All of a sudden, on my new PC setup, but apart from MB and CPU nothing changed. Same OS, same drive... same install.

I think even the game version is the same. I had in mind "probably corrupted file", so i was reinstalling it... but it did not help at all. Many users, from GoG and Steam got the same issue it seems. So far no one really found a good solution (yeah, use admin and all those infos gets old already... yes my driver is not very old of course... thanks for those noob stuff).

I just dunno where to get any hint anymore... so all i can do is to increase visibility... maybe someone got a clue from those who got a working game.

So far i never had this issue (Cyberpunk crashed, but it was still booting), it is totally new to me, i am confused.

No, i am not gonna ask GoG... i would be doomed.

PROBABLY a setting issue because some hardware changed, but for this to become fixed i need to know how to wipe it, this is not always easy because the locations are unfortunately sometimes chaotic (a very old PC issue, simply no one was able to set a standard).

Ah, yes indeed... the original Dishonored runs fine... still. Actually, i was checking all games if they still work properly, and after Cyberpunk was a mess which got fixed yet... Dishonored 2 is the second issue, very surprising: Actually not... this game seems vulnerable (same for Cyberpunk).

In general, i can say... a good bunch of games was losing the old settings value, although drive and OS did not change, GPU is still same too... but every major change can be a delicate matter, usually bound to how they store the settings and unable to wipe it by themself (if failure found).

It is just a huge work if a CPU and a MB gets busted, way more hardship than anyone without sufficient knowledge could imagine... it simply is able to screw up so much. There was weeks of work involved getting this stuff done and still not finish yet. Those stupid companies blasting my CPU by massive overvolt by auto-EXPO... they was not even replacing any parts so far.

I think those jerks (this word is way to nice... the true word is not invented yet) are doing it even on purpose overvolting just about everything, so there is more demand for new hardware... seriously. Then the users either will have to undervolt it or it gets busted, such a hilarous situation.

Okay i mean if they do not overvolt everything, it may not even run stable because the silicon is not always sufficient quality, however... some of them will explode for hardcore users (maybe casual may have a system surviving a few years... until next replacement, if it is starting to smoke...)

OK, i was using a mirror of the exact same install on my notebook and i was able to start it there. It almost crashed because massively overloaded but start was possible. So, the issue is bound to the OS but i do not know in what way exactly...

It is the same OS such as before, and the OS is the exact same updated Win 10 on my Notebook too. So there is a critical setting issue somewhere but i am unable to find out.

No need for a new install, this is certain, there is no corruption.

Maybe there is some DRM files left that is hogging the system and the game fails to boot if it is detecting a mismatch (maybe it got in mind there is 2 copys used or 2 systems or whatever)... i can only guess. The DRM should be removed... but who knows.

I really got no clue what is the issue. My Notebook got a crap IGPU and not even a proper driver and it is able to start Dishonored 2... but not my big gamer PC, this is insane.

1st off - what are your specs on both PC's? And are they both laptops? Desktops? One laptop and one desktop?

Laptops are known to have issues w/ this, as it doesn't get along w/ iGPU's, machines w/ multiple GPU's (i.e. iGPU or AGPU and discrete-GPU), and also AMD Adrenaline - https://steamcommunity.com/app/403640/discussions/0/6363075944123233184/
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/dishonored-2-laptop

2nd off - Dishonored 1 and 2 are NOT on the same engine. Just b/c Dis 1 works, doesn't mean Dis 2 will. Dishonored 1 is an Unreal Engine game, meanwhile Dishonored 2 is forked off the version of Id Engine that ran RAGE and Wolfenstein TNO (Id Tech 5), which they (Arkane) modified and called VOID Engine. So, don't expect Dis 1 and 2 to entirely be the same, as those engines are much different.

Okay, let me explain it more clearly... my crappy Notebook got NO ISSUE starting Dishonored 2, just to make it clear.

This is the spec of the crappy Notebook, this Notebook is able to run this game:

OS: Win 10, newest update
GPU: Iris Pro with unknown Intel driver (unable to find anything worse... excuse me for failing, usually i use this driver in order to open a Adobe document... and watching some videos... nothing else)
CPU: Some old Intel CPU with 4 cores only (i do not even try to find out, its a real crap CPU)
RAM: 8 GB RAM (total, for GPU and system, this is a total).

Dishonored 2 says "okay... i will be run there... fine for me"...

Now the "other" system, Dishonored 2 is failing, and i am still unable to find out the culprit, it simply will NOT boot:

CPU: 7800 X3D> Setting: File attached
GPU: MSI 3090 TI Gaming X Trio @ 536.99 driver (cutting edge driver, can boot alien tech games).
RAM: 64 GB DDR5 @ 2x 5600/36 (Hynix M)
MB: MSI X670E Ace @ 7D69v191 BIOS/UEFI (2023-07-03)/ AMD Chipset Driver 5.01.29.2026 (2023-02-24)
OS SSD: Kingstone Fury 2 TB
Game SSD: Samsung 990 Pro 2 TB
OS: Win 10 22H2 (newest build)

The "IGPU" is completely disabled in BIOS, it should not be able to interfere in any way.

