Dead Rising 2 Troubleshooting Guide – Errors, Crashes, and GFWL Fixes

Dead Rising 2 has come to PC with lot of problems errors, and frustrating issues that one would think why on earth a publisher would use two DRM softwares at the same time.

Dead Rising 2 has come to PC with lot of problems errors, and frustrating issues that one would think; why on earth a publisher would use two DRM softwares at the same time. Yeah! ask that to Capcom, but now that we have the game with all its crashes, connection problems and other frustrating issues, all we can do is help each other to get this game running.

You can refer to the workarounds below for the ongoing installation problems, crashes, and connection issues faced by Dead Rising 2.

Dead Rising 2 Troubleshooting Guide

Games For Windows Live Fixes
First manually re-install Games For Windows Live after uninstalling the game version of the software. By manual re-install I mean, install it from the site not the version that comes with the game.

Check the status of Windows Live and Windows Live Services whether they are down or not. You can visit this link to check the status of all Windows live services and be sure they are online.

1# Dead Rising 2 Crashes on Start Up
You started the game but the game crashes trying to start. What to do ? Change your sound card’s sample rate to 16 bit DVD quality. Verify the game cache and start the game.

Or make sure that your Games For Windows Live client is not corrupted. Try manually installing GFWL client and see if that helps. Also make sure your audio sample rate is set to 24bit, 48000khz.

2# Dead Rising 2 Has Stopped Working
Quite famous error, comes now and then in games. Mostly due to the game loading the system. Running the game on high settings ? try running the game on slightly lower settings.

Also drivers updates are meant to increase the performance of video cards with the games which means, you need to update your graphics and system drivers.

Another thing that may be causing this issue is audio sample rate, anything above 48000 khz won’t work so set your audio to that setting.

3# Game Won’t Start
Re-install the game and then manually install Games for Windows Live.

4# Games For Windows Live Cannot Connect to Internet
Re-install GFWL and forward these ports.

  • TCP port 80.
  • UDP and TCP port 3074.
  • UDP port 88
  • UDP and TCP port 53
  • TCP port 443

5# Dead Rising 2 Random Crashes
Dead Rising 2 is plagued by the Games For Windows Live, which ships with the game so manually installing the GFWL client will resolve most of the crashes.

6# Can’t Join Co Op Game
Make sure you have these ports forwarded before you attempt to play online.

  • TCP port 80.
  • UDP and TCP port 3074.
  • UDP port 88
  • UDP and TCP port 53
  • TCP port 443

7# Dead Rising 2 Stuck at Loading
If your game gets stuck at loading, make sure your installation is not corrupt. If you downloaded the game from Steam, verify the integrity of the cache.

8# Can’t Run The Game Windowed ?
By default the game doesn’t support windowed mode so nothing will happen if you press ALT+Enter. You will have to use a third party program DXWND-MS to force the game in windowed mode.

9# How to Save Progress Offline Games For Windows Live
Dead Rising 2 is a Games For Windows Live (GFWL) based title and you need access to a GFWL account in order to save game progress. You can also create an offline account to save the progress locally on your computer but initially you won’t be presented with this option as it is hidden. You won’t be able to unlock achievements, and won’t be able to play online though.

How to Save Progress Offline

Step 1
Launch the game. Open the Windows Live menu or it will pop-up automatically when you start the game.

Step 2
a)If you are not logged into any GFWL profile continue to step 3.
b) If you are already logged into a profile and unable to save progress then log-out of that profile and now create new profile buttom will become visible.

Step 3
Click on ‘Create new profile’ button.

Step 4
In the dialog box that pops up DO NOT hit continue. Hitting continue will take you to a registration page for an online profile – which you obviously don’t want as you want to create an offline profile.

Step 5
Once in the ‘Create Gamer Profile’ window, scroll down so that you can see the bottom paragraph.

Step 6
Look for the hyperlinked ‘create a local profile’ link in last paragraph. Click it to create a new offline profile to save progress of Dead Rising 2 locally.

10# Dead Rising 2 Mega Freeze
Some players have reported random freeze after re-loading the co op game with previously saved character. Make sure you don’t steam overlay open and press ESC and then resume to anti-freeze the game.

