Mass Effect Legendary Edition Steam Version Not Launching

@EA_Shepard Your welcome. Its starting to be hard to belive it can be that simple. haha. But I'm sure it normaly is.

I have tried the clean boot a few different times, first by itself then on a new Admin Windows account with a new Microsoft account, then on a new Admin Local Windows account.

For compatibility settings I have tried for the following .exes, the EA Applauncher, EA Desktop, MassEffect Lancher, MassEffect 1... ect. Basically any that I could guess interacted with the program. For clarity, I did not do them all at once but slowing expanded to them trying to get it to work.

Changing the UAC Controls if I did it right did not seem to do anything. I maxed it out and tried then turned them all the way down and got no indication anything was different either time.

For the Safe Mode with Networking, I could not get the EA App to open. So maybe that showed there is a problem there? With Windows and the App? Steam opened up okay but the EA App would not. I tried running it as Admin and running the EA App updater but it would not open. A little black screen would pop up and say that EA App was up to date and that the window would close when the 5 second timer counted down but nothing after that. I tried putting the EA App back into Steam as a non-game but it still would not launch. And when I tried to launch the game by Steam, ME3, or just the .exes it would flash the EA preparing game briefly then disappear and nothing else happened.

And yes, I bought it on Steam and still own it there. When that did not work in the begining I bought it through EA and returned it in EA when it did not change the problem. Sorry for the confusion.

@teloq1793 You are good trust me. I am digging into some things but I needed to make sure on those. Its a tougher one for sure but we will get it figured out. Looking into more options on this one.

@teloq1793 Okay, so went over your last DxDiag, and compared everything you had done, and this is what it comes down to on of the following. Take your time with these. It may be a lot but once you uninstall and delete programs and files, the rest is cake. 

EA App Connectivity Issues:

Drive Configuration and File Paths:

Administrator and Compatibility Conflicts:

Corrupt Cache or Temporary Files:

EA App Safe Mode Launch Issue:

Hardware or Driver Issues:

Background Services and Software Conflicts:

Windows Registry Issues:

Account Verification Issues:

Now here is the long part, I have put to gether everything your DxDiag gave errors on, was outdated or possible causes of this. 

Clear Cache for EA App and Steam:

Delete EA App cache files:
makefile
Copy code
C:\Users\[Your Username]\AppData\Local\Electronic Arts\EA Desktop\Cache

C:\Users\[Your Username]\AppData\Local\Temp

• Clear Steam download cache via Steam settings (Steam > Settings > Downloads > Clear Download Cache).

Reinstall EA App and Steam Properly:

• Completely uninstall the EA App and Steam, removing all registry entries and files related to them.
• Install them on the same drive as the game. Avoid using separate drives for the launcher and the game itself.

Reset Permissions:

• Remove admin permissions for all relevant .exe files (EADesktop.exe, MassEffectLauncher.exe, etc.) and run them as a standard user to avoid UAC issues.
• Verify file ownership and permissions for the game directory. Ensure the current user account has full control.

Re-link EA and Steam Accounts (has to be the same accounts)
Run Clean Boot: You tested already
Move All EA, Steam, and Game Files to a Single Drive:

• Consider moving everything (Steam, EA App, and Mass Effect) to a single drive (ideally an SSD for faster load times).
• Use the Steam Library Manager to move games within Steam, and use the EA App's settings to specify the correct download and game location.

Check Internet Issues / Offline Mode:

• If offline mode works, attempt to "trick" the app into offline mode:
• Launch Steam in offline mode, disconnect the internet, and then attempt to launch the game.
• If this works, there may be an account verification issue or a DRM-related check failing online.

Reinstall Visual C++ Redistributables:

• Reinstall Microsoft Visual C++ redistributables (x64 and x86) from Microsoft’s official site.

Reinstall DirectX:

• Run the DirectX End-User Runtime Web Installer from Microsoft’s DirectX site.
• Update DirectX via Windows Update to ensure you have the latest patches.

