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Black Screen Crash

Can Still Hear Sounds

By adisca on May 27, 2009 7:52:46 PM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

adisca

Join Date 05/2009
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After around 5 minutes of playing single or multiplayer, my screen goes black as if the monitor has lost the connection the computer. I can still hear the sounds of the game for a short time, but nothing will bring the screen back from the darkness. The only solution is to hard-reset.

After some testing, I am confident that this has nothing to do with video or audio performance, nor does it have anything to do with my computer's screen saver or power settings.

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Reply #1
adisca
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May 28, 2009 6:46:25 PM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

Going to reinstall the game just for kicks, see if that helps.

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Reply #2
kryo
Join Date 05/2003
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May 28, 2009 7:23:29 PM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

Most likely a video driver reset--what version of drivers do you have?

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Reply #3
adisca
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May 28, 2009 8:46:15 PM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

Just updated to the newest, 5/15/2009 released

ATI Catalyst™ 9.5 Display Driver for Windows XP Professional/Home Edition

in an attempt to solve this problem. My card is an ATI Radeon 8500 series.

Upon reinstalling, I encountered a short audio freeze early on in the test game. After that hiccup, I thought it was clear sailing, but sadly after awhile the screen went black. I was in a demigod fight at the time, and I noticed that the sound effects cut out for a few seconds while the music remained. The sound effects returned, and I had to hard-reset as usual.

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Reply #4
adisca
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May 29, 2009 11:12:34 AM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

Anything else I should try before just praying that the new patch will magically fix it?

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Reply #5
kryo
Join Date 05/2003
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May 29, 2009 12:32:51 PM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

My card is an ATI Radeon 8500 series.

Er, are you sure about that? That card is positively ancient and can't run the game at all (the minimum ATI card is an x1000 series).

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Reply #6
adisca
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May 29, 2009 4:44:46 PM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

Oops, typo on my part. Make that ATI Radeon 4800 series. Just double-checked that I didn't do something incredibly stupid and do in fact have the correct drivers also, not the 8500 ones. No idea where that number came from...

Sorry for the confusion.

 

edit: this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121272

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Reply #7
Makerz
Join Date 04/2009
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May 29, 2009 6:11:42 PM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

Please follow these steps so next time you have a bluescreen we can get the code in it to identify your issue. To make sure you can read the blue screen (as in if you see the blue screen for a second or two and your PC auto-reboots and you can't read it ... then follow the instructions below to disable auto reboot so you can write down the code).

 

You should turn off the BSOD auto-reboot so next time you can see it and write down the error code.

(Note: I am assuming you are running windows XP. If you are not re-post and tell me you are not running windows XP. If you are please follow the instructions below.)

To do this ...

1) Right click on the "My computer" icon in the desktop...

2) Go to properties

3) Go to "Advanced"

4) Go to "Startup and Recovery" and hit the "settings" button.

5) Now where it says in the "System failue" box un-tick the box that says "Automatically re-start".

 

Now you just have to hope you will have another BSOD (or maybe never have it again) ... but if you do we will need the code from it.



If you get a screen like this the code we will need is after the "***  STOP:" after the bottom (so its STOP: 0x00000050 and so on and so on.

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Reply #8
adisca
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May 29, 2009 7:57:21 PM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

I have never gotten a BSOD from this. My screen goes black and my monitor acts as if it has lost its connection to the video card. I can still hear the sounds of battle and epic orchestral accompaniment continuing on unhindered! Thanks for reading the thread though!

I usually reset shortly after this, but for the sake of science I will let the game play for awhile and see what happens.

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Reply #9
themadmanazn
Join Date 05/2009
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May 29, 2009 8:03:56 PM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

Quoting adisca,
reply 8
I have never gotten a BSOD from this. My screen goes black and my monitor acts as if it has lost its connection to the video card. I can still hear the sounds of battle and epic orchestral accompaniment continuing on unhindered! Thanks for reading the thread though!

I usually reset shortly after this, but for the sake of science I will let the game play for awhile and see what happens.

