[SOLVED] Black screen when starting a game

[lianmarins]

So, there's this "bug" that when the game is installed in any other drive than the C drive you'll get a black screen when getting into a chapter. The solution is obvious, install it on the C drive, the problem is, i just can't do it, my C drive is just for the OS and as such is really small, I don't have 25gb free in it, nor can I free 25gb.

Is there any other way to get this game to work? Skyrim and the AC games have this same issue and i fixed it by keeping the audio files on the C drive and the rest on D, using Link Shell, but I already tried it on dmc4 to no sucess.

[Liandri]

That's the first time I hear about such a thing. Was it actually confirmed by anyone? I may try to look into it to crete another "temporary fix" but for that I'd need someone who can replicate this issue and able to re-install the game on any drive.

[lianmarins]

Yes, looking in the internet it seems like a relatively common problem. Even in the case is skyrim and the ac games.

In the Ubisoft forum you can find a thread explaining the audio files in different drives fix for ac games (that also work in skyrim), I can link it if you want.

As for replicating, shouldn't be hard, as long as you have 2 drives. In my case it's a C (where the OS is) and the D (where steam is installed). I already tried installing steam on the C drive, didn't work.

If it's possible to create a fix to this it would be really good!

[Liandri]

Originally posted by carlosfsn7:

Yes, looking in the internet it seems like a relatively common problem. Even in the case is skyrim and the ac games.

Sorry, this does not make sense according to my experience with games and software overall. I've played hundreds of games and never had such an issue. If there are some unecessary hard-coded strings connected to folder structure which may break the code logic, it translates not into black screen but into something else, e.g. immediate crash or error message.

[lianmarins]

I would agree with you if i hadn`t see for myselft the problem. It appears to be different in each game but the fix of the audio does work, so i really can't deny it. I also played hundreds of games and the first time i came across this problem it really didn't make any sense to me, to this day it does not, but i can't argue with results.

Here, let me explain what happens to each game, maybe you can figure something out of it that i don't:

skyrim/skyrim se: The one that makes the most sense, the game works on the D drive, but a lot of the sounds of it will just not play, like sheating and unsheating a weapon, discovering new places, level up, spells, hits, etc.

Ac unity/syndicate/origins: All of them have this same problem, they stop at the splash screen when you lauch it. As long as it's on other drive that's not the C you wont get out of the splash creen. audio fix resolves the problem.

Saints row 4: Will crash after the logo of the studio, as long as it's not on the c drive. Never tried the audio fix with it since i could always fit it on my C drive since the game is small.

dmc4 se: As I said, gets stuck on a eternal black screen when starding a mission.

Edit: Just realized that you may have missunderstood what i meant with "Yes, looking in the internet it seems like a relatively common problem. Even in the case is skyrim and the ac games.", i did not meant that this is common with games in general, i'm saying that it's common to see people complaining about this games in particular that i listened having this problems.

[Liandri]

Originally posted by carlosfsn7:

skyrim/skyrim se: The one that makes the most sense, the game works on the D drive, but a lot of the sounds of it will just not play, like sheating and unsheating a weapon, discovering new places, level up, spells, hits, etc.

I haven't played Skyrim but I've played Fallout 3 and there are no such issues, while the engine should be pretty much the same. Also check replies here.

Originally posted by carlosfsn7:

Ac unity/syndicate/origins: All of them have this same problem, they stop at the splash screen when you lauch it. As long as it's on other drive that's not the C you wont get out of the splash creen. audio fix resolves the problem.

Haven't played either of those yet. Looks like either engine issue or DRM issue. Also I've found at least 1 reply stating that Origins works fine on D: drive.

Originally posted by carlosfsn7:

Saints row 4: Will crash after the logo of the studio, as long as it's not on the c drive. Never tried the audio fix with it since i could always fit it on my C drive since the game is small.

I didn't find such reports about SR4 but found such reports about SR3, and also at least one person has it working on D: drive.

Originally posted by carlosfsn7:

dmc4 se: As I said, gets stuck on a eternal black screen when starding a mission.

Unless someone with the same problem can confirm that moving the game to C: drive solves the issue, I will consider it false.

Originally posted by carlosfsn7:

Edit: Just realized that you may have missunderstood what i meant with "Yes, looking in the internet it seems like a relatively common problem. Even in the case is skyrim and the ac games.", i did not meant that this is common with games in general, i'm saying that it's common to see people complaining about this games in particular that i listened having this problems.

