How To Fix L.A. Noire not Launching on Windows [Best Guide]

L.A. Noire is a Video game published by Rockstar Games and it is a very popular one at that, having 9 out of 10 stars on steam with more than 17 thousand reviews. The game, however, like all software, isn’t flawless and many users have complained about L.A. Noire not launching on their Windows computer. Therefore, in this article, we will be taking you through a step-by-step process to help identify, isolate, and eliminate this issue so that you can play the game without any interruptions.

What Prevents L.A. Noire from launching?

Before we can move on towards implementing fixes to eradicate this issue, we must first isolate the reasons due to which L.A. Noire crashes on Windows. Luckily for you, we have already listed some of the most prominent ones below.

• Missing Admin Permissions: In certain situations, the game might require admin permissions to write or read from a certain directory on your computer. However, if this permission hasn’t been provided by your computer, it will simply crash or freeze during launch and in some cases, L.A. Noire might not launch entirely.
• Missing Registry Entries: L.A. Noire is basically famous among the tech community for its registry errors and this stems from the issue where the Registry entries on your computer aren’t completely updated by the game and this causes the L.A. Noire not launching issue on Windows which is unable to properly propagate the launch commands. Therefore, follow the second solution below to completely fix this issue by adding these entries manually.
• Direct X Issues: Another popular error that the game throws while the launching process is the “The Launcher cannot query Direct X. Please update Direct X by installing the latest Redistributable”. As the message suggests, this error stems from the latest version of Direct X not being installed on your system and this causes L.A Noire Crashing issue on Windows. Also, the game was launched in the era of Direct X 9 and that is the option that you have to select from the game launcher in order to run the game properly.
• Widescreen/FPS Issues: L.A. Noire was released way back in the old days when Games for Windows Live or GFWL used to be a thing that was tied into basically every game released for Windows. The operating system has come a long way since then and now the functionality doesn’t exist on Windows 10, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 anymore. This makes running games from that era a chore and doing this might require you to lower your resolution, use third-party software to fix widescreen or FPS limitation issues, and other weird problems.
• Firewall/Antivirus Issue: Another possibility is that your Antivirus or Windows Defender might be preventing the game from running and this is causing L.A. Noire crashing issue on your computer. Therefore, it is recommended for you to add an exclusion in your Firewall, Windows Defender, and any other third-party security software that you might’ve installed on your computer.
• VR Mode: Steam’s VR mode setting might also prevent L.A Noire from running on your computer and it is known to cause crashes and errors on older games. Therefore, we will be disabling the Steam VR mode for L.A. Noire and check if doing so gets rid of this error.
• Microsoft Framework Incompatibility: Some users noticed that the game was running into compatibility issues with Microsoft’s Framework software and to resolve this, you would have to reinstall or change the version of this software being used by your computer. This involves completely removing Microsoft Framework from your computer and installing another version of it.
• Windows Compatibility Issues: Changing Windows Compatibility settings is another common method used to fix the L.A. Noire not Launching issue on Windows. Since Windows 10 wasn’t engineered to run games that are almost a decade old, using compatibility mode to run in accordance with an older operating system might get the game up and running again.
• Install Rockstar Launcher and Social Club: Another common issue that games developed by Rockstar often run into is the absence of the Rockstar Launcher and Social Club on your computer. Therefore, we recommend you to download and install both the Rockstar Launcher and Social Club software on your computer.

Now that you have familiarized yourself with the triggers behind this error, we can finally move on towards implementing fixes to eradicate it on our computer.

Before you Start:

1. Make sure to completely restart your system after closing out of the game and Steam.
2. Make sure to disable any other antivirus/cleaning application running in the background and check if that gets the game running.
3. Also, if you are using a 1440p or a 4k monitor, try to run the game in 1080P resolution or just try to lower the resolution regardless of what you are already using.
4. Make sure to download and install the Rockstar Launcher and Social Club from here.
5. Also, make sure to install the game without any spaces in the directory location as this is a known bug dating back to 2014 with the Rockstar Games.

How to Prevent L.A. Noire from Crashing, Freezing, or Not Launching:

Solution 1: Providing Administrator Privileges

1. Press “Windows” + “Ctrl” + “Del” keys on your keyboard simultaneously.
2. Click on the “Task Manager” option to launch the task manager.

   

3. Click on “Steam” and select the “End Task” button to exit out of it.
4. Also, in a similar way, make sure to exit out of “L.A. Noire” and any other unnecessary application.
5. Right-click on the “Steam” icon on your desktop and select the “Properties” option.
6. In Steam Properties, click on the “Compatibility” tab from the top and then make sure to check the “Run this Program as an Administrator” button.
7. After that, also make sure to click on the “Run this Program in Compatibility Mode For” option, and from the dropdown, select the “Windows 8” button.

