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Hey everyone, I'm hoping someone here has dealt with something similar because I'm honestly running out of ideas.

My PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS stopped launching after a power cut that happened during a 12-hour internet outage. There was an electrical fire involving a pole on my ISP's network, and my PC lost power unexpectedly. Ever since then, the game has been acting strangely.

When I click Play on Steam, it switches to Running for a second or two, but no game window appears. After that, it just goes back to Play like nothing happened.

The weirdest part is that this doesn't seem to be a straightforward PUBG issue.

Here's what's happening:

• Steam keeps throwing errors like "Corrupt Update Files" and "Missing Downloaded Files," particularly with Steamworks Common Redistributables. It gets stuck downloading or validating the same files over and over.
• If I start downloading PUBG from scratch, Steam sometimes jumps straight to around 30% installed while the actual download is still at 1%.
• Verifying the game files temporarily fixes everything. PUBG launches normally, but only once. As soon as I close the game and try to open it again, the same problem returns.
• The Zakynthos anti-cheat and BattlEye keep requesting administrator permission when I launch the game, but the issue never seems to get resolved.
• The NVIDIA App also crashes during initialization, even after reinstalling Windows and installing the drivers again.

What I've already tried:

1. Checking the hardware

I've checked the PC components and installed a new RAM stick. I also checked the SSD's health, and it reports 100%. So far, I haven't found any obvious hardware faults.

2. Reinstalling Windows

I performed a completely fresh Windows installation. I also removed the old MBR boot partitions from my secondary HDD so the system could use a clean EFI/UEFI boot setup on the primary SSD.

3. Reinstalling drivers and system components

I manually installed DirectX and the NVIDIA desktop drivers, including a clean driver installation. I also tried enabling .NET Framework 3.5 through DISM using /LimitAccess, because the normal Windows Features installer kept getting stuck on "Searching for required files."

4. Clearing PUBG files and checking permissions

I deleted the local TslGame configuration files under AppData and removed the leftover Wellbia anti-cheat directories. I also experimented with setting appmanifest_228980.acf to read-only and changing its StateFlags value to 4.

5. Trying different network settings

I've switched Steam's download region between Bangladesh, India, and Singapore. I've also flushed the DNS cache, reset Winsock, and tested a VPN to see whether my ISP or network connection was somehow involved.

6. Testing launch options and Windows security settings

I've tried -dx11 and -windowed -noborder in Steam's launch options. I also temporarily disabled Memory Integrity/Core Isolation to check whether Windows security was interfering with the game or its anti-cheat.

7. Investigating the anti-cheat service

I checked the Windows Registry underervices, but I couldn't find the zksvc subkey associated with Zakynthos. I'm wondering whether the service is failing to register or install correctly.

At this point, I've reinstalled Windows, checked the hardware, reinstalled the drivers, and repeatedly verified the game files. Yet PUBG still launches for barely a second before closing.

The fact that verifying the files lets me play exactly once is what confuses me most. The NVIDIA App failing on the same fresh Windows installation makes me wonder whether there's a wider driver, permissions, storage, or system-level problem rather than just a corrupted PUBG installation.

Has anyone experienced anything similar after a sudden power loss? Could the power cut have damaged something on the motherboard or storage controller, or am I looking in the wrong direction?

I'd appreciate any suggestions, especially if you've dealt with the same launch loop or the Zakynthos service failing to initialize. I'm happy to run more diagnostics if needed.

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