11# Dead Rising 2 Brightness Bug
Moving near the light source makes spreads the brightness all over the place. Make sure you have updated your graphic drivers as it is most probably a graphical issue caused by old video card drivers.

12# Dead Rising 2 Low Sound Volume Problem
When you start Dead Rising 2, it may be reducing the volume in Windows 7 mixer by 80%, a driver override issue.So you have to follow this guide below to fix the low sound volume.
1. Start Game.
2. [ALT] + [TAB] 3. Go to your system try by your clock and locate the icon that looks like a speaker.
4. Now, either right click on speaker and and chose “open volume mixer” or left click on it and click “mixer” underneath the volume slider.
5. You should now see Dead Rising 2’s volume control, drag it up to the top, if it is not.

Alternatively, go to Control Panel> Hardware and Sound> Sound > Click on Communications Tab and select “Do Nothing” radio button and it will fix this issue, its a permanent fix.

Also make sure your sound card drivers are updated, most of you will have this issue resolved by doing just that.

Windows XP
While in XP, for those who are having the same issue of low sound volume, you can try reducing the hardware acceleration, or configure your speakers to Stereo.

13# Wired/Wireless Xbox 360 Controller Fix
If the game is not recognizing your wired controller, you can try the following workaround.

Step 1
Download x360ce

Step 2
Put it inside your Dead Rising 2 directory.

Step 3
Run it, and it will create the following files.

  • x360ce.exe
  • x360.ini
  • xinput1_3

Step 4
Now run x360ce and load the wireless 360 profile (Don’t worry about it being wireless) and set the following options.

  • Force Feedback off
  • Native off
  • Fakemode – compatibility

Step 5
Save and Exit.

If you get Application has failed to start because MSVCR100.dll was not found.

It is because Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable Package is missing. Download and install Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable Package.

14# First Time Installation Prompt, Every Time Game Starts
If you are getting the UAC alert everytime you start the game, you can fix it real easy following the workaround below.
Navigate to your

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\Steam Apps\common\Dead Rising 2\

and look for a file “45740install.vdf” and simply rename it to “45740install_old.vdf” and problem will be resolved.

x86 users (32 bit) replace the Program Files (x86) with Program Files.

15# Games For Windows Live Error Fix
It’s not trying to connect “GFWL”, it is waiting for your approval before it verifies. Press Enter on that screen, and it will start verifying, problem solved. It is somehow related to #4 as well, do check it.

16# Games For Windows Live Login Fix
If you can’t login to GFWL inside game but it works fine outside game. You may be required to change your MTU settings. You can refer to this tutorial to do that.

17# Dead Rising 2 msvcr100.dl Missing DLL Error Fix
Install Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 distributable Package to resolve this issue. You can download from here.

18# Quick Checks to Get Dead Rising 2 Working
1. Check files integrity
2. Run directX located in this directory:

X:\Valve\Steam\SteamApps\common\dead rising 2\DirectX

3. Run this file located in this directory:

X:\Valve\Steam\SteamApps\common\dead rising 2\VCRedist

4. Run Steam and the Dead Rising 2 as administrator, run both application as administrator.

X:\Valve\Steam\SteamApps\common\dead rising 2\deadrising2.exe

Right click on deadrising2.exe and run it as administrator, if you run it via steam, it won’t load with administrator privileges.

5. If having trouble with GFWL:
a) Uninstall it Control Panel\Programs and Features
b) Install the GFWL client located here

X:\Valve\Steam\SteamApps\common\dead rising 2\GFWL

6. Once in the game if you still having trouble with GFWL
a) Make sure you forwarded all the proper ports.
b) Make sure your windows regional setting are properly configured.
c) Make sure you have the right Time & Date in your windows and synchronize your time with a server.
d) Also its worth checking that your bios time is correct.

7. If you are among those having frequent crashes:
Open the windows task manager and change the affinity of the Dead Rising 2 process and try to run it on 1 CPU only, if it fixes the problem then try running it on 2 CPU and move on.

If you are facing any other issue, just comment, and we will try our best to help you out.

Avatar photo

Zawad Iftikhar is the founder of SegmentNext.com, an FPS enthusiast and a Call of Duty veteran, having participated multiple eSports competition.