[CRASH] Cannot even start then game (Steam Validation Failure)

Crispy · 2011-06-08 11:02:02 UTC

[QUOTE=DafnPuppet;334993]After many hours of trying to trace this fault I have found a solution that has worked for me.
I hope this works for others.

After watching a working copy of Brink start normally on my laptop, I concluded that it was probably crashing at the point when the sound card gets switched on when the first video begins. This led me to try running the game with the sound card disabled.

First of all, go into Device Manager and find your sound card. (Mine is an ASUS Xonar D2)
Right click on the sound card and select ‘Properties’
Go to the ‘Driver’ tab and click on ‘Disable’
Click OK and restart your computer.

When you come back into Windows go straight to Steam and start Brink.

If the game starts but without sound, you probably have a similar issue to mine.

By experimenting, I have discovered that the problem with my sound card seems to be caused by a mixer application that installs along with the sound card drivers. By eliminating the mixer application and just installing the bare driver into Windows, Brink starts normally with the sound working.

Please let me know if this works for you. It would be nice to know that all the effort trying to solve this problem for myself has helped others too.

It would also be nice to hear from the developers too, to see if this issue can be addressed in a future patch of the game. For me it’s not the end of the world losing the mixer application, but it may save others this trouble in the future.[/QUOTE]Excellent deduction!

As this is a driver conflict, there’s nothing we can do other than advise users to take these steps if they have an ASUS Xonar D2 sound card.

McLeod2k · 2011-06-08 16:27:48 UTC

[QUOTE=Crispy;334867]Can everyone who is running or has installed Brink or Steam in a language other than English, please confirm you have tried the following:

[ol]
[li]Close Brink and Steam
[/li][li]Delete all Brink files from [B]…\Steam\steamapps[/B] (e.g. files like brink english.ncf)
[/li][li]Run Steam
[/li][li]Run Brink
[/li][/ol]

Can everyone with this issue please provide the following information:

[ul]
[li]Which Anti-Virus/Anti-Spyware software are you using?
[/li][li]Is your Anti-Virus/Anti-Spyware turned on for the folders in which Steam and Brink are located?
[/li][/ul][/QUOTE]

Tried it…Deleted>“Reinstalled” via DVD> no Improvement
Usually Kasperski IS 2011 at the moment none

McLeod2k · 2011-06-13 18:30:38 UTC

1 Month after Release and still, after some Patches no Improvement with this problem…

Papanowel · 2011-06-13 20:53:05 UTC

We can throw this game to the bin…

Mustang · 2011-06-15 00:24:12 UTC

My bin is wide open =D

Papanowel · 2011-06-16 12:13:11 UTC

UP… we want answers

Urias · 2011-06-18 22:04:04 UTC

hey.
i have followed every single step adivised by the staff, and i also did what dafnpuppy advised and what was labeled as an “excellent deduction”.
nothing.

allow me ( or dont) to express my anger and pissedoffness.
how dare you to publish a game which wont run on dozens of systems for reasons you werent even able to FIND OUT, not talking about FIXING 'em? ( 6 updates so far, amirite?when was the game released? ah yeah, more than a month ago)
maybe thats an old-fashioned view, but such problems should be solved BEFORE the release.
ever heard of beta testin? no , obviously not.
this is just brazen.

never ever since i have started gaming have i had struggeled this much with a game. and anything you do is advising stuff 99% of us already did or saying " its a driver problem, were not to blame".
IN ADDITION, we wont even be able to get refunds, beause its a steam download.
as a conclusion to all of this, i hope every single one of you (and everyone youre related with)
dies due to terrible painful accidnets or sicknesses, and that you have to suck a lot of dix in hell afterwards.
ban me, i dont care.

youre a bunch of inconpetent suckers, and i feel that im not the only one with this opinion.

sincerely
a really pissed off customer

Papanowel · 2011-06-20 10:04:59 UTC

I think this game is going to die… nobody care about what we said and they don’t even give us some answers.

For exemple there are less than 25 french servers… (for the pc community). It’s nothing… for a MP game.

McLeod2k · 2011-06-22 20:45:26 UTC

Could anyone help please?

McLeod2k · 2011-06-22 21:05:44 UTC

Problemsignatur:
  Problemereignisname:	APPCRASH
  Anwendungsname:	brink.exe
  Anwendungsversion:	1.0.23045.47681
  Anwendungszeitstempel:	4de758b7
  Fehlermodulname:	brink.exe
  Fehlermodulversion:	1.0.23045.47681
  Fehlermodulzeitstempel:	4de758b7
  Ausnahmecode:	c0000094
  Ausnahmeoffset:	0036b1d4
  Betriebsystemversion:	6.1.7601.2.1.0.768.3
  Gebietsschema-ID:	1031
  Zusatzinformation 1:	0a9e
  Zusatzinformation 2:	0a9e372d3b4ad19135b953a78882e789
  Zusatzinformation 3:	0a9e
  Zusatzinformation 4:	0a9e372d3b4ad19135b953a78882e789

