So I looked through the Event Viewer logs and found a system error showing "The EAAntiCheatService service terminated with the following error: 0x4294901870" (translates to "The system cannot find the file specified")
Troubleshooting Steps Taken:
- Identified Service Status Issue:
- Checked Windows Services and found EAAntiCheatService stuck in "Starting" state
- Changed startup type to Automatic but service never fully started
- Attempted Service Management:
- Tried net stop EAAntiCheatService and net start EAAntiCheatService commands
- Received "System error 87: The parameter is incorrect"
- Attempted to delete service via sc delete command - same Error 87
- Registry Investigation:
- Examined registry entries at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\
- Found two entries: EAAntiCheat (driver) and EAAntiCheatService (service)
- Registry values appeared correct with proper ImagePath settings
- Root Cause Discovery:
- Registry showed EAAntiCheat driver pointing to system32\drivers\eaanticheat.sys
- Critical Finding: The file eaanticheat.sys is completely missing from C:\Windows\System32\drivers\ folder
- This explains why the service cannot start - the required driver file doesn't exist
- Reinstalling / Repairing EAAntiCheat
- Attempted to reinstall / repair EAAntiCheat for BF1 and restart computer
- BF1 still won't open, stuck on EAAntiCheat starting.
I believe the core issue is that eaanticheat.sys is completely missing from C:\Windows\System32\drivers\ folder, but I have no idea how to fix this... I try to uninstall and reinstall, but no luck.
Could the issue still be that there is a background app or program? Or does the above chain of events prove that this is not the issue?
What can I do?