Black screen after login

[Plinto]

Hi
I’ve read several post with people with similar problems. I just purchased a new Alienware laptop with windows 11. I downloaded the game I get to the point where I pick the server and click play but game never loads task manager will not ever work pc is just locked on a black screen with a little loading circle only way to get off is to power down the pc and restart. I deleted and reinstall the game no change. Deleted directx and reinstalled installed directx 9, tried running as administrator, I tried all there settings 64bit 32 bit and the 32 bit legacy with no results. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Mindos]

Hi

https://help.standingstonegames.com/...-the-launcher-

https://help.standingstonegames.com/...g-Play-button-

[Plinto]

https://help.standingstonegames.com/...-the-launcher-

https://help.standingstonegames.com/...g-Play-button-

Tried all recommendations in the links and still not working

[bo0mke]

Tried all recommendations in the links and still not working

Have you found a fix? God I want to play this game so bad

[Mindos]

Tried all recommendations in the links and still not working

Try opening another window, anything, a folder on the desktop, etc. Then launch the game. When it "locks" up, try to Alt-Tab. Maybe there's something popping up behind the game window? Maybe check the firewall, in windows and in cable modem router/network, it sounds like it's stalling waiting for something...

[Drinkfist]

I am having this issue as well. Game boots to a black screen and locks up. Sometimes during my tests I managed to get it to play 1 second of the music before locking up. One lucky time I made it to character select for it to lock up the second I pressed a button and then from that point forward the issue reverted back to black screen on boot with occasional 1 second of music. I have tried the following:

- Installed all C++ redist.
- Fully updated Windows 10.
- Full up to date as well as reverted Drivers back 1 year.
- Used Launcher Repair function. Used launcher revert to defaults and revert display to defaults function.
- Ran "No Proxy" in launcher setting.
- Ran 64 bit and 32 bit launcher settings.
- Ran without Steam overlay. Ran without Discord overlay. Ran without both running at all.
- Full uninstall and redownload, reinstall of client via steam and manual deletion of both steamapps folder and MyDocuments folders three times.
- Full uninstall and redownload using standalone client.
- Restarted computer multiple times.
- Ran program without windows defender enabled. Made sure dndclient and dndclient64 are both allowed.
- Unplugged gamepad. We are getting cursed testing at this point boys.
- Ran program with headset.
- Ran program and allowed it to hang for 10 minutes at black screen without touching any buttons this is a super cursed test.
- Set all applications to run as admin one by one in the root folder as well as the 64 bit folder.
- Any number of menial tests involving checking services in msconfig and watching it in task manager and anything along that line.

Not a single one of these tests has changed the result in any way. I login to the launcher and select any server and click play. Program opens to black and sometimes plays a single second of music and then hangs in silence.

I have played this game last hardcore league. It ran. I have played this game for many hours without issues months ago. Friends wanted me to play with them for this HCL.

I DEMAND JUSTICE

MY NAME IS DRINKFIST AND I HAVE SEEN EVIL. I HAVE SEEN HORROR. I HAVE SEEN THE UNHOLY MAGGOTS WHICH FEAST IN THE DARK RECESSES OF THE HUMAN SOUL.
I have seen all thease things and but until today I have not seen THIS.

[Mindos]

I am having this issue as well. Game boots to a black screen and locks up. Sometimes during my tests I managed to get it to play 1 second of the music

What's your audio device? Can you try the slightly advanced step of disabling ALL your sound related hardware, INCLUDING anything that plugs into the computer, or wirelessly and trying to start the game again?

[Drinkfist]

What's your audio device? Can you try the slightly advanced step of disabling ALL your sound related hardware, INCLUDING anything that plugs into the computer, or wirelessly and trying to start the game again?

Your test was so cursed I had to run it the second I read it. Unfortunately it produced no results. I disabled all audio devices including microphones and performed a restart as well as patched the game to the current newest version this morning. Still boot program to black screen. I can tell you there was a difference this time though. The one second of audio didn't play.

I also want everyone even considering hardware faults to hold up as this is the ONLY video game I have installed that does not run. Everything else is working. Much more taxing things are working. Also worth noting I have installed it both on Steam and Standalone clients it has in fact been on two separate drives and produced the same result. One HDD and currently my SSD.

I cannot fathom this one. Normally something should have taken by now or changed something to give a hint. Do you guys boot the game with your legs crossed?

[liston33]

Have you right clicked the shortcut and ran the compatibility trouble shooter.?

[Drinkfist]

Have you right clicked the shortcut and ran the compatibility trouble shooter.?

https://i.imgur.com/Bflg7vi.png

That one did give a new error which after hitting yes booted the game to the same issue of black screen and 1 second of audio crash. The dll in question is in the root folder and exists.
I would also like to add that complete uninstall of display driver from the device manager was performed as well as defaulting my Nvidia display settings to no avail. Before I simply just updated drivers.