OK, not to be confusing, the more powerful system will NOT boot, yes this one can NOT boot the game. Yes i am confused such as anyone else... it is simply a fact.

There is some unknown issue but for that to know i need more insight on how this game works and why it could probably fail. I hope i will find a very old version of Dishonored 2 on some of my drives... because i already got this game for some years and a old version could be working.

There is something on the new system that will not "go along" with this game, but zero clue why... thats why i ask...

Indeed, the issue is VERY uncommon... right now (since i got Cyberpunk to run) this is the only game still failing on the new system. I am not finish testing yet, but there is not so much games left anymore. The demand is extremely high, testing hundreds of games, checking the best settings, but i surely can say... if a game fails out of the huge crowd, the issue is freaky.

The problem why i am still "lost" regarding the issue is because people on the net are telling me so many different stuff... i could make a list of 1000 matters and the time for checking out all those odds... it would take forever... if i am even able to "reproduce" some solution. (For example i do not have the newest Intel CPU... i can not test any of those matters).

But in general, what i can say reading all those stuff: The engine or the game or both together is NOT a demanding game as such... but it is very delicate and sensitive to "unknown" configurations and even a slight "unknown config" may be able to cause very high issues. The power of the machine is no matter at all but if the config is "wrong" it simply will fail.

And for this "dated" and sensitive game... my new system is like "alien technology"... it can barely "understand" this spec. The best thing it can do it NOT trying to understand this spec, simply work the same way any other dated game is doing... and it will run. Basically the game seems to be trying to "understand" the system and it fails... so it can not boot... this is the way it has been programmed but this is, in this case, a fail.

Well no, i can not test a even older version because the old version, 3 years of age (at the time of backup) is the same version such as today... there was not any updates for several years but many new hardware, of course.

My unholy dear... very difficult finding version infos of the game without running into "piracy matters". I just want to know the issue this game got, so i can find a solution.

If your PC (Steam) copy of Dishonored 2 is not launching after pressing Play, is stuck at the "Preparing to Launch" text box or is running in the background but not actually launching, you should first try restarting your computer and Steam and trying again.

Thank you net... you are just way to "all knowing"...

Well, sometimes a reboot does (temporarily) work around a buggy game or a buggy driver..

But yeah, gamers in general aren't very skilled at diagnosing these problems so it's no surprise you find lots of more or less useless answers.

Are you saying you just upgraded the motherboard & CPU on the new system and it stopped working after that? What did you upgrade from? Many times in the past changing from Intel to AMD (or AMD to Intel) and keeping the same OS install has caused more problems than simply changing from Intel to Intel or AMD to AMD due to leftover drivers conflicting, and you're better off removing all drivers (new and old) and reinstalling the new ones again or simply reinstalling the OS.

Agreed with the above. My bet would be the CPU. I generally find AMD to have a much harder time with older games than Intel.

Especially if you've recently swapped from Intel to AMD on the same system.

I didn't even know that is a thing, keeping the old Windows installation while swapping the motherboard and CPU... shit, I reinstall Windows from someone sneezing nearby!

And sometimes that works. After I reinstalled Windows 10 on this laptop, Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain + Verok's GL Patch started to work finally.

I know that English may not be your first language and you're doing a lot better better than I would in German, but the long rambling posts aren't really helping us to help you; it makes it quite hard to follow what you're saying and what you've done - especially when you then segue into complaints about modern hardware and whatever auto-expo is supposed to be.

Assuming your problem is that you changed both your motherboard and CPU without doing a reinstall of WIndows, I fully agree with AB2012, idbeholdME and timppu that you ought to reinstall. You can usually get away without a reinstall if you're replacing like for like or just replacing the CPU, but once you swap out a motherboard for a different model, you're running a risk by not reinstalling.

There's no reason why Dishonoured 2 won't work on your system; I'm not aware of any issues on latest generation Ryzen or on previous generation nVidia cards (we would definitely have heard about it by now if it didn't work on the older RTX 30 series).

Well the problem is the OS, if i use secure boot the game is able to be launched. However, there is very few "other" programs (just near endless games) installed and i do not know the possible conflict this game got. If i know the conflict issue the problem can be solved... yet i dunno.

If i have to reinstall the entire OS in order to get ride of any "leftovers", this work is just extremely huge because i will have to install everything new. I dunno if i can somehow store the old install settings, just to much of new issues.

Several weeks of work, just because hardware busted.. and the cost... forget about.

What surely can be said, it is not the hardware. And the old hardware was not that far away from the new hardware, it both was a X670E with AMD CPUs of the same generation. I had the hope i can get away with this but if there is very dodgy games... it may not work. Because a few games need a "very proper" system config, according to what they are programed for, and if it is any different they deny any work.

