Issue with the Launcher and Intel i7-12700k

[bigpoppared]

Your Ticket# 38652477

 

My name is Kartik R. Thanks for contacting Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ Support concerning your issue of not being able to launch the game.

 

I have replied to your ticket in-game, you’ll find the answer below too. I have looked into your issue and I will do everything I can to help you. I would have to inform you that the issue you are facing is a known issue and our developer is working on resolving it. Thus, I would request you to wait and keep an eye out on the community for any future updates regarding this issue.

 

I am really sorry for all the inconvenience being caused to you. Should you require further assistance with this or any other issue, please do not hesitate to contact us again. It was an honor to assist you and I wish you a great journey ahead in the Galaxy! You can check back on the details of this case, and all your other cases, in-game. Click on Request Help or press Ctrl and / to open your case history.

Once again thanks a lot for contacting Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ Support.

[Slolle]

Alder Lake hasn't even been out for two months, and this thread is even newer. No need to exaggerate. Still, it's been long enough.

 

You call that an exaggeration Dude?

 

The entry has been in the Dev Tracker since August 31.

 

"LAUNCHER CRASH ISSUE

Players with a 12th gen Intel CPU (ex.: i7-12700K Processor "Alder Lake") and Windows 10 or 11 installations are unable to start the launcher: the launcher is crashing. This issue is affecting the website and Steam launchers. Thread"

 

Source https://www.swtor.com/community/devtracker.php?page=9

 

The Intel processors are not developed in one day, but it takes a while until they are launched on the market.

[OwenBrooks]

You call that an exaggeration Dude?

 

The entry has been in the Dev Tracker since August 31.

 

"LAUNCHER CRASH ISSUE

Players with a 12th gen Intel CPU (ex.: i7-12700K Processor "Alder Lake") and Windows 10 or 11 installations are unable to start the launcher: the launcher is crashing. This issue is affecting the website and Steam launchers. Thread"

 

Source https://www.swtor.com/community/devtracker.php?page=9

 

The Intel processors are not developed in one day, but it takes a while until they are launched on the market.

 

Mid November is around the time issues started to arise and was flagged for further investigation

 

This was then added to the known issue thread , it wasnt known at the date you mention

https://www.swtor.com/community/showpost.php?p=9967699&postcount=1

 

I am hopeful a fix will be available in January

Edited December 30, 2021 by OwenBrooks

[Slolle]

Okay- but then it is tactically unwise to put it in a post from August 31.

 

Do you have insider knowledge about January or is that just a guess?

[Cassianus]

Please don't argue, Alder Lake CPUs became publicly available on 4 November, until that time only pre-production samples were tested and given to main motherboard developers. Still, complete PCs with this processor are quite rare and very expensive, so most of current (un)happy owners bought the CPU, motherboard and built the system on their own. Because DDR5 RAM is very expensive now, many people use DDR4 or even take the modules from previous board, like me. Because of this, upgrade of PCs is going quite slowly, but is unstoppable, esp. when such PCs will become mainstream production. Ignoring this fact would be extremely unwise and will result in loss of clients, BW playerbase in our case.

 

BW got reports about Alder Lake problem in November as soon as people begin to use it. But I doubt that acquiring such PC before these reports was a priority for BW for testing and production, esp. if many staff members work remotely. Also BW may suffer of bureaucracy, when they can easily buy coffee and buns but not the expensive PC components; such spending should be approved on EA side. It's much different from indie companies where CEO can approve this very quickly. And after approval, BW should buy all required components, build the PC from scratch, install Windows 11 (I hope they have a corp license), debugging tools and all supportive software. At best, this happened in mid-December, before holidays; at worst, they still don't have such testing PC. We cannot know this for sure. And as I wrote above, it may be not BW problem rather than bug in external code, which local devs cannot fix.

 

My attempts to run the launcher in virtual machine weren't very successful, I also have a very old laptop which can run SWTOR, but very slow. Using an old PC, if you have one, is the only solution right now, I can't suggest something more useful yet.

