After playing MEA Deluxe Edition 1.10 purchased on Steam for PC for maybe a month or two (186 hours, and two complete playthroughs with only a few minor issues), I saved and shut down one evening, and resumed the next day to find that MEA would no longer allow me to move the character. It doesn't matter which save file I load - even starting a new game or multiplayer game ends up in the same condition. The key that opens the menu (Tab or Esc or controller start button) opens the menu and I can navigate all the menus with no problems (mouse or keyboard or controller), but once I close the menu, no input goes to the character at all and all I can do is watch the idle animation. Notably, the mouse cursor appears and moves around on screen if I move the mouse. But no keyboard controls work, not even the hotkeys that would go directly to different menu pages like I->inventory, J->journal, etc. Only Tab (open menu) and the tilde key (open console) do anything. If I start a new game, I can actually make all the initial dialog choices and play until the point where I need to walk over to my twin's damaged cryo-pod, at which point I'm stuck unable to move.I tried switching between full screen and windowed. I tried rebooting. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the game from Steam. I tried deleting all the Origin and Steam caches. I tried moving all of my profile and save files elsewhere to get a fresh start. Nothing has worked. I've tried EA tech support, but they've run me around in circles with no progress.I can load and play other games that also use mouse and keyboard similarly (No Man's Sky or Satisfactory, for instance). So this issue is apparently specific to MEA. Yet it's not fixed by reinstalling it and deleting all config and save and profile files I know of. No windows or driver updates happened on the day it stopped working, as far as I can tell. It's frankly weird to have a game abruptly stop working like this.Yes, I probably got my money's worth out of it, but I was not really done with the game. I'd like to try a few more builds and do a bit more exploring, so a fix would be appreciated.

I seem to have found a solution, though I'm not 100% sure of the details!Because it sounded relevant and had a certain number of people complaining about it crashing, I unstalled Microsoft GameInput and stopped the service. That didn't fix the issue.However, Windows seems to have reinstalled it automatically when I updated Windows 10 22H2 feature update to install (the process reappeared in TaskManager after rebooting).I can't be entirely sure, but I can theorize that maybe, just maybe, Microsoft GameInput ended up corrupted and forcing a reinstall fixed the issue?Either that, or something else in the Windows 10 22H2 feature update fixed a broken file.In any case, I was just able to load a save game and run around after that update went through.

No inputs work except in menus or dialog

10 Replies

holger1405
Hero+
3 years ago
@Saighdiur

Which config and profile files did you deleted exactly? (path)

Try to repair the game.

(Origin: Game Library > Right-click the game cover > Repair)

(Steam: Game Library > Right-click the game > Properties > Local Files > Verify integrity of game files.)

