64Bit software crashing Game Initialization failed: U , (Error 2:1)

Technical Support
1

Hello Technical Support,
And 64 bit software Heroes of the Storm is crashing permanently on attempt to start process with two messages

  • Game Initialization failed: U
  • An error occurred starting Heroes of the Storm. Please try again. (Error 2:1)

I have laptop model: HP EliteBook 840 G3
Processor: Intel® Core™ i5-6300U CPU @ 2.40GHz, 2496 Mhz, 2 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s)
Windows 10 64 bit, Version 10.0.16299 Build 16299 Update: upgraded to Version 10.0.17134 Build 17134

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.16299.726] Update : upgraded to [Version 10.0.17134.112]
Graphical adapter : Intel® HD Graphics 520
Driver version : I tied several HP drivers (latest certified and from year 2017 (21.20.16.4550) ) and Intel drivers , Including latest (25.20.100.6326) . The error stay the same.

I noticed the error occurred about 4 months ago. Before that I been playing on 64 bit version. And then I have to use 32 bit switch to somehow overcome this issue. Now, this lo longer works.

I installed Diablo 3 and observed the issue running it in 64 bit mode. It only runs with 32 bit switch.

Thank you.

1 Like
2

What do the logs say? They can be found at…
Documents\Heroes of the Storm\GameLogs

The 32bit builds were also D3D9 compatible, while all 64bit builds require D3D11. This could be a D3D11 problem.

3

What I have tried and this did not helped:

  • The Battlenet has been uninstalled and then reinstalled.
  • The Blizzard cache and game folders has been deleted.
  • The game has been uninstalled and then installed fully.
  • The game has been checked for “Repair”
  • The game has been checked for “Update”
  • Permissions has been added for EVERYONE read + write
  • Tried to run process as Administrator (Elevated = True)
  • The battlenet app setting on Streaming been disabled
4

Hi there MaxTheMad,

The crash logs brought up by DrSuperGood should help. It would also be a boon to our ability to look in to this if you posted a full DxDiag. Sometimes the Windows error reporting can have data that is quite illuminating.

DxDiag:

  1. Press Windows Key + R.
  2. Type DxDiag and press Enter.
  3. In the DxDiag window, click Save All Information.
  4. Name the file “dxdiag” and click Save
  5. Paste the DXdiag into the post, select and highlight everything you just pasted, and hit the “code” button (</>). That’ll make the information much more readable.

Another thing to try in the mean time is disabling any AntiVirus you have. We have seen Avast!, AVG, and others cause this error. Turning them off for just a moment to see if they are the cause can help. :slight_smile:

/Nathardrick

5

I have been banned for this post by the system.

No crash logs are generated.
And this is a question, - where does the game write the debug logs or how to turn on the debug info to get into the issue?
This does not shows in the Windows Event logs or Windows program crash reports.

in the path “Documents\Heroes of the Storm” is empty , not even GameLogs is created. Because the game is never able to start and it was a clean install.

Installed two different graphics benchmark programs and DX 11 and they run just fine on a system.

6

Your OS is out of date. That is the fall creators update from 2017. A major update was issued April 2018 with another one recently but delayed due to issues.

I recommend updating your OS to the latest version of Windows 10. After the major update is complete, please reinstall your Intel graphic drivers with the latest driver versions as Windows 10 update process might damage them in some way.

If this does not work you probably should post your DxDiag listings and temporarily disable anti virus software during install and startup.

7

We do see the evidence where is the issue.
Does Blizzard developers can tell on these errors?

Which part of DxDiag is required ? This data contains personal information.

Updating the Windows OS, did not helped. Still the same error.

Intel(R) HD Graphics 520
Driver Version: 25.20.100.6326
Operating System: Windows* 10 Enterprise (10.0.17134)
Vendor ID: 8086
Device ID: 1916
Device Revision: 07
Graphics Output Protocol (GOP) Version: 9.0.1039
Current Resolution: 1920 x 1080

Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-6300U CPU @ 2.40GHz
Processor Speed: 2496 MHz
Processor Graphics in Use: Intel(R) HD Graphics 520
Shader Version: 5.1
OpenGL* Version: 4.5
OpenCL* Version: 2.1
Vulkan* Version: 1.1.83

* Microsoft DirectX* *
Runtime Version: 12.0
Hardware-Supported Version: 12.0
8

From what I understand Windows 10 Enterprise has advanced security features to control what applications can be launched and limit the scope of running applications through technology such as virtualization. These could possibly be conflicting with Heroes of the Storm and preventing it from launching correctly. I would suggest contacting your company’s system administrator in case it is an easy permission or policy fix. If you are the systems administrator for your company I suggest making sure that Heroes of the Storm is not being touched by any of the enterprise security features such as application virtualization since the game is designed to run without them on OS versions like Home and Professional.

9

To summarize to this point.

  • No crash logs are generated.
  • This crash does not shown in the Windows Event logs or Windows program crash reports.
  • There is no information provided on how to turn on the debug info to get into the problem of the issue

There are no virtualization enabled.
All blizzard games are run fine with 32 bit process in 64 bit OS.
But they fail to launch in 64 bit.
Other games (not from blizzard) run fine in 64 bit.

