Hey Armorsmithers, this week I'm going to tackle how to fix some of the common installation issues you might run into with Armorsmith Designer.
DIRECT-X DLL ERROR - D3DX9_43.dll
This error means something went wrong with the automatic DirectX installation that occurs during the installation process. The first thing to try is to run DXWebSetup. This can be found under:
C:\Program Files\Armorsmith Designer\System\DXWebSetup.exe
If this fails to run it could be because Microsoft has the DirectX servers down for maintenance. There's another option though, Armorsmith also has the full redistributable bundled with it so the next thing to try would be to run that. This can be found under:
C:\Program Files\Armorsmith Designer\System\Redist\DXSetup.exe
MISSING MSVCR100.dll DLL ERROR MESSAGE
This error means that something went wrong with the Visual C++ Redistributable installation. This can be easily remedied by running the necessary Redistributables manually. Run the following four items to make sure everything is installed correctly. Right-Click the following and choose Run As Administrator.
C:\Program Files\Armorsmith Designer\System\vcredist_x64_2010.exe
C:\Program Files\Armorsmith Designer\System\vcredist_x64_2013.exe
C:\Program Files\Armorsmith Designer\System\vcredist_x86_2010.exe
C:\Program Files\Armorsmith Designer\System\vcredist_x86_2013.exe
ARMORSMITH DOESNT OPEN AFTER INSTALLATION
Usually if Armorsmith doesn't seem to open it's because DirectX failed to initialize. The reason for this is usually because your graphics drivers aren't update. To remedy this, try updating your graphics card drivers. Refer to online documentation for how to do this for your brand of GPU.
0xC000007b WINDOWS ERROR MESSAGE
This one is not very common, it's an error that indicates something is not installed correctly in your Windows installation folder. It could be something that was already installed or one of the prerequisite installers that runs for Armorsmith.
The first thing to try is to make sure that you have all of the latest Windows updates installed. Next try rebooting your computer. Once your computer has rebooted try running the first two installation fixes mentioned in this article. Once those have all finished installing try opening Armorsmith again.
If it's still refusing to run that means there's something wrong with your Windows installation. I can't offer much advice here besides following some of the suggestions that come up under Google for this error message.
ARMORSMITH WONT OPEN AFTER UPDATING
Sometimes after an update there are items in the settings from previous installations that might conflict with the current update, or the settings file might be corrupt. We try to be diligent to check for all of those but sometimes things can be missed. The first thing to try is deleting your settings file. This can be found by opening windows explorer by pressing the Windows Key+E. Then click
Documents\ArmorsmithDesigner\DefaultSettings.xml
Delete the DefaultSettings.xml file and try running Armorsmith again. If this fails, it might be a conflict with your saved Avatar or the Avatar itself might be corrupt. So try deleting the following file:
Documents\ArmorsmithDesigner\DefaultAvatar_2_0.xml
Now try running Armorsmith again, if that still doesn't work, try nuking the whole ArmorsmithDesigner folder here in your Documents and that will essentially treat Armorsmith as a brand new install.
If you run into any installation issues which aren't mentioned here don't hesitate to reach out to TheArmoredGarage@gmail.com or contact us on the Facebook Group where there's lots of members willing to lend a hand figuring out the issue.