Re: Command and Conquer Remastered -- Failed to launch

@KayGamess What's the path stored in the below registry key on your machine?

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Petroglyph\CnCRemastered\Install Dir

@KayGamess Ah well, worth checking.

My game is now running without having to use the switch workaround. Maybe EA have now fixed the issue.

I wasn't correct with my last post. I hadn't realised at the time but I had fixed my game myself so that it worked without needing the -REDALERT switch but I thought it was EA that had fixed it.! Doh! Then my game failed to launch again. When I investigated further, I realised that I'd hit upon a fix and then inadvertently regressed it, hence why my game stopped working.

Soooo, if the -REDALERT option doesn't work for you, try the following:

1) If you previously added the -REDALERT option (or any other switches) in the properties of your game in the EA Play App, remove these switches before continuing.

2) Make sure EA Play App is NOT running

3) Locate the CnCRemastered folder where you installed the game

4) In there you should have a folder called __Installer

5) In that folder locate the file installerdata.xml

6) Create a backup of the file (just in case)

7) Edit the original file installerdata.xml with a text editor eg notepad

8) Find the below entry in the file (not too far down the file, under the <runtime> section):

    <parameters>DUMP_FULL</parameters>

9) Edit the entry to add a dash before DUMP_FULL as per below:

    <parameters>-DUMP_FULL</parameters>

10) Save the file

11) Launch EA Desktop App

12) Run C&C Remastered

13) Hopefully your game will then work every time.

@KayGamess Can you try on yours and see if it fixes it?

@KayGamess Can you post the contents of your XML file please (as far as the  <installMetaData> section will do)?

@KayGamess Can't see anything in there that would cause the error and we already checked that the path is correct in your registry.

Try giving your machine a reboot in case some EA App service is still hanging around in the background and the XML change is not taking effect.

If that still doesn't work, try changing the line <parameters>-DUMP_FULL</parameters> in the XML to just read:

<parameters />

Then run the EA App and see if it works.

@KayGamess Hi, can you throw the below EA log file up on pastebin pls?

C:\ProgramData\EA Desktop\Logs\EAGEP.log

That may perhaps help indicate what's going wrong.

@KayGamess Yours looks like a completely different problem and appears to be some kind of network or windows credentials storage issue.

When the EA App tries to retrieve the token for the game exe path, it errors with:

"A specified logon session does not exist. It may already have been terminated."

You could try solution in below thread:

https://answers.ea.com/t5/Technical-Issues/Failed-to-get-token-from-Origin/td-p/7747677

Solution is from 2019 and was reported about Origin, so I can't be sure that it's the same problem that you're having with EA Play. Worth a shot though.

Otherwise, maybe apply any outstanding updates to your Windows if it's not already up to date.

You can also try setting your windows to log-in with a PIN if you don't have that set already.

Otherwise, I'm out of ideas I'm afraid and it perhaps needs someone with deeper networking / Windows expertise than I have.

@bleearghhHi, your solution unfortunately didn't work but I did find out what is causing the problem.

The problem is that I'm using a normal user account instead of an admin account. error code:[1312] in the logs has something to do with a Windows account.

So I think the error has something to do with the admin privelleges the game needs because if I launch the game from my admin account it will work perfectly fine.

Opening EA as an administrator using my user account doesn't work so I guess the only solution to this problem at this moment is to use an admin account.

@KayGamess Yeh, it seems to be trying to impersonate admin account (the getUserImpersonationToken in the log), kind of like a run as command. That method then isn't allowed, basically gets access denied and so it errors out. I was unsure as to whether to suggest checking if you were using an admin account, as I wrongly thought that running the EA App as admin would have fixed that anyways.

My account is admin by the way and the only issue I've run in to is that bad param in the XML file for CnC Remastered.

Oh well, at least you know the cause now and can work around it. Good bit of diagnosis on your part there matey 🙂 Hopefully it'll provide a workaround for others encountering the problem who are using an account with user privileges.

Any chance you might be able to help me with launching any of the C&C games in the ultimate collection?

I've found that other games that are not C&C will launch just fine, but when I try to launch C&C Generals/Zero Hour, or Red Alert 2 I get the hold up it needs permissions and the dreaded failed to launch glitch. 

I have tried the -blah in properties, clearing cache, uninstall reinstall of both the game and the client, running in admin and compatibility mode.

https://pastebin.com/b6hHisu0

@Anoneevee 

Are you logged into Windows with an Administrator account? People seem to have problems sometimes using a normal user account. You could also try disabling overlay in the EA App (Settings / Application).

Also, I take it that the launcher does not appear before the failed to launch error?

@Anoneevee Can you run both of the games and then upload the below EA App log file? Default W10 location is as below:

C:\ProgramData\EA Desktop\EAGEP.log

@Anoneevee Happy to help, though I'm not sure if I'll be able to fix your issue TBH.

An example line from the log that shows the error you're getting is as follows:

18 [2023-02-26T20:10:16.886Z] PID: 7396 TID: 7680 ERROR (eax::WinUtils::getUserImpersonationToken) Failed to get linked token. error code:[1312] error description[A specified logon session does not exist. It may already have been terminated.

It's an error that quite a few people have got. It seems to be an access denied error when trying to gain admin rights when launching the game. Someone had it when logged in as a normal user and fixed it by logging in as admin. Someone else had the issue logged in on one corporate W10 box as admin but it worked on a different box.

Unfortunately, where the issues exists on a machine logged in as an Administrator, so far nobody here seems to have been able to get to the bottom of that issue.

There is a loose thread that I have from a previous investigation however. Is your game installed in Program Files? If so, it may be worth re-installing in a standard drive folder. If the game still errors, check your admin account has full control over the folder.

My machine is W10 21H2 by the way. Might be worth updating if yours happens to be behind on updates.

Other than that, I was hoping someone more knowledgeable than me might come along with some further ideas.

@Anoneevee One other thing to mention... when you've reinstalled, make sure the -blah switch is in the launch options.

@Anoneevee Yeh it's one thing if it's some rare problem but these issues seem to be affecting a lot of people and communications from EA are dire.

Couple of other questions:

Is your machine W10 Home? What build are you on?

Do you use a PIN to log-in?