Gears of War 4 problems

[theyarecomingforyou]

Yesterday my new graphics card arrived and came with a free copy of Gears of War 4. When I redeemed it I discovered it was a Windows Store app but despite my dislike for the platform I figured there was no harm in trying it given the game was free. Unfortunately the experience has been even more miserable that I anticipated.

 

When I first started to download the game it worked as expected until I paused the download and it had problems resuming the update. Eventually it got to over 27GB before Windows 10 crashed - when I restarted the progress had been wiped out. I tried it again and got up to about 10GB but needed to pause the download again to watch some Netflix and... yup, it wouldn't resume. Now I've tried everything but it won't download. Every time I try now it gets stuck on 2.74MB and just sits there. When I check NetLimiter—which is just being used to monitor traffic, it isn't limiting anything—it confirms that nothing is being downloaded.

 

I absolutely detest the Windows Store and wish I didn't have to deal with it but it's the only way I can play Gears of War 4. Could anybody please help me with this?

 

[theyarecomingforyou]

It got up to 10GB and then froze again, doing nothing for hours. I tried pausing and resuming but then the download restarted and is now stuck again on 2.74MB.

 

The Windows Store is an absolute mess. Microsoft really needs to sort this out.

[jnelsoninjax]

Perhaps try this:

Clear & Reset Windows Store Cache with WSReset.exe

The process is a lot easy and simple. Run CMD as administrator, type WSReset.exe and hit Enter. Or else:

Go to the Start Screen or the Windows Modern UI screen

Type in WSReset.exe

[theyarecomingforyou]

5 hours ago, jnelsoninjax said:

Perhaps try this:

Clear & Reset Windows Store Cache with WSReset.exe

The process is a lot easy and simple. Run CMD as administrator, type WSReset.exe and hit Enter. Or else:

Go to the Start Screen or the Windows Modern UI screen

Type in WSReset.exe

Unfortunately that was one of the first things I tried, along with signing out and back in again. After multiple restarts, resets of the cache and changing the installation drive it did eventually start downloading and I don't dare pause it for fear of it messing up yet again.

 

What annoys me is that Steam has handled downloads extremely well for over a decade, whilst Microsoft's newly designed store isn't fit for purpose. Even now you can't specify install location, only the drive, and pausing a download risks losing all your progress. This was the worst gaming experience I've had since GFWL, another of Microsoft's abominations.

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

Have you installed update KB3194496? This was released at the end of September to address WinStore downloads affecting Xbox games.

[theyarecomingforyou]

5 hours ago, Andrew said:

Have you installed update KB3194496? This was released at the end of September to address WinStore downloads affecting Xbox games.

Yeah, I checked and that update was installed about three days ago. Unfortunately the download restarted again after getting up to 50GB and when it restarted from scratch it has got stuck at 40.73MB. At this rate it's not going to be long until I just give up and never use the Windows Store again, as I absolutely despise it right now. I should have been playing the game ages ago and would have been had it been Steam, Origin or Uplay.

 

Anyone know how I can get in touch with Microsoft customer support and make a complaint directly?

[patseguin Global Moderator]

Let me know if you solved this. I've been thinking about getting the game too but I detest the Windows Store. I bought Recore which simply wouldn't work and half the time I play Forza Horizon the game just quits.

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

3 minutes ago, theyarecomingforyou said:

Yeah, I checked and that update was installed about three days ago. Unfortunately the download restarted again after getting up to 50GB and when it restarted from scratch it has got stuck at 40.73MB. At this rate it's not going to be long until I just give up and never use the Windows Store again, as I absolutely despise it right now. I should have been playing the game ages ago and would have been had it been Steam, Origin or Uplay.

 

Anyone know how I can get in touch with Microsoft customer support and make a complaint directly?

Did something happen on your PC when the progress reached 50 GB? Just wondering if your power save settings are killing the download.

 

How do you get the download to start and make it past the first few MBs ? Is it pure luck when it decides to work?

[theyarecomingforyou]

The irony of this is that it's the nVidia drivers for Gears of War 4 that seemed to cause my system to crash and reset all my progress downloading it. I have no idea why it starts to download, there doesn't seem to be any consistency.