You can see this dodgy behaviour considering this game all around the net... a few weird stuff and it may become issues already... thats why many users got launch-problems due to different reasons (near endless it seems).

Under optimal cicrumstance, the game should not rely on the OS so much, instead only rely on itself and the GPU drivers support, in this case the entire config matter, from the OS environment, will be close to no issue.

I have many software... they are pretty much standalone and are not hogging the system with entrys and settings, able to cause conflicts, at all... those software is never becoming issues with the "outside specs"; which is helpful. But the world is not perfect and the OS, for even the most dodgy games, need to be very clean, it seems.

Well, maybe i can try an exact mirror of the current entries, on any spot, so i do not have to reinstall everything taking weeks.

What matters simply is that the OS is perfectly "attached" to the new MB and CPU, else a few games moan so hard... they will not even boot anymore. So, this is the issue i have to tackle.

Well, currently only Dishonored 2... all the others are not moaning anymore.

I would like to hang those responsible for my death CPU (and board), the trouble was near endless... thank you (not)!
HDD was dying too... i just was able to finish the new data management, now the entire OS issue... i am very sad but just a hard fact.

OK, so what does event viewer have to say about it?

EDIT: Never mind, I see you've got some sort of functionality out of it by using secure boot.

I am not able to see any event linked to the game which is not launched... seems like it fails to detect anything.

Secure boot? It simply is telling me that there is a conflict between the OS and the game, but beyond this revealing there is not any use for it.

I can only solve it if i know the exact conflict and in term i lack the knowledge, the only thing that helps is resetting the entire OS with extremely huge work, as everything will have to be reinstalled. AMD to AMD, same chipset. Of course i was removing the old drivers... i am not stupid. I was in need of new drivers anyway...

If i would go from Intel to AMD.... or reverse... forget about, reinstalling is the only thing that will work

Is your beast PC it ain't working on got 2 GPU's there - i.e. does it have BOTH an iGPU (AMD-based, namely does the 7800 X3D come with a iGPU?) and Discrete GPU (Nvidia 3090)?

Is that beast w/ the 3090 a desktop? Laptop?

Dis 2 is known to be a problem w/ AMD stuff on this game - see the links I threw some posts up.

Namely, you might need to uninstall AMD Adrenaline drivers and reboot the PC every time (b/c it's gonna try to reinstall them itself) to run the game, which sounds really annoying as can be. Might mean if you got time, you probably wanna marathon this game as much as possible.

Who knows if it gets along even w/ multiple monitors too. [shrug]

And since it's an older game - yeah, who knows say if it's better to just run it on older hardware and/or older drivers, if possible. I remember when Gears 4 would not WORK for years and would keep crashing after something Nvidia did in a newer driver and not until near Gears 5's release, did Nvidia fix the problem w/ their newer drivers. You basically needed to roll-back to older drivers, until the fix.

Id Tech 6 has always had weird issues; it's one of the worst versions I've ever seen on an Id engine, TBH...and VOID Engine for Dis 2 is a fork of Id 6.

Dis 2 is gonna be a crap-shoot probably; I've had issues on 2 of my current gaming PC's - desktop and laptop - on say Left Alive [Steam-version]...and no matter what, it just keeps crashing and can't figure it out, for the life of me. Tried almost everything - don't run MSI AB; don't run anything else; tried using DXVK instead of DX10-12 (ran better, but still has crashes) - yeah, still couldn't stop crashing whenever it wanted to. Probably would be easier for me to re-buy Left Alive for PS4, at this point.

Would be nice if say Arkane or some modder would fix the problems with Dis 2 PC version; and also Square or some modder fixed Left Alive PC version.

EDIT - For references, my specs on my PC's:
01. Current Gigabyte Laptop - R5 5600H, 16 GB RAM, RTX 3060m with 6gb VRAM, 1 TB SSD, W11 x64.
02. Current CyberPower Custom Desktop - i7 10700KF, 16gb RAM, 1 TB SSD, more SSD's and HDD's internally also, RTX 3070 with 8gb VRAM, W10 x64.
03. Old W7 Custom Gaming Desktop - i7 950; 16gb RAM, GTX 970 with "4gb" of VRAM, multiple HDD's, W7 x64.
04. Old Acer Nitro Gaming Laptop - i7 4720HQ, 16 gb RAM, GTX 960m with 4gb VRAM, 2tb HDD, W10 x64.
05. Non Gaming Laptop - Tiger Lake i5 1135 G7, Iris iGPU, 16 GB RAM, 256gb SSD, W10 x64.

Additional info.

So, I ran Dishonored 2 way back in the day on Older PC's #3 and #4 with whatever the drivers were brand new, since I got the game new for like $20 from Dell of all places, that Holiday Season. Ran like junk on old Acer gaming laptop at even 720p or 900p, but ran "okay" on Custom Desktop. Ain't tried Dis 2 on my Gigabyte or CyberPower machines recently - but, maybe I should.