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Fixing various game launch issues
By berend
This guide will attempt to help users who encounter problems with launching their game. When it won't start at all, closes as soon as you launch it or stuck at preparing to launch.

Seeing many people in the Steam discussions daily asking for help I thought it would be easier to sum up most known fixes for this issue.
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Created by
berend
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Languages: English
Category: Getting Started, Competition, HUD & UI, Modding & Scripts
Modes: Bomb Defuse, Hostage Rescue, Demolition, Arms Race, Deathmatch
Posted
Updated
23 Aug, 2020 @ 6:46am
2 Sep, 2020 @ 2:29pm
1,951 Unique Visitors
28 Current Favorites
Guide Index
Overview
Introduction 
Reboot and validate your game files 
Overclocking 
-disable_d3d9ex -nojoy launch options 
Backup configs 
Remove launch options 
Remove any compatibility options 
Let the game determine settings 
Run in safe mode 
Reinstall the game 
Disable antivirus 
Software Interfering with steam or CS:GO 
Update windows 
Update and/or reinstall GPU drivers 
Repair steam service 
Reinstall Steam 
Repair windows 
Nothing works 
Feedback 
Comments
Introduction
I will attempt to provide you with most known fixes for any launch issues you might have. Use this guide from top to bottom as the most easy fixes are tried first. The further you advance through the guide the more complicated things will become.

My other guides in this series
This guide is part of a series in which I try to combat all of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive most common issues and provide you with the most common solutions.
https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2212356972
https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1907675935
https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1911087875
https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2203518412
Reboot and validate your game files
Always reboot your system first. Many issues are fixed by simply rebooting, instead of going through the trouble of trying to figure out what is causing the issue.

If that did not work try validating your game files.
  1. Go to your Steam Game Library
  2. Right click on Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
  3. Click properties
  4. Navigate to the local game files tab
  5. Click verify integrity of game files
Any missing files will be reacquired, depending on how much is missing this can take a while. Once this is done reboot your system again and check if this solved the issue.
Overclocking
Source engine games have issues with overclocking and crash on either map load or when starting the game. I haven't found a way to make overclocking work properly so if you are overclocking your hardware, stop doing so and try again. If you aren't sure what this is, you can ignore this and continue.
-disable_d3d9ex -nojoy launch options
Try adding those two launch options to your game:
  1. Go to your Steam Game Library
  2. Right click on Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
  3. Click properties
  4. Click set launch options
  5. Add -disable_d3d9ex -nojoy to your launch options
  6. Save!
Backup configs
Before you continue it is important to make some backups, we do not want you to lose any custom settings and at the same time we want to run the game on most default settings, perhaps something in your config is causing problems.

It could be that your config files are either placed in your CS:GO cfg folder, or attached to your user account. To make sure I recommend you check both places described below!

First, at your game installation.
  1. Go to your Steam Game Library
  2. Right click on Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
  3. Click properties
  4. Navigate to the local game files tab
  5. Click browse local files
  6. Open the csgo folder
  7. Rename or backup and delete the cfg folder

Now to check your userdata:
  1. Go to your steam installation folder (default location is C:\Program Files(x86)\Steam)
  2. Open the userdata folder
  3. Open the folder with your account ID (ID can be find in your profile URL)
  4. Open the folder called 730
  5. Open the local folder
  6. Rename or backup and delete the cfg folder
If you rename or delete the folder, the next time you launch your game it will create the folder again with all the default settings. If it turns out this did not improve anything you can move/rename back your own CFG folder.
Remove launch options
Launch options are extra parameters added when csgo.exe is executed in order to make changes to the game, while some are useful, some are not and there is a lot of outdated and incorrect information out there. For the sake of testing I suggest you remove them all.
  1. Go to your Steam Game Library
  2. Right click on Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
  3. Click properties
  4. Click set launch options
  5. Remove all launch options
Remove any compatibility options
  1. Go to your Steam Game Library
  2. Right click on Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
  3. Click properties
  4. Navigate to the local game files tab
  5. Click browse local files
  6. Right click on the csgo.exe
  7. Open the compatibility tab
  8. Make sure you did not select any compatibility mode

Since the trusted mode update, you are not allowed to run the game as administrator if steam is not running as administrator, so make sure you either run both as admin (not recommended) or run neither as admin, you should see this in the same window as the compatibility modes.
Let the game determine settings
Like one of the previous steps, navigate to your launch options, add -autoconfig and save. This way you allow the game to detect settings for your system, remember to remove the launch option afterwards.
Run in safe mode
If that still did not work remove the -autoconfig launch option again and add instead -safe. This way the game will run with the minimal video settings, if this works we know it is something related to those.
Reinstall the game
Consider reinstalling your game completely, if you have an SSD in your system, install the game on your SSD, not HDD - preferably on the same disk as windows is installed (C:\). I know, it takes time, it might be a hassle but it can still fix it and help isolate the problem, you want to be sure you tried everything at every step!
Disable antivirus
Especially when using windows 10 custom antivirus software is not required, windows defender will do just fine. Virus scanners are known to cause issues with some games and perhaps even prevent your game from launching at all.
Software Interfering with steam or CS:GO
It might that you have other software on your PC causing the game to not launch or crash immediately after. Steam has a great article on the subject and I recommend you read it to see if there might be anything interfering.
Update windows
Keeping your system up to date is always a good idea and when you are slacking behind on a lot of updates this might cause issues.
  1. Press the windows start key
  2. Type Update
  3. Click on Windows updates
  4. Check and install any updates
  5. Reboot Computer
  6. After rebooting keep repeating this until there are no updates left.
Update and/or reinstall GPU drivers
It is possible that you require to update your drivers or perhaps something went wrong while updating in the past, to make sure your drivers are up to date and not corrupt you are best to reinstall them.