Lizzrd · 2011-06-23 18:12:07 UTC

[QUOTE=Crispy;334867]Can everyone who is running Steam/Brink from a second HDD please confirm the following information for us:

[ul]
[li]Where is your Virtual Memory File located?
[/li][li]How much space do you have on both your primary HDD and the one you use for Steam/Brink?
[/li][li]Where is your TEMP folder located?
[/li][/ul][/QUOTE]

C: 15.2 GB free of 59.5 GB, D: 360 GB free of 931 GB.
D/Temp

[QUOTE=Crispy;334867]Can everyone with this issue please provide the following information:

[ul]
[li]Which Anti-Virus/Anti-Spyware software are you using?
[/li][li]Is your Anti-Virus/Anti-Spyware turned on for the folders in which Steam and Brink are located?
[/li][/ul][/QUOTE]

Microsoft security essentials.
I have no idea, don’t think so.

Papanowel · 2011-06-23 21:33:42 UTC

Latest patch doesn’t do anything… the game won’t start

FAIL…

Papanowel · 2011-07-01 17:46:41 UTC

Allo, is someone able to help us and figure out our problem…

this is a joke or you are trying to solve our problem?

Papanowel · 2011-07-04 14:36:26 UTC

I found what cause me the trouble…

It was xfire from the beginning… this program was always running when i started my computre. I delete it and it works! I found that because I had the same trouble with an other game, a dll from xfire was the one who make that I was unable to launch brink.

I hope that you guys will find the solution too.

Sandman77 · 2011-07-05 13:43:21 UTC

cool beans I never gave up hope!

iusedtoplayq3f · 2011-09-11 20:00:58 UTC

(Skip to the bottom if you want to see how I fixed this issue, otherwise you can read my complaints about Splash Damage)

I just spent (probably wasted) 50$ on this game and received the same error. 5 months after this thread was created. Seriously? I have no idea what your code looks like and I managed to read 1 log to figure out a fix in 30 minutes.

I’ve been playing your games since Q3F, which I loved, but since then I have watched the quality of your games go down with every new release. Q3F was great (although you killed the community with beta 2). ET was cool, Doom 3 multi was a flop, although it was better than ET:QW… and now Brink.

Look at your metacritic ratings for each release: 90, 87, 84, 70. Not a good trend.

I really wanted to like you guys, I’m pretty sure I even used to play clan matches against you in Q3F, but you seem like the sloppiest developers in the gaming world. Your users shouldn’t be your first line of QA. And you should probably start listening to your communities better.

Anyway,

*** START READING HERE FOR A FIX ***

Same validation error, same problem. Splash screen and then a crash (splash damage, get it?) Reinstalled Brink, Steam, changed my language to Spanish and then English, moved my video files. Nothing worked. Then I saw the post about setting launch options, ended up working. Do this:

Right click on Brink in the Library -> Properties. On the first tab, General, click the button on the bottom: ‘Set Launch Options’

Paste this in the box:

+set logFileName "brink_lulz_$Y.$M.$D_$h.$m.$s.log " +set logfile 1

Hit OK and try to start the game, let it fail. Now you get to play a game of hide and seek with the log file. Open explorer and go to your steam folder, my logs ended up being here:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata\1053897\22350\local\base

Although I’m sure those numbers are randomly generated. It ended up being in the folder with the biggest number. Look for brink_lulz_2011.etc.timestampstuff.log. Open it in a text editor that’s not stupid like notepad and will recognize the line endings (I use vim but wordpad will probably work)…

Go to the bottom, if you see something like this, then my solution will hopefully help you:

ERROR: ** UNKNOWN **: Could not load zzzdlc000.sdmd2 - Short read on ‘(null)’ (48357036785664/34359738368

Woops, did somebody forget to check the length of a buffer? Who knows. Solution: rename the files so Brink can’t find them.

Go to your brink base folder. Mine is at: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\brink\base

Find the dlc files, they’re the culprits. Go ahead and rename them however you like, I did:

zzzdlc000.sdmd2 -> zzzdlc000.sdmd2.broken
zzzdlc000.sdpk2 -> zzzdlc000.sdpk2.broken

Started the game up, no more errors. Hope this helps. And SD, please start testing your code.

Thanks

Verticae · 2011-09-11 23:53:00 UTC

[QUOTE=iusedtoplayq3f;377701]I really wanted to like you guys, I’m pretty sure I even used to play clan matches against you in Q3F, but you seem like the sloppiest developers in the gaming world. Your users shouldn’t be your first line of QA. And you should probably start listening to your communities better.

[…]

Started the game up, no more errors. Hope this helps. And SD, please start testing your code.[/QUOTE]

Typically, the QA department is part of the publisher. I’m pretty sure Bethesda does all testing inhouse. Look at the FallOut 3 support forum to see where that got them.

iusedtoplayq3f · 2011-09-12 06:16:48 UTC

Lol yeah… either way this one slipped by. I’m a coder at a company that outsources its QA but I firmly believe that developers should be responsible for all stages of the development process, especially testing. Getting into a situation where untested/barely tested code gets “thrown over the wall” to QA never ends well

BTW, I finally had the chance to play today after I fixed that bug… no wonder the last activity on this thread was in July. Where is everyone? Has this game already died?

