Corrupt System Files Keeping Happening & My Games Won't Launch! I Seriously Don't Get This... 🤦‍♂️ [Someone Help PLEASE! 🙏]

[Kjennings92]

I could swear that I have NEVER encountered an issue as annoying & as frustrating as this, but I've got to get help somewhere, somehow.  So anyway, get ready for a rather lengthy tale of events here folks...

 

A few weeks ago, I had to reinstall Windows due to a different issue I had at the time --I don't remember the specifics though tbh. Probably something wrong with the last install of Windows I did or something.]-- & I've noticed that after MULTIPLE fresh installs of Windows, I keep having corrupt system files occur, I'm later unable to launch my games, & I have yet to figure out why. It will sometimes occur a bit after I get some things done like drivers, updates, etc. When I run the SFC scanner in an admin Command Prompt, it will say that it found corrupt system files & that it managed to successfully repair them. I then reboot the pc & once I'm back in, I do a 2nd check just to be sure. And later, when I try to launch the games & I can't due to them not launching, that's when I know right off the bat that the system files are corrupted again. But WHY & HOW?! 

 

BTW, I ought to say that I chatted about this with a couple different sources: On the Microsoft Community Forum & in the Microsoft Community on Discord. From the conversation I had from my Community Forum Post, the guy who attempted to help me out believed that the issue is hardware-related, but I can assure you that that's NOT the case since I haven't really had any instability issues or BSODs whatsoever. So that's clearly not part of the problem. When I was chatting with a user from the Microsoft Community on Discord, a guy provided me with some commands to try AFTER the sfc scan found corrupt files, managed to repair them & once you're rebooted: 

 

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /AnalyzeComponentStore

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

[TBH, I'm not entirely sure if these are right commands to run or not, but someone feel free to confirm please.]

 

 

 

But here's the process I have as for reinstalling Windows: I use the installation media I created myself on a USB flash drive & install from that. [I was using the Media Creation Tool briefly, but IMO, I think Rufus tends to do a better job for custom-pcs. Correct me if I'm wrong on that, but I find Rufus quite handy for this.] Once I'm in the setup wizard, I delete all the other drives/partitions that show up until only my SSD shows up completely unallocated & I hit install. After that, the setup process is smooth & I'm taken to the Windows Desktop like any other user. Now, right after I'm booted to the desktop, I stop Windows Updates from rolling in until I get my drivers all installed, THEN I do my updates. And then after that, I get my games installed. But, when I try to launch my games, that's when I'm unable to load them most likely due to the Visual C++ stuff getting messed up cause of the corrupt system files issue. And the exact issue(s) that happen when I try to launch both games? Well, 1 says: "There is a problem with your game's setup. Please reinstall your game.", while the other won't launch anymore!

 

So, you're probably wondering at this point what I have done as far as troubleshooting & trying to fix this issue? Well, let's just say A LOT, but I'll fill you in anyway. One of the first things I tried was reinstalling both the launcher itself & both games, but that clearly didn't work. I have also done a checkdisk right at startup to check if there are any errors with the SSD, but there are none since my SSD is still quite healthy with plenty of life left in it.  

I have also run both MemTest86 and built-in diagnostic tool just to see if there are issues with the ram, but there are literally none. I've even tried in-place upgrades with no success & I did try repairing all the Visual C++ packages I have & then trying to launch both games, but STILL no success! And also, I don't really overclock my system at all, I do enable XMP though. And for anyone who is curious, here's my parts/components list: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/DB7zsL

 

 

But yeah, I'm quite frankly stumped on this issue & I don't know WHAT the factor(s) at hand could be since I have tried a bunch of different tricks up my sleave If any of you happen to need more details or wish to ask me anything, please do & I'll be sure to respond back & I AM open to suggestions/advice/tips, etc since I LITERALLY haven't had this problem until recently. Anyway, thanks in advance & hope someone here can help... 

[Radium_Angel]

Use something like DiskGenius to do a sector by sector drive health check (or the manufacturer's drive health tools) also, are you certain the install media/usb stick is good and not corrupt from the word go?

[Kjennings92]

42 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

Use something like DiskGenius to do a sector by sector drive health check (or the manufacturer's drive health tools) also, are you certain the install media/usb stick is good and not corrupt from the word go?

I'm like 98.5% sure there is nothing wrong with it. But then again, I'm exactly sure how to check that on Windows... I DO know that I formatted it first to NTFS before I even created the installation media with Rufus. Plus, I'm sure Samsung Magician is a relatively good tool for checking the health of your SSD, but if you insist otherwise, I can use DiskGenius just to check.

