The Infamous Non-Responding Black-Screen on Startup: Possible Solutions

[Alabast]

So tons of us have had the same problem. The launcher starts, we select a server, and the game window starts and is black... and black.. and then you realize it is not responding, and have to force quit. It seems a lot of us have that problem, but it seems that everybody has a different cause to it.

First I want to remiond everyone that fixing problems like this is and most others on your computer is completely guesswork. The problem can be anywhere, so if one person cant fix it, dont knock them down, the problem just wasnt where he looked. Saying that, the fact that the client actually starts but fails to continue running hints that the problem lies either in the video or sound areas.

Also, this is not a problem with the game, it works just fine. The client is just oddly sensitive, and there might be a number of things that could be wrong. If you are waiting for Turbine to "fix" their game.... well, it was nice playing with you.

The three problems I have seen are:
Most Likely- There is an issue with your sound or video drivers
Possibly Maybe- Corrupt, missing, or extra .dll and other system files
I quite doubt it- actual hardware problems with you video or sound card

Drivers
-Make sure they are up to date. Go to the website of the manufacturer of both your sound and video components and update them.
-Multiple Drivers do cause a problem. This was my personal issue. I have a realtek sound driver that handles everything, and a logitech quickcam driver that handles the sound for my webcam. Once i disabled the logitech driver, it worked like a charm. For most computers go into your control panel and look for something along the lines of Device Manager. There you can disable the drivers. (only disable sound, you kind of need the video one. And it might take a few minutes to successfully disable it)

System and .DLL files
-This part always make sure you either create a restore point or back-up, and if you try something and it doesnt work, return it to the way it was. There are various things that can be the issue here, but the main one (I think) is just that your computer has similar files to DDO and they are conflicting. I think the main problem is with OpenAL. DDO has its own custom files of OpenAL, so if you have it seperate on your computer, unistall it it. (Can be done through the Control Panel)
-It could be a DirectX problem. At the end of this post is a link for A DirectX updater and repair program, all official and safe from the Microsoft website.
-Also try running DxDiag, short for DirectX Diagnostic. Just type "DxDiag" in your search and it should come up. This will tell you if there are any problems that DirectX itself is causing. If anything comes up, try and fix it. Note: if the green bar stops in the bottom left, cancel out and run again. It will then prompt on what it got stuck on, and ask if you want to bypass. More than likely, hit yes. For me this was DirectShow.

Hardware
-There was a thread somewhere on this forum where the kids factory built videocard was set to overclock as a defult, and he had to change it to normal. I have no clue how to fix that, and you shouldnt try unless you know what your doing or for sure. And more than likely, this isnt the problem.


Im not trying to give you a set solution, just giving you leads on where to look and where to start. It also isnt a bad idea to submit a ticket to Turbine. That is how I ended up getting my problem solved. We ended up swapping a number of emails over about 3 days to find the problem. Just remember, they dont work weekends and seem to do technical support in the last 5 hours of their day. Here in Ohio that wa roughly 3:00pm to 8:00pm. And as I mentioned above, it is all educated guesses. The first 4 solutions they give you might not work, but it is not because they are idiots.

Goodluck everybody!

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...A-9B6652CD92A3
also here is where you submit a ticket
http://www.ddo.com/component/content...86-tech-ticket

[dasungeheuer]

Good stuff, a thread to compile possible solutions is long overdue.

Here are a few more things that have caused the "black screen on startup" issue for people:

- .NET 1.1 SP1 Security Update (KB953297). There are reports of people fixing a black screen on startup by installing it, and reports of people fixing a black screen by _un_installing it. Makes no sense to me either. Windows Update lets you install it, and "Add/Remove Programs -> View installed updates" lets you uninstall it.

- If your graphics chip doesn't support DDO features, DDO may try to render using the DX9 software renderer. By default, that gives you a black screen. Installing the DX9 SDK gives you a software renderer that can actually show a screen. That's far sub-par to having hardware support, of course - but explains why at least one person solved his issue by installing the SDK.

- DirectInput issues. A subset of your more generic "DirectX" issues, to be sure. Disconnecting unused input devices has helped some people. Others replaced dinput8.dll.


Beyond the "black screen on startup" issue, there are also "random black screen while playing" issues. I had one of those, and that was a hardware issue in my case. Turbine support tells me that "aging" 8800GT developing stability issues due to the common factory overclock on those cards is something they see a lot. It's pretty easily fixed using RivaTuner, setting the clock to 600 core / 900 memory, which is NVidia stock for that card. And yes, you should know what you are doing.