Infinite loading screen on first time startup

have downloaded and redownloaded SPT AKI about a dozen times using the installer and manually, and the game simply won't get past the initial loading screen. i've tried a few of the other fixes in threads like deleting the .ini files in the eft folder in my documents, running the apps as admin, clearing the caches settings in the aki launcher, spamming alt f12 and alt x to try to kickstart it, but nothing seems to work. i really wanna scratch my tarkov itch so any advice is appreciated.