would love to, is not an option right now. I have not gotten a chance to look at the rpt files idea that you posted yet I just wanted to try to clarify things a little and post an update. I will check that out and let you know what I find.

[GremlinTheGreat 3]

pierremgi I forgot but I did get this "Arma 3 Launcher Exception Log" at one point. I didn't really know what to do with it. It seemed to long to post here and I didn't know if it had any personal information in it that should not be posted on the internet. If you tell me ho to share it i will do it.

 

 

[pierremgi 4864]

You should have restarted your computer instead of trying to delete some registry files via regedit. No clue how to do with that.

[GremlinTheGreat 3]

I read through the links you posted pierremgi and I think that put me on the right track. While trying to clear all folders and files from Arma I noticed a bunch of temporary files from Overwolf which a lot of people use with team speak. I have only ever used it once so I largely ignore it. I believe it was running in the back ground and causing me problems. I got rid of it now everything is behaving as it should. I played Arma last night and every thing seemed to work fine.

 

Thanks to everybody who tried to help me.

 

Gremlin out.