Game just won't launch on Windows 7 (I've tried everything)

[santimaster2000]

I'm running Windows 7 64 bits, my specs are:

6700HQ
1070 Max-P
16 GB DDR4
Samsung 960 EVO 1 TB

This is my laptop:

P35X v6 Key Features | Laptop - GIGABYTE Global

World’s leading brand of the best gaming laptops and creator laptops. Produce the thinnest, lightest, and high-performance laptops for gamers and creators.

www.gigabyte.com

I have the Steam version, I have all the latest Windows updates, I've tried with both the latest nVidia driver, and the one before (I used DDU to switch back and forth), checking the files with Steam, re-downloading the entire game, running Cyberpunk2077.exe directly (As administrator), nothing works, I'm 100 % sure that whatever is causing the game not to load is not related to my setup/configuration, it has to do with the game itself.

I would really appreciate any help anyone can offer me, don't know if contacting support would help at all, they will probably just point me to the FAQ for this kind if issue.

 

[sigeon]

CP2077 is DirectX12 only. Windows 7 doesn't support DirectX12. It's 100% your setup/configuration (Windows 7).

Microsoft has backported maybe one or two games to allow support for it, but you're going to have to move up to Windows 10.

 

[Dean_Rutter]

Update to Windows 10. Cyberpunk 2077 is a DX12 game and I don't think it runs on W7 unless it explicitly says so.

 

[shershengog]

It runs on Windows 7 because it uses "MICROSOFT DIRECT3D 12 ON WINDOWS 7" library. So it most likely means that this is just another game bug.

 

[MojoBreaker]

windows 7 ? what the hell ? sorry i dont want to sound mean but why you still using Win 7 ?

 

[santimaster2000]

CP2077 is DirectX12 only. Windows 7 doesn't support DirectX12. It's 100% your setup/configuration (Windows 7).

Microsoft has backported maybe one or two games to allow support for it, but you're going to have to move up to Windows 10.

CP2077 works on Windows 7, there are people playing it on Windows 7 right now.

Update to Windows 10. Cyberpunk 2077 is a DX12 game and I don't think it runs on W7 unless it explicitly says so.

I will update to Windows 10 when I switch laptops next year, this laptop works just fine with Windows 7, so, I'm not updating it.

windows 7 ? what the hell ? sorry i dont want to sound mean but why you still using Win 7 ?

Because it works just fine for what I'm currently using my computer for.

 

[cudlla]

Same problem here I´ve spent all day trying to make it work using all options in various combinations. (community AVX crash fix, reinstaling drivers, using cleanboot mode, checking game files integrity, disabling programs that use overlay...). I have managed to start the game 3x times, and play for about 6 hours total. Every time I launchedthe game it was under different circumstances witch I was not able to replicate again. Either whatever I did had no effect at all or had effect once and then no more. It really baffles me. I will be upgrading to Win 10 but I still cant get my head around this...

EDIT: The game crashes as soon as I launch it. I just get a black screen and than that flatline message. And sometimes I get a message that even bugreporter crashed

 

[arti2077]

I'd be looking at temps on your cpu/gpu, that's what causes me to crash. I can get about an hour or so before it heats up enough to auto restart. Just waiting on parts for my new computer, and trying out a few things here or there with the game.

 

[cudlla]

I'd be looking at temps on your cpu/gpu, that's what causes me to crash. I can get about an hour or so before it heats up enough to auto restart. Just waiting on parts for my new computer, and trying out a few things here or there with the game.

That wont be that... When the game managed to launch I played for about 4 hours straight with no problem and temperatures on my CPU/GPU were well in safe parametres. There is just something that prevents the game from launching regurally.

 

[L_Blond_Hubbard]

I had the same problems on Win7, game wouldn't launch at all. I did the free upgrade to Win10 and it worked perfectly, no crashes. So it's not the hardware(my lowly GTX 980M works great with mostly high settings). But I need Win7 for work because of legacy software, so I reverted back and can't play again. Maybe I have to figure out how to make a dual-boot system.

 

[Siia]

I had the same problems on Win7, game wouldn't launch at all. I did the free upgrade to Win10 and it worked perfectly, no crashes. So it's not the hardware(my lowly GTX 980M works great with mostly high settings). But I need Win7 for work because of legacy software, so I reverted back and can't play again. Maybe I have to figure out how to make a dual-boot system.

I'm still running windows 7.. So I wonder if that's the issue?? How did you manage to still get a free upgrade to win10??

Post automatically merged: Dec 13, 2020

I had the same problems on Win7, game wouldn't launch at all. I did the free upgrade to Win10 and it worked perfectly, no crashes. So it's not the hardware(my lowly GTX 980M works great with mostly high settings). But I need Win7 for work because of legacy software, so I reverted back and can't play again. Maybe I have to figure out how to make a dual-boot system.

