I built myself a glorious new rig! It was about time too because I haven’t fully upgraded my computer in about ten years, maybe more.

Unfortunately, even after a fresh install of Windows 8.1 x64 on my brand new and shiny SSD, I ran into one of the biggest, most frustrating, mother loving problems ever.

Any time I tried to load a game I would get a generic error.

Unable to Start Error 0xc000007b

It happened with a ton of games from Just Cause 2 all the way to Dark Souls III. It also happened when I tried to launch apps like Origin. The absolute worst part was that I couldn’t satiate my Stardew Valley addiction.

No. This will not stand.

Naturally, I scoured the internet and tried just about every solution known to man. Nothing worked. Not a single one.

STFU and Tell Me the Solution Already!

Finally, I came across the YouTube video embed below.

 

To spare you the shame of watching it (there’s no sound just text annotations), you have to install a utility that checks executable files and flags dependency errors.

You can nab the file for that app here.

Basically, it works like this:

1) Run the Dependency app

2) Choose File > Open and select the game executable that’s not working (you’ll have to browse to the game’s install directory)

3) The app will flag errors

4) Click the top level + to close and open the dependency tree (pictured below)

Top Level + for opening and closing tree view

5) Any main dependencies highlighted in red are corrupt or not working as they should (pictured below)

DLL file with errors that needs replacing

Don’t worry about the other red files beneath the main ones. The other errors will be fixed once you replace the problematic DLL file.

Take note of the dependency files that are flagged. Go to DLL-files, or search for the file on Google and download a copy. Make sure you download the 32-bit (x32) version.

After that, copy and paste the file into the DIR:\Windows\System32 folder. Obviously, DIR stands for the letter or directory of the main drive where you have Windows installed (for most of you that will be C).

You will be prompted to replace the existing file, and most likely you will need to grant the system access to do this through the UAC administrative prompt.

You must also copy and paste the DLL into the same directory as the game executable. I have no idea why this step is required but it just is.

After that, you should be able to finally run the game or application that’s causing issues.

I tried every other solution I could find and this was the only one that worked for me. Hopefully, it helps many of you out there who are desperate. I sure as hell was.