Use both! > restart the Pc > Test.
Saighdiur
3 years ago
> Which config and profile files did you deleted exactly? (path)
Documents/BioWare/Mass Effect Andromeda/Save/
ProfOpts*
Career*
I tried just moving the ProfOpts* files to another directory first to make it regenerate these.
Then I tried moving all the Save files, and then the entire Mass Effect Andromeda directory.
> Try to repair the game.
I ran Stream Verify (All 1172 files successfully validated) and Origin Repair (which I think just retriggered steam verify) and rebooted.
Sadly, no progress, still stuck.
As an interesting detail, I can tell that the game can see keyboard and controller input because a few of my saves are in front of an object with an interaction prompt.
If I hit a controller button, the prompt switches to a Y button icon. If I hit a keyboard key, it switches back to an [E] icon. But it still doesn't actually allow any of the input to move the character or trigger the object.
Also, as a random test I went and reinstalled Mass Effect 3 just to check if it would have any similar problems, but it's fine. Not that there's probably much in common between the source code bases of the games, but it's a data point that that game and others I have don't have a problem acquiring exclusive access to mouse, keyboard, and controller input.
Saighdiur
3 years ago
Trying to be a bit more thorough here:
Symptoms I've discovered:
Tried essentially every key on the keyboard, mouse, and controller. Only the open console (tilde key) and open main menu (Tab key in single player, Esc in multiplayer, controller start or touch pad buttons) functions work when not in menu. Additional rebindable keys that would also open specific menus (H, J, U, M, etc.) do not function, though. In menu, all controls work as expected on all input devices. When the PC console is open, I can type commands into it normally.
Other games which require exclusive input from mouse, keyboard, and/or controller to control a character (Mass Effect 3, No Man's Sky, Satisfactory) all work correctly.
Plugging a PS4 controller shows that the problem is not mouse/keyboard specific (again, only menu controls work - start button or pressing touch pad)
Interestingly, the PS4 controller shows that the game sees input in some form, because a save file with an [E] prompt on an interactive object changes the [E] prompt to a [Y button] icon if I hit any button on the controller, and changes it back to an [E] prompt if I hit any key on the keyboard.
When in character movement mode, moving the mouse causes a windows mouse cursor to appear and move around on screen. That probably indicates that the game did not successfully capture exclusive mouse input and certainly didn't hide the mouse cursor.
Steps I have tried so far:
reset controls to default
modified control bindings
unplugged and plugged back in input devices
Switched video output from full screen to windowed and borderless window modes
reboot
clean reboot (no non-MicroSoft background processes)
Origin repair game (All files validated)
Steam validate local files (All files successfully validated)
Clean Origin caches
CCleaner clean
Updated 2 drivers (GbE, Audio) detected as out of date by CCleaner
Reinstalled AMD graphics drivers
Uninstalled and reinstalled Mass Effect Andromeda from Steam (twice now)
Moved "Documents/BioWare/Mass Effect Andromeda/Save/ProfOpt*" to a backup location to regenerate them
Moved entire "Documents/BioWare/Mass Effect Andromeda" to a backup location to regenerate all
Checked for any windows or game updates that might have been installed the night it stopped working (no sign of anything)
Testing I've done to check the issue:
Loaded 4 or 5 different save files going far back in my current character's Career (same issue for all)
Started a new character from scratch (same issue, but discovered that I can enter dialog options during the opening sequence - apparently, they work like menu input)
Started a new character from scratch after moving all Saves and ProfOpt files to get as close to a fresh install start as possible (same issue)
Started a multiplayer game to see if that would be different (same issue, except that the menu button that works is Escape instead of Tab)
Saighdiur
3 years ago
I seem to have found a solution, though I'm not 100% sure of the details!
Because it sounded relevant and had a certain number of people complaining about it crashing, I unstalled Microsoft GameInput and stopped the service. That didn't fix the issue.
However, Windows seems to have reinstalled it automatically when I updated Windows 10 22H2 feature update to install (the process reappeared in TaskManager after rebooting).
I can't be entirely sure, but I can theorize that maybe, just maybe, Microsoft GameInput ended up corrupted and forcing a reinstall fixed the issue?
Either that, or something else in the Windows 10 22H2 feature update fixed a broken file.
In any case, I was just able to load a save game and run around after that update went through.
Saighdiur
3 years ago
I apparently jumped to conclusions too quickly.
The problem reappeared after the next boot, but I've now established that Microsoft GameInput is somehow responsible.
If I uninstall Microsoft GameInput and then reboot, I can play Mass Effect Andromeda normally.
Stopping the GameInput service and processes doesn't seem to be sufficient allow MEA to run. I have to uninstall it and reboot.
The next time I reboot, Windows reinstalls and restarts the service, and MEA stops working again.
Presumably, there's some incompatibility between MEA and GameInput, and running without GameInput allows MEA to use some other path to get input.
So I guess I have a partial solution that will allow me to continue playing when I want to.
However, a bug report to GameInput would be in order if I had any idea how to make one.
holger1405
Hero+
3 years ago
@Saighdiur

I asume you disable the GameInput service and rebooted as well? (Without deinstalling GameInput, to test.)

I also think there must be more to it.

Microsoft GameInput is an API that is present on every Windows 10 and 11 systems except for N versions who are fairly rare.

Wile Origins overlay interferers with Andromeda on my system, in the short spots I can play the game on Origin the steering works fine as it does on EA app, that don't has the problem with the overly.

