Hello everyone, since a few days my ME3 won't start. Tried everything that came to my mind to fix it, nothing worked tho. I hope somebody in this forum has an idea of what's going on. The problem is pretty simple: Once I startup the game from origin or the .exe, it loads up but crashes immediately when the intro starts playing (1-2 seconds into it). Sometimes it just shows a white screen. The error message Windows throws out is "Mass Effect 3 has stopped working". To put it clear: I never even reach the starting screen. Things I've already tried: Reinstalling Origin Reinstalling/Repairing ME3 Starting ME3 without Internet Resetting PC via recovery Searching for malicious software and failing drivers (sfc /scannow and Antivir) Workarounds posted in this and this thread Switching origin to my native language (German) Downgrading/Upgrading Nvidia drivers I'm not a total fool when it comes to computer issues, but I'm completely baffled with this one. Other origin games work just fine. When the crashes started the most recent change I did was updating Origin to its latest version. The game worked for atleast one day after the update tho. Before that it worked splendid for years. Please find my DxDiag and Reliability error attached. Thanks in advance!

@Xqxmeplx Could be that one of you save games or you game profile was corrupted. But I never encountered that in combination with an msvcr90.dll error. You did all what I suggested in the second part of this post? @campaign saves. They should still be in the cloud (If you not told Origin to synchronize the local saves after you deleted them.) Make a backup of your "BioWare\Mass Effect 3" folder and then enable cloud save again. (Start the game > prefer cloud) After you have the saves back disable the cloud save again and put the save games into the "Save" folder of your backup. Then copy the entire content of the folder back to the original Mass Effect 3 folder. (overwrite) > If it is not working after that it must be a corrupt save game or the "Local_Profile.sav". If that don't works, in Origin, right click ME3 > Game properties > Cloud Saves. > There you find an option "Restore Save". (Can't promise that it works thought, the funktion normal only restores the last save.)

Xqxmeplx

9 years ago

Solved

Mass Effect 3 crashes on start

Hello everyone,

since a few days my ME3 won't start. Tried everything that came to my mind to fix it, nothing worked tho. I hope somebody in this forum has an idea of what's going on.

The problem is pretty simple: Once I startup the game from origin or the .exe, it loads up but crashes immediately when the intro starts playing (1-2 seconds into it). Sometimes it just shows a white screen. The error message Windows throws out is "Mass Effect 3 has stopped working". To put it clear: I never even reach the starting screen.

Things I've already tried:

Reinstalling Origin
Reinstalling/Repairing ME3
Starting ME3 without Internet
Resetting PC via recovery
Searching for malicious software and failing drivers (sfc /scannow and Antivir)
Workarounds posted in this and this thread
Switching origin to my native language (German)
Downgrading/Upgrading Nvidia drivers

I'm not a total fool when it comes to computer issues, but I'm completely baffled with this one. Other origin games work just fine. When the crashes started the most recent change I did was updating Origin to its latest version. The game worked for atleast one day after the update tho. Before that it worked splendid for years.

Please find my DxDiag and Reliability error attached.

Thanks in advance!

ME3 Crash.txt1 KB

DxDiag.txt86 KB

holger1405
9 years ago
@Xqxmeplx

Could be that one of you save games or you game profile was corrupted. But I never encountered that in combination with an msvcr90.dll error.

You did all what I suggested in the second part of this post?

@campaign saves.

They should still be in the cloud (If you not told Origin to synchronize the local saves after you deleted them.)

Make a backup of your "BioWare\Mass Effect 3" folder and then enable cloud save again. (Start the game > prefer cloud) After you have the saves back disable the cloud save again and put the save games into the "Save" folder of your backup.

Then copy the entire content of the folder back to the original Mass Effect 3 folder. (overwrite) > If it is not working after that it must be a corrupt save game or the "Local_Profile.sav".

If that don't works, in Origin, right click ME3 > Game properties > Cloud Saves. > There you find an option "Restore Save". (Can't promise that it works thought, the funktion normal only restores the last save.)