Edited November 15, 2022 by Kjennings92

[Radium_Angel]

Just now, Kjennings92 said:

I'm like 98.5% sure there is nothing wrong with it. But then again, I'm exactly sure how to check that on Windows... I DO know that I formatted it first to NTFS before I even created the installing media with Rufus. Plus, I'm sure Samsung Magician is a relatively good tool for checking the health of your SSD, but if you insist otherwise, I can use DiskGenius just check.

Not insisting, just starting with basic troubleshooting. You'd be surprised the number of people who don't bother to check their media is good.

[Kjennings92]

3 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

Not insisting, just starting with basic troubleshooting. You'd be surprised the number of people who don't bother to check their media is good.

Don't worry, I'll be sure to check very shortly & let you all know what I find. BTW, did you mean my SSD, the USB flash drive I used or both?

[Radium_Angel]

14 minutes ago, Kjennings92 said:

Don't worry, I'll be sure to check very shortly & let you all know what I find. BTW, did you mean my SSD, the USB flash drive I used or both?

Both. When stuff goes sideways, it's always important to know you are starting with known good gear.

[Kjennings92]

4 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

Both. When stuff goes sideways, it's always important to know you are starting with known good gear.

Got it. Welp, I'll check both then & reply back with the results.

[Kjennings92]

38 minutes ago, Kjennings92 said:

Got it. Welp, I'll check both then & reply back with the results.

BTW, when you say to do a sector-by-sector drive health check in DiskGenius, do you mean where it says "Check Partition Table Error"? Cause I literally haven't used DiskGenius before. But thankfully, I'm a quick learner.  But still, I'm not sure what it's labeled as or how to do it for that matter... 

Edited November 15, 2022 by Kjennings92

[Kjennings92]

@Radium_AngelNevermind. After looking it up, the process was QUITE easy.  Anyway, I checked BOTH the SSD and the USB flash drive I used & they're both in great shape. Of course, the Samsung Magician screenshot I took earlier also verifies that, so...  

[xAcid9]

TL;DR

 

I had similar problem many years ago. Turns out my SSD was the problem even when all diagnostic software show the SSD is all good.

I swapped to different SSD and it didn't happen anymore. 

[Kjennings92]

5 minutes ago, xAcid9 said:

TL;DR

 

I had similar problem many years ago. Turns out my SSD was the problem even when all diagnostic software showing the SSD is all good.

I swapped to different SSD and it didn't happen anymore. 

Did you have a Samsung SSD in your system before you swapped to a different SSD, or were you rocking like a lesser-known brand? 

[xAcid9]

4 minutes ago, Kjennings92 said:

Did you have a Samsung SSD in your system before you swapped to a different SSD, or were you rocking like a lesser-known brand? 

No it was Crucial. You don't even want to try swapping it to rule out it's not the SSD? 

[Kjennings92]

7 minutes ago, xAcid9 said:

No it was Crucial. You don't even want to try swapping it to rule out it's not the SSD? 

I mean I definitely could, but my drive is STILL quite healthy & the screenshots above pretty prove that. Plus, it's not even EOL yet. Unless someone [Anyone] has evidence/proof otherwise. [Not trying to be rude or contradict you.  ]

[Radium_Angel]

Ok, media is good. I dunno, lemme think on this a bit, consult with some IT buddies at work, see what we can come up with

[Kjennings92]

7 hours ago, Radium_Angel said:

Ok, media is good. I dunno, lemme think on this a bit, consult with some IT buddies at work, see what we can come up with

Sounds good! Just hope I'll hear something soon. 

Edited November 15, 2022 by Kjennings92

[Radium_Angel]

2 hours ago, Kjennings92 said:

Sounds good! Just hope I'll hear something soon. 

A few things you can do:

 

(1) If you are up for it, run a LiveUSB instance of Linux Mint (it's very Windows-like) and run Steam and see how things go. Linux is very intolerant of bad hardware. If everything behaves itself, then you have a corrupted Windows OS. If Linux falls over, you have bad hardware.

 

(2) Grab a new SSD (they are cheap) and install into your system and install Win 10. (Leave your existing drives unplugged of course) If it behaves, then your Win11 install is bad. If it get corrupted, then you have bad hardware ( have you run Intel's Processor Diag tool? A quick and easy way to check if the CPU is good) 

[Kjennings92]

1 hour ago, Radium_Angel said:

A few things you can do:

 

(1) If you are up for it, run a LiveUSB instance of Linux Mint (it's very Windows-like) and run Steam and see how things go. Linux is very intolerant of bad hardware. If everything behaves itself, then you have a corrupted Windows OS. If Linux falls over, you have bad hardware.

