Vortex Troubleshooting

This thread will list the common issues along with the solutions/workarounds. These problems are most often not a fault with Vortex but represent common configuration errors.

• Vortex 1.8+ on Windows 7/8/8.1
• The procedure entry point DiscardVirtualMemory could not be located in the dynamic link library KERNAL32.dll
• Microsoft .NET - Check Failed (Vortex 1.6.0+)
• Plugins Section not showing (Bethesda games)
• Vortex is only showing a white screen
• Extension failed to load
• Startup failed - Vortex is already running
• Error 401 (Vortex 1.9+)

Vortex 1.8+ on Windows 7/8/8.1

Users on Windows 7/8/8.1 will receive the following error on start-up.

The procedure entry point DiscardVirtualMemory could not be located in the dynamic link library KERNAL32.dll As of version 1.8, Vortex is no longer compatible with older versions of Windows. We recommend updating to Windows 10 or 11 where possible, but for users who cannot do that the steps below will allow them to continue modding on the last version of the app which supports their version of Windows.

• Download Vortex 1.7.8.
• Temporarily disable the internet connection to your PC - Important: Failing to do this will cause Vortex to auto-update to the latest version.
• Install Vortex 1.7.8 over the top of the current version.
• Start Vortex, ignoring any warnings about downgrading.
• Open "Settings > Vortex > Update" and select "No automatic update".
• Restore the internet connection to your PC and restart Vortex.

Important

We cannot provide support for using on an outdated version of Vortex. If you encounter an issue it may have already been addressed in the latest release.

Plugins Section not showing (Bethesda games)

The Plugins tab only appears for supported games: Skyrim, Skyrim SE, Fallout 3/New Vegas/4, Oblivion, Morrowind, Enderal, Nehrim. If you are managing a different game, it is not expected to appear.

Vortex may load up but will not feature a "Plugins" tab in the left navigation. This usually means the extension controlling the load order failed to initialise. You can verify this by going to "Extensions" click "Show Bundled" at the top of the page and search for "Gamebyro Plugin Management" it will either say "Failed" or "Disabled" next to it.

To resolve it take the following steps:

• If the status is "Disabled" try enabling it and restarting the Vortex.
• Close Vortex, download and install the latest Visual C++ Redistributable x64 from Microsoft.
• Restart Vortex.
• If the problem persists, it's likely that a security application on your PC is preventing Vortex from loading the module correctly.

Microsoft .NET - Check Failed (Vortex 1.6.7+)

In Vortex 1.6.0 and above, the user must have .NET 6.0.0 or higher installed for the app to work correctly. If .NET is missing or incorrectly configured, Vortex will present a pop-up offering to download and install the framework to fix the problem automatically.

In the event that this automated solution doesn't work, it means that something in the user's configuration has been modified from the expected defaults and manual intervention is required.

What is .NET 6?

.NET 6 is framework created by Microsoft which provides applications with libraries it can usee to interact with the operating system. Learn more...

How can I download .NET?

If Vortex is unable to download and install the .NET, it can be fetched manually from the link below.

https://aka.ms/dotnet/6.0/windowsdesktop-runtime-win-x64.exe

You can also select the latest "Desktop Runtime" from this page.

Fixing Program Files permissions

Warning

With default settings on a clean install of Windows these permissions would already be set correctly. This issue can only occur by modifying these defaults in some way.

Note

This section is particularly relevant if the Program Files folder has been moved from the default location on C:\.

The most common reason for Vortex to be unable to detect a .NET installation is incorrect permissions on the Program Files folder in Windows. This may occur when upgrading from Windows 7 to 10/11 or can be result of users altering folder permissions manually.

In order for Vortex to use .NET in a secure sandbox it must have permissions set up for two special Windows accounts - "ALL APPLICATION PACKAGES" and "ALL RESTRICTED APPLICATION PACKAGES". (The exact names will vary by your system language.)

These permissions can be fixed by following the steps below:

1. Open the Start menu and type "cmd". This should show "Command Prompt" as a result.
2. Right-click on "Command Prompt" and select "Run as administrator".
3. Paste the command icacls.exe "c:\Program Files" /grant "*S-1-15-2-1:(oi)(ci)(rx)" into the command line - replacing the path to Program Files with the actual location on your PC - and press enter.
4. Paste the command icacls.exe "c:\Program Files" /grant "*S-1-15-2-2:(oi)(ci)(rx)" - replacing the path to Program Files with the actual location on your PC - and press enter.
5. Close the command prompt.

