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Zygalious's avatar
Zygalious
10 months ago

Re: Dragon Age: Origins crashes when selecting "New Game"

Update: I was able to launch a new game, but now I have another issue.

First, the "fix".  I got the idea to reinstall Vortex Mod Manager, just to see the status of the mods on my profile.  When it downloaded, the mods were listed as "Enabled", so I disabled all of them.  Once the mods were disabled, clicking "New Game" and starting a game of Origins worked and brought me through the intro movie to the Character Creation screen.

The new problem is that the character creation is broken - which I think is probably still related to the original issue in some way, since the game was only crashing when starting a campaign that required the use of the character creator.  While in Character creation I can select a gender and race, but I cannot select a class, and the character model doesn't show at all.  I'm unable to continue from here without selecting a class, so I'm forced to return to the title screen.

This is only applicable to trying to launch a new game of Dragon Age: Origins.  Attempting to launch Awakening, Witch Hunt, or Golems of Amgarrak still results in a crash, and Darkspawn Chronicles / Leliana's Song launch successfully.

Lastly, I thought to download the standalone Origins Character Creator, to make a character there and import it into the game.  But the exact same bug persists in the standalone Character Creator: No character model, and no way to select a class or progress to the next screen.

I've attached a screenshot of what my character creation screen looks like, for clarity.

4 Replies

  • holger1405's avatar
    holger1405
    Hero+
    10 months ago

    @Zygalious 

    You need to clean install the entire game and make sure all Mod folders are gone. (Make a backup of your Save Games, they are not touched by what follows, but better to be safe than sorry.)

    • Make sure EA app and Steam are completely closed.
    • Go here and download the "Revo Uninstaller". (The freeware version, Portable version works too.)
    • Run "Revo Uninstaller" > Uninstall DAO.
    • At the end of the main uninstall, Revo will ask you which cleaning method you want to use. > Select "Intensive" > Browse.
    • If "Remaining registration content found" is displayed > Select All > Delete > Next
    • When "Remaining Data and Folders" is displayed > Select All (Make sure the "Origin Games" and "EA Games" folder is not in the list) > Delete.
    • Restart the PC > Make sure all folder inside the DAO game folders are gone and that the Vortex folder is empty.
    • Reinstall DAO.
  • Zygalious's avatar
    Zygalious
    10 months ago

    I performed the steps above (Revo is an awesome program) but still no change - the character creator is still broken.  I used Revo to remove Dragon Age Origins, the standalone Character Creator, and Vortex Mod Manager.

    I also preformed the clean boot you suggested in your previous reply - no change there either.  This is the weirdest bug xD I cannot figure out why the character creator would be this broken from a fresh install

    Edit: Additionally, the Configuration Manager is no longer working.  It temporarily opens and then crashes.  Idk if that's important or not, but I figured I'd add it here as a symptom haha

  • Zygalious's avatar
    Zygalious
    10 months ago

    SOLVED!!! Thank you so much @holger1405 and @Fred_vdp for all of your help.  I would not have reached the solution without you both.  Documenting the final fix here for any future people who find this discussion.

    ---

    1) Use Revo to completely uninstall all files associated with the Dragon Age: Origins installation

    - After the uninstallation process, when shown the remaining registry keys, remove all of them

    - After the registry keys, when shown the remaining files, remove all of them

    2) Remove the Dragon Age folder from Documents/Bioware folder (e.g., C:/Program Files (x86)/Users/<your username>/Documents/BiowareDragon Age)

    - This folder was not removed by Revo for me, and contains additional data from the previous install.  It looks like this information was involved in the bugs I was experiencing)

    - I just removed the entire Bioware folder because Dragon Age was the only game inside of it

    3) Reinstall Dragon Age Origins from Steam

    Once I launched the game again, I was sent to the Configuration Utiility for first time setup.  After that, I could launch a new game, and the character creator was working perfectly.  However, none of my DLCs were installed or available (I have the Ultimate Edition on Steam, so all DLCs should be available).  You can reactivate the DLCs by doing the following:

    1) Completely shut off steam

    2) In file explorer, navigate to your dragon age installation's redist folder (e.g., C:\program files (x86)\steam\steamapps\common\Dragon Age Ultimate Edition\redist)

    3) Run the following two files from the Redist folder:

    - DAUserviceSetup_Steam

    - DAOU_UpdateAddinsXML_Steam

    The above steps were taken from this guide, where you can find fixes for lots of other Dragon Age: Origins issues -> https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=260437327&insideModal=0

    Lastly, in case you have issues with the non-Awakening DLCs that the above guide doesn't fix, I also found this discussion ->  https://www.reddit.com/r/dragonage/comments/acul3b/no_spoilers_dao_ultimate_edition_on_steam_does/

    It details how to download all Dragon Age: Origins DLC executables that you've already purchased (EXCEPT for Awakening) from this EA help site: https://help.ea.com/ca/help/faq/dlc-for-classic-games/#dragonage

    ---

    I hope this is helpful to anyone who finds it.  Again, a thousand, thousand blessings to @holger1405 and @Fred_vdp for your help and patience with me throughout this process!

  • Fred_vdp's avatar
    Fred_vdp
    Hero+
    10 months ago

    I don't think I can take any credit here, but I'm glad you got the game working. Have fun! 😉

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