Edited December 30, 2021 by Cassianus

[Cassianus]

I eventually managed to run SWTOR in VirtualBox virtual machine (Windows 8.1 x64), but the quality is near to inferior even with max video memory in VM and lowest quality in the game settings. I cannot recommend this to anybody, except if you are waiting for very important letter or something like that. Edited December 30, 2021 by Cassianus
Another image hosting

[UnstoppableRoc]

Same story here, just built new pc.

12900kf

3080ti ftw

z690 Apex

ddr5 6000 32gbs

 

no dice on new pc, on my old pc it runs fine, 9900k 2080ti. Its def the same issue like everyone else, Alder Lake with the P/E cores. Hope this gets resolved, seems like this has been going on for awhile now, sadly. Wasting my subscription time in the meantime..........

[DecanAndersen]

Same, instant crash without any crash report from windows.

 

12900k

z690

ddr5

3080ti

[James__]

Same problem here as described by everyone else. Just got the new alienware aurora R13

 

windows 11

12th gen intel I9 12900

64gb ddr5

geforce 3090

 

Any chance we can get an update from the developers? It appears they have known about this for some time now

[Filipvk]

built a new PC with intel i9 12900 alder lake and have ame issue now with launcher work perfectly some days ago before i changed it

[Cassianus]

I just tried it through VMware and no dice. Since VMWare is probably the easiest to set up and that still doesn't work it's completely unreasonable to expect people to do it through Powershell or Hyper-V

I can confirm that VMware isn't able to run the launcher: result in launcher log is the same as in Windows; there are no options in VM to fix this. Apparently virtualisation isn't enough to avoid CPU detection which is a source of bug.

[jahrl]

No idea why I have come back to this thread, hoping to see a fix has been pushed out.

 

I cancelled my account because of this issue, yet still wonder at the lack of attention this issue has with the dev team and the R&D team....

 

Sad.

[DecanAndersen]

No idea why I have come back to this thread, hoping to see a fix has been pushed out.

 

I cancelled my account because of this issue, yet still wonder at the lack of attention this issue has with the dev team and the R&D team....

 

Sad.

 

Likewise, but then again, they might not be at work doing these holidays.

Edited January 2, 2022 by DecanAndersen

[drawen]

Well I have also cancelled my subscription and was paying for it since beginning. It is a shame but maybe once they start to lose money they will do something. Sad it has to go to that

[Zoomba]

Same issue with a new i5-12600k. Tried the launcher repair tool as well just in case... no dice. I know a bunch of games had troubles with the new Alder Lake CPUs, but most have been fixed by now. Hoping for something after the holidays from the dev team.

[Lord_Kaminia]

Likewise, but then again, they might not be at work doing these holidays.

 

The holidays are over. More than enough time has passed since the release of the alder lake series or its announcement by intel. The problem should have been fixed a long time ago. Especially since the problem has already been found and only needs to be implemented by the developers. I just hope that the support finally reacts ! ! !

[Zoomba]

The holidays are over. More than enough time has passed since the release of the alder lake series or its announcement by intel. The problem should have been fixed a long time ago. Especially since the problem has already been found and only needs to be implemented by the developers. I just hope that the support finally reacts ! ! !

 

While I agree that this needs to be resolved ASAP... the holiday doesn't really end until Tuesday. Most game companies close entirely between Christmas and New Years, which puts the first day of work for the year at Tuesday 9 (if NY falls on a weekend, it's typically "observed" on the following Monday)

[writinglife]

Adding my name to the 12700k launcher issue list.

 

Hoping it gets fixed soon, and that there is some kind of mitigation for not being able to play.

