my screen just goes black

from Stardock Forums

I have a Dell XPS PC, and 6GB of ram and a top of the line ATI vid card, but when I start the game it only goes to a black screen.  I have updated the game via impulse, re-instaled the game, tried every posible screen resolution, and still nothing. I am almost ready to take the game back and get my money on somthing I can realy play.  Please help.  The game looks cool and I love RTS games, so suggestions are appreciated, thanks.

6,192 views 8 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

My brother had this problem, he has to start the game in windowed mode for the game to run. It's a driver issue he has where some games will only run in windowed but not in full. Try updating your video drivers and/or running driver cleaner. If that's no help, then look around for details of how to run the game in windowed mode.

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

Try updating the game via impulse, I haven't seen this bug since v1.00 of Vinalla sins

Sins of a Solar Empire II
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top

I had a problem when I would double click it to start the game it would stay black, the problem for me was that my firewall stopped the game from going and was asking for permission to allow it to play so maybe check your virus scan and firewall...who knows.

Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top

Game has been updated, firewall turned off, AV turned off, ATI video drivers updated to latest, tried XP compatibility mode also, all still ends up with the same result, game comes up to a black screen.

If anyone else has any ideas I'm all ears.

 

Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top

i have this issue sometimes. the screen stays black until im sure its frozen...

and then the Ironclad logo comes up

although other times the IC logo will come up very quickly...

you should try opening the game again, and just let it run for as long as possible. if after say 10-15 minutes (on the extreme end) nothing happens, then contact support@stardock.com about it.

Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top

Tried another video card (nvidia instead of ATI) even tried another monitor, same result, game launches to a black screen, and we let it sit there for literally 10 minutes and nothing.  Only solution is to ctrl-alt-del, task manager and end task (and it says not responding).  Even exchanged for another copy of the game, thinking the disc was defective, same result.  Also, have already e-mailed tech support some time ago, they have not yet replied.

 

Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top

Quick google for "xps video problem" gave a number of links. What model number is your xps? Can you run any other games?

Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top

It's an XPS 430, desktop, not laptop.  Other games are playable, however I have discovered Age of Empires: Conquerers has the same issue as well.