30 Replies

holger1405
Hero+
9 years ago
@Xqxmeplx

Go to your ">drive<:\Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\Mass Effect 3\__Installer\vc\vc2008sp1\redist" folder and run the "vcredist_x86.exe" > reboot > then run the "vcredist_x64.exe" > reboot > test.
Xqxmeplx
9 years ago
@holger1405

Thank you for your quick reply. I tried your suggestion - apparently, it didn't help. Same problem with same outcome in the Reliability monitor.

Any ideas? I have one myself, will test that when I'm home from work.

Cheers
holger1405
Hero+
9 years ago
@Xqxmeplx

The Faulting module is the "MSVCR90.dll". This DLL is part of the 2008 VC++ run-times .

Download this three packages from Microsoft:

Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 SP1 Redistributable Package (x86)

Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable Package (x86)

Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable Package (x64)

Make sure Origin is closed > uninstall the VC++ 2008 run-times from your Windows control panel > reboot > install the Downloaded versions, reboot after each package > test
morphisiusz
9 years ago
Try this :

First:

1. Go Offline mode on Origin
2. Start ME3

Second:

1. Remove or rename DLC retaliation (DLC_CON_MP4) - Add a Z to the end or something.

2. Open the game
Xqxmeplx
9 years ago
@holger1405 @morphisiusz

Thank you guys for your suggestions.

Sadly, none of them helped... I specifically made sure that the VC runtimes are installed properly. Only thing I noticed is that the game crashes 2-3 seconds later now, I actually get to hear sound. 🥳

Reliability monitor spits out the same old message. Thing I noticed is that I have like 8-10 different .dlls that are named "MSVCR90" on my system drive, is that typical?

Thanks again for your help, I sincerely hope this issue can be resolved after all...
holger1405
Hero+
9 years ago
@Xqxmeplx

OK lets test a few things.

- repair the game. (in Origin > Game Library > right click ME3 > Repair) > test. (I know you did that already, but let us cover the basics.)

- Make sure Origin and the game are closed.

- Go to your "C:\Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\Mass Effect 3\BIOGame" folder and rename the "DLC" folder to "_DLC" > start Origin > start the game from the "MassEffect3.exe" inside the "C:\Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\Mass Effect 3\Binaries\Win32" folder.

- If that don't helps, make sure Origin and the game are closed

- rename the "_DLC" folder back to "DLC"

- go to your "Dokumente\BioWare\Mass Effect 3\Save" folder and move the entire content to a different place.

- do the same with the "Dokumente\BioWare\Mass Effect 3\BIOGame" folder.

- go to your "C:\Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\Mass Effect 3\Binaries\Win32" folder and delate the "MassEffect3.exe"

- Go to your Origin Game Game Library, It will show "install" at the button > click install (don't worry it will download only a few files.

- test
Xqxmeplx
9 years ago
@holger1405

Tested your steps. Again, neither of them worked...

When I tried to test the one with the DLC rename, it wouldn't let me start the game after renaming. Tried both .exe and Origin. I definitely had Origin closed before trying it (actually made 2 attempts). No error message or anything like that, quite weird.

So unfortunately I have no progress to report... 😢

Anyway, thank you again.
holger1405
Hero+
9 years ago
@Xqxmeplx

Sorry, my bad.

The game can't start without the two "DLC_UPD_Patch" patch DLCs.

Please create a folder, named however you want, in the "C:\Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\Mass Effect 3\BIOGame\DLC" folder.

Then Move all DLC expect "DLC_UPD_Patch01" and "DLC_UPD_Patch02" into this folder and try again.
Xqxmeplx
9 years ago
@holger1405

Just tried, sadly not working either 🤔
holger1405
Hero+
9 years ago
@Xqxmeplx

Ok, this is complicated.

You said that you tried the suggestions out of the other threads, did you run SFC /scannow?

Also apply beta updates in Origin and restart the client.