Can't launch game after the November 9, 2021 update

[Phoenix.5302]

@Wisniaksiadz.9305
This is some good insight. I had this thought myself too, because I remembered after I patch GW2 the Windows update prompted me for a restart and I did. Quite possible Windows changed some system structure and somehow it blocked GW2 from properly launching.

[Silmalel.2538]

37 minutes ago, Piteous.4165 said:

I,m having the same issues. please put all chest from dallies missed in my inventory.

That would be nice of ANet! I'll also take my daily rewards. XD

Edited November 11, 2021 by Silmalel.2538

[Wisniaksiadz.9305]

1 minute ago, Silmalel.2538 said:

Except that, as I said, Task Manager is rendered unusable, too. When the GW2 launch hangs, every other app I open also hangs, including Task Manager and the shut-down button on the Start window. When I choose the log-out option on Ctrl-Alt-Del, which forces all open apps to close, it gets me back up quickly. 

 

By the way, running GW2 as Administrator got me in-game on my Windows 11 rig. I haven't yet tried it a second time (was only on to get my dailys). Haven't tried it on my Win10 rig yet either. It's a temporary work around at least. 

task manager didnt respond for me too, but only when i tried to click with mouse

Using arrows and tab worked ok

[Wizzywig.9143]

same for me, i changed compatability to Win 7 and it worked.... wierd

[Silmalel.2538]

1 minute ago, Wisniaksiadz.9305 said:

task manager didnt respond for me too, but only when i tried to click with mouse

Using arrows and tab worked ok

Thanks. I'll give it a try if it happens again. 👍

[Ferlonas.2847]

Be careful not to click anything after opening task manager though, otherwise you give the focus to the invisible gw2 window, and task manager won't react (you can give it the focus again with alt+tab)

Edit: It's getting somewhat ridiculous now. Set to start in admin mode, works. Installed arcdps, crashes. Removed arcdps, doesn't start anymore. Can this software please behave in a deterministic way?

Edit2: I got the "send report to Arenanet" finally, along with a crashdump. Sent, and I hope this will get it fixed faster.

Edited November 11, 2021 by Ferlonas.2847

[tripdarift.1578]

Without fail (and I've done this many times) I've noticed the following:

 

1. First try to open - screen flickers, cursor freezes. Have to use Task Manager to end process.

2. Second try to open - screen flickers, cursor freezes. Have to use Task Manager to end process.

3. Third try to open - screen flickers, cursor freezes. Goes to character selection, Game crashes.

4. Fourth try to open - screen flickers, cursor freezes. Goes to character selection. Game start normally.

 

EVERY.....SINGLE....TIME

 

No other changes required, no shortcut addendum switches, no windowing mode, no being silly and altering all your filenames. No rebuilds.

 

Guess I'll be doing the old 4 attempt shuffle until Anet fire up the QA Hamster.

[Leo.7086]

Same here, I can log into game, can here the game, but can't see the game on my screen.

 

[warmark.8392]

Same issue, obviously this was caused by the Mad King being well Mad at ending his event. 

[ffletcher.3468]

Running for me now finally by setting client shortcut to run in Win 8 compatibility mode.  Thanks to all who suggested Win 7 or 8 mode.

[Leo.7086]

1 hour ago, Saucy.1547 said:

Had the same issue on 2 accounts on 2 different machines. The game mode Windows 10 setting fixed my older PC. DirectX11 Beta was turned OFF. On my newer PC I had to re-install the game entirely. After the re-install the issue of black screen with sound persisted until I got a lucky load after numerous attempts. When the game did load me to the character screen I was able to check the graphic settings. The monitor was set to 4K instead of 2K which was why I could hear the sound but the graphics card could not render. On the newer machine WIN10 Game Mode was OFF the entire time and I had the DirectX11 beta OFF. Setting the correct resolution helped the game load but I still had in game crashes. I enabled the DirectX11 Beta and haven't had a crash since.

Thank you

[Talios.7340]

Not to echo everyone else, but yeah. Same issue. It appears to be running, ie, my mouse pointer even changes---but running task mang doesn't even let me close it. It just says gw2 not responding. 

 

I hate that we're all having this issue, but I'm relieved that I'm not the only one tbh. 

[darksome.1697]

3 hours ago, Lyssia.4637 said:

It's crossed my mind that simply changing ANYTHING might be what helps.  I don't know if that's even possible, or that's just another way of saying "it's random."

Yes that's what I've found too after some more experimenting. It's simply doing ANYTHING with settings, but you have to do it before starting the game every time, after a fresh reboot of your computer. Like it's not recognising you're administrator until you tinker with one (any) setting.

Works for me:

1. Reboot

2. Change anything that has to do with OS settings (like Game Mode OFF)

3. Start GW2

Repeat from 1 when you want to run GW2 again after exiting it.

