I bought the game today from Steam and installed it. I tried to run it, both from the steam client and from the factorio directory (as an admin), and nothing comes up at all. Factorio appears in task manager as a background process for less than a second before it disappears without any error messages. I've uninstalled and reinstalled it to no avail. I'm on Windows 8.1, any help would be appreciated.
I browsed some other help threads and tried adding '--force-d3d' to the launch options, which didn't help, and I set it to start in compatibility mode for Windows Vista but that didn't work either.
Downloaded game from steam - but nothing happens on launch
Re: Downloaded game from steam - but nothing happens on launch
Pc specs would be helpful
Re: Downloaded game from steam - but nothing happens on launch
From msinfo32
OS Name: Microsoft Windows 8.1
Version: 6.3.9600 Build 9600
Other OS Description: Not Available
OS Manufacturer: Microsoft Corporation
System Name: USER
System Manufacturer: Dell Inc.
System Model: Inspiron 5423
System Type: x64-based PC
System SKU: To be filled by O.E.M.
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3537U CPU @ 2.00GHz, 2001 Mhz, 2 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date: Dell Inc. A13, 18/05/2013
SMBIOS Version: 2.7
Embedded Controller Version: 1.03
BIOS Mode: Legacy
BaseBoard Manufacturer: Dell Inc.
BaseBoard Model: Not Available
BaseBoard Name: Base Board
Platform Role: Mobile
Secure Boot State: Unsupported
PCR7 Configuration: Binding Not Possible
Windows Directory: C:\WINDOWS
System Directory: C:\WINDOWS\system32
Boot Device: \Device\HarddiskVolume1
Locale: Japan
Hardware Abstraction Layer: Version = "6.3.9600.17196"
OS Name: Microsoft Windows 8.1
Version: 6.3.9600 Build 9600
Other OS Description: Not Available
OS Manufacturer: Microsoft Corporation
System Name: USER
System Manufacturer: Dell Inc.
System Model: Inspiron 5423
System Type: x64-based PC
System SKU: To be filled by O.E.M.
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3537U CPU @ 2.00GHz, 2001 Mhz, 2 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date: Dell Inc. A13, 18/05/2013
SMBIOS Version: 2.7
Embedded Controller Version: 1.03
BIOS Mode: Legacy
BaseBoard Manufacturer: Dell Inc.
BaseBoard Model: Not Available
BaseBoard Name: Base Board
Platform Role: Mobile
Secure Boot State: Unsupported
PCR7 Configuration: Binding Not Possible
Windows Directory: C:\WINDOWS
System Directory: C:\WINDOWS\system32
Boot Device: \Device\HarddiskVolume1
Locale: Japan
Hardware Abstraction Layer: Version = "6.3.9600.17196"
Re: Downloaded game from steam - but nothing happens on launch
A logfile would be helpful to diagnose what's going on 

Koub - Please consider English is not my native language.
Re: Downloaded game from steam - but nothing happens on launch
How do I find a log file? I'm not even getting error messages at the moment.
Re: Downloaded game from steam - but nothing happens on launch
its in
%appdata%roaming/factorio
It is named factorio-current and factorio-previous
%appdata%roaming/factorio
It is named factorio-current and factorio-previous
Re: Downloaded game from steam - but nothing happens on launch
I don't even have a Factorio folder in that directory, probably because it's created on the first start-up of the game
Re: Downloaded game from steam - but nothing happens on launch
1st thing I would recommend would be to go to dell page for laptop or amd.com and get updated drivers for gpu.
Since its a laptop it might have some fancy integrated gpu to full gpu switching also - might be set up to run on integrated card and fails.
Since its a laptop it might have some fancy integrated gpu to full gpu switching also - might be set up to run on integrated card and fails.