Black Screen

[Chupa666cabrA]

Hi everyone

I launched Homm VI after a long break and the game crashes (black screen). The fix where I have to change the value to "Windowed" in the profiles works. But is there no other way to fix this permanently? I like to play in fullscreen mode since in Windowed mode a bit of the screen is clipped off at the botton. And if I change to fullscreen after launch I have the same problem again.

Please tell me there is a permanent fix for this.

[Drisana]

This is what I see on the Ubisoft website for support for this game's black screen issue:

ANSWER:
If you are experiencing a black screen when trying to launch Heroes of Might & Magic VI, please follow these steps:

• Go to the configuration folder, which can be found here: Documents\Might & Magic Heroes VI\<user-id>\
• Open the file titled ProfileData with Notepad
• Look for this line:
<gfx_Fullscreen2>Fullscreen</gfx_Fullscreen2>
• Change it to:
<gfx_Fullscreen2>Windowed</gfx_Fullscreen2>
• Save the file
• Launch the game again

If you continue to have trouble after trying these steps, please feel free to CONTACT US!

SO In other words-no, and now give the age of the game its not likely to get a fix, until it become retro hip again anyway.

[Chupa666cabrA]

Originally posted by Drisana:

This is what I see on the Ubisoft website for support for this game's black screen issue:

ANSWER:
If you are experiencing a black screen when trying to launch Heroes of Might & Magic VI, please follow these steps:

• Go to the configuration folder, which can be found here: Documents\Might & Magic Heroes VI\<user-id>\
• Open the file titled ProfileData with Notepad
• Look for this line:
<gfx_Fullscreen2>Fullscreen</gfx_Fullscreen2>
• Change it to:
<gfx_Fullscreen2>Windowed</gfx_Fullscreen2>
• Save the file
• Launch the game again

If you continue to have trouble after trying these steps, please feel free to CONTACT US!

SO In other words-no, and now give the age of the game its not likely to get a fix, until it become retro hip again anyway.

Yes the game isn't new but as far as I can see it's still being sold and it has been patched many time. Doesn't seem too much to ask to me.

[Drisana]

There are games on here from 1995 and older that still being sold. It is not a top profit maker for them by any means. In fact if it wasn't for the fan base, I doubt think it would still be even considered worth while to have a website page for much less any actual fixes this far after its release. Corporations are always going to focus on their main money makers, only giving a brief nod of concern to previous games until they become retro chique enough to make the effort for a remastered version to be profitable enough to bother with. Sad but true. If you do happen to find a non official fix for this, I would love to know as well. So far I haven't found anything though.

[Ubi-Borealis]

Hey there guys!

Chupa666cabrA - Did Drisana's workaround help to resolve the issue?

Drisana - I understand you're still looking for a fix for this issue. Does this mean you're also experiencing issues with black screen? If so, I would recommend trying the steps from this troubleshooting article.[support.ubisoft.com]

If the issue persists after trying these steps as well as the steps listed above, please don't hesitate to update us!

- Ubisoft Support

[Chupa666cabrA]

Originally posted by UbiBorealis:

Hey there guys!

Chupa666cabrA - Did Drisana's workaround help to resolve the issue?

Drisana - I understand you're still looking for a fix for this issue. Does this mean you're also experiencing issues with black screen? If so, I would recommend trying the steps from this troubleshooting article.[support.ubisoft.com]

If the issue persists after trying these steps as well as the steps listed above, please don't hesitate to update us!

- Ubisoft Support

Hey there

As written in my original post I know the workaround and it does allow the game to start properly. Once in the game (and since I don't like playing in windowed mode) I have to change to fullscreen (Alt + Enter works). But I guess I have to change back to windowed again before exiting the game or else I'll be confronted with a crash the next time around. Is that the idea?

It's a pretty nasty crash btw. I can't even kill the process with the task manager.

[Ubi-Borealis]

Originally posted by Chupa666cabrA:

Hey there

As written in my original post I know the workaround and it does allow the game to start properly. Once in the game (and since I don't like playing in windowed mode) I have to change to fullscreen (Alt + Enter works). But I guess I have to change back to windowed again before exiting the game or else I'll be confronted with a crash the next time around. Is that the idea?

It's a pretty nasty crash btw. I can't even kill the process with the task manager.

Our team have found that switching to windowed mode is the most effective workaround to help prevent the crash from occuring. I'm aware that some players were also able to avoid the crash by following these additional steps:
- Fully update the game
- Navigate to game's installation folder and locate Might & Magic Heroes VI.exe file:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Might and Magic Heroes VI
- Right-click on the .exe file and tick following parameters:
Run in Compatibility mode (with Windows 7)
Disable fullscreen optimizations
Run as admin.

You could try and see if these steps also work for you as well.

- Ubisoft Support

[Lonecat]

I can confirm that "Disable fullscreen optimizations" worked for me on Windows 10 (as explained by the dev above), and it has been a "permanent" fix.