 

Edited November 11, 2021 by darksome.1697

[Molesworth.1684]

What worries me is, are they even aware of this issue?  Second day unable to play the game, and nothing from Anet.

 

[jinxykat.6519]

Same issue, none of the common fixes have worked. 😞

[ltccone.1630]

15 minutes ago, ffletcher.3468 said:

Running for me now finally by setting client shortcut to run in Win 8 compatibility mode.  Thanks to all who suggested Win 7 or 8 mode.

That worked for me too!

[Andy.5981]

Update from my post yesterday.

Yesterday had the issue where I could hear the sound but the client was minimised on my start bar. Tried running the client in administrator mode by right clicking and selecting "run as administrator" - that worked.

Played for a while. Logged out (big mistake). Came back later couldnt get in either by running client normally or by running as admininstrator. Had one instance where I got the "GW2 has encountered a serious error" box and was able to email details to anet of the crash.

This morning tried running the client as normal. Nope still music and locked to the start bar. So I tried run as administrator again. Yet again this worked and I was able to play a new character I had created.

Logged out again (I really should learn my lesson doing this). Came back after evening meal. Used the log in as Administrator trick thinking that if I do this it will work. Got to the character select screen. Selected the character I wanted to play and it crashed.

Ok.... so lets shut the machine down again. Tried the log in as administator trick. Nope this time music and the client locked on the start bar.

Now if this was happening in a specific way all the time then fair enough, but it just seems pot luck if it works or not.

So. Anet what the hell are you doing about this? Without doubt something you did on the 9th upset a lot of machines that were working perfectly well.

All you have done so far is post something on Twitter of all things to say "we are aware and are working on it". Why havent you come on here to your own Official Forums and posted an explaination to the large number of players as to what has gone wrong and more importantly when can we expect a fix.

The silence is deafening and tbh disrespectful to all the players having this issue.

I await your response.
 

Edited November 11, 2021 by Andy.5981

[JayS.4286]

Hey community,

 

the last update crashed my game too. After click on the play button, the game does not launch. The only way to get out is to kill the game-process. One shorthand for all out there: Press "Win + R" then enter "taskkill /IM gw2-64.exe /F" and press enter. This kills the game the fast way.

There are no addons installed and all overlays disabled. I am playing on DX9 because of several game crashes in WvW. After adding the parameter -dx11 to the game launch, now the game starts without any issues and I can play.

Surely this fix only applies to people having a DX11-enabled graphics card.

Just wanted to mention that starting game in DX11-mode fixed the issue for me. How to add the parameter is explained earlier in this thread. If someone has trouble with this, reply to my message.

[WellBell.2091]

I have Windows 11 and I couldn't open GW2. It would just play music and I couldn't alt tab out of it. I thought it was an issue with Windows 11 since my laptop with Windows 10 ran GW2 just fine. I found that I was able to fix my issue by turning off "Game Mode" on my Windows 11 PC. Just search game mode settings and turn it off.

[Silversteen.1360]

-windowed and win7 mode worked for me

 

but my fps went crazy, running 10-15 fps infight in wvw since last update (usually about 50)

not playable

 

did anet gave any feedback to this issue?

[Wyrd.9612]

Turning off game mode let it work. Barely. The game was slow and buggy enough that I closed it as soon as I completed my dailies, but at least I was able to do that much.

 

Yesterday, without c hanging game mode to off, I was able to be online for around a half hour, but had the game crash completely when I tried to go from harvesting my home instance to the guild hall to harvest there. I include this because there's a tiny chance it will help. Good luck fixing this, Devs, and I fully expect to be coming back here when the game refuses to work even with game mode off, as I've seen plenty of people complaining has happened to them.

[Waterborn.3108]

IF your computer freezes, instead of restarting, just log-out of your windows client then log back in. That closes all apps opened.

I tried deleting the local.dat file... I think it was troll... cause now I'm downloading that game all over again. But maybe it will fix the issue?

btw, why is the thread showing the old posts first? 

Edited November 11, 2021 by Waterborn.3108
update

[Tyrsa.4981]

15 hours ago, Drakor.9127 said:

I don't get why ANET isn't chimming in, letting us know they're on the issue!!!

They did.  Yesterday.  They know the problem and have a solution, and will get it to us asap.  No word on when yet though.

[SeTect.5918]

Yah. Cant play at all now.

like 1 h ago i had to log in 2x to start the game and sometimes it didnt even open properly then and i could not close the game with task manager and whatever. So i had to log out from computer and then again logging in. Then it worked.

Then i did daily fractals and went into fractal thingie again and got stuck in loading screen. Couldnt close it with task manager again so i again logged out but now i cant start gw2 at all anymore.

Edited November 11, 2021 by SeTect.5918

[Artasid.7612]

Starting GW2 in Compatibility Mode so far is the better solution in my case.