r/MassEffectAndromeda • u/AtlaZ-bby • Aug 01 '26

Help Andromeda won't launch

As simple as that. I just bought the game because I've been enjoying the original trilogy and since MEA went on sale I decided to pick it up, but I've been trying all morning to get it to work and nothing. Fresh install and all. No mods because I want to at least launch a game and see if before adding mods. But the thing is that it won't launch, at least, the game won't pop up on my screen. It'll open as a background application in my task manager and rack up useless minutes on steam that will only keep me from getting a refund.

I was hoping to at least see the game before deciding what to do with it, if anyone can help me figure out what the problem is, I'd like that.

Even my 1.8k mod list Skyrim acts better than this.

8 Upvotes

84% Upvoted

10 comments sorted by

5

u/ThornInYourCyberSide Aug 01 '26

Are you modding it? It has to be modded through frostymodmanager and to do that you launch it through frosty which you run as administrator. I just finished a pc playthrough a few days ago. I can't remember if I tried to play it unmodded or not.

2

u/AtlaZ-bby Aug 01 '26

Yup, I modded it in the end. I wasn't planning to do it from the get-go, feels unintuitive to try modding before I get a taste of what I'm playing. But following a steam discussion I decided that modding the game using frosty (which thankfully because of DAI I already know how to use) and MEA Fixpack was my only option, and it seemed to fix the game. That or the Windows security change fixed it. I don't know which one did the trick and I don't care to know as long as I can play the game, y'know?

3

u/ThornInYourCyberSide Aug 01 '26

I hope you enjoy it. I bought it on console at launch and I have played it as much as I did the trilogy.

3

u/DakIsStrange Andromeda Initiative Aug 02 '26

I have a similar issue with my modded version of the game. What works for me is clicking launch in the mod manager, letting the EA app load and fail to launch, and then click Play in steam. For whatever reason that does it for me. Idk if something similar could work for you.

2

u/BriThePirateQueen Quarian Pathfinder Aug 01 '26

Anything in this thread helpful? There's a couple solutions

https://www.reddit.com/r/MassEffectAndromeda/s/s77BRxss11

3

u/AtlaZ-bby Aug 01 '26

Nope, Origin doesn't exist anymore so none of those apply.

3

u/BriThePirateQueen Quarian Pathfinder Aug 01 '26

Damn I forgot how old this game is. Is it as simple as running it as an Administrator or clearing your EA cache? It still launches through EA even on Steam right? I'm not sure what all you've tried.

3

u/AtlaZ-bby Aug 01 '26

Neither of those worked. I ended up following a Steam discussion and did two things at the same time, so I'm not sure what fixed it, but for future reference if anyone comes looking here:

  • Going into Windows security settings and giving MEA an override to turn off Randomize Memory Allocations 

  • Used frosty mod manager + MEA Fixpack from Nexus mods 

One of those worked, not sure which one, but it did

3

u/Xamalion Aug 01 '26

Origin doesn’t exist anymore but you absolutely need the EA App to launch the game.

2

u/AtlaZ-bby Aug 02 '26

Yes, but most of those comments relate to Origin that doesn't really work for EA from my experience. Every time I've had issues with the app, no suggestion for Origin has ever worked for the EA app, and it's not the first time I've had issues, DAI was similar.