I had this same issue for a while. Creating a new user account worked but I wasn't going to play that way so I came across another solution using frosty mod manager and frosty fix. I encountered the same nonsense while trying to play Mass Effect Andromeda with mods and found that I was able to launch Dragon age through the same process with or without mods. Download Frosty mod manager and frostyfix, the steps I took to "fix" the issue:
EA is installed on C: obviously, game is on another drive in steam library folder
launch EA desktop, I have to repair it randomly from the installer as it will just break.
Launch frosty fix and go to settings check "launch game with frosty" (set directories for frosty installation and "custom game", which would be the dragonageinquisition.exe
In frostyfix select platform "EA desktop"
launch game with mods enabled (you don't need any mods, I don't have any installed)
frostymodmanger will open along with EA popping up, select dragon age inquisition on frosty mod manager
ea pops up a copule times, steam pops up - logs in, more ea pop ups probably then the game runs
This has been the only way that has worked for me other than doing a separate account. Reformatting PC and running only the game on fresh install had the same outcome.
- nothing was run as admin
I had a couple of edited replies posted but never mind that. After trying @0isc8mrmgr08 's suggestion I did some testing and the results are thus:
DA:I launches successfully in Steam, EA app, via Frosty, via FrostyFix, or any combination thereof. I even changed the launch options in the mod manager to work through Steam instead of EA. The game launched and a character was loaded successfully with and without mods. No other PC user account was used. All executables were run as admin.
No surprises then. As we all knew that the problem was EA App and not our PCs.
The game worked before EA App, and not after EA App, is just simple to deduce.
Thank you for testing it and sharing your results. It's way more than what EA is doing.
