[SOLVED] Black Screen on startup

[aki]

Hi guys,
I've been having this issue like some here that when I launch FFXIV I get a black screen.
From other posts I could figure out to close steam before launching to fix it - this does work., however this doesn't seem like a concrete fix to me. Since honestly sometimes I forget to close steam and then I gotta do the whole thing again.

So I wanted to ask - was someone able to fix it completly?

Yes i tried:
- reinstalling
- disabling overlays (nvidia / steam)
- reseting settings
- verifiying settings
- OS and drivers are up to date

So far I figured out that if I set it to "windowed borderless" it works flawlessy(no need to close steam or anything), but I have a small fps loss because of it and would therefore prefer playing it in fullscreen.


EDIT - FIXED FOR ME :

Originally posted by Chudah™:

Someone on the FFXIV Official Forums found a fix that persists through restarting Steam:

https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/469908-Black-screen-after-launching-the-game/page17

I did some more experimenting, no need to rename/remove steamclient64.dll in the Steam Folder.

Instead, I renamed "steam_api64.dll" inside <Steam Folder>\steamapps\common\FINAL FANTASY XIV Online\boot to "steam_api64-bak.dll"

That seems to consistently work for me, and it persists through Steam restarting. I'm assuming it will work until FFXIV pushes an update for that file. Again, not sure what the consequences are, but it allows me to play the game without quitting Steam.

That tiny change completely fixes the issue. Leave it up to the community to figure it out. Holding my breath that Square Enix doesn't break it with the patch on Tuesday.

[Izeyash]

What exactly do you do until you get a black screen? What are the steps?

[aki]

Originally posted by Izeyash:

What exactly do you do until you get a black screen? What are the steps?

So basicly it goes like this:
1. Start FFXIV - shortcut
2. Launcher , type in PW
3. Waiting for play button to appear
4. Once it's there, I kill Steam via Task Manager
5. Press Play (game launches np)

if I don't kill Steam and the game is set to fullscreen the black screen occurs and it freezes ( displayed as not responding in taskmanager)

If it's set to borderless fullscreen it will launch without any issues...

[Chudah]

Someone on the FFXIV Official Forums found a fix that persists through restarting Steam:

https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/469908-Black-screen-after-launching-the-game/page17

I did some more experimenting, no need to rename/remove steamclient64.dll in the Steam Folder.

Instead, I renamed "steam_api64.dll" inside <Steam Folder>\steamapps\common\FINAL FANTASY XIV Online\boot to "steam_api64-bak.dll"

That seems to consistently work for me, and it persists through Steam restarting. I'm assuming it will work until FFXIV pushes an update for that file. Again, not sure what the consequences are, but it allows me to play the game without quitting Steam.

That tiny change completely fixes the issue. Leave it up to the community to figure it out. Holding my breath that Square Enix doesn't break it with the patch on Tuesday.

[Generic-Raider]

only happens the first time i launch it my self
lunch get black screen close game launch again and it works

This issue started with last patch and so far they have not even recognized it as a prob yet

at lest your not getting the dx errors some ppl in the fc im in get dc with it about 10 times a day since the last patch

[Alternity]

I've seen this problem happen on someone I know's computer. They had 2 GPUs installed, what they ended up doing is using the other GPU for FFXIV and it fixed the problem for them.

While we haven't truly found what was the problem, we can determine that it was either something wonky with said GPU or the drivers (which wouldn't make much sens to me if it was the drivers considering both cards were Nvidia and therefore used the same drivers).

If you have a spare GPU to swap out I'd suggest trying this out and see if it helps.

[aki]

Originally posted by Chudah™:

Someone on the FFXIV Official Forums found a fix that persists through restarting Steam:

https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/469908-Black-screen-after-launching-the-game/page17

I did some more experimenting, no need to rename/remove steamclient64.dll in the Steam Folder.

Instead, I renamed "steam_api64.dll" inside <Steam Folder>\steamapps\common\FINAL FANTASY XIV Online\boot to "steam_api64-bak.dll"

That seems to consistently work for me, and it persists through Steam restarting. I'm assuming it will work until FFXIV pushes an update for that file. Again, not sure what the consequences are, but it allows me to play the game without quitting Steam.

That tiny change completely fixes the issue. Leave it up to the community to figure it out. Holding my breath that Square Enix doesn't break it with the patch on Tuesday.

Thank you so much this actually fixed it xD <3

[Dmitri Maraliejir]

Originally posted by Chudah™:

Someone on the FFXIV Official Forums found a fix that persists through restarting Steam:

https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/469908-Black-screen-after-launching-the-game/page17

I did some more experimenting, no need to rename/remove steamclient64.dll in the Steam Folder.

Instead, I renamed "steam_api64.dll" inside <Steam Folder>\steamapps\common\FINAL FANTASY XIV Online\boot to "steam_api64-bak.dll"

That seems to consistently work for me, and it persists through Steam restarting. I'm assuming it will work until FFXIV pushes an update for that file. Again, not sure what the consequences are, but it allows me to play the game without quitting Steam.

That tiny change completely fixes the issue. Leave it up to the community to figure it out. Holding my breath that Square Enix doesn't break it with the patch on Tuesday.

Worked once but now the error resumes, I'm guessing that steam keeps remaking the file in error and you have to keep deleting/removing/editing the name. Really need Steam to get off their lazy asses and fix their ♥♥♥♥

[Chudah]

Originally posted by Dmitri Maraliejir:

Originally posted by Chudah™:

Someone on the FFXIV Official Forums found a fix that persists through restarting Steam:

https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/469908-Black-screen-after-launching-the-game/page17



That tiny change completely fixes the issue. Leave it up to the community to figure it out. Holding my breath that Square Enix doesn't break it with the patch on Tuesday.

Worked once but now the error resumes, I'm guessing that steam keeps remaking the file in error and you have to keep deleting/removing/editing the name. Really need Steam to get off their lazy asses and fix their ♥♥♥♥

Still works for me, but I'm using the beta version of Steam. Might want to check into that.

[LW]

None of these work for me I must have the worst case of this ♥♥♥♥*****

[Dth]

Before clicking on PLAY open task manager and kill steam 32 bits. Search for it.

[smanami]

Спасибо. После выхода ff14 dawntrail на ноутбуке была проблема черного экрана при запуске, XIVLauncher тоже не помог. После переименования файла заработало. Насколько я понимаю, проблема появляется на устройствах с процессорами AMD с интегрированной графикой и дискретной видеокартой NVidia из-за особенности драйверов AMD. Из-за этого, игра, где включен полноэкранный режим может выдавать черный экран при запуске.

[S.T.A.R.S.]

When launch the game close steam at task manager. I've been searching for days and finding this solution and it worked.

[Kirche]

after dawntrail this issue started with me again, killing steam works but i want it with steam i want my hours to count...

[Chudah]

Originally posted by Kirche:

after dawntrail this issue started with me again, killing steam works but i want it with steam i want my hours to count...

I've been using the FFXIV community launcher, which circumvents the issue entirely. It basically replaces SE's launcher while allowing Steam to stay open so you can use the overlay, etc. You don't need to run any mods, it'll just get you logged into the game:

https://github.com/goatcorp/FFXIVQuickLauncher

I don't expect Square-Enix to fix this issue unless it spreads to a majority of the Steam users, so at least to me, this is the best option.