Note

If this does not resolve the issue, try repeating the steps above but replace the Program Files path with the dotnet folder e.g. c:\Program Files\dotnet.

What do these commands do?

These commands use a Windows feature called icacls to set the permissions against the Program Files folder.

• S-1-15-2-1 and S-1-15-2-2 are internal IDs that Windows uses to represent the special accounts "ALL APPLICATION PACKAGES" and "ALL RESTRICTED APPLICATION PACKAGES".
• io means "Object Inheritance" and ci mean "Container Inheritance" meaning you're granting the permission to Program Files and any subfolders it contains.
• rx means "Read, Execute" which are the two permissions required for Vortex to see the files exist (read) and run the .NET code (execute).

Further troubleshooting

If you're still having problems with this issue please check out the support options below:

• Support forum thread
• Discord server
• Create a support thread

Insecure workaround

Warning

This should be considered a last resort solution. Following these instructions may open up your PC to malicious applications.

In the event a user has followed all instructions above and still has the message in Vortex prompting them to install .NET, the requirement can be disabled entirely in the Vortex settings.

Under Settings > Workarounds > Installer Sandbox, there is an option to disable this feature. This will prevent further .NET 6 prompts but is not recommended.

Vortex is only showing a white screen

If you have encountered a crash where Vortex turns into a white box and restarts. Often you are then presented with an error message that Vortex crashed and to send in the report.

Very often these reports are made anonymously so we have no opportunity to reply to the user to get additional info, but in recent months almost none of these reports indicated a problem with Vortex itself.

Vortex crashes when trying to install certain (not all) mods with a C# scripted installer

Cause: Vortex currently (up to 0.16.12, hopefully fixed in the next release) doesn't deal well with unhandled exceptions from the installer script. While Vortex should not crash in this case and instead report a proper error message, even if Vortex did handle the error correctly it's rather likely that the mod installation would still fail.

Fix: Please send in a link to any mod that triggers this and as a workaround, see if there is a manual install option

Vortex crashes when trying to open the settings page

Cause: So far the only cause we could identify that caused this was on Windows 7 without the "Platform update" (which is not included in service packs!) What happens is that the "Theme" settings page tries to acquire a list of installed fonts from Windows and due to an incompatibility between the outdated Windows 7 and the library we use to retrieve the fonts, Vortex crashes.

Fix: The best solution is to install the platform update. Option 2 is to go to the extensions page and disable the "theme-switcher" extension.

Vortex crashes trying to install any mod

Cause: As far as I know all these reports have an exception code of 0xe0434f4d. This code indicates a broken .NET install.

Fix: Try to update the .NET framework. If that fails, try to uninstall and reinstall .NET entirely. There is also at least one tool on the internet that claims it can repair .NET in this case but I have no idea if it works or if it is even up-to-date.

If you find something that works for you, please let us know.

Vortex crashes when the game crashes

Cause: All cases I could investigate with these reports had an exception code of 0xe0000008. This indicates the system is out of memory or has other memory related issues.

Fix: First of all, if you can reproduce this issue, please check your task manager and see how much memory Vortex actually uses around the time of the crash. Vortex itself shouldn't be allocating additional memory while it's sitting in the background but I just want to be sure.

Next, please verify that you have Virtual Memory enabled in Windows (System->Advanced system settings ->Advanced->Performance Options->Advanced (yes, that's three times "Advanced"...)) and that you either have the size managed by the system and there is enough free disk space for two times your RAM or, if you have a custom size set, make sure that the max value is at least 2x your RAM. So if you have 16GB of RAM, you need room for at least 32GB of Virtual Memory.

If this is the case and you still see these crashes, you may want to look into freeing up memory while the game is running: Close all unnecessary applications (including Vortex) while the game is running. If the game is still crashing, disable the more heavy mods.