Some new updates thoughout the tests. The standalone launcher is now taking longer to run though its startup checks prior to the login. There is also an issue now where I enter my password and click login and the button grays out and then I have to enter the password again to get it to show me the server list. A friend that is also an extreme masochist is assisting me and suggested running the launcher as an admin. Given how the new install for the standalone from steam I haven't gone though all the files and set them as such still. When running the launcher in admin in an attempt to generate a log file I am met with all servers down. Disabling firewalls produces the same result.

[Stikey]

I have tried:

Uninstalling, reinstalling
Repair
Install DX 9 and have tried running it on DX9, 10, and 11
I have tried to above while running all as an administrator (client and launcher)
I have also tried the above while running as an administrator and on compatability mode to Win7 and Win8.
I have tried it in both windowed and full screen with no change.

I still only get to to a black screen and the opening movie sound plays for about 1 second then cuts and I am left with the loading hour glass and the only way to close the program is by alt+tab, WIN+Tab, open new desktop, task manager and end task.

[Mindos]

Let talk about on board graphics and discrete graphics cards. Is there an option in your bios when the computer starts to use one or the other? Is there a control panel for your nividia/amd card that has DDO listed anywhere? Is there a control panel in windows where you can turn off or set priority for on board versus graphics card?

Just a shot in the dark.

[RedlockeShama]

after trying sum of the stuff on here

It was really simple

change your resolution to something crappy.

my bro says don't use the word crappy so ... something basic

use native settings

like you know 1960 by 1440

relaunch game

im thinking this happened because my monitor talks to my computer
and when it went into sleep mode it fubaared my monitors awesomenes

[Euphoria07]

So yesterday I decided to give DDO some love and install it again, when I did I got the black screen on client startup, for hours and hours I tried doing all the suggested things (love me some toubleshooting) in the end I just gave up, then it occurred to me that i really needed a fresh install of windows anyway (had a separate issue with windows updates just not installing), so did exactly that and the game launched properly YAY!
Fast forward to next day and I play abit and then dicided to play some forza horizon 5 but for this I had to install and setup DS4windows which has to have the option to hide ds4 controller in order to use my PS5 controller as an xbox controller.
Now after finishing up on Forza I went to play DDO again and low and behold the same issue had come back and I was deflated, I was like what had changed since and it was 2 things one was DS4 windows and the other was a new nvidia driver popped up which I installed ready for Dying light 2, anyway fast forward many more hours troubleshooting i gave up and had a nap, got back to and remebered the first change I made, DS4 windows and i thought how on earth would this make any difference but I thankfully just unticked the hide ds4 controller checkbox and tried loading up DDO again and it worked to my astonishment even tho DS4 windows was not running it was still in exclusive mode which is probably what ddo was unhappy with.

TLDR if you have DS4 windows untick hide ds4 controller.

[dredre9987]

Also for anyone with issues, DO NOT run this through Steam...Steam hates this game for some reason/

[Euphoria07]

So went to play ddo again and it stopped working again, turns out I need to now have DS4 windows running for DDO to work properly, so its controller related maybe (at least for me).

Unpluggged the contoller and tried again and ddo works, then I tried shutting down DS4 windows with the the controller unplugged and DDO stops working, so something that DS4 windows is doing in the background is making DDO work I just dont know what.

Only thing I can think off is a sub install for DS4 windows called FakerInput which is a output KB+M handler with makes sendinput work for games with anticheat that it would block otherwise, now I use Razer products for both keyboard and mouse which I use with Razer Synapse (pretty lights), so perhaps its that.

I'm just glad DDO is working again, I dont mind this work around although I am interested on the why it works its just unclear to me at least.

[NemesisAlien]

DOnt use the 64bit, it will crash, use the old 32bit.

[Plinto]

Update. Due to other issues with my laptop I did a full reset on my pc reinstalled ddo and now everything works just fine no clue what the issue was but game works fine now. Not an optimal solution for most people but as I said had to rest anyway and it worked for me.

[tesko905]

Thank you for posting this! I was having the exact same experience and it was the DS4. Way too many hours wasted trying to figure this out.

So yesterday I decided to give DDO some love and install it again, when I did I got the black screen on client startup, for hours and hours I tried doing all the suggested things (love me some toubleshooting) in the end I just gave up, then it occurred to me that i really needed a fresh install of windows anyway (had a separate issue with windows updates just not installing), so did exactly that and the game launched properly YAY!
Fast forward to next day and I play abit and then dicided to play some forza horizon 5 but for this I had to install and setup DS4windows which has to have the option to hide ds4 controller in order to use my PS5 controller as an xbox controller.
Now after finishing up on Forza I went to play DDO again and low and behold the same issue had come back and I was deflated, I was like what had changed since and it was 2 things one was DS4 windows and the other was a new nvidia driver popped up which I installed ready for Dying light 2, anyway fast forward many more hours troubleshooting i gave up and had a nap, got back to and remebered the first change I made, DS4 windows and i thought how on earth would this make any difference but I thankfully just unticked the hide ds4 controller checkbox and tried loading up DDO again and it worked to my astonishment even tho DS4 windows was not running it was still in exclusive mode which is probably what ddo was unhappy with.

TLDR if you have DS4 windows untick hide ds4 controller.