Fixed! I tried the DirectX 9 again and placed it on my desktop and clicked on the program. It installed/launched. Then I logged in to my SWTOR again, and it worked! Thank you all for your help! I really appreciate this.

I do have a Windows 10 system on my laptop, and I play the game on it. I did download DirectX 9 from the Microsoft website that you shared with me. I believe I followed your instructions and the website's correctly and installed it. Afterwards, I re-started my laptop and then tried to play SWTOR. I got the same result: The yellow PLAY button highlighted, but I didn't hear the mechanical sound effect that usually alerts players that the game is ready to launch. I clicked on the PLAY button, it faded in color/was no longer highlighted, and nothing happened. I waited for a bit, but still, nothing happened. I must be doing something wrong.

I've been playing SWTOR for barely over a year. I logged in for that big update a couple of months ago (which took a while) but didn't play, just exited once the download was complete. I haven't played since but wanted to a few days ago. The game had another update that I missed, so I did that. Afterwards, I logged in (entered my name and password). The yellow PLAY button highlighted, but I didn't hear the mechanical sound effect that usually alerts players that the game is ready to launch. I clicked on the PLAY button, it faded in color/was no longer highlighted, and nothing happened. I waited for a bit, but still, nothing happened. I logged out and tried again. I've done this off and on for 3 days now, and I still get the same result. Is anyone else having this issue? Can anyone lend me some advice?