Black Screen on Startup

[Legacy_DalishRanger]

               I recently installed Neverwinter Nights Diamond for some nostalgia gaming, but I'm having some issues getting it to run properly. For the record, I already have nwn.exe and nwmain.exe set to run as administrator and in compatibility mode. The game will launch fine and the opening movies play, but when I get to the main menu, the screen is black - save for the hand cursor. The background music plays too, but I can't see anything. Same issue when running NWN in windowed mode.

My specs:

• Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit
• 4GB RAM
• ATI Radeon HD 5770 (Driver version 8.791.0.0)
• Intel i7 quad core 2.83 GHz

I'm thinking it's a graphics card issue, but I'm trying to figure out what. I've updated my drivers and I'm fairly certain I have DirectX 9.0c installed currently in addition to DirectX 11. But it's possible I missed something. Any suggestions?

EDIT: I Should also add that the game is all updated and patched to 1.69.
               
               

               

                     Modifié par DalishRanger, 29 novembre 2010 - 06:48 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Calvinthesneak]

               Going to suggest a driver issue..... people were saying some of the 10.xxx drivers were working, I'll try to sort a number here

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_DalishRanger]

               Hm... 10.xxx drivers for what card? To my knowledge/searching, 8.791.0.0 is the most recent driver for my video card. I'll be ecstatic if I'm proven wrong, however.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_HipMaestro]

               

DalishRanger wrote...

Hm... 10.xxx drivers for what card? To my knowledge/searching, 8.791.0.0 is the most recent driver for my video card. I'll be ecstatic if I'm proven wrong, however.

Calvin is referring to the ATI Catalyst Drivers though it appears you are not using any of them like these.

BTW, which compatibility mode are you using? Is that really an HC 5770 or an HD 5770?
               
               

               

                     Modifié par HipMaestro, 29 novembre 2010 - 06:05 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_DalishRanger]

               

HipMaestro wrote...
Calvin is referring to the ATI Catalyst Drivers though it appears you are not using any of them like these.

I am, though. I've been to that page before and I downloaded all the Cataylst drivers there. Had to reboot after installing them and everything. The latest driver data is from the dxdiag results, so perhaps it's referring to drivers other than the Catalyst ones?

HipMaestro wrote...
BTW, which compatibility mode are you using? Is that really an HC 5770 or an HD 5770?

Ack, that was a typo. Should be HD Radeon 5770. Sorry about that.

I've tried it both with XP SP 2 and SP 3 mode, both running as administrator. Done those settings in full screen and windowed mode. Made sure I altered/matched the settings for both nwmain.exe and nwn.exe each time. Always the same issue - intro movies play, but menu is black and sound is playing.
               
               

               

                     Modifié par DalishRanger, 29 novembre 2010 - 06:58 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_HipMaestro]

               Did you re-run the configure utility after installing the current driver(s)?  If not, the report will still contain the old values.

Did you custom install the game directly on the C: drive like Shia's Win7 instructions?
Did you edit the nwn.ini to make ShinyWater=0 ?

You may want to experiment with some of the older versions of Catalyst that you can find at the bottom of that previously-furnished AMD driver page.  Supposedly, 10.3 worked best for most folks with ATI cards (at that time, of course).
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_DalishRanger]

               Yes, and the report still shows 8.791.0.0 in dxdiag. This might be correct though, because if I go into the CCC, it says my Catalyst Version is 10.111, but my Driver Packaging Version is 8.791-101026a-107888C-ATI. So I'm guessing dxdiag is just showing the driver packaging in the report, not CCC.

No, but I didn't install it into the (x86) folder either. I install all my games to a secondary drive, E:\\, to save space on my C:\\ drive. I'm thinking that shouldn't matter as long as it's not in the (x86) folder, right?



I haven't tried the ShinyWater=0 or the older drivers yet, so I'll go do that, thanks. '>

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_DalishRanger]

               No, unfortunately those didn't work either. Hm. Well, I'm wiping and re-setting up my old XP machine as a secondary computer anyway, and I know Neverwinter Nights worked on that rig. So until I can figure out the exact fix (if any) for this machine, I'll just play it on the old PC. Better than nothing. Thanks for the help regardless, HipMaestro and Calvinthesneak. I do appreciate it.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_HipMaestro]

               

DalishRanger wrote...

No, unfortunately those didn't work either. Hm. Well, I'm wiping and re-setting up my old XP machine as a secondary computer anyway, and I know Neverwinter Nights worked on that rig. So until I can figure out the exact fix (if any) for this machine, I'll just play it on the old PC. Better than nothing. Thanks for the help regardless, HipMaestro and Calvinthesneak. I do appreciate it.

That is bad news.  I can easily relate to your temporary solution as I also have a legacy machine dedicated to older games that won't run on my newer config... fortunately NWN is not one of those (some are DOS *lol*).

Just out of curiosity and in line with one of your comments regarding the validity of using alternate drives...
What does the nwconfig,ini list as the paths for the following:

[Registry] Location=?
[Registry] StartMenu=?
[Registry] Path=?

and all entries under [Drive Info]?
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_DalishRanger]

               The registry info says:

Location=E:\\NeverwinterNights\\NWN\\
Path=E:\\NeverwinterNights\\NWN\\
StartMenu=C:\\ProgramData\\MicrosoftWindows\\Start Menu\\Programs\\Neverwinter Nights

Which is all accurate to their locations. Never had a problem with a game because it was installed on the E:\\ drive before, though. All my games are installed on there. I've had to tweak a few to work with Windows 7 like Bloodlines and Jade Empire, but Neverwinter's the first one I've yet to get to work after setting up compatibility modes (or, in Bloodline's case) using fan patches to help it run on a 64 bit system if it wasn't designed for it.
               
               

               

                     Modifié par DalishRanger, 30 novembre 2010 - 04:10 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Mudeye]

               Check this link out:

http://social.biowar...7/index/3341490
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_AzurDraak]

               Have you tested with UAC off rather than "as administrator"?
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_DalishRanger]

               Yes to both above; haven't found anything that worked. But it's installed and running on my old PC, and as long as I can play it at all, I'm happy.