For your Graphics card use DDU - Display Driver Uninstaller[www.guru3d.com] to properly remove any drivers on your computer. Make sure you read the information on the website and perhaps make a system restore point just to be safe. After you reboot your system download the proper drivers below.
It is possible you opted in to beta changes (Testing version) and this might have unexpected and undesirable effects. Disable any sort of beta testing.
Repair steam service
Steam is always running in the background with multiple services, corrupt files are known to cause issues with VAC, FPS, crashes or prevent it from launching (or quit right after launch)

Taken from the steam support page:
Repair the Steam Service
The error may also indicate a Steam service failure. Please try repairing the Steam service:
  1. Exit Steam.
  2. Click Start > Run (Windows Key + R).
  3. Type the following command: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\bin\SteamService.exe" /repair
  4. Launch Steam and test the issue again.
Note: This command requires administrator privileges and may take a few minutes. If you have installed Steam to another path, please replace C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam with the correct path.
Reinstall Steam
Taken from this support article you can reinstall steam without losing all your games.

The Steam installer can be downloaded here: (http://steamproxy.com/steamstore/about/) and reinstalled to the same location where it is already installed.

This may fix potential issues with Steam client and service files. Installing into same location will preserve all installed games.

WARNING! Uninstalling Steam through any other method will delete all game and userdata content.
Repair windows
Perhaps some of your windows files are corrupt, you could completely re-install your system but I recommend you do that only as a last resort when nothing else seem to work, unless you are tired of all my fixes at this point (understandable) ;).
  1. Open the windows start menu
  2. Type cmd
  3. Open the windows command prompt as administrator
  4. Type sfc /scannow and press enter
It might tell you it cannot repair corrupted / damages files, if so you can try also running the following command:
  1. Open the windows start menu
  2. Type cmd
  3. Open the windows command prompt as administrator
  4. Type DISM /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth and press enter
Nothing works
If nothing works and you have tried everything try creating a discussion post in the community. Perhaps there are some very specific fixes for your system not included in this guide or another user who has the same problem has knowledge of other possible solutions.

To make it easier for us to help you we ask you kindly to provide us with the following information:
  • Does it happen in other games?
  • Since when did this start happening?
  • Did you make any changes to your computer, drivers or OS lately?
  • Post all of your computer specifications! It is hard to help if we do not know what components you have.
  • Perhaps you tried something not included in the guide, tell us.
  • If you skipped some part of the guide for whatever reason tell us too, perhaps we can help you with explaining how to do it and what exactly it is used for.
Feedback
Did I miss something? Did I get something wrong? Or perhaps something is not clear enough in your opinion? Feel free to comment suggestions, I am no expert on this topic but just see a lot of issues and fixes being posted. I would love to keep updating the guide with more and more possible solutions or remove those which aren't fixing anything anymore.

See you in the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Steam Discussions! :)

Thanks for reading!
48 Comments
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Чайка Depression 1 Sep, 2020 @ 6:05am 
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TR: Bunlardan birini profilime at aynısını bende atıcam
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John Counter~Strike 30 Aug, 2020 @ 8:59pm 
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ENG: Copy&Paste one of these OR write whatever you want and I will rep you back 100% i'm online now
RU: пишете что-то из списка ниже , и я вам пишу что захотите я щас в онлайне :))

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Tim0n4t0r ツ 30 Aug, 2020 @ 5:07am 
nice thanks, some were actually helpful :D
swtx 29 Aug, 2020 @ 3:59pm 
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блядьХ𝕐Ɇ฿𝔼𝕤 29 Aug, 2020 @ 12:51pm 
US: Выберите что то одно из этого списка и напишите в моём профиле, отвечу тем же!
ENG: Choose the one that's on the list and write in my profile, I will answer the same!
TR: Bunlardan birini profilime at aynısını bende atacağım!
+rep
+rep Good player
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+rep 1Tap Only
+rep Insane Skills
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+rep Top Player
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𝐁𝐀𝐁𝐀 29 Aug, 2020 @ 10:15am 
US: Выберите что то одно из этого списка и напишите в моём профиле, отвечу тем же!
ENG: Choose the one that's on the list and write in my profile, I will answer the same!
TR: Bunlardan birini profilime at aynısını bende atacağım!
+rep
+rep Good player
+rep Amazing Tactics
+rep Epic Clutch
+rep Clutchmaster
+rep Killing Machine
+rep 1Tap Only
+rep Insane Skills
+rep One shot man
+rep Top Player
+rep Thx for carry
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+rep Good Teammate
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блядьХ𝕐Ɇ฿𝔼𝕤 29 Aug, 2020 @ 9:37am 
US: Выберите что то одно из этого списка и напишите в моём профиле, отвечу тем же!
ENG: Choose the one that's on the list and write in my profile, I will answer the same!
TR: Bunlardan birini profilime at aynısını bende atacağım!
+rep
+rep Good player
+rep Amazing Tactics
+rep Epic Clutch
+rep Clutchmaster
+rep Killing Machine
+rep 1Tap Only
+rep Insane Skills
+rep One shot man
+rep Top Player
+rep Thx for carry
+rep İyi Oyuncu
+rep Good Teammate
+rep AWP GOD 💢
+rep Great Player 💛
+rep Amazing Tactics
berend  [author] 29 Aug, 2020 @ 5:21am 
Unless you can show me the exact update in which they disabled it by default again you are 100% wrong. None of the patch notes mention it after it was enabled by default ;)
seppe 29 Aug, 2020 @ 5:17am 
berend, 2019 it's removed afterwards. If I'm not 100% wrong but kk
berend  [author] 29 Aug, 2020 @ 4:35am 
For reference -> https://blog.counter-strike.net/index.php/2019/04/23870/