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

Unfortunately, I don't think they have a direct complaint contact; you'd have to go through customer services first. Problem is, you have a large download to complete and it could fail at any time. An agent isn't going to stay connected with you to wait IMO. The US contact info is provided below if you wish to try though

 

Microsoft Store Sales and Customer Support:
Call 1-877-696-7786

 

Technical Support:
Call 1-877-696-7786

 

Microsoft Direct for Businesses and Large Orders:
Call 1-866-425-4709

 

Microsoft products bought elsewhere and online Answer Desk:
Call 1-800-642-7676

 

And Xbox Support options are available at: support.xbox.com/contact-us. I'm not sure who is really in charge of the Windows Store Games section.

[theyarecomingforyou]

Now I'm getting problems with other Windows Store apps too. This is the error message for Feedback Hub:

 

 

I wish I could backup Windows Store downloads periodically but Microsoft, like it did with GFWL, has decided to encrypt it. Ridiculous.

 

The download seems to have restarted after deleting the content in C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\DeliveryOptimization but I've got to see how far it will get.

 

11 minutes ago, Andrew said:

Unfortunately, I don't think they have a direct complaint contact; you'd have to go through customer services first. Problem is, you have a large download to complete and it could fail at any time. An agent isn't going to stay connected with you to wait IMO. The US contact info is provided below if you wish to try though

 

Microsoft Store Sales and Customer Support:
Call 1-877-696-7786

 

Technical Support:
Call 1-877-696-7786

 

Microsoft Direct for Businesses and Large Orders:
Call 1-866-425-4709

 

Microsoft products bought elsewhere and online Answer Desk:
Call 1-800-642-7676

Cheers for the numbers but I'm actually in the UK. 

[theyarecomingforyou]

It got up to 18.46GB overnight and has stopped again - no error, no warning, it's just sitting there. Normally I'd try pausing and resuming but normally that resets the progress. The sooner Microsoft kills the Windows Store the better, as it's not fit for purpose.

[spaceelf]

5 hours ago, theyarecomingforyou said:

It got up to 18.46GB overnight and has stopped again - no error, no warning, it's just sitting there. Normally I'd try pausing and resuming but normally that resets the progress. The sooner Microsoft kills the Windows Store the better, as it's not fit for purpose.

Strange things can happen if they release a patch during the download, but other than that I haven't had problems in a while.

 

Older wisdom was, don't pay any attention to what it says it's downloaded as it won't count incomplete files.  I think it still does that after pausing, but couldn't say.

Edited October 9, 2016 by LostCat

[theyarecomingforyou]

I've actually given up now. It got up to 30GB and then Windows crashed, losing all the progress. The Windows Store is literally unusable for me. If ever I have problems with Steam I can simply validate the files and it only redownloads what's necessary - with the Windows Store is simply gives up and starts again. A free game would have been nice but it's not worth enduring this.

[spaceelf]

20 minutes ago, theyarecomingforyou said:

I've actually given up now. It got up to 30GB and then Windows crashed, losing all the progress. The Windows Store is literally unusable for me. If ever I have problems with Steam I can simply validate the files and it only redownloads what's necessary - with the Windows Store is simply gives up and starts again. A free game would have been nice but it's not worth enduring this.

if yer system is that crashy I think you've got bigger problems than one game not downloading

[Obi-Wan Kenobi]

the whole "windows 10" and "xbox one" issue seems to be more than Microsoft can handle, doesn't it? Why wasn't it designed from the start to work together, seamlessly? GameBar has crashed out on me MORE times than I wish it was do-able.....but obviously, it's not something that's do-able. THIS is why I don't like the mashup. Reasons like this. They can't (redmond) even stop Windows from crashing. I'm sure their XBOX division is great, but what about us? What about the people who do NOT own an xbox one? How is Windows supposed to handle this? Why, when I start a game, does the GameBar crash? I've never owned an XBOX. I own ZERO windows "store" apps....yet, every TIME I launch a game, there's the GameBar error: WHY, Microsoft? Leave us alone! Cross platform is a wonderful idea, but is it feasible? NO, it is NOT! Microsoft, test it internally before you force it upon the masses. Get the bugs ironed out....THEN, when it's done, THEN announce its' launch! I'm so SICK of every time I launch a game, I get a "GameBar" error. Um, microsoft, I never bought an XBOX. Never wanted one. Just leave my gaming experience alone, why don't you?