Network Troubleshooting:

• Disable IPv6 in Network Adapter Settings.
• Check the Windows Defender firewall for EA App and Steam entries.
• Temporarily disable antivirus or add exceptions for Steam, the EA App, and game executables.

Check for Corrupt Files or Disk Issues:

• Run sfc /scannow and DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth to ensure no Windows system files are corrupt.
• Use chkdsk /f /r on the drive where the game is installed.

Switch to Windows 10 Local Account:

• If possible, create a local (non-Microsoft) Windows account, install Steam, EA App, and Mass Effect under this new account, and try to launch the game.

Reset EA Desktop App:

• Run EA App Recovery Tool. It’s often included in the EA App or available from EA's support site.

Registry Fix:

• Check for duplicate or incorrect registry entries for EA Desktop, Steam, and Mass Effect Legendary Edition.
• Open Regedit and search for "Mass Effect" and "EA Desktop" keys to ensure all paths point to the correct directories.

Try Launching Without Overlays:

• Ensure both the Steam and EA App overlays are disabled.
• Disable Discord and NVIDIA GeForce overlay if running.

Disable Audio Enhancements:

• Disable audio enhancements for all active sound devices (VoiceMeeter, etc.):

Right-click the speaker icon in the taskbar > Sounds > Playback tab.

@EA_Shepard  Okay wow. Thank you for the deep dive. I will start working my way through all these steps. It may take a while if I need to download some big files. The internet is not the fastest.

@EA_Shepard A few quick questions. Should I uninstall all the Steam games too or will they be uninstalled with steam? Or back them up to an external drive?

Would backing up Mass Effect be worse than just getting a clean install of it?

@teloq1793 

You don't need to uninstall other games and the games will not be uninstalled with the Steam client.

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teloq1793 wrote:

Would backing up Mass Effect be worse than just getting a clean install of it?

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You need to clean install the game. Back up save games if you have any, but the game files must be gone.

Okay thank you.

@EA_Shepard Well... after trying all those steps nothing has changed as far as I can tell. Still have the same error pop up. I went down through them one by one. Man am I regretting getting online that day. Do you think that maybe I have to reinstall Windows and start from the very ground floor? This problem just won't let go.

@teloq1793 I dont think you need to start from the ground up no. You can try the following before that happens.

• Reset Windows Host File
• Put your device in a Clean Boot, then launch the game
• Try the Game in different Compatibility settings
• Try Safe Mode with Networking
• Try a new Windows Account
• Change UAC Controls within Windows (change back once tested)
• Remove any over-clocking or undervolt settings or software and check if the issue continues

I go through these as they are just a few steps. Windows reinstalls are a last resort. I also do an SSD/HDD repair with System File Checker

For added measure, You could try the following too

Renew IP

1. From the Start menu, type cmd to search for the Command Prompt app.
2. Select Run as administrator.
3. Click Yes to allow User Account Control (UAC), if prompted.
4. The Administrator: Command Prompt window opens.
   At the prompt, type ipconfig /release, and then press Enter
5. The command now executes. You may see several lines of text before the command prompt returns.
6. At the prompt, type ipconfig /renew, and then press Enter.

DNS Flush

1. Click the Start button. It’s the Windows logo in the bottom left corner.
2. Select Command Prompt.
3. To open the command prompt console, you could also simply press the Windows and R keys at the same time and enter cmd.
4. You may see a popup asking if you want to allow Command Prompt to make changes to your computer. If you do, select Yes.
5. If you are asked for an administrative login at this point, then you’ll need to contact your system administrator to proceed.
6. In the command prompt window, type ipconfig /flushdns.
7. Press Enter.
8. You should see a message confirming that the DNS Resolver Cache was successfully flushed.

@teloq1793 That's fantastic news! @holger1405 is amazing at helping others get back into the game.

I'm happy to hear that you can get back in and play!

I'm Commander Shepard, and this is my favorite type of message on the Citadel

@teloq1793 

Good to hear that you got it running. Have fun gaming!

@EA_Shepard  @holger1405 

Thank you both again. I don't think I would have ever been able to figure it out on my own. Now I can finally go stop those Reapers from invading!