[theant4]

So I just bought the first Mass Effect game from Steam yesterday and both Steam and the game downloaded/installed without any trouble. However, when I went to launch the game this morning, it acted like it was going to start and then I got a little alert that said "Mass Effect failed to start (error code 83)".

I tried again (several more times for that matter) and now it still acts like it's going to start (with the "Preparing to launch..." and the whole bit) but now I'm not even getting the error code message -- nothing is happening at all.

Naturally I began searching online for a solution to the problem. I see that many different people have had this problem with various games, but all the forum threads that I looked at were at least a year old. I tried exiting and restarting Steam, but that didn't work. I tried going to the game properties in Steam and verifying the integrity of the game cache, but that didn't work either.

There were quite a few suggestions regarding firewalls, but I'll admit I didn't really understand any of them. If anyone could explain it to me or come up with any other suggestions to fix this problem, that would be awesome. I'd love to have not wasted $20...

[leroys1000]

Uninstall steam from your programs and go download
the latest version from the steam site.
The versions on older games have problems updating
and might be your problem.
Seen it happen before.
http://store.steampowered.com/
Scroll down the page and click install steam now.

[Megabite]

Howdy,

Are you going through a Router and some specs on the PC would help

Try this link to download a small program from this site that will tell you most of the specs we need

TSG System Information Utility

Copy and paste the results from this program in your next post

[theant4]

Thanks, leroys1000 I'll try this, but I just downloaded Steam yesterday before I bought the game so I'm not sure why it would be an issue...

Megabite: Here you go:

Tech Support Guy System Info Utility version 1.0.0.2
OS Version: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium, Service Pack 1, 64 bit
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) II X4 620 Processor, AMD64 Family 16 Model 5 Stepping 2
Processor Count: 4
RAM: 5887 Mb
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce 9100, 256 Mb
Hard Drives: C: Total - 942591 MB, Free - 776264 MB; D: Total - 11174 MB, Free - 1624 MB;
Motherboard: PEGATRON CORPORATION, VIOLET6
Antivirus: Microsoft Security Essentials, Updated and Enabled

I ran System Requirements Lab and it said the game should run fine on the computer... and I'm on a desktop computer so the router in my house is connected directly to the modem

[Megabite]

Do you have and run any other Online games through Steam?

[theant4]

I don't. This is the first -- I was torn between buying a hard copy of the game or just getting the digital copy. Now I'm kinda wishing I'd gotten the hard copy :P

[Megabite]

It could be your Microsoft Essentials or your Firewall blocking it......and maybe your Router

[Megabite]

Take a look at the link below to allow a program through your firewall


http://www.dummies.com/how-to/conten...-7-firewa.html

[theant4]

Hmm. Well right now, I've just re-installed Steam and the game itself is re-installing... it took all night last night and it looks like it's going to take that long again.

I found another thread somewhere where the person was having a ton of trouble getting the game to run (not sure if it was this same error, and I think theirs might have been with a hard copy) but then they got a digital copy from Origin and it worked fine. I have Origin, and I've downloaded a game from it and it worked fine (this was just a Sims 2 expansion pack though). Do you think it would be worth it to try to get ME from Origin, or maybe try a hard copy?

I'll try out that link, thanks.

[Megabite]

Try the link above ....

[theant4]

Okay so I followed the directions in that link, but when I click Allow a Program through Windows Firewall it wants me to update my firewall settings (saying "Windows Firewall is not using the recommended settings to protect this computer"). So then I try to click "Use Recommended Settings" but I get a little error message saying "Windows Firewall can't change some of your settings. Error code 0x80070424"

[Megabite]

Fun and games...you are the Admin of that PC?

Try clicking on RUN in the link below


http://support.microsoft.com/kb/968002

[theant4]

I'm pretty sure one of the other user accounts is the actual admin, but I end up running a lot of things as admin on my own account.

[Megabite]

Where did you find out that Video card can run Mass Effect 3 as it is a low end card...

[theant4]

Okay I ran the Windows Update Troubleshooter and it says it didn't find any problems... :P