Black Box Splash Critical Launch Failure & Anti-Cheat Registration Bug on Steam

Comprehensive Technical Report: Battlefield 6 - Critical Launch Failure & Anti-Cheat Registration Bug on Steam

Report Date: October 11, 2025 Subject: In-depth analysis of a persistent, critical launch failure of Battlefield 6 on the Steam platform. Conclusion: The issue is a reproducible software bug within the EA Javelin Anti-Cheat's game detection and service registration process for the Steam build, not a user-side configuration error.

1.0 Executive Summary

This report documents an exhaustive, multi-day investigation into a critical launch failure affecting the Steam version of Battlefield 6. The failure manifests as an immediate crash-to-desktop after the initial splash screen, displaying a small black window before silently closing with no error message. This issue has persisted since the Beta and continues with the full release despite over 30 hours of advanced troubleshooting.

The investigation has conclusively ruled out user-side errors related to hardware, BIOS/UEFI configuration, OS integrity, and conflicting software. The root cause has been isolated to a multi-stage failure within the EA Javelin Anti-Cheat system, which was diagnosed through a systematic process of elimination detailed in this report.

Despite resolving all local installation and configuration issues, the game executable still crashes. Final diagnostic logs show the anti-cheat driver successfully loading and then immediately unloading, consistent with a main application crash. The evidence compiled herein demonstrates that this issue requires a software patch from the developer.

2.0 System Specifications

The system meets or exceeds all recommended requirements for Battlefield 6 and is configured according to modern security standards.

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 9800X3D
• GPU: NVIDIA RTX 5090
• RAM: 64 GB DDR5
• Motherboard: ASUS ROG Crosshair X670E Hero
• BIOS: Version 3205 (UEFI Mode, CSM Disabled)
• Operating System: Windows 11 Pro (Build 26100.6725)
• Platform: Steam
• Security: Secure Boot ON and TPM 2.0 Ready for use (Verified via msinfo32 and tpm.msc)

3.0 Comprehensive Diagnostic Timeline & Evidence

The troubleshooting process was conducted systematically, eliminating potential causes at each layer of the system.

Phase 1: BIOS & System Integrity Verification

All firmware and OS-level security prerequisites for EA Javelin Anti-Cheat were verified as correctly configured.

• UEFI & Secure Boot: CSM was disabled, and Secure Boot was set to "Standard" with default Microsoft keys installed and active.
• TPM 2.0: AMD fTPM was enabled in the BIOS and confirmed as "Ready for use, Version 2.0" within Windows.
• System Integrity: Standard system file checks (sfc /scannow, DISM) were performed, and no integrity violations were found.

Phase 2: Anti-Cheat Installation Diagnosis & Manual Troubleshooting

The investigation centered on the EAAntiCheatService, revealing a cascade of installation and registration failures.

• Initial Finding - Faulty Installer: The EAAntiCheat.Installer.exe included in the Steam game directory was found to be defective. When run, it did not list Battlefield 6 in its dropdown menu, making installation impossible. A manually downloaded, functional installer showed a significantly larger file size (~223 KB vs. ~171 KB).
• Initial Error Log - Service Failure (Error 1063): The Windows Event Viewer captured a critical error during initial launch attempts: Source: EAAntiCheatService, Description: StartServiceCtrlDispatcher failed with error: 1063. This indicates the service process failed to initialize correctly.
• Subsequent Error Log - Invalid Arguments: Further investigation revealed a more specific error in the Event Viewer: Source: EAAntiCheatService, Description: Invalid argument count. This confirmed the service was being created without the required launch parameters.
• Manual Service Creation Errors: Attempts to manually create and start the service using sc.exe and net start in Command Prompt resulted in a series of specific system errors, proving a deep-seated registration issue:
• System error 87: The parameter is incorrect: Occurred when the binPath argument was malformed.
• System error 2: The system cannot find the file specified: Occurred when the service path pointed to a file that did not exist due to the installation path mismatch between the EA App's global folder and Steam's local folder.
• Critical Clue - Missing Dependency: A key discovery was made when attempting to run the launcher directly: an error popped up stating preloader_i.dll was not found. This proved that EAAntiCheat.GameServiceLauncher.exe is not a self-contained binary and depends on files deployed by a full, successful installer run, which was never happening.

