Game refuses to start, specs and drivers all up to standard

[shanyi]

Hi,

I recently attempted to play Amnesia on my Acer Aspire 5739G laptop (NVIDIA graphics). It worked fine the first time, loading slowly but with no performance issues in-game. I played for roughly an hour. Unfortunately, every subsequent attempt to load the game has resulted in it quitting before so much as booting up. My laptop specs are easily up to the minimum requirements (the game did run once, after all) and my drivers are fully functional. None of the fixes in the troubleshooting section have worked. Here is the exact sequence of events when I now try to start the game:

1 - Launcher appears. If I leave do not attempt to launch the game, the launcher quits by itself within eleven seconds. (Timed)

2 - If I select Launch/Justine/Remember, the game appears to attempt to start, with the screen turning black, but quits within a few seconds. There are no error messages or reports.

I have verified the cache's integrity on Steam and attempted a variety of fixes, from here and a number of other sites, including deleting my save files, creating a new folder for the game in my Docs, etc. None have worked, or changed the nature of the problem in any way. I have not attempted to reinstall the game from Steam because 1) my home internet has a tight download limit and 2) most of the times this has been suggested for other problems, the issue has apparently not resolved itself. Since nothing about my laptop has changed between the first time I loaded the game and its subsequent failures, reinstalling would surely only lead to the problem repeating.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated, thank you.


EDIT: I have also tried loading the game via the .exe, but nothing happens at all.

[plutomaniac]

The game worked the first time just fine. This is a steam problem...

[shanyi]

(03-07-2012 03:59 PM)plutomaniac Wrote:  The game worked the first time just fine. This is a steam problem...

My other Steam games work fine, and the launcher fires up every time - it just cuts out after a short time. I've verified the game's cache on Steam and it comes up clean. Unless the game is somehow being deliberately cut off - which seems unlikely given how I've tried playing the game in Steam Offline mode, and I got sent here by Steam Support to begin with - I'm pretty certain the issue is with the game.

(Edited for clarity)

[shanyi]

Well, I reinstalled the game from Steam and the problem persists, only this time it won't even start up once. (Verified the game's cache again, still no problems detected). So now I'm £13 out of pocket for a non-functioning game whose upkeep Steam Support tells me is the responsibility of Frictional, and Frictional say is the responsibility of Steam. Great.

[jens]

Is there any hpl.log file in the amnesia folder in documents/ that you can post here?

[schurem]

I have the same problem, but on my computer no directory is made in the /my documents/ folder. I ran both amnesia.exe and launcher.exe as administrator, but it just keeps crashing.

[shanyi]

As seems to be the case for schurem, there doesn't appear to be an Amnesia folder in my Documents. I searched (and looked manually through) Docs, My Computer and steamapps, for hpl.log, but nothing was found.

EDIT: Just to point out, there was an Amnesia folder in Docs BEFORE I reinstalled the game. I assume it gets put there once the game loads for the first time, because since the reinstallation the game has not loaded and there is no folder to be found.

[plutomaniac]

I remember users having this problem and on all cases it was a steam problem. Search the forum. There are definitely more than five similar topics about that. They had to delete something from steam etc... I think their problem was that the game was stuck at Preparing to load game screen or similar.

[shanyi]

(03-08-2012 07:34 PM)plutomaniac Wrote:  I remember users having this problem and on all cases it was a steam problem. Search the forum. There are definitely more than five similar topics about that. They had to delete something from steam etc... I think their problem was that the game was stuck at Preparing to load game screen or similar.

You're right, although I haven't found a thread with an actual solution yet. I've told Steam Support I'll be asking for a refund if no solution is found by Sunday (a week since I first contacted them), as fortunately I live in the UK and our consumer laws override their terms and conditions. Not impressed tbh that they'd allow a game on their service that is basically broken for certain customers, regardless of whether the fault is on their side or the developers'. They certainly shouldn't by trying a no refunds policy if they're going to allow such lapses in testing, especially when (a year and a half post release) there's no sign of anyone working on a fix.

[plutomaniac]

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_arti...-USFX-5568
http://www.frictionalgames.com/forum/thr...#pid110858
http://www.frictionalgames.com/forum/thr...l#pid77494