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bean1701's avatar
bean1701
5 years ago
Solved

Can't pause/access in game GUI

It's very simple, when I hit escape absolutely nothing happens. The game just keeps playing and I can't access the pause menu. All other keybindings work fine, I can fire, enter and exit the Mako, use the space button for the tactical pause, but I can't get into the pause menu. I hadn't played ME1 in a long time, and when I loaded it I couldn't get pause to work.

I tried:

1- Verifying the BIOInput.INI ( %SystemDrive%\Users\%Username%\Documents\BioWare\Mass Effect\Config) file correctly mapped Escape to InGameGUI

2- Restoring a backed up version of BIOInput I had from the first time I activated the console

3- Deleting BIOInput and ran the game so the game re-wrote the file from the DefaultInput.INI file located here: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Mass Effect\BioGame\Config

4- Verified local files using Steam

5- Uninstalled the game, deleted the Bioware\Mass Effect folder from Documents, and re-installed the game

EDIT: Also, the problem occurred in BOTH full screen and windowed mode. I am running dual monitors.

None of those solutions fixed the problem, making the game unplayable. I have played this game for hundreds of hours on this system, I'd like to play it again.

Computer Specs:

Processor
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4810MQ CPU @ 2.80GHz
 
Video Card
Intel(R) HD Graphics 4600
 
Video Card #2
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M
 
RAM
16 GB
 
Operating System
Windows 10
Size: 64-bit
 
Version: 10.0.18362
 
Audio 1
Sound Device
Realtek USB2.0 MIC
Driver
10.0.18362.1
Audio 2
Sound Device
Arctis 7 Game
Driver
10.0.18362.1
Audio 3
Sound Device
Intel(R) Display Audio
Driver
 
Audio 4
Sound Device
Arctis 7 Chat
Driver
10.0.18362.1
Audio 5
Sound Device
NVIDIA Virtual Audio Device (Wave Extensible) (WDM)
Driver
 
Audio 6
Sound Device
Realtek High Definition Audio
Driver
6.0.1.7156

7 Replies

  • Fred_vdp's avatar
    Fred_vdp
    Hero+
    5 years ago

    Do you have a second keyboard that you can use to test if it isn't a hardware problem?

    This may be far fetched, but the Mass Effect series has some input related bugs related to bad performance (mostly in ME2, though). Make sure the game is actually running on the dedicated GPU instead of the integrated grahics. There should be an option to force this in the Nvidia control panel.

  • bean1701's avatar
    bean1701
    5 years ago

    I did test it, the laptop has both a built in keyboard and an external USB keyboard. It's not respecting input from either one, and other applications DO record input from the Escape key.

    In addition, NVIDIA was already set to force ME1 to use the dedicated NVIDIA GPU. Just to make sure, I set it again and tested it. The game still won't let me into the pause menu ☹️

    Any other ideas?

  • bean1701's avatar
    bean1701
    5 years ago

    Good news and bad news

    That worked! A clean boot IMMEDIATELY made the game respect Escape, it would skip the opening animations and I could pause/access the menu.

    The bad news is, I've no idea which of the services or start up programs caused the problem in the first place. What do you suggest? Perhaps restoring them one by one until I reproduce the problem?

  • holger1405's avatar
    holger1405
    Hero+
    5 years ago

    @bean1701 

    Unfortunately, the only way to find out is trial and error.

    Activate the auto start application and let the services disabled > Test.

    Then you will know if it is an application or a service.

    After that you have to test one after another.

  • bean1701's avatar
    bean1701
    5 years ago

    AH HA! I found it! Shockingly it was a windows component, something called "Run a Legacy CPL Elevated" (the app is RunLegacyCPLElevated.exe and it lives in C:\Windows\System32). Of course it was the LAST one I tried re-enabling. I don't know what it does, but it was stopping Escape from working. It works again!


    Thank you both so much!

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