My favorite game refuses to launch! What have I done? I got so immersed in the story and game play that I thought it would be fun to build several characters (10) and list and play each one, gathering lots of items and building several buildings. Did the game get too loaded, did it take too much memory??? (although my computer says there is still plenty of RAM.) I bought the game and installed it through Steam. After months and over 1800 hours of play, the game looks like it tries to launch but then gives up after a couple of seconds. I've asked Steam for help, even asked if I should purchase a new game, but was told that would not solve the problem. After following all of Steams instructions, the game still would not launch. I sent an email to Concerned Ape over a week ago but have not received a reply. Is there ANYTHING that can fix this? I've tried to forget it and play other games but none of them are in the same type of format and none of them is as much fun. Help??? Thanks!!!
It's definitely not a memory issue, I've seen people with hundreds of save files run the game fine.
This is probably stuff you've already tried, but: Are you playing with any mods? Does Steam give you any error messages? What happens if you uninstall and reinstall the game? (You should probably back up your save files somewhere else before uninstalling.)
I'm not tech-savvy and don't know what mods are. I do close all other programs and I've cleared disk space, cookies, etc., uninstalled and reinstalled the game. Steam does not send any error messages but did give advice on steps to take which I did to no solution. It's really a mystery. The game was playing great until it got contrary and didn't want to play anymore. Thanks for letting me know that the memory is OK.
I'm not tech-savvy and don't know what mods are. I do close all other programs and I've cleared disk space, cookies, etc., uninstalled and reinstalled the game. Steam does not send any error messages but did give advice on steps to take which I did to no solution. It's really a mystery. The game was playing great until it got contrary and didn't want to play anymore. Thanks for letting me know that the memory is OK.
The game played fine from the day I purchased it about 8 months ago up until about a week ago. There was no problem, no bugs, and I played it for at least an hour a day almost every day. Then, it just quit on me. I will click on it from my desk top icon or from my library at Steam, and it will show the small dark window saying, Preparing to launch, and then it flashes off within 2 seconds and never reappears, just nothing.
The game played fine from the day I purchased it about 8 months ago up until about a week ago. There was no problem, no bugs, and I played it for at least an hour a day almost every day. Then, it just quit on me. I will click on it from my desk top icon or from my library at Steam, and it will show the small dark window saying, Preparing to launch, and then it flashes off within 2 seconds and never reappears, just nothing.
One thing to try first before the below surgery: Reinstall your video drivers. Could be the game is failing to establish the Direct 3D 9 window and failing out.
__________
More slicey-dicey than video drivers:
Assuming you're playing on PC (not Mac), my suspicion is something went awry in the Registry with a setting relevant to Stardew Valley. If you're not comfortable messing around in the Registry, then just stop here. Hopefully someone else has a more user-friendly way to fix this problem. Also, it'd be nice for someone to weigh in on this technique to see if it's worked for them in the past. In fact, I'm going to spoiler that part below.
This does work for other messed up installs for all types of programs and I've done it a number of times. Basically we're going to uninstall SDV and then remove any references to it from the Registry. This will not affect anything else as we're removing the problem settings in there for Stardew Valley only. And at that point, you should be able to reinstall SDV as if your computer has never seen it, and it should work properly.
__________
If I were in the situation you are in, first I'd make a backup copy of your Stardew Valley Saves location. That way, no matter what, you don't lose any of your SDV saved games. I know Steam is supposed to do this anyway but I don't like to take chances. I use the GOG version and use the standalone installer, so it turns out this is my only option not to lose saves if my PC goes kaput, so I do this all the time.
Copy that Saves folder and paste it to wherever you want (it's portable!), just remember where you put it. Make as many copies as you like, share with your friends!
__________
Next I'd uninstall SDV from Steam, or since that already hasn't worked for you, maybe try uninstalling it from the Windows 10 Settings / Apps section? Not sure there's any difference between these two (probably not), but it's worth a try. I've uninstalled games both ways and don't see a difference.
Next up restart your computer. Why do I say that? 'Cuz I work in IT and that's our mantra. Even better: it works sometimes!
Close Steam from your System Tray at the lower left. Let's not make changes while Steam is running.
OK, now your computer *should* be in a state where there is no record of SDV being installed on it. But the Registry will say otherwise and something in there is likely the problem.
__________
Search regedit and open the Registry Editor
Click Computer at the top of the left column and then click the Edit menu.
Note that Find is the typical Ctrl-F but Find Next is F3. You'll be doing a lot of F3.
1. Click Find and enter Stardew in the box.
2. When it finds something, have a look at what it found just to see what lives in the Registry, it's interesting and crazy to see how much junk is stored in there.
3. Right click on the highlighted entry in the right pane (each entry is called a Key) with Stardew Valley in the name and select Delete. Don't click anything in the left pane.
4. Hit F3 and repeat steps 2 through 4 until it completes it's search through the Registry.
This could take 30 minutes, depending on how much it has to search and how much window shopping you do looking at all the junk stored in there. At this point your computer should be utterly ignorant of Stardew Valley.
Once this is done, restart your computer again (OK, only if you want...) and reinstall it from Steam. I hope this works!
Sorry to not have replied sooner. I've been overwhelmed with holiday preparations. To answer Sunshine, I'm not real sharp on computer technology and would like to know how to set the affinity to CPU O and placing it o high priority in the Task Manager window. I did click on the Task Manager but could not find a way to follow your instructions from there. Can you help me with that? Thanks! And, to Lew Zealand, how do we reinstall video drivers, and if so, would that delete current videos on file? I am going to reread your entire instructions and try to follow through. I AM playing on a PC. Thanks!
Thank you, Thank you, Odin! It worked! I was so happy to see my little characters again! Thanks to you all my time put into the game was not lost or wasted. Even though it's only a game it's lots of fun and lots of imagination from the real world for a while. Thank you again!
My favorite game refuses to launch! What have I done? I got so immersed in the story and game play that I thought it would be fun to build several characters (10) and list and play each one, gathering lots of items and building several buildings. Did the game get too loaded, did it take too much memory??? (although my computer says there is still plenty of RAM.) I bought the game and installed it through Steam. After months and over 1800 hours of play, the game looks like it tries to launch but then gives up after a couple of seconds. I've asked Steam for help, even asked if I should purchase a new game, but was told that would not solve the problem. After following all of Steams instructions, the game still would not launch. I sent an email to Concerned Ape over a week ago but have not received a reply. Is there ANYTHING that can fix this? I've tried to forget it and play other games but none of them are in the same type of format and none of them is as much fun. Help??? Thanks!!! 
