I'm having the same problem. It used to work fine back when I had Origin installed, then it forced me to "migrate" to the EA App. Didn't touch the game for a while after that.
Then I had an urge to start up MELE today and try a new playthrough, but it refuses to launch. This is my process.
I've tried:
I am very reluctant to uninstall and reinstall the game because my connection speed is so slow that it would take almost a whole week of night-only download sessions to get the game reinstalled. However I have read there were a couple of other workarounds involving reinstalling Origin (somehow) and tricking it into not auto-upgrading to the EA App, but I'm not certain I should try that.
I filed a trouble ticket earlier today about it, but I suppose that Link2EA is what's choking right now. But why would it choke when launching MELE when I can launch Mass Effect: Andromeda with only a short delay?
Tried it. Its a no-go. The same thing happens; it says it is "preparing game", then Link2EA appears in my task manager. After about 30 seconds, the pop-up vanishes and the Link2EA process self-terminates. The game doesn't get launched.
Please preform a clean boot and test the Game in clean boot mode.
(Make sure the "EABackgroundService" remains enabled under point 3 in the guide.)
Make sure your virus scanner and other security software and also Afterburner and similar software is disabled.
A reboot is one of the things I tried a few days ago, but not the completely minimal "clean boot". I also added exceptions for the game's launcher and Link2EA in my antivirus, which is Avira Security.
Avira doesn't give me an option to disable it in the typical sense, it only allows me to disable its "real-time protection" feature for a time that cannot exceed 24 hours.
I'll give the clean boot a shot and get back to you.
In your EA accounts "My Account" page, under connections, is Steam shown as linked?
Affirmative. I'm almost at my wit's end here and if I can get this working I'll just fall back to playing the OG ME1 and ME2 on Steam.
Took a few days, but I did it. The results still haven't changed. Something's still busted and at this point I wonder how long it will be until EA fixes it on their end. Something definitely changed since the Origin App was replaced by the EA App. Would I be better served buying MELE through Origin and using that exclusively instead of the Steam version? Or maybe stick to the OG games since they're in my Steam library?
As the screenshot shows (apologies for it being large, the taskbar is just skinned), Link2EA is trying to do something, but I have no idea what and it self-terminates after 30 seconds without MELE being launched. It "prepares" to do so and just doesn't get anywhere.
I'm now frustrated with not being able to launch this game, either through the EA App or through Steam. Mass Effect: Andromeda still launches because it requires the EA App (was Origin before that), so I don't know what's going on.
I can't say what exactly is blocking the game for you either, we however have made every reasonable troubleshooting attempt.
This might be a problem inside the OS or something blocking Link2EA or a different function on your system.
An account problem is possible too.
I appreciate the assistance too. Its been very frustrating, but I had to resort to a workaround that was on the game's discussion forums on Steam (and mentioned occasionally here in these forums). Surprisingly enough that worked like a charm even though I shouldn't have had to use it to begin with.
This tells me that something in the EA App doesn't like my system or vice versa and either way this means I may not be able to launch the game through the EA App or Steam because Link2EA is somehow borked with my install of Windows 10. I don't know why they made this cross-platform communication a separate process from the main app, but they have their reasons.
I bet if I bought and installed a game exclusively through the EA App it would work as intended, since that would (in theory) not require the use of Link2EA since it comes from within the app itself unlike games bought in Steam. I will test this with a purchase of the OG ME3 since its on sale (and I don't mind showing the devs of the series a little love for their time and effort in making the ME universe). 🙂
In the end I can play MELE again, though I'd prefer if the EA App and my system could get along when it comes to games I purchased on Steam.
And since its December 24th as I post this, I hope everyone is cozy and enjoying the company of friends and family on this holiday. So happy holidays, guys! 🙂
What was the fix that worked for you? I tried everything.
Reinstalling an older version of Origin, basically. Its more involved than just that though, but it finally allowed MELE to be launched (though I did it from Origin).
But as I said in my previous post, I shouldn't have to rely on such workarounds. I'd have preferred to use the intended methods offered by the EA App, as that is what is officially supported. But because every reasonable attempt to get MELE to work with the EA App had failed, I had to resort to something of a more technical workaround involving reinstalling Origin on the side specifically so MELE would be playable again. A workaround that was posted in the MELE community forums on Steam and mentioned on EA's forums too a couple of times.
your previous answer to about using Revo Uninstaller worked to fix this for me
It was not Launching I followed you instructions and it fixed it form me.
Revo uninstaller
Instructions are posted on this site
Good to hear, have fun gaming!
I had tried everything I could find on the forum, even formatting the computer, and a clean Windows installation didn't work. However, today I found a solution that worked instantly. So, if you, like me, have tried everything you found, give this a shot, as it will solve the issue:
What was happening were errors in the Registry after installing the game in Windows 10 and 11.
Credits to Jonathan J. O'Neill, I found this solution in the MELE community on Steam.
I tried the Revo uninstaller attempt, twice, and it still fails.
When trying to open MELE through Steam, it opens a dialog from EA saying "Preparing Game.." for several seconds. Then the dialog box goes away and nothing happens.
Starting MELE directly through EA app produces a similar result.
I appreciate your effort with troubleshooting, but this does not appear like an isolated client side incident. Do you have any other ideas?
Thank you
If you don't tag someone with @ > username ( @holger1405 for example) nobody knows whom you are addressing.
I did something like this already after the reasonable troubleshooting didn't work. Turns out most of the keys were already present and that still still didn't allow the game to launch. This just further cemented that something about the EA App or my PC was just being very disagreeable.
And yet once I got the older version of Origin installed and "configured", I was able to get MELE to launch straight away as long as I used Origin to do it. That part is the real headscratcher; why would Origin work and EA App doesn't? I have no answer for that. So for me it means I have to use Origin if I want to play MELE (while that workaround lasts).