Also, how did you just "revert back"

Post automatically merged: Dec 13, 2020

I had the same problems on Win7, game wouldn't launch at all. I did the free upgrade to Win10 and it worked perfectly, no crashes. So it's not the hardware(my lowly GTX 980M works great with mostly high settings). But I need Win7 for work because of legacy software, so I reverted back and can't play again. Maybe I have to figure out how to make a dual-boot system.

Also, how did you just "revert back"

 

[L_Blond_Hubbard]

Instructions are here https://www.forbes.com/sites/gordon...-windows-10-for-free-in-2020/?sh=7aab4cdc75ff

If your Win7 is legit, it should just update without asking for keys. Afterwards, be sure to get the Windows update to version 20h2, and double check your vid card drivers.

To revert back, go here https://www.howtogeek.com/220723/how-to-uninstall-windows-10-and-downgrade-to-windows-7-or-8.1/ But you have to do it within 10 days.

 

[Siia]

Instructions are here https://www.forbes.com/sites/gordon...-windows-10-for-free-in-2020/?sh=7aab4cdc75ff

If your Win7 is legit, it should just update without asking for keys. Afterwards, be sure to get the Windows update to version 20h2, and double check your vid card drivers.

To revert back, go here https://www.howtogeek.com/220723/how-to-uninstall-windows-10-and-downgrade-to-windows-7-or-8.1/ But you have to do it within 10 days.

I mose well try it, thanks for the tip! I hope I dont lose any of my data, i've backed up the most important info though. I hope it works, if not right back to win 7 I go!

Post automatically merged: Dec 14, 2020

Instructions are here https://www.forbes.com/sites/gordon...-windows-10-for-free-in-2020/?sh=7aab4cdc75ff

If your Win7 is legit, it should just update without asking for keys. Afterwards, be sure to get the Windows update to version 20h2, and double check your vid card drivers.

To revert back, go here https://www.howtogeek.com/220723/how-to-uninstall-windows-10-and-downgrade-to-windows-7-or-8.1/ But you have to do it within 10 days.

Didn't help at all sadly!! I did the update & now it wont even launch the game at all, insta flatline. Before at least I could launch & get into a save before a flat line, now its a down right flat line when I press play.. UGH!

 

[L_Blond_Hubbard]

Make sure you go to https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4562830/feature-update and apply the latest 20h2 update for Windows, and recheck you have the lastest Nvidia drivers.

 

[Siia]

Make sure you go to https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4562830/feature-update and apply the latest 20h2 update for Windows, and recheck you have the lastest Nvidia drivers.

Yes I have the Nvidia drivers all up to date, did a fresh install of CP2077, did all the updates etc & the restart & still a flat line as soon as I press play.

registered crash info file...
InternalVersion: 3.0.3217599 P4CL: 4158334 Stream: //R6.Root/R6.Patch0Hotfix2
!!!CRASHED!!!
Error Reason: Unhandled exception
Expression: EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION (0xC0000005)
Message: The thread attempted to read inaccessible data at 0xFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF.
File: <Unknown>
Line: 0

 

[daemonjax]

Same problem:

win7 x64, i5 3570k, 1070ti, 32gb ram.

I meet or exceed the minimum specs. No error. No logs. No black screen or anything like that -- the exe just silently crashes, and so the game does not launch.

CP 2077 minimum specs:

• OS - 64-bit Windows 7 or 64-bit Windows 10
• GFX Settings - Low
• Directx Version - DirectX(R) 12
• Processor - Intel Core i5-3570K or AMD FX-8310
• Memory - 8 GB
• Graphics Card - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 3GB or AMD Radeon RX 470
• VRAM - 3GB
• Storage - 70GB HDD, SSD recommended

Tried both gog and steam versions -- gave up after trying for 2 days and refunded both. There's really nothing I can do on my end to get it to work.

I suspect there's an issue with the game using dx12 under win7, even though it "should" work. I suppose it's also possible that my slightly non-standard 1920x1200 (16:10) resolution has something to do with it, but it shouldn't.

No, I'm not "upgrading" to win10 just for this one game.

EDIT: Just for fun, I downloaded World of Warcraft to test a dx12 game -- I CAN run WoW with dx12 on this PC just fine (although vsync breaks).

 

[Pierre990429]

Hi, I just found a way to make it work with Win7;

my specs : Win7sp1, Geforce 1070 Ti, i7 2700K (supports AVX), 16 GB RAM, NV driver 360.79 (and game running from an external usb WD mechanical Passport HDD, true)

first I tried with an old driver : 442.74 (Doom Eternal), and it didn't work. Well, with setting the cyberpunk2077.exe to ADMIN + Win7 Compat, I could get to the first seconds after character creation but had the mirror crash (Streetkid), with a freeze and I had to hold the power button to reboot.