Sounds like a graphics card issue to me. Your card might be damaged, also try the latest or even beta drivers to see if they help.

I have a Radeion HD 4830 in one of my computers and it works fine with Demigod.

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Reply #10
adisca
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May 29, 2009 10:05:46 PM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

Well, I know this is a played-out justification, but Demigod is the only game to give me problems.

I just did a couple more tests - tried the ASUS drivers, and both times the audio glitched out and got stuck in a repeating sound effect (like in a crash), screen goes black as normal, monitor cannot find input and goes into energy saver mode, and it will just sit like this indefinitely until I reset. There is definitely no BSOD to get any information from.

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Reply #11
adisca
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May 29, 2009 10:36:03 PM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

Tried running the game in a window... exact same thing happens. In that crash the sound and music did continue... could here the game still going on, but the monitor is power saving. I don't seem to be able to alt-tab, ctrl-alt-delete, or effect windows in any way that leads me to believe it is still running normally back there.

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Reply #12
Dash
Join Date 03/2009
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May 29, 2009 11:33:03 PM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

Have you made sure you have the newest DirectX updates?

 

Version: 9.26.1590
Date Published: 3/23/2009

http://www.microsoft.com/DOWNLOADS/details.aspx?FamilyID=2da43d38-db71-4c1b-bc6a-9b6652cd92a3&displaylang=en

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Reply #13
adisca
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May 30, 2009 12:18:12 AM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

I'm fairly certain those files were up-to-date, but I ran the install to be sure. It didn't help, but thanks for the suggestion.

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Reply #14
Necoras
Join Date 03/2009
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May 31, 2009 4:20:41 PM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

I just had the same thing happen immediately upon starting up demigod. I've been playing since launch and not had any issues. The only thing that's changed is that I installed a new sound card (Creative XFi something. Not descriptive I know). I reset and went back into demigod and it's come up fine. I was able to remote in from a laptop and looked at the event viewer and the Desktop Windows Manager couldn't start/initialize because Demigod had control. Let me know if there's any other specific information that would help.

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Reply #15
cryptogoth
Join Date 04/2009
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May 31, 2009 5:06:48 PM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

I also think it's a video card problem, if you use Win XP go to Catalyst Control Center and enable VPU recover, unfortunately if you use Vista you can't enable that, since it's suposed to have that implemented allready..

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Reply #16
adisca
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May 31, 2009 5:12:34 PM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

Thanks for the report. I'll start looking for audio-related solutions and post if I find anything.

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Reply #17
adisca
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May 31, 2009 11:36:58 PM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

Well, I've tried everything audio-related I could think of. I've had a few test games where the sound has glitched out for a second and went back to normal before the black screen crash. Lately, the sound has been in a glithced loop during the crash more often than it has continued to play normally, so maybe you're right about it being an audio issue... but I cannot fix the problem.

I'm using my mobo's onboard audio which is Realtek HD Audio Driver, updated with latest firnware and even the beta fix to try and solve this. My mobo is a GIGABYTE GA-EP45-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard.

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Reply #18
Makerz
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June 1, 2009 12:46:08 AM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

Quoting adisca,
reply 8
I have never gotten a BSOD from this. My screen goes black and my monitor acts as if it has lost its connection to the video card. I can still hear the sounds of battle and epic orchestral accompaniment continuing on unhindered! Thanks for reading the thread though!

I usually reset shortly after this, but for the sake of science I will let the game play for awhile and see what happens.

 

Oo i miss read a lil.

Eh i got idea but since your a douche. Fook you to .

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Reply #19
adisca
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June 1, 2009 10:42:00 AM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

You're a great contributer to the community! Keep doing God's work my friend!

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Reply #20
Rhett47
Join Date 03/2003
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June 1, 2009 3:42:03 PM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

I'm having the exact same problem as the OP.  I've spent the past day or so trying to figure this out, because initially I thought it was a hardware issue.  Now, I'm becomming convinced its a software issue of some sort (either DG or drivers etc). 

