TF2 Troubleshooting
July 18, 2013 2:24 PM Subscribe
Why isn't Team Fortress 2 starting? For the past day or two, whenever I try to open up TF2 on my Windows 8 computer, I get a message that simply says "failed to start game (unknown error)". This seems to be a somewhat common problem but I can't find any answers for why this is happening or how to fix it.
So far I have tried re-installing TF2, deleting the "appcache" folder, and verifying the game cache in Steam. Other than that, I have no idea what to do. Any suggestions?
Response by poster: Yes, I did! Sorry, forgot to mention that in the question.
posted by rossination at 2:36 PM on July 18, 2013
posted by rossination at 2:36 PM on July 18, 2013
Have you tried running both steam and the TF2 shortcut as an administrator?
posted by thewumpusisdead at 2:49 PM on July 18, 2013
posted by thewumpusisdead at 2:49 PM on July 18, 2013
Response by poster: I have tried starting Steam as an administrator. When I right click, though, I don't see the option to run the TF2 shortcut as admin.
posted by rossination at 2:52 PM on July 18, 2013
posted by rossination at 2:52 PM on July 18, 2013
Get TF2 to create a shortcut on your desktop and then you can run it as an admin.
"Create Desktop Shortcut" should be an option in the context menu on TF2 in the Steam UI.
posted by Sunburnt at 4:10 PM on July 18, 2013
"Create Desktop Shortcut" should be an option in the context menu on TF2 in the Steam UI.
posted by Sunburnt at 4:10 PM on July 18, 2013
Valve has made some pretty big changes for TF2 in the past week, with a new update just going out today. They are trying to prevent players from "idling" (running the game in textmode to receive item drops without actually playing) and may need to keep tweaking the current version to get it right. So try the tricks above and keep trying, they may fix the problem on a future patch.
I'm an active TF2 player and I also use the Source SDK/Source Filmmaker. Sometimes Valve just breaks stuff while trying to make it better and can take it little while to fix it.
posted by shino-boy at 4:29 PM on July 18, 2013
I'm an active TF2 player and I also use the Source SDK/Source Filmmaker. Sometimes Valve just breaks stuff while trying to make it better and can take it little while to fix it.
posted by shino-boy at 4:29 PM on July 18, 2013
Response by poster: Sunburnt: just tried that; the shortcut that it created does not show a "run as administrator" option when I right-click (it does for Steam, though, and I tried that).
shino-boy: thanks for the reassurance. Is there anything else I can do other than just wait and keep trying? Is this really just a Valve / Steam problem?
posted by rossination at 5:20 PM on July 18, 2013
shino-boy: thanks for the reassurance. Is there anything else I can do other than just wait and keep trying? Is this really just a Valve / Steam problem?
posted by rossination at 5:20 PM on July 18, 2013
Best answer: It's working now! I didn't do anything differently, but I can successfully play.
posted by rossination at 5:52 PM on July 18, 2013
posted by rossination at 5:52 PM on July 18, 2013
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by thewumpusisdead at 2:35 PM on July 18, 2013