[bigpoppared]

Even if they do "get back to work" we have seen at least multiple updates to the game since this issue was existent and reported. I also saw someone say due to chip shortage, yet I see these CPU's in stock at Best Buy even in November/now. We might have to wait until 7.0 at this rate while it sits on a known issues list lol. Edited January 3, 2022 by bigpoppared

[Slolle]

"List of Games Affected by DRM Issue in 12th Gen Intel® Core™ Processors for Windows 11* and Windows® 10

 

The games listed below are impacted by the DRM issue on the 12th Gen Intel® Core™ Processors causing games to crash or not load in Windows® 11* and/or Windows® 10. If the game you are looking for is not on the list, run the latest version of Windows Update to resolve the issue, as the most recent updates for Windows 11 and Windows 10 have resolved a majority of the DRM issues.

 

In the meantime, the Scroll Lock workaround can be used for these games.

 

The list will be updated as patches are released.

Name of games affected in Windows 11* and Windows 10

 

Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla*

Fernbus Simulator*"

Source https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000088261/processors/intel-core-processors.html

 

Where is SWTOR?

Edited January 3, 2022 by Slolle

[Cassianus]

"List of Games Affected by DRM Issue in 12th Gen Intel® Core™ Processors for Windows 11* and Windows® 10

...

Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla*

Fernbus Simulator*"

Source https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000088261/processors/intel-core-processors.html

 

Where is SWTOR?

SWTOR is not affected by DRM bug (which is fixed already), it's something different. Sure, it should present in the Intel's list, but under different title. What exactly is bugged in the launcher, I still don't know, even if I tried to run it in different configs in virtual machines. Apparently the unknown CPUID is perceived as incompatible hardware, but it quite hard to catch without special debugging software. The problem is, launcher terminates without any error message on the screen or in log. Even an error code like #1234 could greatly help players and support. Such programming is not a good practice, but unfortunately the end user can't change it, only complain. Still 20 pages of complaints didn't give any results

[Lord_Kaminia]

While I agree that this needs to be resolved ASAP... the holiday doesn't really end until Tuesday. Most game companies close entirely between Christmas and New Years, which puts the first day of work for the year at Tuesday 9 (if NY falls on a weekend, it's typically "observed" on the following Monday)

 

In Germany or some other European countries, January 2nd is also a normal 9 to 5 working day.

[Delemir]

While I agree that this needs to be resolved ASAP... the holiday doesn't really end until Tuesday. Most game companies close entirely between Christmas and New Years, which puts the first day of work for the year at Tuesday 9 (if NY falls on a weekend, it's typically "observed" on the following Monday)

 

One extra day, one extra week, even an extra month; none of it matters. At this point they have made it ubundantly clear with the lack of any kind of meaningfull response, that this issue is no where on anyone's radar.

[Cerdinak]

Going out on a severed limb here (luke)... maybe others can see something I can't.

 

Windows claims launcher is causing a program fault which crashed it out on the ader lake processors; in Windows Events the laucher blip before it crashes.

 

Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Electronic Arts\BioWare\Star Wars - The Old Republic\launcher.exe

Faulting module path: C:\Windows\system32\dataexchange.dll

 

I also noticed if you remove the libcef.dll from the same directory the launcher is in; It will load the laucher with an

on-screen error message dialog box - "Failed to initalize web browser"

 

If the libcef.dll is there but the icudt.dll isn't - you will get a CEF Initization Error dialog box - "Failed to load the required icudt library"

 

Both DLLs returned, will once again to no load - Faulting module of dataexchange.dll.

 

Active Internet connection does not matter for the launcher to fault.

 

The real sad thing here is, I'm pretty certain the game/client plays fine and we are all just stuck due to an error in a web based launcher.

[Cassianus]

Going out on a severed limb here (luke)... maybe others can see something I can't.

I am glad that you also attempted to solve this problem, it's not easy to do this alone. Currently I was managed to fix the launcher in the debugger, which is definitely not a solution for common players. Please count this as a demo that the real fix is possible and isn't very hard to implement.

