Reliable Crash on Game Launch

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide Technical Support
1

Issue Description:
Game crashes on game launch, anywhere between the fatshark logo, and logging into a character. (I even got into the hub once for about 5 seconds, then it crashed.) Darktide_launcher.log is reporting “EAC crash occurred” each time. However EAC logs in Appdata/roaming/EasyAntiCheat through anticheatlauncher.log and loader.log report no issues.

Attempted fixes:
Ran steam as administrator.
Deleted Appdata/Roaming/Fatshark
Reinstalled EAC using the installer in the game folder, running as admin.
Reinstalled the entire game.
Exempted the steamapps/common/Warhammer 40,000 DARKTIDE folder from Windows Defender.

I have already played the game 16 hours with no launch issues, only occasional crashes. I also played in the Closed Beta test with no launch issues. I installed no new software since I last played. I do not have any anti-virus software besides Windows Defender itself. This just randomly started when I went to play today.

Crash Report (If Applicable):
Crash reporter does not run. I am not asked if I want to report the issue, it just closes. A terminal with crashify temporarily opens, then closes immediately.

Error Displayed (If Applicable):
No error is displayed
Steps to Reproduce:
Launch the game.

Platform:
Steam

Player ID:
Steam: Steam Community :: Pankzers

Approx. Time of Issue & Timezone:
[MM/DD/YYYY, 00:00AM/PM] [TIMEZONE]
11/19/2022, 10:24 PM PST

Reproduction Rate:
Constant

Upload Console Log:
console-2022-11-20-06.23.41-78e6b0f6-cad0-4fdd-acc1-0360cb80e07b.log (7.1 KB)

Upload darktide_launcher.log:
darktide_launcher.log (22.7 KB)

Thank you, I really just want to play your game! If you want any further information, please let me know.

2

Please ensure you have appropriate Anti-Virus and Firewall exceptions in place for Darktide.

It may also be worth performing a Selective Startup, which can help identify whether a background application is the cause of your crashes:

  1. Press the Windows key
  2. Type ‘msconfig’ and select ‘System Configuration’
  3. On the ‘General’ tab, select ‘Selective Startup’
  4. Deselect ‘Load startup Items’
  5. Reboot your PC
3

Windows Firewall is disabled, and I have no other firewall.
Windows Defender does not perform runtime application blocking, and I have no other antivirus installed. Also I exempted the Darktide steam folder, the Fatshark appdata folder, and the EAC appdata folder.

Restarting with a selective startup without ‘Load startup items’ did not fix the problem, the game still crashed as expected, same “EAC crash occurred” error.

Restarting with selective startup without ‘Load startup items’ and without ‘load system services’ then manually starting the network stack services along each EAC and Steam Client Service did allow the game to launch correctly!

Therefore, I believe your inclination is correct that some ‘system’ service is interfering with EAC and causing it to crash. I am not certain why this spontaneously started happening since I did not install any applications and had been playing Darktide already, but I will continue to investigate even if this leads to me reformatting windows.

4

I have resolved my specific problem.

The Windows Service: “Connected User Experiences and Telemetry” was causing EAC to crash 100% reliably for Darktide. I imagine it was corrupted somehow, why it suddenly caused EAC to crash constantly, I can only speculate.
I utilized Selective Startup to turn off all services then systematically enabled services until I found the culprit service.
I could disable the service, run Darktide successfully, re-enable it with or without a restart, have darktide crash reliably, then turn it back off in the same manner, resulting in no crashes.

Following this I ran windows sfc which indicated a memory violation and repaired it. I also ran DISM, which also indicated an error and repaired it. This resolved the crash with the Connected User Experiences and Telemetry service. I doubt this is shared by perhaps anyone else, but I thought I’d post this for diagnostic purposes.

OS: Windows 11 Pro, Version 10.0.22621

1 Like
5

Great work! I’m glad you were able to identify the cause and fully resolve the issue. Thank you for sharing your findings!