Re: Mass Effect 2 won't launch- origin failure

Hi, I'm experiencing a similar issue. I just completed ME1 and ME3 - no issues with launching the games from the Origin launcher. But after installing ME2, the game won't launch. I have tried everything on the forums from changing .exe names, uninstalling and only installing the game and not the extras, etc. Nothing worked. Please help.

Thanks!

Attached is my saved file from dxdiag

@rezsirrect 

Try to repair the game. (in Origin > Game Library > right click ME2 > Repair)

I know you already reinstalled, please try it nevertheless.

If that don't helps:

• Turn off "Cloud storage" in Origin.
  (Origin menu > Origin > Application Settings > Install & Saves > Cloud storage > Off (Grey)
• Make sure Origin is completely closed.
• Go to "C:\Users\>your username>\Documents\BioWare\Mass Effect 2" folder and move the "Save" folder and the "BIOGame" folder to your desktop.
  (Just to make this clear, the named folders must be gone from the "C:\Users\>your username>\Documents\BioWare\Mass Effect 2" path.)
• Go to ">drive<:\Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\Mass Effect 2\Binaries" folder and move the "MassEffect2.exe", the "MEGame2.exe" and the "MassEffect2Config.exe" (the last one could also be a higher one) to your desktop.
• Go to "">drive<:\Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\Mass Effect 2" and delete the "data" folder.
• Start Origin > inside the Origin Game library click on "Download" for ME2 again > after the installation finished > reboot > Test.

My Origin Version 10.5.69.40136 - 761032

I've also attached the text file.
I would also like to mention I have tried several fixes. Repairing the game, changing the name of the .exe files. Uninstalling and reinstalling both the game and origin, turning off cloud saves, making sure compatibility mode was off, running as administrator.

Did everything, until I come up to this step:

Start Origin > inside the Origin Game library click on "Download" for ME2 again > after the installation finished > reboot > Test.

I clicked on the Mass Effect 2 banner in the Origin Game library (Play button is inactive) I clicked on Settings icon, no Download option is available other than Update Game, Repair, Game Properties, Uninstall.

I'm guessing click on Update game / Repair? Anyway, did both of Update game and Repair as well, Reboot and tried to tap on Play button. Origin dashboard went away, then it come back very shortly and the Play button becomes active again.

I suspect it may be my computer issue as I tried to install a family member's ME2 on Steam and it has the same issue too ☹️

Maybe one of the installs? e.g. Microsoft Visual C++ 2005? What are the add-ons that was installed on ME2 that are different from ME1 and ME3?

Thanks for your help!

 @rezsirrect 
Soooooo I just found a solution on a different thread that worked for me. And I'm like... confused because its so simple and so dumb at the same time.

Open file location in ME2, open up the config, and change the resolution... 
The game INSTANTLY booted up for me. I am in shock. Shook. Shooketh.
Haha. 

Thanks to @n7arishok for that fix. 

That's great! I'm afraid in my case, it didn't help. I tried this as well and it didn't help. Can I check that it is the MassEffect2Config.exe config file in Binaries folder is that right? Do you have to do it in a particular sequence? e.g. Change the resolution first before starting up Origin?

Yes, thats right. Origin was running when I tried it

@rezsirrect 

---

@rezsirrect wrote:

Did everything, until I come up to this step:

Start Origin > inside the Origin Game library click on "Download" for ME2 again > after the installation finished > reboot > Test.

I clicked on the Mass Effect 2 banner in the Origin Game library (Play button is inactive)

---

That is strange. You made sure Origin was compatibly closed, not just minimized? 

OK, we need a crash dump of the game.

• Press the Windows key and "R" at the same time.
• In the new Window, type or copy and paste "%LOCALAPPDATA%\CrashDumps" (Without the quotation marks) > Press ENTER
• Look if there are any "MassEffect2.exe.Xxxx.dmp" files in the "..Local\CrashDumps" folder.
• Upload all  MassEffect2.exe dmp file at a free filehoster like Dropbox and post the link here.

If there aren't any dump files of ME2:

• Press the Windows key > Write: Command Prompt > Right click on "Command Prompt" in the search results > Run as administrator.
• Copy and paste "reg add "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Error Reporting\LocalDumps\devenv.exe" /v DumpType /d 2 /t REG_DWORD" (Without the quotation marks at beginning and end of the line, so the quotation marks before HKLM and after devenv.exe need to stay in) into the command prompt Window > Press ENTER.
• Play the game until it crashes.
• After the game crashes, let all Windows crash dialogues finish.
• Press the Windows key and "R" at the same time. > Type "%LOCALAPPDATA%\CrashDumps" (Without the quotation marks) into the new window > Press ENTER.
• Upload the MassEffect2.dump files at a free filehoster like Dropbox and post the link here.
  