 

(2) Grab a new SSD (they are cheap) and install into your system and install Win 10. (Leave your existing drives unplugged of course) If it behaves, then your Win11 install is bad. If it get corrupted, then you have bad hardware ( have you run Intel's Processor Diag tool? A quick and easy way to check if the CPU is good) 

Funny you mention trying Linux. I actually DID try completely migrating over to Linux [Specifically Zorin OS] a few weeks ago, but it didn't exactly go well & I'm not really like an expert on Linux anyway, so I chose to go back to Windows since it's just what I'm more used to as whole. Besides, even if I were to try it again [Don't get your hopes up on that.], I don't even know if anyone has gotten the EA app working on Linux through Wine or Lutris somehow or not. But I was using the EA app for my games & NOT Origin since it's buggy & EA/Origin hopes to migrate everyone over to the EA app since it's SO much better anyway.

 

On the 2nd note, I DO have a Samsung 970 Evo Plus 2TB that I brought brand new for once the 970 Evo kicks the bucket. But, I really don't want to install a 2nd drive in my system & worry about any complications from that or setting up raid ,etc simply because I don't want or need a 2nd drive in my system. I also ran Intel's Processor Diagnostic Tool even though the CPU isn't the factor here, & it passed ALL the tests with flying colors!  

 

 

But yeah, I AM open to any other suggestions you have, but TBH, I don't want to go back to Windows 10 since I've really grown to like Windows 11...

[Radium_Angel]

Yeah I was thinking Steam as I believe it's the only gaming platform with a native version for *nix.

 

Anyway, I have no other ideas.

[Kjennings92]

8 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

Yeah I was thinking Steam as I believe it's the only gaming platform with a native version for *nix.

 

Anyway, I have no other ideas.

BTW, do you happen to know if the regular 970 Evo has had failure issues before or not?  I was actually chatting with someone last night on the Microsoft Community Discord server & someone there did say that the 970 Evo is as he put it, "famous for failure", but I just want extra confirmation & if that's the case, maybe my drive has been slowly starting to go bad even though it's in good health...? And if what was said is true about the regular/OG 970 Evo, surely the 970 Evo Plus is a bit better & improved, right?

 

Anyway, I appreciate the efforts nonetheless. Of course, if you know of anyone else whom you could pass this on to, I'd be grateful!  

Edited November 15, 2022 by Kjennings92

[Radium_Angel]

Sounds like someone had a grudge, the 970s are famous for being reliable.

 

[Kjennings92]

7 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

Sounds like someone had a grudge, the 970s are famous for being reliable.

 

 

7 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

Sounds like someone had a grudge, the 970s are famous for being reliable.

 

Okay, guess I shouldn't have to worry about it.  But I refuse to believe the issue is hardware-related. Besides, I used this guide on how to create your Windows 11 installation media: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5N-52JNIH4 And from what I can tell, it's a solid guide & I don't think I bunged up my Windows 11 installation media & even if I did, I don't see how. But just wanted to put that out there just as extra info & confirmation on my part.

 

[Radium_Angel]

1 hour ago, Kjennings92 said:

 

Okay, guess I shouldn't have to worry about it.  But I refuse to believe the issue is hardware-related. Besides, I used this guide on how to create your Windows 11 installation media: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5N-52JNIH4 And from what I can tell, it's a solid guide & I don't think I bunged up my Windows 11 installation media & even if I did, I don't see how. But just wanted to put that out there just as extra info & confirmation on my part.

 

That vid links to the insider preview of win11....you are not using that...are you?

[Kjennings92]

19 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

That vid links to the insider preview of win11....you are not using that...are you?

Nope, I'm not an Insider anyway. This was less than 2 weeks before the official launch of Windows 11.

[Kjennings92]

**BTW, I ought to mention for everyone that I have also posted about my issue [Mainly the link to the post itself.] in the official Discord server under tech-support. Hoping that might help for any of you who are active there.** For now, though, I'm still waiting...

Edited November 16, 2022 by Kjennings92

[Ixbot]

 

5 hours ago, Kjennings92 said:

But, I really don't want to install a 2nd drive in my system & worry about any complications from that or setting up raid ,etc simply because I don't want or need a 2nd drive in my system. I also ran Intel's Processor Diagnostic Tool even though the CPU isn't the factor here, & it passed ALL the tests with flying colors!  

 

 

Don't set up a second drive as a second drive then, just unplug your first drive then install windows onto this new one and see if everything works, unless you did do this and I misunderstood