[theyarecomingforyou]

7 minutes ago, LostCat said:

if yer system is that crashy I think you've got bigger problems than one game not downloading

I'm rolling back to a previous driver, as I believe it's the latest nVidia drivers responsible for the crashes. However, a lot of the problems I've had with the Windows Store are unrelated to the few blue screens I've had.

[+virtorio MVC]

Can you provide more information about how your system is crashing.

[theyarecomingforyou]

2 minutes ago, virtorio said:

Can you provide more information about how your system is crashing.

It's manifesting as a BSOD, with Event Viewer identifying it as a 'Kernel-Power' critical fault. I've just rolled back to a previous driver but as it's infrequent it may take a while to confirm whether that has fixed it. The only other thing that has changed with my system was that I re-enabled hyperthreading in BIOS after noticing my CPU performance wasn't where it should be after benchmarking with 3DMark. I've only had the card less than a week, so the other possibility is that there is a hardware fault and the card will need to be returned.

 

At the moment I'm just trying to eliminate the variables to track down the issue.

[jnelsoninjax]

So I'm confused about this game: Is it for PC or XBox? I can't find it on Steam, and places like cdkeys.com show it for xbox.

[+virtorio MVC]

7 minutes ago, jnelsoninjax said:

So I'm confused about this game: Is it for PC or XBox? I can't find it on Steam, and places like cdkeys.com show it for xbox.

You can only buy it (right now anyway) from the Windows Store.

[theyarecomingforyou]

After fixing the issue I had with crashes I decided to give the download another go. It turns out that the issues I've been having are unrelated to the crashes. The download got up to 60GB and then stopped, as it had done many times. I restarted my computer—which was the only way I've been able to continue downloading whenever it stops downloading—only for the download to start from the beginning. The Windows Store is completely broken.

 

If you haven't bought Gears of War 4 already then don't bother.

 

 

This is the issue I'm getting with the other two apps:

 

I've tried WSReset, deleting the DeliveryOptimisation folder, logging out and back in again, etc. It's broken.

[WildWayz]

I didn't have a problem last week when downloading it.

 

Would you like me to remove it then retry to see if I have the issue too?

Edit: Deleted it - 28.04GB downloaded at the moment and still downloading.

Edited October 11, 2016 by WildWayz

[WildWayz]

Downloaded it all without any problems on my Virgin Media 300mbit line.

[theyarecomingforyou]

1 hour ago, WildWayz said:

I didn't have a problem last week when downloading it.

 

Would you like me to remove it then retry to see if I have the issue too?

Edit: Deleted it - 28.04GB downloaded at the moment and still downloading.

A few things are happening for me:

 

1) The download won't start properly, like in the image above - instead of showing the normal progress it shows the size of the game as only 47MB.

2) When the game does download it will stop downloading for no reason - the internet connection is fine, as I'm using it for other purposes (YouTube, Netflix, etc)

3) Once the download has stopped it will often reset if you either pause and resume or restart the computer

4) Getting it to download again requires using WSReset, deleting the content in DeliveryOptimisation, selecting Normal Startup in MSConfig and restarting the computer

5) Other apps refuse to download as well and the Windows Store app will sometimes become unresponsive for several seconds.

 

Basically the download stalls and any attempt to fix it ends up resetting the progress. Restarting your computer—properly, though the Restart option in the Start Menu—shouldn't reset all your download progress.

 

Looking at Event Viewer I have noticed numerous errors appearing:

 

Quote

The Appx operation 'RegisterPackageAsync' on 'Microsoft.AccountsControl_10.0.14393.206_neutral_neutral_cw5n1h2txyewy' failed for user '[My Email Address]' - . (Error: Install failed. Please contact your software vendor.)

Quote

The Appx operation 'RegisterPackageAsync' on 'Microsoft.Windows.ShellExperienceHost_10.0.14393.206_neutral_neutral_cw5n1h2txyewy' failed for user '[My Email Address]' - . (Error: Install failed. Please contact your software vendor.)

Quote

Failed with 0x490 modifying AppModel Runtime status for package Microsoft.WindowsPhone_10.1609.2561.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe for user DESKTOP-CJ8T7JQ\[My Windows Account] (current status = 0x0, desired status = 0x20).

Quote

Package Microsoft.WindowsStore_11609.1000.117.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe+App was terminated because it took too long to suspend.

A search online suggests the errors relate to KB3194496 and the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, which doesn't surprise me.