X-COM Enemy Unknown - Crash Before Main Menu

[MML129]

I'll just outline everything that happened.

1) I preorder X-Com on Steam because I'm really excited about it.
2) I preload X-Com the night before it came out.
3) When I tried to launch the game on the 9th, Steam froze at the "Preparing to Launch" prompt.
4) I reinstalled the game, and, when the download was done, I closed Steam and shut down my computer.
5) On the 10th, I noticed that an update was installed along with the game that I reinstalled yesterday. I tried launching the reinstalled game, and the game started. I saw the 2K, Firaxis, and Unreal Engine Logos, followed by a screen with a wall of miniscule text with the X-Com Logo at the top with a tiny X-Com logo rotating at the bottom of the screen. After that the game crashed. I haven't gotten to the main menu once. One time the cursor appeared before the game crashed.
6) A generic message pops up saying "Windows will let you know if this problem can be fixed" or something like that. No useful information.
7) I go into Steam and attempt to verify the game cache. It says a file is missing and redownloads it. I reverify and it says that it's fine. It didn't fix anything. Every time I launch the game and it crashes, Steam always says that a file is missing and it needs to redownload.
8) I restart Steam. It didn't fix it.
9) I restart my computer. It didn't fix it.
10) I try running the game in windowed mode. It didn't fix it.
11) I went into the X-Com folder on steam and right-clicked the XCOM exe file to ‘Disable Desktop Composition'. It didn't fix it.
12) I checked to see if my DirectX was up-to-date. It was.

Here's my system specs:
DELL N5010
Intel Core i3 CPU M 370 processor
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
4GB Ram


Why did this happen to me? I wanna play the game!

[rgallant]

Run a hard drive check and force a defragment then try again. You are running on a laptop, drive space issues and potential problems with drives are much higher than most desktop systems.

If that does not help check your event log, for more useful information.

[MML129]

Run a hard drive check and force a defragment then try again. You are running on a laptop, drive space issues and potential problems with drives are much higher than most desktop systems.

If that does not help check your event log, for more useful information.

Actually, when I first installed it, my hard drive didn't have enough space for the game. After deleting a bunch of crap, I redownloaded the game. Now I have 60+ GB of free space.

Right now my computer is updating a few things, but I'll definitely defrag afterwards. I checked the Windows Update to see if there actually was an update to DirectX and instead found a bunch of other updates, such as my graphics card. That might help :P

[MML129]

It works now! I just needed a graphics card driver update thingamabob Can't wait to play! Unfortunately that won't be until Sunday. Got shtuff to do.

[Kaldranga]

So you just used the windows update system? I have the same problem and I'm trying pretty hard to fix it, but nothing's working.

[luiswyvern]

Hey, If you have a Intel HD graphic card please use this

1. Download the appropriate Generic Intel HD Graphics driver from the website and save for use later (I recommend on the desktop since it's easiest to get to quickly.)
2. Uninstall Dell (or HD) proprietary Intel HD Graphics Driver via the device manager, make sure you delete it (its an option you can choose.)
3. Restart machine and boot in normal mode.
4. Ececute the downloaded driver program.
5. Restart machine (It will have a black screen followed by some Command windows for a short time while windows starts...Do not be alarmed.)
6. Start XCOM...

By uninstalling the old driver first you remove the validation error many of you have experienced in the past.

it works for me, i download the latest driver from intel webpage and now it works.
Thanks to another guy now i can play, Aliens be careful