[2.0.55] Crash on launching the game with a fresh install

[ultarre]

Played the game many years ago (same PC but with many upgraded parts since) and wanted to get back into it.

I installed the game on Steam, no mods, nothing modified. I launch the game, it shows me this screen for 5 seconds, then crash with no error message:

07-14-2025, 21-47-45.png (1.58 MiB) Viewed 432 times

I tried the demo [version 2.0.42] and the same thing happens.

I've tried many things :
- reinstalling the game
- rebooting the computer
- deactivating Steam/Nvidia/Discord overlays
- updating, deinstalling and reinstalling drivers
- launching with the option "--single-thread-loading"
- upgrading from Windows 10 to 11 (because why not?)

I don't know what to do at this point...

[Loewchen]

Try disconnecting all input devices but mouse and keyboard, if that does not change anything try the default .zip install from factorio.com, if it still crashes post the new log.

[ultarre]

I disconnected everything, but nothing changed.

Even with the .zip download of the demo, the same exact thing happen...

[Loewchen]

Try the latest zip of the game not of the demo instead.

[ultarre]

I bought the game on Steam, I don't know how to get the zip version on factorio.com. It just asks me to buy it.

[eugenekay]

I bought the game on Steam, I don't know how to get the zip version on factorio.com. It just asks me to buy it.

You can Link your Factorio.com profile to Steam to unlock direct downloads.

Good Luck!

[ultarre]

Still nothing changed...

Thank you for your help btw. I convinced a friend to buy the game to try it, and now I look like a fool not being able to play it with him.

[Loewchen]

Check the os event logs for an entry when it got killed.

[ultarre]

Finally an error message of some kind!

Faulting application name: factorio.exe, version: 2.0.60.17976, time stamp: 0x686f8c09
Faulting module name: ntdll.dll, version: 10.0.26100.4652, time stamp: 0x6c6bd922
Exception code: 0xc0000374
Fault offset: 0x000000000011dc15
Faulting process id: 0x5564
Faulting application start time: 0x1DBF57FAC571040
Faulting application path: D:\Downloads\factorio_win_2.0.60\bin\x64\factorio.exe
Faulting module path: C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\ntdll.dll
Report Id: 31aef140-0633-467f-8ab7-751a791241e3
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:

07-15-2025, 07-59-33.png (28.44 KiB) Viewed 241 times

And an information event right after saying:

Fault bucket 2264644632313505889, type 4
Event Name: APPCRASH
Response: Not available
Cab Id: 0

Problem signature:
P1: factorio.exe
P2: 2.0.60.17976
P3: 686f8c09
P4: StackHash_9c67
P5: 10.0.26100.4652
P6: 6c6bd922
P7: c0000374
P8: PCH_F4_FROM_ntdll+0x0000000000162924
P9:
P10:

Attached files:
\\?\C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\Temp\WER.e22967fd-b450-40a9-904f-cb2131202b45.tmp.mdmp
\\?\C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\Temp\WER.0e755aab-71ed-42fd-a6e1-17a896a4c527.tmp.WERInternalMetadata.xml
WPR_initiated_DiagTrackMiniLogger_OneTrace_User_Logger_20240808_1_EC_0_inject.etl
\\?\C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\Temp\WER.62cfe5a0-19f3-4beb-b391-fe34af155151.tmp.etl
WPR_initiated_DiagTrackMiniLogger_WPR System Collector_inject.etl
\\?\C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\Temp\WER.b468bfe6-4799-4543-a922-4d16a6261324.tmp.etl
\\?\C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\Temp\WER.5785e631-1640-4e4e-bede-b804f3332d47.tmp.csv
\\?\C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\Temp\WER.52587fef-c1b8-495c-9b60-ea402fca72bb.tmp.txt
\\?\C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\Temp\WER.0fc4236b-66ed-4b1c-9581-e8ed0245ea53.tmp.xml

These files may be available here:
\\?\C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportArchive\AppCrash_factorio.exe_b1f3e38f4faf530988dd1185adbd9f5a8ed9a1_bf487898_6ab02923-4294-468c-a487-91cc10577ccc

Analysis symbol:
Rechecking for solution: 0
Report Id: 31aef140-0633-467f-8ab7-751a791241e3
Report Status: 268435456
Hashed bucket: 038d65e1da9417d9cf6da24b638aa861
Cab Guid: 0

[eugenekay]

Crashes in ntdll.dll indicate a low-level driver Issue somewhere in the Kernel. Exception code 0xc0000374 indicates a “Heap Corruption” issue was detected, ie some data structure was not aligned as the NT kernel expected.

Factorio initializes quite a few APIs when it starts up, from Graphics to Sound to RGB Keyboard Color (my best guess). Try un-plugging and un-installing the Drivers for any accessories - it may not even be something you have plugged-in, but is still loaded in System32.

In the worst-case, it is time to reinstall Windows.

Especially because this system was originally Windows 10, I suspect that you have a bad Driver loaded somehow, and Factorio is unfortunately triggering it. The crash happens in the NT Kernel; so Factorio’s crash logging is unable to tell you what happened. Microsoft may be able to give you more information about this Crash by dissecting the Windows Error Reporting (WER) files mentioned in the log. This seems like the best candidate address in the dump files:
P8: PCH_F4_FROM_ntdll+0x0000000000162924.

Good Luck!

[Loewchen]

Disable Razer Chroma integration by editing the config file, make sure you read the header of the file to know how to do so.

[ultarre]

Disabling Razer Chroma integration didn't help.

But while looking through the WER file, I did find some Razer Chroma DLLs being loaded (despite having uninstalled the software years ago).
I found all of them, deleted the files, and the games finally launches!

Thank you to both of you! I finally got to play with my friend.

I can't believe that software is so bad that even years after being uninstalled, it still messes with you. Never again!