 

BioWare, I apologise that I had to do this, only because of a desperate situation. I never wanted to be a hacker and even less wanted to "fix" the commercial product protected by copyright and other laws.

 

As I supposed early, the problem is in wrong interpretation of Alder Lake CPU information in the code which analyses the result of Win32 API function GetSystemInfo(). This code is located in the module SWTORLaunch.dll, apparently written by BioWare programmers (unlike some components from Solid State Networks). SWTORLaunch.dll is protected by digital signature and cannot be patched directly. This is important because it protects the integrity of binary files. The code, however, can be modified in the memory after DLL is loaded. Here is a fragment of the code (I hope it will help the developers too).

 

6F8F82F8 | 8B0D 28EFA06F                           mov ecx,dword ptr ds:[6FA0EF28]
6F8F82FE | 8379 38 00                                   cmp dword ptr ds:[ecx+38],0
6F8F8302 | 74 07                                             je swtorlaunch.6F8F830B
6F8F8304 | E8 87ECFFFF                               call swtorlaunch.6F8F6F90
6F8F8309 | EB 10                                            jmp swtorlaunch.6F8F831B
6F8F830B | 8B55 FC                                       mov edx,dword ptr ss:[ebp-4]
6F8F830E | 52                                                 push edx
6F8F830F | 8D45 EC                                       lea eax,dword ptr ss:[ebp-14]
6F8F8312 | 50                                                  push eax
6F8F8313 | E8 08EEFFFF                               call swtorlaunch.6F8F7120
6F8F8318 | 83C4 08                                        add esp,8
6F8F831B | EB 4C                                            jmp swtorlaunch.6F8F8369
6F8F831D | 8B0D 28EFA06F                           mov ecx,dword ptr ds:[6FA0EF28]
6F8F8323 | C781 84000000 00000000            mov dword ptr ds:[ecx+84],0
6F8F832D | 8B15 28EFA06F                            mov edx,dword ptr ds:[6FA0EF28]
6F8F8333 | C782 8C000000 00000000           mov dword ptr ds:[edx+8C],0
6F8F833D | A1 28EFA06F                               mov eax,dword ptr ds:[6FA0EF28]
6F8F8342 | C780 80000000 FFFFFFFF          mov dword ptr ds:[eax+80],FFFFFFFF
6F8F834C | 8B0D 28EFA06F                          mov ecx,dword ptr ds:[6FA0EF28]
6F8F8352 | C781 88000000 00000000            mov dword ptr ds:[ecx+88],0
6F8F835C | 8B15 28EFA06F                           mov edx,dword ptr ds:[6FA0EF28]
6F8F8362 | C742 7C 00000000                       mov dword ptr ds:[edx+7C],0
6F8F8369 | A1 28EFA06F                                mov eax,dword ptr ds:[6FA0EF28]
6F8F836E | 8378 2C 00                                   cmp dword ptr ds:[eax+2C],0
[color="SandyBrown"]6F8F8372 | 74 07                                             je swtorlaunch.6F8F837B[/color]
6F8F8374 | 83C8 FF                                        or eax,FFFFFFFF
6F8F8377 | EB 04                                            jmp swtorlaunch.6F8F837D
6F8F8379 | EB 02                                            jmp swtorlaunch.6F8F837D
6F8F837B | 33C0                                             xor eax,eax
6F8F837D | 8BE5                                             mov esp,ebp
6F8F837F | 5D                                                 pop ebp
6F8F8380 | C3                                                 ret

 

Code in the selected line "74 07" should be replaced with two "nop" operations "90 90", after that the launcher will be able to calculate the SpecsHash parameter and show its screen. This fix is nothing but a circumvention of validity check of calculated result, but the result itself is wrong in the case of Alder Lake. I am not sure whether this fix may have some unwanted consequences, but apparently it works. Then the client swtor.exe works without any noticeable error.

Note: the debugger sould be run as Administrator and launcher has -Elevated parameter in its command line.