10

So to confirm the error pops up by itself when you hit the “play” button? Or does it only appear when you close the application with task manager?

At least one older topic with the same error code shares an intel graphic driver, but the hardware was totally different and they only got the code after force closing the application. Back then the advice was unfortunately to keep to 32bit and D3D9 rather than actually solving the cause for future reference. The general condition for the code seems to be force closing the application, so possibly it is an unexpected shutdown code?

It could also be a conflict with HP bloatware. Might be worth turning a lot of them off for a test, if you have not done so already. I had bad experiences with HP printer drivers in the past conflicting with stuff and I unfortunately doubt the rest of their software will be any better.

Might also be worth trying to temporarily turn of anti-virus protection when just installing and starting HotS to see if that makes a difference. I have known for file protection and/or application protection components of software like Kaspersky to on occasion prevent startup of applications.

11

The Antivirus has been disabled permanently.
System has been restarted.
The crashing of the executable (HeroesOfTheStorm_x64.exe and HeroesSwitcher_x64.exe) occurs immediately, with popup message “Game Initialization failed: U”
The same errors occurs without going through battlenet authentication, purely by executing these files.

I have also observed process through Resource Monitor to see if anything might be impacting.

13

I went further and disabled

  • Audio (in bios) and in Windows services
  • data execution protection both in WIndows and in BIOS (in any)

Basically system was vulnerable to all possible attacks after these actions.

Nothing helps to understand where does this error comes.from.
Heroes of the storm developers should know what does these codes means “Game Initialization failed: U” and “Error 2:1”
I seen in internet quite many reported similar issues with HOTS 64 Bit that never got resolved.

14

Max,

Can you email a copy of your msinfo to techinfo@blizzard.com with the subject ATTN: Drakuloth - MaxTheMad error 2:1? You hit a lot of the regulars and we’re curious what else may be causing this, but need some more information.

15

The msinfo and dxdiag files (personal identifiable information has been removed) has been send to that address with the subject.

16

I`ve faced same error too and send the mail. How long should I wait to get response?

17

MaxTheMad,

You have a kind of bizarre situation here. This may actually just be something you did to protect your privacy - but did you modify the MSInfo/DXDiag files to change your username to ##REMOVED## or is that your actual account username?

Apart from that, have you tried temporarily uninstalling both Websense and Symantec security programs? They may be blocking our 64 bit instructions. Unfortunately just disabling security doesn’t really help too much these days.

LekkiTygrys,

This is a more in depth issue so I won’t be able to assist with your problem in this thread very deeply. However, you also appear to have Websense and Symantec. I would suggest you also follow the steps above. If it doesn’t work, start your own thread.

18

Drakuloth, thank you for the time devoted to looking into the provided information.
I do not know why anonymizing personal information is called a “bizarre” at Blizzard. My post above clearly states on removing personal information, and “##REMOVED##” was used as placeholder. I believe this information should not be important for issue analysis and resolution.

My posts above clearly stated which actions that I have performed as a try to make Hots 64bit program to work. The copy is send in the e-mail with attached files.

Yes, all security software been disabled or uninstalled. And I confirm, Websense and Symantec was not active, and was disabled from running in the system or interfering with the executable program. See note on Resource monitor.

If Blizzard recommends to remove the antivirus programs in order the software to function, then the question is. Is Blizzard program is blacklisted by world-wide community as a virus or Blizzard is not whitelisted his software (Heroes of the storm) with Symantec or other antivirus vendor programs?

And maybe from your side you can have a machine where you can install this software and reproduce if that is actually the case for the HOTS 64 bit software to stop functioning?

This all does not explains why on the same system the 32bit HotS runs fine.

Maybe Blizzard can provide the dependency list software for 64 bit ?
Are we not missing some crucial piece of software?

19

It is because a lot of anti-virus software tries to justify its licence fees by doing stuff that can increase security but also can conflict with applications in strange or stupid ways. For example at high file protection levels it might lock a file HotS is trying to read due to pro-active scanning causing a read error to be generated and HotS to crash. Sure one can usually configure the software such that it does not do this, however the instructions to do so vary from software to software and version to version with some maybe not even offering such functionality.

If they could, they would. I can assure you HotS 64bit operates perfectly for most people. Even if they try to reproduce your setup exactly it might end up just working because of some obscure variable that was not accounted for which is the cause of it not working.

Reinstalling HotS via the BattleNet launcher would solve this as that process should also install all required dependencies.

20

DrSuperGood , why you spamming and replying and commenting me where I do not ask you to ?
Please respect others. You are not Blizzard technical support or employee of Blizzard.
If you have particular problem , please create own post.

21

Please keep in mind that this is a public forum for players to ask for assistance from the community. One does not need to ask for permission or be an employee of Blizzard to help other players. The points that DrSuperGood made are valid and answer the questions that you had asked.

As far as the question about security programs goes, keep in mind that disabling disabling tends to only affect certain features like realtime scans. We’ve seen various cases where problems persists even when programs are disabled and for troubleshooting we’ll tend to want to remove the program. This is only a temporary step for troubleshooting and if we find that the issue is not security by doing so, you’re welcome to reinstall the program.

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