- Mar 22, 2012
- 5,773
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I have a game causing me trouble. When I try to run it, I get a 0xc000007b error (application unable to start correctly.) The game is called Outlast, and just came out... not even a Steam forum for it yet. So I haven't been able to find anything specific to the game about it. All I know is it seems like it is not a common problem, I could only find reference to one Russian guy with the same issue.
I feel reasonably confident I've had other games return this same error on me in the past, but it may have been months ago.
The game runs from the same Steam account on my laptop, properly. Starts up fine.
As I was searching around for possible solutions, one thing I saw suggested (for the generalized 0xc000007b error, not specific to this game) was that the XBox controller .dll files in System32 might have gotten funky and I should replace them with unmolested versions. I grabbed the relevant four .dll files from my laptop and copied them over, despite their "date created" looking to be the same... that did nothing to help.
I uninstalled and reinstalled the Microsoft XBox controller driver software... and something interesting and disturbing happened when I did that. Next time I rebooted, I got the same 0xc000007b error for XBoxStat.exe and now I see that every time I reboot (which has been several times now as I try various things) - interestingly, though, the controller is working fine in another game I tried (Witcher 2.)
Other things I tried based on 0xc000007b suggestions I found around online:
- Ran MalwareBytes and cleaned 14 found problems on the C: drive.
- Ran another program which does a Registry check and let it repair hundreds of problems it said it found in the Registry... it seemed to be a reasonably well regarded program.
- Tried to run Windows 7 64bit home premium install disc's "repair startup" which told me it could find no problems, and thus refused to run.
- Uninstalled and then reinstalled all Microsoft C++ Redistributables (2005, 2008, 2010, and 2012)
When I try to run the game Outlast directly from it's .exe I get the 0xc000007b error, whereas if I run it via Steam's UI it very briefly says "preparing first time startup" (as is typical whenever you run a newly installed Steam game for the first time) and then I see a black command prompt window for a fraction of a second, and then nothing at all. The game never materializes.
And as I said, every Windows 7 bootup now features the XBoxStat.exe 0xc000007b error immediately when Windows starts.
I've had other Steam games (thankfully not many) flatly refuse to ever boot up. Offhand, I recall WarHammer 40,000 Space Marine being one, and Age of Empires Online being another. I remember people suggesting a problem with Microsoft's .Net framework or something... with AOE Online... but back then I tried reinstalling that and it did nothing for me.
I had foolishly thought I'd be playing this cool new freaky game Outlast all night, but instead I've spent the last 5 hours or so fruitlessly attempting to get it to even run... I'd hate to be reduced to trying to play it on my laptop's tiny screen (and worse specs) so I'm kind of at my wit's end...
Hoping someone reads this and has a brilliant suggestion. Thanks in advance if anyone does offer advice.
UPDATE:
Ran a chkdsk /r on C: and it said "volume is clean" at the end... changed nothing about these issues.
UPDATE 2:
One solution I saw a site talking about was getting a program called Dependency Walker which shows you what .dll files an .exe depends on and what .dlls the .dlls themselves might chain-depend on, and the guy who wrote that up said he had an issue with 64bit .dlls being used by a 32bit program.
I'm running Win7 64bit, so my problem, if it was similar to his, would be the reverse... but after looking at the 64bit .exe for the game, and finding a ton of issues with it according to that program (the vast majority of the .dll files were 32bit it seemed, and it also spelled out some particular errors I can't remember in addition to that...) I decided to look at the 32bit .exe for the game. That had a few things listed as "not found" but the vast bulk of the .dlls seemed to be okay. So I tried running the 32bit .exe. The game ran. It's running now, and I'm going to try it for a while with this .exe.
I'm about 95% certain I had tried the 32bit version hours ago, and that I was getting the same issues with it that I got with the 64.
Still can't run the game via Steam's UI and still getting the error about XBoxStat.exe
I feel reasonably confident I've had other games return this same error on me in the past, but it may have been months ago.
The game runs from the same Steam account on my laptop, properly. Starts up fine.
As I was searching around for possible solutions, one thing I saw suggested (for the generalized 0xc000007b error, not specific to this game) was that the XBox controller .dll files in System32 might have gotten funky and I should replace them with unmolested versions. I grabbed the relevant four .dll files from my laptop and copied them over, despite their "date created" looking to be the same... that did nothing to help.
I uninstalled and reinstalled the Microsoft XBox controller driver software... and something interesting and disturbing happened when I did that. Next time I rebooted, I got the same 0xc000007b error for XBoxStat.exe and now I see that every time I reboot (which has been several times now as I try various things) - interestingly, though, the controller is working fine in another game I tried (Witcher 2.)
Other things I tried based on 0xc000007b suggestions I found around online:
- Ran MalwareBytes and cleaned 14 found problems on the C: drive.
- Ran another program which does a Registry check and let it repair hundreds of problems it said it found in the Registry... it seemed to be a reasonably well regarded program.
- Tried to run Windows 7 64bit home premium install disc's "repair startup" which told me it could find no problems, and thus refused to run.
- Uninstalled and then reinstalled all Microsoft C++ Redistributables (2005, 2008, 2010, and 2012)
When I try to run the game Outlast directly from it's .exe I get the 0xc000007b error, whereas if I run it via Steam's UI it very briefly says "preparing first time startup" (as is typical whenever you run a newly installed Steam game for the first time) and then I see a black command prompt window for a fraction of a second, and then nothing at all. The game never materializes.
And as I said, every Windows 7 bootup now features the XBoxStat.exe 0xc000007b error immediately when Windows starts.
I've had other Steam games (thankfully not many) flatly refuse to ever boot up. Offhand, I recall WarHammer 40,000 Space Marine being one, and Age of Empires Online being another. I remember people suggesting a problem with Microsoft's .Net framework or something... with AOE Online... but back then I tried reinstalling that and it did nothing for me.
I had foolishly thought I'd be playing this cool new freaky game Outlast all night, but instead I've spent the last 5 hours or so fruitlessly attempting to get it to even run... I'd hate to be reduced to trying to play it on my laptop's tiny screen (and worse specs) so I'm kind of at my wit's end...
Hoping someone reads this and has a brilliant suggestion. Thanks in advance if anyone does offer advice.
UPDATE:
Ran a chkdsk /r on C: and it said "volume is clean" at the end... changed nothing about these issues.
UPDATE 2:
One solution I saw a site talking about was getting a program called Dependency Walker which shows you what .dll files an .exe depends on and what .dlls the .dlls themselves might chain-depend on, and the guy who wrote that up said he had an issue with 64bit .dlls being used by a 32bit program.
I'm running Win7 64bit, so my problem, if it was similar to his, would be the reverse... but after looking at the 64bit .exe for the game, and finding a ton of issues with it according to that program (the vast majority of the .dll files were 32bit it seemed, and it also spelled out some particular errors I can't remember in addition to that...) I decided to look at the 32bit .exe for the game. That had a few things listed as "not found" but the vast bulk of the .dlls seemed to be okay. So I tried running the 32bit .exe. The game ran. It's running now, and I'm going to try it for a while with this .exe.
I'm about 95% certain I had tried the 32bit version hours ago, and that I was getting the same issues with it that I got with the 64.
Still can't run the game via Steam's UI and still getting the error about XBoxStat.exe
Last edited:
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