There is another possible cause: A hardware defect in your RAM modules or an incompatibility between memory modules and mainboard or too much overclocking. These kind of problems can be extremely hard to figure out because they may occur inconsistently, when your system is under load and actually accesses the broken bits in the module. The only way to know for sure if your RAM is ok and can deal with the clock is to run a proper ram check. How do you know if the ram check is "proper"? It runs under dos and takes at least a couple of hours. There is no way to test the entire RAM from a windows application and there is no way to do a stress test in a few seconds, any windows application that claims to test your RAM and is done in 5 minutes is snake oil.

Vortex crashes due to some other Program injecting unstable code into the Vortex process

Cause: Some applications need to inject their own code into other programs to do their thing, this is usually applications that have system-wide effect (like changing how all windows applications look or how they appear in the task bar). When that code isn't stable, it can easily crash the host process.

Programs we have seen cause crashes in Vortex so far:

• Bins (1UPIndustries)

(Several of the "Unidentified exception"s below probably also fall into this category)

Fix: First, check if there is an update to that application. Is it even still maintained?

If there is no update or the update made no difference, well, you can either uninstall the application or live with the crashes, guess that would depend on how frequent they are.

The following cases are still so fuzzy I don't know when they occur and if they actually crash Vortex:

Unidentified exception 1

Cause: The exception involves the windows codec library trying to decode a jpg file, invoked from the windows thumbnail subsystem. My best guess is that this crash happens when Vortex opens a native file dialog (e.g. when you change the mod) and then the windows dialog trips on a broken image thumbnail. This exception may not actually crash Vortex, it presumably doesn't crash other applications but only triggers the corresponding notification. Please let us know if you know more.

Fix: ??? Maybe installing a system update helps? If you manage to identify the broken thumbnail, remove it? If Vortex doesn't actually crash - live with it?

Unidentified exception 2

Cause: The exception involves an antiquated version of msxml, included from some strange application hook belonging to an antiquated version of Microsoft Office. Why Office is even involved I don't know, much less why it would crash but apparently it's happens as electron (the framework used by Vortex) tries to look up an ICC monitor profile and somehow this Office module is consulted. The crash thus probably involves a broken xml file belonging to an ICC profile managed by Office? Honestly don't know.

Fix: Update Microsoft Office?

Unidentified exception 3

Cause: The exception involves some windows assistance library (assistance as in: high contrast mode or text-to-speech for the visually impaired, that kind of things).

Fix: If you have such a "Ease of Access" features enabled and Vortex crashes, please let us know exactly which features you're using.

Unidentified exception 4

Cause: The exception involves some drag&drop library within electron. It looks like this might be related to a bug in electron, but it's quite rare and I haven't been able to reproduce it.

Fix: If you find that Vortex is crashing when you do certain drag&drop operations, please let us know exactly what triggers the exception.

Unidentified exception 5

**Cause: **The exception involves some ATI driver component or ATI layout tool or "AMD Hydra Vision".

Fix: Update the driver - uninstall the layout tool/hydra vision. I didn't find much about the layout tool (layout as in: affecting how windows are laid out on the screen) but from what I understand it was abandoned and hopelessly outdated 5 years ago. Hydra vision has been outdated and unsupported since 2016.

Extension failed to load

If you have encountered either of the issues above, please see the Plugins Section not showing solution above.

Startup failed - Vortex is already running

If you have encountered the issue above and you cannot see any running instance of Vortex anywhere in the Task Manager, please try the steps below.

• Restart your PC - verify that the issue still occurs after a full restart of Windows.
• Double-check Task Manager (the following step can cause damage to your modded setup if done incorrectly!)
• Head to the "%APPDATA%\Vortex\state.v2" folder and delete the file called "LOCK".
• Restart your PC.
• Start Vortex again.

This issue is often caused by some kind of application on the user's machine preventing Vortex from properly deleting the "LOCK" file when it shuts down.

Error 401 - Vortex 1.9+

If you have encountered the issue above it usually occurs in Vortex 1.9+ when you've left the application idle for more than 6 hours. The solution is quite simple.

• Log out and back into Vortex and retry.
• If step 1 fails, try restarting Vortex.
• If neither of these options work, there may be a different problem such as the mod you're trying to download has been removed or your local security software is causing errors.

This issue is caused by the recent switch to OAuth having an expiry time of 6 hours and some parts of the Vortex application do not currently refresh your session before making a request. A fix for this will be available in a future release.