Windows 10 Fall Creators Update (1709?) broke several games in my Steam library

[wadefreelance]

Hi there. Pretty much encountering what the title says. First had the issue when the launch originally hit. I rolled it back, but it pushed a force install on me overnight last night. Am now largely back to square one.

Long and short, several games are crashing when I try to load them. Titles I have tried include Enter the Gungeon, Surgeon Simulator, Subnautica, Divinity Original Sin II, and They Are Billions (though I was able to fix that last one - more below). I ran a required update that came after the update (name was something like like "quality and performance for 64 bit"); this fixed They Are Billions, but not others. Other newish games that would presumably tax the system (Shadow Warrior 2, for one example) load and work just fine.

To be clear, the games that do not work follow one of two paths: They fail to load at all, spitting an error message like those below, or they start running the intro sounds without actually appearing on screen; trying to tab over to the game's icon in the taskbar does nothing.

Here is an example of an error message I get with Surgeon Simulator, which further makes me suspect it's video card related: https://imgur.com/a/CKV2w

Here is the error I get for Enter the Gungeon. Not video card related as far as I can tell, but I don't understand enough about what it's saying to know that for sure: https://imgur.com/a/Puvj1

Here is an error I get in Nier:Automata. It also makes mention of something with video but the commonly accepted fix didn't work for me: https://imgur.com/a/s1gEM\

I'm pretty sure this issue is related to the video card (r280x ATI) or related drivers -- many of the crashes start with the game loading in a funky resolution, then crashing to desktop. Following this, I have tried the following fixes:

Restarting
Updating video card driver (ATI R9280x)
Installing several secondary Windows updates
Editing the game resolution through Steam's startup option field
Running the games in "safe" (which starts the games at low rez and low quality vid settings) through Steam's startup options
Going into Properties-Compatibility options and checking "disable fullscreen optimizations"
Verifying game caches through Steam
Starting the games outside Steam
Repairing the games through Steam integrity validation
Reinstalling the games through Steam

Only two of these fixes had any effect on individual games: The They Are Billions fix listed above; more, running Divinity Original Sin 2 in "-safe" finally got it to pop open. I tried to change the resolution in settings, but the dropdown is totally blank - no options to select. The game is in this horrible, blown out resoluiton in fullscreen, switching to windowed brings it to regular resolution. This is such a weird issue.

To this point I am ripping my hair out. It is extremely frustrating to have a forced update break my primary gaming device, and the problem is obscure enough that I can't find fixes online -- everyone else with a similar problem seems to have an Nvidia card.

If it helps I am running (I believe) an ATI R9280x (it's part of the r200 series but forget the exact model) and an Intel i7-4790.

Any help you all can provide is greatly appreciated. I apologize for the long post but wanted to be thorough in providing information. Thanks to any respondees for lending your time and expertise.

 

[theo.esk]

Hi there. Pretty much encountering what the title says. First had the issue when the launch originally hit. I rolled it back, but it pushed a force install on me overnight last night. Am now largely back to square one.

Long and short, several games are crashing when I try to load them. Titles I have tried include Enter the Gungeon, Surgeon Simulator, Subnautica, Divinity Original Sin II, and They Are Billions (though I was able to fix that last one - more below). I ran a required update that came after the update (name was something like like "quality and performance for 64 bit"); this fixed They Are Billions, but not others. Other newish games that would presumably tax the system (Shadow Warrior 2, for one example) load and work just fine.

To be clear, the games that do not work follow one of two paths: They fail to load at all, spitting an error message like those below, or they start running the intro sounds without actually appearing on screen; trying to tab over to the game's icon in the taskbar does nothing.

Here is an example of an error message I get with Surgeon Simulator, which further makes me suspect it's video card related: https://imgur.com/a/CKV2w

Here is the error I get for Enter the Gungeon. Not video card related as far as I can tell, but I don't understand enough about what it's saying to know that for sure: https://imgur.com/a/Puvj1

Here is an error I get in Nier:Automata. It also makes mention of something with video but the commonly accepted fix didn't work for me: https://imgur.com/a/s1gEM\

I'm pretty sure this issue is related to the video card (r280x ATI) or related drivers -- many of the crashes start with the game loading in a funky resolution, then crashing to desktop. Following this, I have tried the following fixes:

Restarting
Updating video card driver (ATI R9280x)
Installing several secondary Windows updates
Editing the game resolution through Steam's startup option field
Running the games in "safe" (which starts the games at low rez and low quality vid settings) through Steam's startup options
Going into Properties-Compatibility options and checking "disable fullscreen optimizations"
Verifying game caches through Steam
Starting the games outside Steam
Repairing the games through Steam integrity validation
Reinstalling the games through Steam

Only two of these fixes had any effect on individual games: The They Are Billions fix listed above; more, running Divinity Original Sin 2 in "-safe" finally got it to pop open. I tried to change the resolution in settings, but the dropdown is totally blank - no options to select. The game is in this horrible, blown out resoluiton in fullscreen, switching to windowed brings it to regular resolution. This is such a weird issue.

To this point I am ripping my hair out. It is extremely frustrating to have a forced update break my primary gaming device, and the problem is obscure enough that I can't find fixes online -- everyone else with a similar problem seems to have an Nvidia card.

If it helps I am running (I believe) an ATI R9280x (it's part of the r200 series but forget the exact model) and an Intel i7-4790.

Any help you all can provide is greatly appreciated. I apologize for the long post but wanted to be thorough in providing information. Thanks to any respondees for lending your time and expertise.

hmm iv'e also encountered this with Steam. and the last thing a read was that there's many people with similar problems and they all have nothing to do with windows or your hardware specs. i'ts primarily a steam issue, i think it lies with them.
i think they (steam) have run into a compatibility issue with the new 1709 update.
tho i want to ask you:
1. have you cloud saved your games? ... i think steam app does it automatically, but just verify it for me.
2. if you have cloud saved your games, then have you tried re-installing your games, all of them?
3. have you tried re-installing Steam?
4. have your tried:
right click start -> left click Computer Management -> click Device Manager -> expand Display adapters -> right click on your AMD graphics card -> select from menu "Uninstall device" -> tick the check box "delete the driver for this device" -> Press Uninstall -> Restart computer
(that forces the system to reinstall the graphics drivers. BUT THIS IS IMPORTANT, instead of letting windows install your drivers, you download the latest for AMD's webpage: https://support.amd.com/en-us/download and install those.)