Game not launching

Support Technical Support
224

We analyzed detailed network traces to understand why WoW.exe wasn’t launching properly.

At first, the game client attempted to connect to Blizzard’s servers (IPs like 137.221.64.x and 137.221.105.232) but failed. The traces showed repeated retransmissions, incomplete or broken TLS handshakes, and many “Out-of-Order” packets.

This typically indicates network-related issues, such as:

  • Local packet loss
  • Firewall or antivirus interference
  • DNS resolution problems on the player’s side

However, it’s important to note that these problems can also occur on Blizzard’s side, for example due to:

  • DDoS attacks or extremely high server load
  • Routing issues between Blizzard’s network and certain ISPs
  • Datacenter outages or ongoing maintenance

In our case, after some time, the connection finally succeeded (a clean TLS handshake with IP 137.221.104.171), and WoW.exe was able to launch without further problems.

Summary: The issue was caused by network instability, either on the player’s side or potentially on Blizzard’s side. Once the connection stabilized, the game worked again.

What you can do to rule out problems on your side:

:one: Check your network route (traceroute)
tracert 137.221.105.232
This helps identify where packet loss or high latency begins (your router, your ISP, or further down the line).

:two: Flush your DNS cache
ipconfig /flushdns
Clears outdated or corrupted DNS entries. Restart your PC afterward.

:three: Allow Blizzard IP ranges in Windows Firewall

  • Create a new outbound rule in Windows Firewall.
  • Program: Wow.exe or Battle.net.exe
  • Protocol: TCP and UDP (all or main ports like 80, 443, 1119, 3724, 6112–6114)
  • Remote IP range:
    137.221.0.0/16
  • Action: Allow the connection.

Final note:
If these steps don’t help and multiple players in your region report the same problem, it’s very likely a Blizzard-side or wider network issue. In fact, since many players have been experiencing the same issues since yesterday, the problem is clearly on Blizzard’s side. Either they have increased client-side network security measures, or their servers are currently facing a network problem — that’s a fact.

225

+1 experiencing this issue.

Running Scan and Repair fixes it temporarily for me, then the issue returns spontaneously a few hours later. Can only play the game by scanning and repairing multiple times per day.

226

It worked just fine yesterday via Launcher for me, and via Wow.exe from Retail folder for others.
However, now, whatever via Launcher or .exe, game is saying:
The CAS system was unable to initialize: Tact instance creation failed. Error (16): container locked.
Tact instance creation failed. Error (16): container locked.

And unable to open game at all. Any fixes so far?

227

Wrong. I play on Linux and have this problem as well. This is a blizz issue.

228

For all those saying scan & repair does not work, it’s because wow is running the background as you’ve already clicked play at least once. Open task manager, close all copies of “wow” and “world of warcraft” you can find, then you can run scan & repair. This will let you in once, but after that it will have the same problem

229

What Scan and Repair does at this point? I can’t even download an update for Cataclysm Classic, which seems to be running in the background, but then again pausing it won’t change a thing with a problem with retail anyways.

This problem:

The CAS system was unable to initialize: Tact instance creation failed. Error (16): container locked.
Tact instance creation failed. Error (16): container locked.

231

Still happening this morning, 24 hours of this + now, USA doesnt seem to be having the same issues as no post on there side…

233

Many players have been experiencing the same connection issues since yesterday, so the problem is clearly on Blizzard’s side.
It may be due to increased client security measures or an ongoing network problem on Blizzard’s servers.

If something posted here before seems to fix the problem, it’s most likely just lucky timing with a successful packet transmission between you and Blizzard. Just take a look at your packet traces and you will see the actual issue.

234

same issue since yesterday

235

Just did a scan & repair, which took forever, but after that it actually downloaded something. Might be that blizz already pushed a fix. try restarting your launcher and doing a scan & repair.

  • Not saying this fixes anything, will try not
  • Even after a complete shutdown of my pc, wow still started after that. at least on my end , scan and repair did seem to do something , whilst it didn’t before.
  • Tried multiple reboots , shutdowns, BNET restarts, game has consistenly launched within <3 seconds after the small update i got through scan & repair.
236

Good to know, but what about

The CAS system was unable to initialize: Tact instance creation failed. Error (16): container locked.
Tact instance creation failed. Error (16): container locked.

Message that prevents trying to open .exe at all.

237

Same issue with both of us here.
Used the repair last night to make it run. Today has the issue again and i’m using the repair again to start the game.

238

what if the scan and repair is greyed out?

239

Have Blue adressed this issue at all?

240

This happening since 8 July ( yesterday ) that the game was not starting. Almost panic since i had more Videocard problems in the past ( AMD videocard ) So i did like click play like 10 times to see if my pc would react. Suddenly i get so many windows. Felt like a huge delay.

Also i wanted to try scan and repair somewhere, but it was greyed out?

Moment i press play: The scan and repair goes white again i noticed, and 1 sec later goes grey again. so i tried to click play and fast click the scan and repair option, but nothing was happening. After like 10 mins the game started like 10 times since i clicked play a few times.

This morning the same issue.

Moment i am making this post, World of warcraft started up. its about ± 5 a 10 mins. since coffee is still hot :slight_smile:

i shutted down world of warcraft just now to see if scan and repair is white again. Suddenly i get the scan. So i quess it was on the waiting list since the game started first…

After the scan i had an extra update? maybe since the scan and repair removed some things. After that i tried to click on play again. Wow seems starting normally. But we’ll see tomorow :slight_smile: :sweat_smile:

241

Still no blue response to this seriously?!

242

Same, plus can’t update.

It’s getting difficult to justify paying for this slop when indie projects that ripped off a version from 20 years ago are doing a substantially better job. At least I can log in to them.

243

12 mn to enter, this morning…

244

yesterday after hitting Play, the game would launch after some minutes, but it feels like 5…ok, nvm now it came up…jesus this is annoying…

246

Are all the hamsters on a summer break, slurping martinis at the beach? Shouldn’t they rotate the hamsters?..