GFWL crashing games SOLUTION

[total_frenzy24]

Hi guys,

I've spent the last few days after buying the Codemasters racing pack getting 4 of the 5 games working. Grid and DiRT 1 were simple fixes, both have a few threads with working solution in their respective forums.

FUEL and DiRT2 however were a large pain in the ♥♥♥.

It seems that my problem was more like 2 or 3 other problems. It took a lot of working backwards to figure out, so I'm hoping that there are bits and pieces here that will be able to help some of you out.


Here is my situation, if yours is similar (even partially), I might be able to help.

• Windows Drive: C:\ (SSD, Small, only for Operating System)
• Storage Drive: E:\ (All my programs, games etc)
  
• Changed Registry to force programs to install on the E Drive
• Did not install Windows Live Essentials
• Did not install Internet Explorer 9 (Or IE9 doesn't work)
• Game using GFWL would not launch/crash shortly after launch
• Games for Windows - Live (Launching from Program Files) would play the splash screen but not launch

If any of the above sounds familiar, keep reading.

You need Internet Explorer 9 (working) and the Windows Essentials both installed on your Windows drive for Games for Windows - Live to work.

Step 1:
Uninstall the following:

• Internet Explorer (http://windows.microsoft.com/en-AU/w...net-explorer-9)
• Microsoft Games for Windows - Live / Related
• Windows Live Essentials / Related

Restart


Step 2:
Did you alter the registry for Program Files default location?
No? - Skip to Step 3.
Yes? - Keep reading

Revert any changes you made to the registry in either of these two places:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\ Windows\CurrentVersion

If your Windows is installed on C:\ for example, make sure all of the Data values are set to the C drive.

Restart


Step 3:
Install the following:

• Internet Explorer 9 (http://windows.microsoft.com/en-AU/i...wide-languages)
• Windows Live Essentials (http://explore.live.com/windows-live-essentials)
• Games for Windows - Live (http://www.xbox.com/en-US/live/pc/downloadclient)

Restart (I restarted between each install, not sure how necessary that was though)


Step 4:
Test all the following software.

• Internet Explorer 9
• MSN Messenger
• Games for Windows - Live Marketplace

If any of these don't work, google should be able to help.

For more specific details on the errors; Open up Event Viewer to help find the specific problem. Click Windows Logs, then Application logs. Look for the Warning or errors. Fix these problems before continuing.


Step 5:
Skip to Step 6 if you did not change the registry.

If you changed your registry, you can now change it back.
I've found that you only need to change ProgramFilesDir and ProgramFilesDir (x86) but I'll leave that to your discretion.

Restart and test open all those programs again.


Step 6:
Test the games.


I had a few small errors in between all this along the way, which included missing DLL's and programs being installed on the wrong disk. If you come up with anything like that, re-install that software and if that doesn't work, refer to google.

Here is a flowlist of what is needed for the game to work:

To run the game, you need:
The Game; Which Needs:
Games for Windows - Live; Which Needs:
Windows Live Essentials; Which Needs:
Internet Explorer; Which needs to be in the correct directory.

I really hope I've helped someone. I will cross post this to the FUEL forum too. It's more than likely that there are other games that use GFWL that can be solved with this solution

[sh0nuff613]

Having these problems with Gotham City Impostors.

Tried the above, but cannot remove IE9, its just not listed. Cannot even launch the game anymore. Cannot update *or* remove Microsoft Games for Windows Marketplace...

At this point I want to throw out my PC and get a Mac, and never game again.

[killyourpepe]

I did not do that.
is much simpler.
first uninstall GFWL with some program like Revo Uninstaller or similar.
with ccleaner deletes all records from GFWL.
restart the pc and reinstalled GFWL.

my english is bad, i know.

[total_frenzy24]

Originally Posted by killyourpepe

I did not do that.
is much simpler.
first uninstall GFWL with some program like Revo Uninstaller or similar.
with ccleaner deletes all records from GFWL.
restart the pc and reinstalled GFWL.

my english is bad, i know.

Yeah,

My issue was a mix of a bunch of issues. Some some people, they can skip half of the steps, but I had to go through and fix every separate issue in a particular order.

I would recommend most people just try and reinstall GFWL, but if you have other issues, take the time to do the whole fix.