[Chupa666cabrA]

Originally posted by UbiBorealis:

Originally posted by Chupa666cabrA:

Hey there

As written in my original post I know the workaround and it does allow the game to start properly. Once in the game (and since I don't like playing in windowed mode) I have to change to fullscreen (Alt + Enter works). But I guess I have to change back to windowed again before exiting the game or else I'll be confronted with a crash the next time around. Is that the idea?

It's a pretty nasty crash btw. I can't even kill the process with the task manager.

Our team have found that switching to windowed mode is the most effective workaround to help prevent the crash from occuring. I'm aware that some players were also able to avoid the crash by following these additional steps:
- Fully update the game
- Navigate to game's installation folder and locate Might & Magic Heroes VI.exe file:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Might and Magic Heroes VI
- Right-click on the .exe file and tick following parameters:
Run in Compatibility mode (with Windows 7)
Disable fullscreen optimizations
Run as admin.

You could try and see if these steps also work for you as well.

- Ubisoft Support

Thx a bunch for the advice. Will try this later today and let you know if it works ;)

[Lonecat]

Originally posted by Chupa666cabrA:

It's a pretty nasty crash btw. I can't even kill the process with the task manager.

When I tried CTRL ALT DEL, I could select the task manager but couldn't see it after (black screen was above everything).

I think you can still do CTRL ALT DEL and select "sign out" or "switch user" which resets the Windows session and forced the game to give control back to Windows (after which you can access the task manager). Just in case you get stuck with that black screen, it might be worth a try and avoids force rebooting the computer.

[Chupa666cabrA]

Originally posted by UbiBorealis:

Originally posted by Chupa666cabrA:

Hey there

As written in my original post I know the workaround and it does allow the game to start properly. Once in the game (and since I don't like playing in windowed mode) I have to change to fullscreen (Alt + Enter works). But I guess I have to change back to windowed again before exiting the game or else I'll be confronted with a crash the next time around. Is that the idea?

It's a pretty nasty crash btw. I can't even kill the process with the task manager.

Our team have found that switching to windowed mode is the most effective workaround to help prevent the crash from occuring. I'm aware that some players were also able to avoid the crash by following these additional steps:
- Fully update the game
- Navigate to game's installation folder and locate Might & Magic Heroes VI.exe file:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Might and Magic Heroes VI
- Right-click on the .exe file and tick following parameters:
Run in Compatibility mode (with Windows 7)
Disable fullscreen optimizations
Run as admin.

You could try and see if these steps also work for you as well.

- Ubisoft Support

Well that did it for me :) Works nicely - you should post this solution instead of the ini hack.
Thx a lot.

[Ubi-Borealis]

Thanks for the update, Chupa666cabrA! I'm glad to hear this worked for you! You're welcome :)

And thank you for sharing your tips as well, Lonecat! We'd hope players don't experience such crashes when playing the game, but this is still useful advice!

- Ubisoft Support

[Drisana]

As far as I can tell, its an issue with Windows 10 compatibility. Which is almost funny given when this game came out and the fact an average (non gaming specific) computer made after this game has trouble running it due to the higher end requirements. I am surprised windows 10 compatibility has not been considered before (as far as listing possible fixes for this specific issue for this specific game on the official support page goes).

Still, I notice the game does try to switch itself back to fullscreen on the next play session, even with the fix listed on the website and with the fullscreen optimization disabled. I am guessing this is the likely cause of the crash but I am not certain. Is there anyway to keep it from trying to 'correct' the file back to fullscreen on every play session?

[Ubi-Borealis]

I'll pass this feedback on, Drisana, and see if we can have it added to the support article, as it seems to have been a successful workaround for several players.

It's possible that this could be causing a crash. Does it still revert back when launching the game as admin?

Do you use any sort of game bar or overlay programme?

- Ubisoft Support

[Drisana]

I don't us any editing to the game other than this fix for the black screen issue. I have however have such a bar previously. This issue was present then and remains without it, so it doesn't seem to be related to any sort of 3rd party software. When launching again it will do one of two things, both ending in having to forcibly close the game: It will either load in a windowed mode, then crash (and after this when I check, the .ini file has been converted back to fullscreen rather than windowed), or it will just try to launch in fullscreen leaving me with a total black screen which I also cannot alt tab out of - it crashes the whole system to where I have t use the task manager or in worst cases, restart the PC as it takes the cpu and memory to 100%. Admin or standard does not seem to change the outcome at all.

My PC is far from top of the line admittedly, but I can run a game like Skyrim without any issues or lag whatsoever so this is rather surprising this one game causes such a high spike at the crash, to the point the entire PC becomes unresponsive.

[»Raiker«]

I'm having black screen issue when i start a battle, the screen goes black and the whole thing freezes. I can't use CTRL +ALT+DEL to terminate the session, only rebooting the pc works. Already tried lowering the graphics, change the compatibility to windows 7 and running as admin, changed to window mode and it didn't worked either