Games crashing on startup

[Neuronyx]

Hello,
Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines and Rome Total War Gold Edition both crash seconds after starting up. No popup, no warning or anything. They simplyquit before even making it to an intro or main menu. My drivers are updated, reinstalling doesn't work, nor does any compatibility mode. I am at a complete and utter loss.

 

[laiskapummi]

Do you have the latest version of DirectX?

 

[DM186]

what are your specs?
How long has this been going on?
How long has your rig been on before you start the upload?
Does this only happen on those two games?
What about movies?
Direct X is good to check as stated above.
Also your bios up to date? Please repost answers.

 

[HEXiT]

also check the event logs. ctrl pannel/admin tools/events viewer...
check the aplication logs first and then the system logs. your looking for red circles with X's in em or yellow triangles...
only bother with errors directly related to the time the game was run...
chances are your missing a .netframework version update a vcredist update or a dx update...