Steam – Elder scrolls online does not start from Steam

steamthe-elder-scrolls-online

Problem and Operating System:

I bought The Elder Scrolls Online (ESO) on Steam. Everything worked fine, until a couple of days ago (maybe after the Windows 10 creators update) launching the game from Steam doesn't work anymore. Clicking the "PLAY" button in Steam just pops up a small window (for a tiny fraction of a second) saying that ESO is being started (here is a video of the problem). The usual ESO-launcher doesn't appear.

What I tried (and why it didn't work):

  • Suggestion: Running Steam as administrator.
    • Problem: No effect.
  • Suggestion: According to this video: extracting the Launcher folder into the steamapps folder.
    • Problem: Identical to the commentator Dukeofwinston in the video: I don't have that l148706xxxxx folder in my Temp folder.
  • Idea: Starting the eso.exe from the steamapps\common\Zenimax Online\The Elder Scrolls Online\game\client folder.
    • Problem: After typing in my account name and password a message shows up, saying that I tried to use an invalid or outdated games client. I'm then asked to close the game and to update the client with the aid of the starting program.
  • Idea: Reading this post in the forum looking for ideas of EnviousStruggle and raidentenshu_ESO.
    • Problem: Found no idea of EnviousStruggle. Only idea of raidentenshu_ESO I found was to run Steam in offline-mode, which didn't help (see first bullet point).

Best Answer

I found a solution:

  1. I tried running the zosSteamStarter.exe in thesteamapps\common\Zenimax Online folder.
  2. At first I had the problem, that a Windows message poped up saying that the execution of the code cannot be continued as the MSVCR100.dll and MSVCP100.dll files couldn't be found.
  3. After installing both .dll files (following these German instructions) I got the error message that the application couldn't be started correctly (error (0xc000007b)).
  4. To solve this problem I followed the instructions in this video, which didn't remove the error (0xc000007b) but might have done something else beneficial.
  5. After following the instructions in this video, I finnaly managed to start the zosSteamStarter.exe without the error (0xc000007b). After some installation I was shown the normal ESO-launcher, which was updated (installing/downloading several patches - some having a size of several GB).
  6. During the updating, I got the message "Error 206 - PatchmanifestError_UnzipFailed Unable to decompress patch manifest data. Please restart the launcher and try again. If the issue persists, please run a a repair. If this does not resolve your issue, run the Game Consultant Tool (located under Launcher Settings -> About) and contact customer support." As there still was the "PLAY" button in the ESO-launcher I clicked it which started the "normal" loading screen (Bethesda, Zenimax and Havok logos and game music) and with some licence to agree to.
  7. Then the message "LOGIN ERROR Unable to initialize connection to Steam. Please ensure the game was launched through Steam or try again later." appeared.
  8. I quit the game and started the ESO-launcher from Steam (in admin mode), which now worked. Also starting the game from the launcher worked, this time without the error message from point 7. Also logging into the game (and playing) worked.
  9. I also tested whether starting the ESO-launcher from Steam (and playing ESO) without admin mode works. The answer is Yes!
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