[2.0.21] Game does not start after update

[SlowerThanLight]

Factorio 2.0.20 was working fine three days ago. Today Steam installed an update to version 2.0.21. Now the game won't start anymore.

I found several articles with google describing my problem but none had a solution working for me. Searching the forum also didn't yield a match.

What happens when I try to start the game from the Steam client (Windows 11):
- I click the Start button
- The button changes to status "Running..."
- Nothing more happens, especially no error messages or popups
- Looking in the task manager I see a process named "factorio" using about 10 MB of memory and with 0% CPU utilization

I expected the Factorio startup screen to open and the game to start loading.

I tried to update the NVidia graphics driver (video adapter is a RTX 3060TI) and running the game from the administrator account. No change in behaviour. Restarting the computer didn't help either. Neither did the --gfx-safe-mode switch.

I have the base game and Space Age installed. No other mods.

This is the log file written by the game:
0.000 2024-11-25 15:44:33; Factorio 2.0.21 (build 80595, win64, steam, space-age)
0.000 Operating system: Windows 11 (build 22631)
0.000 Initializing Steam API.
0.000 Program arguments: "D:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Factorio\bin\x64\Factorio.exe"
0.000 Config path: C:/Users/_/AppData/Roaming/Factorio/config/config.ini
0.001 Read data path: D:/Program Files (x86)/Steam/steamapps/common/Factorio/data
0.001 Write data path: C:/Users/_/AppData/Roaming/Factorio [1322949/1906456MB]
0.001 Binaries path: D:/Program Files (x86)/Steam/steamapps/common/Factorio/bin
0.012 System info: [CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X 8-Core Processor, 16 cores, RAM: 19227/130982 MB, page: 21075/130982 MB, virtual: 4352/134217727 MB, extended virtual: 0 MB]
0.057 Memory info:
0.057 [0]: Corsair CMK64GX4M2E3200C16 32768 MB 3200 MHz 1.2 v
0.057 [1]: Corsair CMK64GX4M2E3200C16 32768 MB 3200 MHz 1.2 v
0.057 [2]: Corsair CMK64GX4M2E3200C16 32768 MB 3200 MHz 1.2 v
0.057 [3]: Corsair CMK64GX4M2E3200C16 32768 MB 3200 MHz 1.2 v
0.060 Display options: [FullScreen: true] [VSync: true] [UIScale: automatic (100.0%)] [Native DPI: true] [Screen: 255] [Special: lmw] [Lang: de]

End of log file.

I would really appreciate it if you could help me get the game running again.

[Loewchen]

Try if the .zip version works.

[SlowerThanLight]

Please excuse my cluelessness. How can I get hold of the .zip version? BTW, I bought Factorio through Steam.

[Loewchen]

You can log in with your steam account here: https://factorio.com/login and it should give you access to the download here: https://factorio.com/get-download/2.0.2 ... n64-manual. Unzip the archive and execute the .exe in the bin folder.

[SlowerThanLight]

Alright, the download worked. Sadly, the symptoms stay the same. I have now tried downgrading to 2.0.20 and that version doesn't run either although it did last Friday. So the problem seems to be unrelated to the update.

I'm not aware that I have changed anything on my computer although Windows may have installed updates in the meantime. Everything else seems to run fine though. The game runs on my notebook but the touchpad is just no good for fighting biter nests. On the notebook the next line in the logs is:
Video driver: windows

This is the first line that is missing on the problematic computer so I suspect that the problem has something to do with the video driver but I don't know where to look next.

[vinzenz]

Are you able to run Factorio 1.1? Download is on our website. There's also the `--start-server-load-latest ` flag to start the game as a server in headless mode to see if it's related to graphics. You can also try the `--force-opengl` and `--force-d3d` flags. https://wiki.factorio.com/Command_line_parameters

[SlowerThanLight]

I tried running Factorio 1.1.110 and it exhibits the same behaviour as the later versions. Same log output as well.

The flags for opengl and d3d didn't change the behaviour. However, Factorio does start in headless mode with --start-server-load-latest.

[vinzenz]

Maybe rolling back your graphics drivers can fix the problem. I found this guide for Windows + NVIDIA: https://www.xda-developers.com/how-to-r ... a-drivers/

[SlowerThanLight]

Now it works again!

What I did:

• Roll back NVidia driver version -> no success

• Restart computer in safe mode with network drivers -> Factorio starts up, but performance is bad

• Completely uninstalled NVidia drivers with DDU, restarted computer -> Factorio starts up, but performance is bad

• Reinstalled NVidia drivers from scratch -> Factorio runs, performance is fine again

So it seems something broke the video driver installation. I saw that Windows had installed updates in the meantime. Maybe that broke some registry entries that would not be repaired by a simple update of the drivers.

Thank you for your help.

[wavedepletion]

Same thing started happening to me after the 2.0.21 update. I'm running it through Steam on Archlinux, with an all-AMD system. Steam shows the game as Running, and I can see the Factorio process has started, but the game window never actually opens.

Given the different OS and hardware I think it's probably not a driver issue, but rather a bug with Factorio 2.0.21 itself. I just rebooted after a few tries and it opened again.

[vinzenz]

Same thing started happening to me after the 2.0.21 update. I'm running it through Steam on Archlinux, with an all-AMD system. Steam shows the game as Running, and I can see the Factorio process has started, but the game window never actually opens.

Given the different OS and hardware I think it's probably not a driver issue, but rather a bug with Factorio 2.0.21 itself. I just rebooted after a few tries and it opened again.

Please create a new thread for this issue and include at least one Factorio log file for these failed starts.