Exactly, and I haven't seen people complaining about such issue with connection to drive location. That's why I don't believe this being a case.

Even though I haven't played games you've mentioned, I've played games by smaller developers who are far more likely to ship a game with critical engine issues. I know many of those and also ways around them. I don't believe any good developer could write a code in a way that would make certain stuff only work on C: drive. Provided this is not a side effect from some wrapper systems like DRM. Considering security features of latest Windows OS versions, making a game work from C: may actually be more difficult than with other drives - you may need to run it with admin privileges.

Anyway, there is too much space for all kinds of other circumstances. I can only try to debug it on a PC of someone who can replicate the issue.

[lianmarins]

As far as i know only skyrim have this problem, as i played fallout 4 on d drive with no problems.

I'll link some examples os threads all over the place talking about this, including the solution that i've been using on skyrim and ac games.

skyrim: https://steamcommunity.com/app/489830/discussions/0/154642447925110832/

AC origins: https://forums.ubi.com/showthread.php/1259451-SOLUTION-AC-games-won-t-launch-when-installed-on-Windows-Storage-Spaces

saints row 4: https://steamcommunity.com/app/206420/discussions/0/846962627014980583/

Dmc 4 se: https://steamcommunity.com/app/329050/discussions/0/541906989403339496/

I believe the ac origins one will be the more interesting one, as the guy managed to find the audio work around and expalins in the text how it works.

As i said, it's weird, it does not make sense, and i understand why you refuse to see it, I would too, but seeing it happening here I just cannot turn a blind eye to it.

I also saw a few people saying that are running this games on the d drive, what only leads me to think it's something more specific that is causing the problem, but that it's still related to the c drive. My guess would be some kind of drm bug or something.

In my setup I have windows 10, my c drive is a ssd and my d drive is a hdd, maybe one of this things may be the cause too that makes the game unplayable on the d drive.

Again, you may "consider it false" but if you look in the internet there're people saying that moving to the c drive fixed these problems, in dmc 4 and the other games here, the problem may be related to something else, but there's no denying that being in the d drive does affect at least some people, and that moving to the c drive always fix the problem to these people.

[Liandri]

Originally posted by carlosfsn7:

As i said, it's weird, it does not make sense, and i understand why you refuse to see it, I would too, but seeing it happening here I just cannot turn a blind eye to it.

You are turning a blind eye on it by ignoring other possibilities and just assuming that's how you deal with the problem. It's not the source of the problem. There are many possible causes that may make it look like it looks to you.

There is no special DRM on DMC4SE.

Originally posted by carlosfsn7:

there's no denying that being in the d drive does affect at least some people, and that moving to the c drive always fix the problem to these people.

I'd only agree with that if there'd be no one who could play those games on their non-C: drives.

Did you try using junction to see if it'd really work on your C:?

[lianmarins]

So, I'm gonna quote myself here: " the problem may be related to something else, but there's no denying that being in the d drive does affect at least some people, and that moving to the c drive always fix the problem to these people."

I would like to bring attention to "the problem may be related to something else". I'm only saying that the problem itself may be coming for a number os places for a number of reasons, but that the fact that it's related to the game being on the D drive and not on C is in someway related, and it's the only way to fix this problem that i know of (as the thing about using link shell to keep the auido files on C still is related to this)

As for your other answer, I'm going to quote myself again, the same quote you did in fact: "there's no denying that being in the d drive does affect at least some people, and that moving to the c drive always fix the problem to these people."

Attention to "at least some people". As I said on my last menssage maybe the problem is elswhere, but the fact that being on the C drive will fix the issuies for those that are having these problems is, well, a fact. For those having these problems. That are not everyone. Just leaving it very clear.

And another information that may sheed some light on the issue, as you may have already noticed I have 9h of playtime registred in my account, on dmc 4 se, that's because when I got the game last year i had space on my c drive for it, and so I keeped it there and it worked (after trying to play on D and finding out that it had a similar issue as saints row 4 and etc). But now I only have 16gb on my C drive, and for the love of me I can't free any more space on it.

So in short, I had this issue when I bought the game, changed it to c drive, finished it, uninstalled. Now I want to play again, but don't have space on c drive anymore. Changing it to c drive did fix my problem last time, on dmc 4 se.