Big mistake on my part… never buying games again without checking forums. Back to TF2

annoyed · 2011-10-02 15:58:14 UTC

CRASH! it’ll start then give me this error message------ Initializing File System ------
Loaded pak000.sdpk2
Loaded pak001.sdpk2
Loaded pak002.sdpk2
Loaded pak003.sdpk2
Loaded pak004.sdpk2
Loaded pak005.sdpk2
Loaded pak006.sdpk2
Loaded pak007.sdpk2
Loaded zzzdlcenglish000.sdpk2
Loaded zzzenglish000.sdpk2
Loaded zzzenglish001.sdpk2
Loaded zzzenglish002.sdpk2
Loaded zzzenglish003.sdpk2
Loaded zzzenglish004.sdpk2
Loaded zzzenglish005.sdpk2
Loaded zzzenglish006.sdpk2
Current search path:
C:\New folder (2)\steam\userdata\75235936\22350\local/base
C:\Users\Owner\AppData\Local\Splash Damage\Brink/base
c:
ew folder (2)\steam\steamapps\common\brink/base
zzzenglish006.sdpk2
zzzenglish005.sdpk2
zzzenglish004.sdpk2
zzzenglish003.sdpk2
zzzenglish002.sdpk2
zzzenglish001.sdpk2
zzzenglish000.sdpk2
zzzdlcenglish000.sdpk2
pak007.sdpk2
pak006.sdpk2
pak005.sdpk2
pak004.sdpk2
pak003.sdpk2
pak002.sdpk2
pak001.sdpk2
pak000.sdpk2
file system initialized.

Loaded 3783 manifest elements in 178 ms - 192Kb
Discarded 0 manifest elements
Max filename length: 0 characters
Brink 1.0.23653.48097 win-x86 Jul 29 2011 11:29:57
couldn’t exec ‘brinkconfig.cfg’
couldn’t exec ‘autoexec.cfg’
Vendor: 8086 Device: 0116
2095 MHz Intel CPU with MMX & SSE & SSE2 & SSE3 & HTT
4 logical cores
2 physical cores
HT enabled
4000 MB System Memory
1807 MB Video Memory
Initializing performance queries
Detected
2 2.10 GHz CPU
4000 MB of System memory
1807 MB of Video memory on an optimal video architecture

This system qualifies for High quality!
Vendor: 8086 Device: 0116
Winsock Initialized
Found interface: {A0F891BC-4EF8-41DD-A598-C0B52AD6D30E} Intel® Centrino® WiMAX 6250 - 0.0.0.0 NULL ip - skipped
Found interface: {9EA77320-B7A0-4123-85FB-E1BC61F427D7} Microsoft Virtual WiFi Miniport Adapter #2 - 0.0.0.0 NULL ip - skipped
Found interface: {29AB1790-1E76-41DF-AA9A-7D8A0B83EC80} Microsoft Virtual WiFi Miniport Adapter - 0.0.0.0 NULL ip - skipped
Found interface: {5ADDCD9C-588E-486C-9D92-1389EFAEBC57} Intel® Centrino® Advanced-N 6250 AGN - 192.168.1.3/255.255.255.0
Found interface: {E3CB7164-556B-4625-9D07-74D01BB5AA00} Intel® 82579V Gigabit Network Connection - 0.0.0.0 NULL ip - skipped
Sys_InitNetworking: adding loopback interface
— Loading sequence: init —
sound index file ‘generated/preload/sound/pc/english/init.soundpreload’ is zero length
------- Initializing render context --------
Initializing OpenGL subsystem
…calling LoadLibrary( ‘wtsapi32.dll’ ): succeeded
…initializing Windows Terminal Server API
…registered window class
…registered fake window class
…calling LoadLibrary( ‘opengl32’ ): succeeded
…initializing QGL
GL_VENDOR: Intel
GL_RENDERER: Intel® HD Graphics Family
GL_VERSION: 3.0.0 - Build 8.15.10.2291

FATAL ERROR: The current video card / driver combination does not support OpenGL 3.1 or newer.

The current video card / driver combination does not support OpenGL 3.1 or newer.
Shutting down OpenGL subsystem
…releasing DC
…resetting display
…shutting down QGL
…unloading OpenGL DLL
…unloading Windows Terminal Server API DLL

i am extrmlu annoyed and if i cant get it fixed i will demand a refund

HugePinball · 2011-10-03 19:59:58 UTC

It’s quite likely your graphics processor doesn’t meet the minimum requirements for this game, but if there are newer drivers available, updating them may allow you to at least run it.

You should also run the “Can You Run It?” analysis on your system for Brink (and any other game, before you buy it) to get an idea how your PC compares to any minimum and recommended requirements, so you don’t have unreasonable expectations about the game’s performance.