Phase 3: Full System Cleanup & Final Analysis

To eliminate all conflicts, a complete wipe of all EA and Battlefield 6 components was performed using a PowerShell script. Registry backups created by the script confirmed the removal of legacy software paths.

Following this deep clean, a fresh copy of Battlefield 6 was installed. The correct anti-cheat installer was manually placed and run, resulting in a technically perfect installation. The EAAntiCheatService was confirmed to be correctly registered, pointing to the proper executable path in C:\Program Files\EA\AC\.

• Persistent Crash: Despite the verified-correct installation, the game still exhibited the exact same crash behavior.
• Final Evidence - Filter Manager Logs: The final diagnostic clue came from the Windows System log.
• Log Entry 1: File System Filter 'EAAntiCheat'... has successfully loaded and registered with Filter Manager.
• Log Entry 2 (16 seconds later): File System Filter 'EAAntiCheat'... unloaded successfully.
• Analysis: This proves the anti-cheat driver is successfully starting when the game launches, but the main game process crashes immediately after, causing the driver to unload. The crash is now "silent," generating no new errors in the Application log.

4.0 Conclusion

The issue is a definitive software bug that prevents Battlefield 6 from launching. The evidence conclusively demonstrates that the EA Javelin Anti-Cheat installer fails to detect the Steam version of the game on certain hardware configurations, leading to a broken service registration that cannot be fixed by the user. Even when the service is manually and correctly installed, the main game executable still crashes immediately after the anti-cheat driver is loaded.

5.0 Appendix: Command Line & PowerShell Transcript

This section contains a log of the commands used and their outputs during the diagnostic process, which proves the systematic failure of the anti-cheat service registration.

Attempt 1: Changing PowerShell Execution Policy

• Command: Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned
• Output: Successful policy change.
• Analysis: This was a preliminary step to allow diagnostic scripts to run.

Attempt 2: Running the Initial Cleanup Script

• Command: & "$env:USERPROFILE\Desktop\bf6_ea_full_cleanup.ps1"
• Output: Cleanup complete. RESTART Windows...
• Analysis: Successfully removed initial traces of EA software.

Attempt 3: Querying the (Broken) Service State

• Command: sc query EAAntiCheatService
• Output: STATE : 1 STOPPED
• Analysis: Confirmed the service was registered but not running.

Attempt 4: Manually Creating the Service (Failure due to PowerShell parsing)

• Command: sc.exe create "EAAntiCheatService" binPath= "\"C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Battlefield 6\EAAntiCheat\EAAntiCheat.GameServiceLauncher.exe\" runservice" ...
• Output: x86 : The term 'x86' is not recognized...
• Analysis: Proved that standard service creation commands fail in PowerShell due to path parsing issues, leading to the use of Command Prompt.

Attempt 5: Correctly Creating the Service in CMD (Failure due to incorrect path)

• Command: sc create "EAAntiCheatService" binPath= ...
• Output: [SC] CreateService SUCCESS
• Command: net start EAAntiCheatService
• Output: System error 2 has occurred. The system cannot find the file specified.
• Analysis: This definitively proved that the service was being created with a binPath pointing to a non-existent file, a core part of the registration bug.

Attempt 6: Deleting and Re-creating the Service (Final Failure)

• Command: sc.exe delete "EAAntiCheatService"
• Output: [SC] DeleteService SUCCESS
• Command: (Re-creation of the service with corrected path)
• Command: net start EAAntiCheatService
• Output: The service is not responding to the control function.
• Analysis: This was the final proof. Even with the service pointing to the correct, existing executable, the binary itself failed to start as a service, confirming it is not a standalone service and requires a proper installation that was never triggered.