So I assume there is a third component that is interfering here.

GameInput is part of the Xbox App and deinstalling all Xbox App components should get ride of the problem. But that is complicated because Xbox App as the "NonRemovable" flag set.
In the third post in this MS help blog post is a link with a guide to do it anyway, but as said, it is complicated.
Saighdiur
3 years ago
> I assume you disable the GameInput service and rebooted as well? (Without deinstalling GameInput, to test.)
I just tested, and even though GameInput service gets restarted every reboot, just disabling the service, rebooting, and disabling it again did allow me to play.
I may experiment a bit, but I know that just disabling it and running the game didn't work the first few times I tried it.
> I also think there must be more to it.
> Microsoft GameInput is an API that is present on every Windows 10 and 11 systems except for N versions who are fairly rare.
> While Origins overlay interferes with Andromeda on my system, in the short spots I can play the game on Origin the steering works fine as it does on EA app, that don't has the problem with the overly.
> So I assume there is a third component that is interfering here.
I'm not saying your wrong. It is very odd that the issue
1) appeared suddenly after months of playing the game with no issues
2) is apparently specific to this one game of all the games I've tried
As far as I can tell, GameInput itself was updated at the time it stopped working. The last update was installed 5 days earlier. I'm not certain I rebooted the PC in the next 5 days (I usually just sleep the PC) and it seems possible that I rebooted just before the problems occurred. So that's one possibility. The fact that the issue crosses all input devices and is somehow related to the game acquiring exclusive input access (taking over the mouse and hiding the cursor) does seem related to GameInput's functions.
Of all the other app installs that occurred around the time it stopped working, most seem highly unlikely: iTunes, McAfee Security Scan, Microsoft Store, Movie Maker, and Phone Link all say they installed (or updated, I suppose) on that day and Firefox the night before. The second possible culprit would be the Steam game Stray that I installed the day before. I wonder if it's possible if some Steam common file update related to installing Stray could have caused the issue?
One last possible culprit was an attempt I made to install a better driver for my mouse which didn't work out because it turned out not to be for the exact mouse I own (it was for a Cyberpower Elite M-131 Pro mouse, but I only have the Elite M-131). It just told me it wasn't compatible and I uninstalled it. That was at least 3 or 4 days before.
In any of these cases, why would any damage be specific to one game's interactions with input devices, and not affect every game that interacts with GameInput? And I'm not sure, assuming there is some damage to some Windows input related system files, how I'd go about detecting and repairing it. Clearly reinstalling GameInput doesn't fix it, so the damage isn't to GameInput itself.
It's messy, but as long as it's confined to one game only and I have a workaround, I'm not sure it's worth a huge amount of effort to unravel all the details.
holger1405
Hero+
3 years ago
@Saighdiur

Saighdiur wrote:

It's messy, but as long as it's confined to one game only and I have a workaround, I'm not sure it's worth a huge amount of effort to unravel all the details.

Fair enough! Have fun gaming!
Attavrok
2 years ago
I just experienced this 11 hours into my first play through on the Steam Deck – naturally, unless you've installed Windows, a lot of what's listed on this thread is kind of inaccessible.
The solution I've found for Steam Deck users is as follows:
Before launching the game, go to the Gear (settings) icon
Select the option for Developer: Delete Proton Files
Relaunch the game (EA app will run setup as through for the first time)
Accept the invitation to reset key bindings
Issue resolved!
Hope this helps anyone else with my particular use case ^___^
EA_Shepard
Community Manager
2 years ago
@Attavrok wrote:

I just experienced this 11 hours into my first play through on the Steam Deck – naturally, unless you've installed Windows, a lot of what's listed on this thread is kind of inaccessible.

The solution I've found for Steam Deck users is as follows:

Before launching the game, go to the Gear (settings) icon

Select the option for Developer: Delete Proton Files

Relaunch the game (EA app will run setup as through for the first time)

Accept the invitation to reset key bindings

Issue resolved!

Hope this helps anyone else with my particular use case ^___^

Thanks for the update with Steam Deck. Hope this helps others as well!

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No inputs work except in menus or dialog

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