Cannot Launch Horizons

[Bannor]

Hello

I have over 2200 hours in ED (with Horizons). A few weeks ago I reinstalled Win 7 x64, installed all (latest) drivers, Steam, all my games - everything.

After not having played ED for several weeks, I fire it up only to find that 1) the launcher now takes absolute ages to open, and 2) I can can play only 'vanilla' ED. When I try to launch ED Horizons, it starts to launch, opens the 1st splash-screen - and then exits without any warnings or error messages.

I have tried the following:
a) Verified all Steam game files
b) Checked that both Steam and the Frontier store show that yes - I do indeed own the Horizons expansion.
c) Checked through the first 20 or so pages on the Frontier forums, trying to find posts about my or similar problems, and trying any suggested solutions. None have worked so far.
d) Checked my login details in the launcher - it's the same account as I ever had
e) Closed all other apps (including antivirus) while I try to launch the game

While in the 'vanilla' version, I have turned down all graphics settings to 'med' so that they will be in effect when to launch Horizons. Still won't launch successfully.
The only hardware changes are new hard drives (this is why I reinstalled everything). All other hardware is exactly the same as it was. Same OS. Same accounts.
I haven't noticed any unusual behavior in any other games / apps.

Any suggestions?

 

[STRONTIUM DOG]

it may be your horizons cloud save is corrupted post a support ticket label it unable to play
as like you say ed on its own is fine

 

[Para Handy]

You could try to run the game direct - i.e. without Steam being loaded / running / in memory.

Just search for EDLaunch.exe and run that - see if Horizons is available in the resultant launcher window.

Next after this is the old "log out machine" workround although that is for another issue, see the KB article:

When I login I see "Please purchase / redeem Elite Dangerous to continue" :: Frontier Customer Support

A message stating

support.frontier.co.uk

NB if you do that pay attention to the instruction on there for logging back in:

• If you purchased the game content you are trying to access via Steam after 25th April 2019, select Steam Log In (red arrow shown below).
• If you purchased the game content trying to be accessed before 25th April 2019, select Log In (blue arrow shown below).

I don't know why Steam has these issues - I don't even install my Steam-bought copy / account in Steam - I just run direct.

 

[Chong-su]

Try another kind of start. Double click on steam icon ( Steal will open ) then click on Library then right button on Elite dangerous: Horizon -> play game. Wait a little. Initial startup screen will appear. Click play and look if something changes. During the months in which the start-up was slow, I solved doing that. This my problem was solved by itself after the last ED update. Not equal to yours but similar ( for a small part )

 

[MickyG1982]

Hello

I have over 2200 hours in ED (with Horizons). A few weeks ago I reinstalled Win 7 x64, installed all (latest) drivers, Steam, all my games - everything.

After not having played ED for several weeks, I fire it up only to find that 1) the launcher now takes absolute ages to open, and 2) I can can play only 'vanilla' ED. When I try to launch ED Horizons, it starts to launch, opens the 1st splash-screen - and then exits without any warnings or error messages.

I have tried the following:
a) Verified all Steam game files
b) Checked that both Steam and the Frontier store show that yes - I do indeed own the Horizons expansion.
c) Checked through the first 20 or so pages on the Frontier forums, trying to find posts about my or similar problems, and trying any suggested solutions. None have worked so far.
d) Checked my login details in the launcher - it's the same account as I ever had
e) Closed all other apps (including antivirus) while I try to launch the game

While in the 'vanilla' version, I have turned down all graphics settings to 'med' so that they will be in effect when to launch Horizons. Still won't launch successfully.
The only hardware changes are new hard drives (this is why I reinstalled everything). All other hardware is exactly the same as it was. Same OS. Same accounts.
I haven't noticed any unusual behavior in any other games / apps.

Any suggestions?

Ok, may want to give us a clue on the rest of the hardware, may not sound important because the game was running before, but believe me it is.

For example, if running the game on a gaming laptop (or any system that has a discrete GPU as well as an IGO) it might well be the case that the drivers are defaulting the game to the IGP (on board graphics) rather than the GPU. In this case you may have to manually go into the GPU driver (Nvidia or AMD) and ensure that their GPU is the selected one.

Another issue could be that you are attempting to use the GPU drivers that shipped with Windows 7...
Don't! The chances are they are based off a (very) old version & may not be complete. Go to the relevant website for your GPU manufacturer & download the latest ones for your hardware.

 

[Chong-su]

Don't! The chances are they are based off a (very) old version & may not be complete. Go to the relevant website for your GPU manufacturer & download the latest ones for your hardware.

But, if it were a question of old drivers, the game should still load and go and then after generate graphics problems. In him case the game does not start at all.

opens the 1st splash-screen - and then exits

and

installed all (latest) drivers, Steam, all my games - everything.

I suppose the GPU too

 

[MickyG1982]

But, if it were a question of old drivers, the game should still load and go and then after generate graphics problems. In him case the game does not start at all.
and I suppose the GPU too

Not necessarily, last time I reset my laptop I fell into that pitfall. Both ED and JWE refused to load even when set to use the GTX 1050 from within said drivers. Updated the drivers and both started working properly, once set to use the GTX 1050 as opposed to the intel IGP (intel hd 620) .

If course, knowing the kind of system that the OP is trying to run would help a lot. In my experience however the problems the OP is having suggest to me that it's drivers (either a lack of, or not updated) or his system is trying to run the game on Intel graphics (intel IGP's are capable of running the base game in most instances but are generally not able to run Horizons). That would explain why they can run the base game, but not horizons.

 

[Bannor]

You could try to run the game direct - i.e. without Steam being loaded / running / in memory.

Just search for EDLaunch.exe and run that - see if Horizons is available in the resultant launcher window.

Next after this is the old "log out machine" workround although that is for another issue, see the KB article:

When I login I see "Please purchase / redeem Elite Dangerous to continue" :: Frontier Customer Support

A message stating

support.frontier.co.uk

NB if you do that pay attention to the instruction on there for logging back in:

• If you purchased the game content you are trying to access via Steam after 25th April 2019, select Steam Log In (red arrow shown below).
• If you purchased the game content trying to be accessed before 25th April 2019, select Log In (blue arrow shown below).

I don't know why Steam has these issues - I don't even install my Steam-bought copy / account in Steam - I just run direct.

Did all of this - did not help. Thanks anyway.

 

[Bannor]

Try another kind of start. Double click on steam icon ( Steal will open ) then click on Library then right button on Elite dangerous: Horizon -> play game. Wait a little. Initial startup screen will appear. Click play and look if something changes. During the months in which the start-up was slow, I solved doing that. This my problem was solved by itself after the last ED update. Not equal to yours but similar ( for a small part )

Tried this too. No luck. Thanks.

 

[Bannor]

Ok, may want to give us a clue on the rest of the hardware, may not sound important because the game was running before, but believe me it is.

For example, if running the game on a gaming laptop (or any system that has a discrete GPU as well as an IGO) it might well be the case that the drivers are defaulting the game to the IGP (on board graphics) rather than the GPU. In this case you may have to manually go into the GPU driver (Nvidia or AMD) and ensure that their GPU is the selected one.

Another issue could be that you are attempting to use the GPU drivers that shipped with Windows 7...
Don't! The chances are they are based off a (very) old version & may not be complete. Go to the relevant website for your GPU manufacturer & download the latest ones for your hardware.

I should have given more details in my OP - but I'm not using a laptop. My PC has exactly ONE graphics card - drivers are the most-recent, and both they and the graphics card are being used at all times. Thanks anyway.