FM 2011 - Steam - Windows 7 - Doesn't load

Hello all,

I bought Football Manager 2011 on Steam today for PC. I downloaded it fine and then went to load it, it starts as you would expect, "preparing to launch Football Manager 2011" then my friends status changes to green as if I started playing a game, and then it goes back to blue and nothing happens. My other steam games work fine, CSS, TF2, BFBC2 and even my old Football Manager 2010.

I have:

Windows 7 64bit Operating System,

6GB RAM

Plenty free hard disk space

Radeon HD4890 latest drivers

3GHz i7 CPU

I have tried deleting clientregistry.blob as I know this cures a lot of issues with Counterstrike Source, that didn't make a difference.

Tried playing it straight away and it didn't load.

I downloaded the update through steam and manually both result in the game not loading.

I have tried verifying the game files twice over after restarting the game and again the game doesn't load.

I have tried disabling my anti virus and firewall completely and again the game doesn't load.

I have tried running Football Manager 2011 as administrator and that doesn't make any difference.

I have downloaded the latest Direct X updates and again the game doesn't load.

Downloaded .NET 4 which made no difference.

I removed FM2010 in case it was conflicting and reinstalled 2011 but that didn't do anything

I tried googling the issue, searching steam forums and here but due to people using different wording or not having this issue, I am struggling to find any information on how to fix this, and I am kind of at wits end.

Any ideas would be great, I am close to the stage of giving up and asking Steam for a refund.

Thanks

Phil

***Could someone please move this to the technical issues area, I have that many different forum windows open I posted in the wrong section. Thanks.***

I assume restarting steam and your PC didn't help either?

Yeah forgot to add that to my list of things tried.

try this

First of all you need to turn on hidden files and folders.

XP:

My Computer

'Tools'

'Folder Options'.

The go to the 'View' tab and select 'Show hidden files and folders'

Windows Vista and Windows 7:

My Computer

'Organize'

'Folder and Search Options'.

The go to the 'View' tab and select 'Show hidden files and folders'

Once this is done, follow the instructions below:

Windows XP:

1. Open “My Computer”

2. Navigate to : “Documents and Settings\<Username>\Application Data\

3. Go into the “Sports Interactive” Folder.

4. Go to the “Football Manager 2010” Folder.

5. Delete the 'cache' Folder found inside here.

Windows Vista and Windows 7:

1. Click “Start”

2. Click your username on the start Menu

3. Click on “AppData” and then “Roaming”

4. Go into the “Sports Interactive” Folder

5. Go to the “Football Manager 2010” Folder.

6. Delete the 'cache' Folder found inside here.

I have just tried the above, the cache folder was empty but removed it none the less. Tried doing this with restarting the PC, restarting Steam but neither gave any difference.

I have read people being asked for their dxdiag info? If anyone thinks this could be relevant I can post it, just with it being extensive in length I do not want to post unless needed.

Thanks

just a tought try using the netbook skin , its on the skin forums

I followed the netbook skin thread but it didn't make any difference to what happened. I had to use the target box lines as I cannot get into the game to change preferences.

Any other ideas would be great.

Went back to basics, removed all my graphics drivers, put on 10.10 instead of 10.11, got an error message "failed to set up graphics system", so googled that which led me to dx sdk (June) installed this and it is now working fine.