EDIT: here you can see a thread here in the steam forums, in wich a developer of the game was trying to fix this issue. Some people fixed it in different ways, but you can still see people talking about the c/d drives. Again, leatting it be very clear, the problem can be anywhere, but the ONLY thin i know is that moving the game to the C drive fix whatever it is and let me play the game, and that like me other people had this issues and fixed it in the same way.

So, I'm gonna quote myself here: " the problem may be related to something else, but there's no denying that being in the d drive does affect at least some people, and that moving to the c drive always fix the problem to these people."

I would like to bring attention to "the problem may be related to something else". I'm only saying that the problem itself may be coming for a number os places for a number of reasons, but that the fact that it's related to the game being on the D drive and not on C is in someway related, and it's the only way to fix this problem that i know of (as the thing about using link shell to keep the auido files on C still is related to this)

As for your other answer, I'm going to quote myself again, the same quote you did in fact: "there's no denying that being in the d drive does affect at least some people, and that moving to the c drive always fix the problem to these people."

Attention to "at least some people". As I said on my last menssage maybe the problem is elswhere, but the fact that being on the C drive will fix the issuies for those that are having these problems is, well, a fact. For those having these problems. That are not everyone. Just leaving it very clear.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/329050/discussions/0/530645446310797230/

[Liandri]

Originally posted by carlosfsn7:

here you can see a thread here in the steam forums, in wich a developer of the game was trying to fix this issue. Some people fixed it in different ways, but you can still see people talking about the c/d drives.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/329050/discussions/0/530645446310797230/

People are talking about drives because developer requested to report the drive where the game is installed. Developer never fixed the issue from what I see, and I've already provided a fix in another thread which fixes what seems to be the exact crash they were talking about: https://steamcommunity.com/app/329050/discussions/0/1291816880499283959/

Repeating one thing many times won't help. What about my suggestion in previous reply about junction point?

[lianmarins]

Yes, I know they never fixed, as you can see by the fact that I never said that they did, I only said that the developer was looking into it in that thread and that some people there (not the developers) seem to have fixed it for themselves.

I just tried the fix in your thread, with the hex editor, even thought my problem is not with a crash at start up, is with a endless black screen after the "loading" word disappears when trying to get in a chapter or pc performancing test. Didn't work unfortunately, still having the same problem.

About your suggestion, I did tried it too, forgot to mention in my last message. Didn't work. I even tried launching from steam library, from the exe on D and from the exe in the junction on C, all of them still have the black screen.

I hope you don't take it as a offense, but I think we're both wasting out times here. You clearly can't fix the problem since you can't replicate it, which I understand, and I can't provide you any more "relevant" information as I know VERY little of programming and such.

I can't say what is causing the problem, I only know that me and other people around the internet get this black screen for some reason, and that moving it to the C drive fixes it, again, for some reason. Can't say much more.

Thank you for your, altought a little hard headed, help, but I think it's better to just forget it. I'll just buy it on ps4 and when I get a bigger ssd for my OS someday in the future I download the game again from steam.

[Liandri]

Originally posted by carlosfsn7:

You clearly can't fix the problem since you can't replicate it

I've fixed the startup crash without even having the game. Another user provided remote access to his PC so I was able to debug it and understand the cause.

In this case, it may work too, but I may need to see how it acts in a different condition - C: drive, which you may not be able to clean at this moment. I may be able to understand the problem without that. No promises. That is, if you want to try that. If you do, add me on Steam.

[lianmarins]

Thank you for the offer, but I rather not open my pc this way to someone I don't know. Again, please don't take it as a offense, I saw that you already fixed problems with games here, I just don't think it's worth the "risk".

[lianmarins]

Ok, so, i found a new "work around" this issue, if anyone else is in this boat like me. I installed the game in a external HDD now, a cheap one i had here, and the game is working now, no black screen anyomere.

I would gess the problem then was my D disk, but seeing as all my other games were working with no problem, only dmc4 se and a few others that have problems with being on the D drive, I have no ideia of what may cause this problem.

But yeah, get a External drive and try to install there the game, may work for you like worked for me.

[Liandri]

Can you provide logs from Process Monitor for that loading moment in both cases?

[lianmarins]

I'm going to be honest, I don't know what process monitor is, but I did a quick google here I it looks ok, but I still don't know how I would even use it.

And when you say "both cases" you mean when it's on D drive and when it's on the external drive?