I am running an 8800GT card with a E8400 Core Duo Processor, 4GM RAM.  My issue is exactly the same-- within a minute or two of starting a new game, the screen goes black, sound stops, but the computer keeps running as usual (fans spinning normally, power running cleanly, all lights on, etc).  I cannot alt tab/ctrl alt del out.  It requires a hard reboot to get back to normal, if I let it sit the fans will just merrily run without any change.  Windows event viewer is not showing anything occuring.  I have unchecked the relevant settings in vista to try and get a blue screen with no luck (i.e. unchecked the auto-restart button etc).  

Steps I've already tried:

1) Cleaning/Reseating the video card

2) Checked temps on everything (CPU running at normal temps the whole time, GPU heats up but only to ~60C which is normal for the card)

3) Ran windows basic memory test

4) Unplugged all but the primary harddrive and ran it (to check the Power Supply, which is a high end 650W one).

5) I'm using the newest drivers, does anyone have suggestions of which old nvidia drivers may be worth trying?

All the components are within 1.5 years old, so I'm pretty sure its not a hardware problem (unless of course the card is just inexplicably dying).  I only experience such errors with one other game (Left 4 Dead, which used to run fine) but it is a noted problem with the NVidia drivers/8800GT card that they still haven't fixed.  Any thoughts?

 

EDIT: I too have Realtek onboard audio, and just updated the drivers (will try and see if that fixes the problem).

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Reply #21
Rhett47
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June 1, 2009 5:20:39 PM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

Nevermind, this is happening with all my games now.  I've contacted XFX to see what they have to say...  I certainly hope it is a video card error, and not something worse.  If anyone has any general suggestions though, please let me know

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Reply #22
SetarcosNous
Join Date 04/2006
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June 1, 2009 5:32:11 PM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

Just throwing something out there...what happens if you turn the monitor off and then back on while in this black screen state?

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Reply #23
SetarcosNous
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June 1, 2009 5:41:54 PM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

Quoting Rhett47,
reply 21
Nevermind, this is happening with all my games now.  I've contacted XFX to see what they have to say...  I certainly hope it is a video card error, and not something worse.  If anyone has any general suggestions though, please let me know

It's possible that Demigod stresses a certain part of video cards more than other games, and that stress is causing the flaw in the card to get worse (i.e. noticeable in other games). I had a eVga 7900GT KO start going out on me about a year ago due to the Crysis demo, looking around online I found there was a known problem with a whole batch of the cards and I had just never stressed it hard enough until then to notice (luckily evga replaced it with an 8800GTS due to the lifetime warranty and all).

 

Outside of hardware failure, I've run Demigod fine on my laptop with a Realtek audio chipset under several drivers without problem. I run it on my 8800GT (gave my wife the GTS mentioned above) and my wife's machine, both with the latest drivers fine also. Maybe DirectX is was corrupted on your system? Run scandisk or any harddrive checking tools recently?

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Reply #24
adisca
Join Date 05/2009
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June 1, 2009 8:17:46 PM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

Quoting SetarcosNous,
reply 22
Just throwing something out there...what happens if you turn the monitor off and then back on while in this black screen state?

As far as I can tell, the monitor thinks there is no video input and just goes into a power-saving or sleep mode. When I turn it off and back on, it still can't find any input. This is what it seems like at least... but yeah, I'm pretty positive that it's not an issue with the monitor itself.

I wish I could say that all my games were having problems like this... it would certainly make this easier to troubleshoot.

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Reply #25
SetarcosNous
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June 2, 2009 12:53:50 PM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

I was just thinking along the lines that some older games I've played seem to exit weird and my monitor doesn't seem to know to switch resolutions. I.E. Tried the old Majesty Demo last week and you can't even select a resolution (didn't check but it couldn't have been more than 800x600). About half the time, when I would exit out I would have to turn my monitor off and back on because it didn't know to switch back to my 1600x1200 resolution. Maybe there is some weird error that halfway kicks you to desktop, perhaps restarting the monitor might reveal something.

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