   

8. Click on “Apply” to save your changes and then on “OK” to exit out of the window.
9. Try running the game now and check to see if L.A. Noire not Launching issue is fixed.
10. If the issue still persists, try to also grant admin permissions in the same manner to other executables inside the L.A. Noire folder such as the Launcher and the game.
11. Also, make sure to open the directory where Steam has been installed and search for “LanPatcher.exe”.
12. Once found, grant the admin rights to this as well and try to launch the game again.

Solution 2: Adding Missing Registry Entries

1. Download the Error Handler Files from here.
2. After downloading, make sure that you have a “.Zip” file extractor, right-click on the downloaded file and extract them to a separate folder.
3. After extraction, you should have 4 files.
4. Individually, run each file and click on “Yes” in the warning prompt that Windows shows you, and then click on “OK” to add the registry entry.
5. Add all 4 files to your registry in the same manner.
6. Check to see if adding these missing Registry entries fixes the LA Noire not launching issue on Windows.

Solution 3: Installing Direct X

1. Even if you have already installed Direct X on your computer, it is important that you install the version of Direct X that came with the game.
2. For that, run Steam and click on the “Library” option after signing into your account.
3. From the library, right-click on the “L.A Noire” game and select “Properties”.
4. Click on the “Local Files” tab and then click on the “Browse Local Files” option.

   

5. Once the local folder is opened, click on the “3rd” folder and then run the “DxSetup” executable to install the game’s version of Direct X on your computer.
6. After installing this Direct X, check to see if the issue is fixed.

Solution 4: Opting out of VR and Beta Mode

1. Launch Steam and click on the “Library” option on the top.
2. Right-click on “L.A. Noire” and then select the “Properties” option.
3. In the properties, click on the “General” tab from above and make sure to uncheck the “Use Desktop Game Theatre when Steam VR is Active” option.

   

4. After that, click on the “Local Files” option and select the “Verify Integrity of Game Files” button.
5. After the integrity has been verified by your system, click on the “Betas” option on the top.
6. In the Beta Option, click on the dropdown and make sure to have “NONE- Opt-out of all Betas” selected.
7. Closeout of this window after saving your changes.

   

8. Restart Steam and check to see if making these changes has fixed the L.A. Noire Crashing or Freezing issue.

Solution 5: Using Widescreen Software Fix

1. Download the Widescreen Software Fix from here.
2. Extract the downloaded Zip file into a folder and run the WideScreen Fixer software from the folder.
3. Now, run Steam as an administrator as we showed in the first solution above, and before running the game, launch into the Widescreen Fixer software.
4. Click on the “Main” tab in the software and from the “Select Game:” dropdown, select “L.A. Noire”.
5. Click on the “Settings” cog in front of the Select Game dropdown after selecting the game.
6. Select the version of your game from the “Select Game Version” option in the settings.
7. Click on the “59 FPS” option under the “FPS CAP” option.
8. Click on the “Save Settings” button to save your changes.
9. Launch the game and press the ” * ” or “Asterisk” key on your Numpad when inside the game menu.
10. Check to see if the L.A. Noire not launching issue has been fixed by implementing this fix.

Solution 6: Adding Exclusion

1. You should also add an exclusion for the game in your Microsoft Defender. Below, we will be showing the method to add this exclusion inside Windows Defender, make sure to add the exclusions in Windows Firewall and any third-party apps that you might’ve installed on your computer.
2. Press “Windows’ + “I” keys on your keyboard simultaneously to launch into the settings.
3. From settings, click on the “Windows Update and Security” option.

   

4. Click on the “Windows Security” button from the left side and then select the “Virus and Threat Protection” option.
5. Click on the “Manage Settings” option under the “Virus and Threat Protection Settings” heading.

   

6. Scroll down and click on the “Add or Remove Exclusions” option.
7. Click on the “Add an Exclusion” option and select the “Folder” button from the list.
8. From here, point to the location of the L.A. Noire Folder, and the exclusion will be added.
9. Check to see if adding an exclusion fixes the LA Noire not Launching issue.

Solution 7: Selecting Direct X

1. Launch the LA Noire Launcher and click on the “Options” button.
2. In the options, click on the “Direct X 9” option to run the game using Direct X 9 instead of the default one.
3. Also, make sure to select the Native Resolution of your computer.
4. Check to see if doing so has fixed the L.A. Noire not lanuching error.

Solution 8: Launch Game Directly

1. Open the location where the game has been installed.
2. Right-click on the “LA Noire.exe” file and select the “Send to” option.
3. Select the “Desktop (Create Shortcut)” option and a shortcut will be made on the desktop.
4. Navigate to the desktop and right-click on the shortcut.
5. Select the “Properties” option and click on the “Shortcut” tab.
6. In the “Target” window and add the following line to the end of the location already entered in there.

   -parentIsLauncher

7. Click on “Apply” and then on “OK” to exit out of this window.
8. Check to see if doing so has fixed the L.A. Noire not launching issue.

Hopefully, the issue might have been resolved by now but if you need further assistance, contact here.