I recently bought three games through Steam, but none of them will start. Older games I already owned still run normally. I've verified the game files, updated Windows, my graphics drivers and game-related drivers, updated the BIOS, and tried running the games as administrator, but nothing helped. Launching the games directly from their installation folders produces an error saying that C:WindowsSystem32XAPOFX1_5.dll is either not designed to run on Windows or contains an error. The same DLL is mentioned for all three games. What is the safest way to repair this?
3 Answers
XAPOFX1_5.dll is part of the older DirectX components used by some games. Reinstalling or repairing DirectX through Microsoft’s official DirectX End-User Runtime package usually fixes this. Also check each game’s installation folder for a _CommonRedist or DirectX folder and run the installer there. Avoid downloading a single DLL from random websites, since that can introduce malware or install the wrong version.
Since several newly installed games fail while older ones still work, check whether they all use the same launcher or runtime. Run the game’s bundled DirectX and Visual C++ installers, reboot afterward, and make sure the games are not being forced to use incompatible compatibility settings. If the DLL error remains, reinstalling the affected games after repairing the runtimes may be necessary.
If reinstalling DirectX changes the message to error 0xc000007b, that usually points to a damaged or mismatched runtime rather than the game itself. Repair or reinstall both the 32-bit and 64-bit Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable packages, then open an elevated Command Prompt and run `sfc /scannow`. If Windows finds corruption, restart and run `DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth`, then restart again.
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