Then I upgraded to 360.79 (had installed the last 2015-2019 C++ and .NET 4.72), it still crashed.

what I did : DELETE THE CACHE IN ... APPLICATION DATA / CD PROJEKT RED / CYBERPUNK 2077 / CACHE ;
maybe it's safer to delete all the REDEngine and CD Projekt Red folders.

THEN IT WORKED. To start, I put everything on low. Now I'm on medium and arrived in the garage.

You can make a manual save as soon as you're finished with the bartender.

NB : the first time the firewall went off, asking about permission concerning cyberpunk2077.exe, and I got a "flatline" because I unticked a box in this pop-up. Well, again, just in case, I deleted the folders, and afterwards it worked.

It's true, this game doesn't seem to like any overlay while it's running. But note that I didn't disable Aero.

I think after the driver upgrade the game didntt create properly the "new" GamePipelineLibrary.cache

Hope this helps others. It feels stupid, but try it.

 

[ud4y]

Hi, I just found a way to make it work with Win7;

my specs : Win7sp1, Geforce 1070 Ti, i7 2700K (supports AVX), 16 GB RAM, NV driver 360.79 (and game running from an external usb WD mechanical Passport HDD, true)

first I tried with an old driver : 442.74 (Doom Eternal), and it didn't work. Well, with setting the cyberpunk2077.exe to ADMIN + Win7 Compat, I could get to the first seconds after character creation but had the mirror crash (Streetkid), with a freeze and I had to hold the power button to reboot.

Then I upgraded to 360.79 (had installed the last 2015-2019 C++ and .NET 4.72), it still crashed.

what I did : DELETE THE CACHE IN ... APPLICATION DATA / CD PROJEKT RED / CYBERPUNK 2077 / CACHE ;
maybe it's safer to delete all the REDEngine and CD Projekt Red folders.

THEN IT WORKED. To start, I put everything on low. Now I'm on medium and arrived in the garage.

You can make a manual save as soon as you're finished with the bartender.

NB : the first time the firewall went off, asking about permission concerning cyberpunk2077.exe, and I got a "flatline" because I unticked a box in this pop-up. Well, again, just in case, I deleted the folders, and afterwards it worked.

It's true, this game doesn't seem to like any overlay while it's running. But note that I didn't disable Aero.

I think after the driver upgrade the game didntt create properly the "new" GamePipelineLibrary.cache

Hope this helps others. It feels stupid, but try it.

already tried that stuff, including several windows7 KBXXXX drivers until i had the latest version, there's a particular one that fixes it for most desktop users but for 10gtx laptops I don't think there's a solution yet. I've had a free m2 slot i got a cheap wd green and installed a dual boot windows 10 just to play cyberpunk, refunded my physical copy though.

 

[Jan0sh]

I do realize that CDPR should make the game work properly on windows 7 since they put in minimum requirements but... seriously, why are you still using windows 7? It isn't even supported by Microsoft anymore. And upgrading to windows 10 is free...

 

[ud4y]

I'll list a set of windows 7 updates that are likely to do the trick for most DESKTOP users, ofcourse paired with .net run time components and driver updates, feel free to try :

KB3033929 (most likely you're missing this if you can't run the game)
KB2670838
kb4490628
kb4516065
kb4532945
kb4019990

Post automatically merged: Dec 29, 2020

I do realize that CDPR should make the game work properly on windows 7 since they put in minimum requirements but... seriously, why are you still using windows 7? It isn't even supported by Microsoft anymore. And upgrading to windows 10 is free...

because 10 by far lacks the polish that 7 has and is an absolute spying resource heavy mess of an OS that priorities gimmicky windows "metro" features instead of actual functionality, and Microsoft forces its bandwidth leeching features upon you without your consent including forced updates that the average windows 10 sheeple can do nothing about, look at it as a non-drm free game/windows

If you have a stable running system dedicated for gaming, and you're running everything normally; You have no need of constant updates that destabalize your existing work/game environments causing incompatibility issues. That's a mac's job.

I know multiple users that are playing cyberpunk 2077 on their windows 7 desktop rigs mostly on radeon intel builds flawlessly at the utmost ultra settings with minimal issues, on the other hand the average RTX fanbois that only have the technical skill of hitting the ultra preset are crying about their performance losses because of their inability to handle the much gimmicky "Ray-tracing" and calling the game "unoptimized". What they don't realize is that its NVIDIA's marketing and consoles that have caused the game to delay as much as it has.