  
  If you want to undo the automatic dump creation, use the command below in a elevated command prompt (As in point 1) reg delete "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Error Reporting\LocalDumps" /f

Here are my crash dumps:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dMMFbww40Rotzvb1e00XEAIAicxCZK7Q/view?usp=sharing

@rezsirrect 

ME2 crashed with a "INVALID_POINTER_READ" memory access violation.

This is not a game error, and I don't think that this is a memory problem because the other games work. Unfortunately it can have many other reasons.

Preform a clean boot and test the Game in clean boot mode.

Make sure the game uses the 1050 and not the iGPU.

Performed a clean boot as advised. It has the same behaviour - failed to launch ☹️

@rezsirrect 

Go to your ">Drive<:\Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\Mass Effect 2\__Installer\vc\vc2005\redist" folder and run the "vcredist_x86.exe" as Administrator.

(Right click the "vcredist_x86.exe" > Run as Administrator.) 

Reboot > Test.

If that don't helps:

• Hit Windows key and X.
• Choose either “PowerShell (Administrator)” or “Command prompt (Administrator),” whichever option is offered.
• Inside the PowerShell or CMD, enter “DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Checkhealth” without quotes. > ENTER.
• If no errors were found reaped steps 1 & 2.
• Inside the PowerShell or CMD, enter “DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth” without quotes. > ENTER.
• The system will start validating soon. If it throws an error, please list it here.
• After it reaches 100%, hit Windows key and X again.
• Again, choose “PowerShell (Administrator)” or “Command prompt (Administrator)”
• Inside the PowerShell or CMD, enter “sfc /scannow” without quotes. >ENTER.
• Post the message you receive at the end of the processes here.

DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Checkhealth --- Results 

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 10.0.18362.1

Image Version: 10.0.18363.836

No component store corruption detected.
The operation completed successfully.

sfc /scannow --- Results

Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them. For online repairs, details are included in the CBS log file located at windir\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For example C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For offline repairs, details are included in the log file provided by the /OFFLOGFILE flag.

The system file repair changes will take effect after the next reboot.

I did another sfc /scannow after reboot(which showed that Windows did some repairing but it looks like it repaired some corrupted files but not able to repair others like this:

2020-05-18 00:39:24, Info CSI 0000022a [SR] Could not reproject corrupted file \??\C:\WINDOWS\System32\\msvcr100_clr0400.dll; source file in store is also corrupted

After some research, managed to fix the corrupted file issue.

Now the sfc /scannow yield this results --

Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations.

I tried restarting and going to Game Library and click Play, but it has the same issue and did not launch.

Tried to uninstall and reinstall, renamed the .exe, launched the game - and still failed ☹️

Created a latest dump file here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1parGqOx3KToZCCJGpVa7BqaJslGL1Qe7/view?usp=sharing

@rezsirrect 

OK, lets see if a third party application or service is the culprit.

Preform a clean boot and test the Game in clean boot mode. Disable your virus scanner and Afterburner and similar software as well if you use it.

I believed I have tried clean boot and stopped third party services and none seemed to work. Have tried disabling Microsoft services too and that has not helped. Just about to give up ☹️

@rezsirrect 

You checked that the 1050 is used?

• Create a new Windows user account. (Don't use special characters in the Username for that account)
• Reboot > Log on to the new account > Test.

Yep - tried the new user account as well. Didn't work ☹️

I had another look at config.exe and comparing to another game that worked, the default pulldown menu already has Nvidia, whereas mine is set at Intel as one of the 3 options to pulldown tab in the Display settings. I have tried starting the main exe as Nvidia and even went to the Nvidia control panel to make sure the game .exe is set to Nvidia but the config pulldown is still not showing it. I have attached a screenshot. Not sure if this has anything to do with it.

Sorry - I tried installing Origin and the game on another lesser spec laptop and it plays well there. Noticed the Display pulldown(in the config.exe) has no Nvidia on it as default so there goes my theory on suspecting that it could be the issue. I do noticed the laptop had a couple of prompts - 1) Alert message the hardware is not full compatible but will still run the game(which it did) 2) it started up on a small window(as opposed to full-screen) and lower resolution.

@rezsirrect 

So inside the NVIDIA control panel the "MassEffect2.exe" is set to the "high performance nvidia processor"?

Yep - have done this earlier too. You can have a look in image attached.

@rezsirrect 

OK, lets go to the drivers.

• Download the latest available VGA drivers for your notebook from the Dell website.
• Follow this manual to the letter to cleanly uninstall all NVIDIA and Intel driver components.
• After the clean uninstall Install the Intel driver first > Reboot > Install the NAVIDIA driver.
• Test.