New game black screen with audio

[mage]

Fully vanilla skyrim and downloaded just recently. Whenever I try to start a new game, Alduin's loadscreen shows up just fine, but when the carriage sequence should start, a black screen shows up instead while also playing audio from the horses, ambient and carriage itself.

What I tried so far:

- Setting audio format to 16bit, 44100HZ CD audio + Disabling exclusive control of device
- Using older graphics drivers (Adrenalin edition, Crimson Relive edition, Crimson era)
- Deleting INIs on my games\Skyrim Special Edition + generating new ones
- Checking if refresh rate is set correctly (60 HZ in this case)
- Graphics performance preference (High Performance)
- Check for any antivirus software (I don't use any)
- Checking for .net/directx/redist/windows updates
- Making sure the game is running at 60 FPS
- Reinstalling the game altogether
- Disable fullscreen optimization
- Removing the built-in SKSE
- Run as administrator
- Verifying game cache
- Compatibility modes
- Alternate start mod
- SFC Scannow

Specs:

AMD Radeon R5 (TM) Graphics: 1024MB VRAM (Integrated solution)
Windows 10 Professional 22H2 64x
A4-8350B Dual Core 3,50 GHZ
12,00 GB 1666 MHZ Ram

[ralphtobybob]

I've never seen that problem on a new vanilla start, just on modded saves and a few vanilla ones. Sometimes it's a delay in loading, other times hitting the ~ console key will fix the problem. Most of the time though, I have to load another save, then load the malfunctioning save. There's been only one time that I had to scrap the save.

Did you limit frame rate to 60 fps or lower? I did a vanilla start after updating, Everything seemed normal, except my pov was from the cart driver's perspective.
Turns out my video card software saw the update as a new executable and changed the settings to unlimited fps.

In the past ,if the framerate was over 60fps, the cart would go cartwheeling over the horse and get stuck against the hold's wall and wouldn't enter Helgen.

[mage]

Originally posted by ralphtobybob:

I've never seen that problem on a new vanilla start, just on modded saves and a few vanilla ones. Sometimes it's a delay in loading, other times hitting the ~ console key will fix the problem. Most of the time though, I have to load another save, then load the malfunctioning save. There's been only one time that I had to scrap the save.

Did you limit frame rate to 60 fps or lower? I did a vanilla start after updating, Everything seemed normal, except my pov was from the cart driver's perspective.
Turns out my video card software saw the update as a new executable and changed the settings to unlimited fps.

In the past ,if the framerate was over 60fps, the cart would go cartwheeling over the horse and get stuck against the hold's wall and wouldn't enter Helgen.

Yup i've been using rivatuner to cap the framerate to 60 fps, even tried radeon chill too but no results. Drivers are at latest, forgot to mention but i'm on a integrated AMD Radeon(TM) R5 Graphics, it sounds weak but I am able to play fallout 4 just fine, I was even able to play the legendary version of skyrim a long time ago with no issues in it

[hawklaser]

Just from my experiences with other software, my first guesses as to what is going wrong is would be either the games resolution or refresh rate setting might not be compatible with your monitor or the game version you are using isn't compatible with your current graphics card drivers. But since can get to the ingame title screen, the resolution and refresh rate seems somewhat unlikely unless Bethesda did something really unusual and have different settings for title screen and ingame.

As to the graphics card drivers, not all newer drivers necessarily work with older games well. There have been times I've updated drivers to get one piece of newer software working, and at the same time break a number of older softwares at the same time. And once roll back the drivers, the older software works just fine again.

So some things to try might be changing the games resolution and refresh rate, or rolling back your graphics card's drivers to a prior version and see if that makes any difference.

If you wait in game, for the cart ride to reach its end point, does anything change visually? I don't imagine it would, but you never know.

[mage]

Originally posted by hawklaser:

Just from my experiences with other software, my first guesses as to what is going wrong is would be either the games resolution or refresh rate setting might not be compatible with your monitor or the game version you are using isn't compatible with your current graphics card drivers. But since can get to the ingame title screen, the resolution and refresh rate seems somewhat unlikely unless Bethesda did something really unusual and have different settings for title screen and ingame.

As to the graphics card drivers, not all newer drivers necessarily work with older games well. There have been times I've updated drivers to get one piece of newer software working, and at the same time break a number of older softwares at the same time. And once roll back the drivers, the older software works just fine again.

So some things to try might be changing the games resolution and refresh rate, or rolling back your graphics card's drivers to a prior version and see if that makes any difference.

If you wait in game, for the cart ride to reach its end point, does anything change visually? I don't imagine it would, but you never know.

Tried rolling back to three older driver versions of my graphics card, no difference sadly but it kind of makes sense. But I also wouldn't be able to reach the main menu even if it was 100% the case. Also tried different resolutions but no difference, refresh rate's fine too.

Once I hit new game and wait for it to load, it's like the background audio is in some sort of loop, the horses, carriage, ambient. So it never gets anywhere, pretty much stuck at it while displaying a black screen.

[hawklaser]

Originally posted by mage6614:

Tried rolling back to three older driver versions of my graphics card, no difference sadly but it kind of makes sense. But I also wouldn't be able to reach the main menu even if it was 100% the case. Also tried different resolutions but no difference, refresh rate's fine too.

Once I hit new game and wait for it to load, it's like the background audio is in some sort of loop, the horses, carriage, ambient. So it never gets anywhere, pretty much stuck at it while displaying a black screen.

Bout as I expected the results might be unless Bethesda was doing something really bizarre, since you could get to the title screen menu fine.

Do you get any of the NPC Dialogue that starts up about 45s into the infamous cart ride intro that lasts about 3.5 minutes until reach the actual character creation bit? As the sounds you describe hearing match up with it.

[mage]

Originally posted by hawklaser:

Originally posted by mage6614:

Tried rolling back to three older driver versions of my graphics card, no difference sadly but it kind of makes sense. But I also wouldn't be able to reach the main menu even if it was 100% the case. Also tried different resolutions but no difference, refresh rate's fine too.

Once I hit new game and wait for it to load, it's like the background audio is in some sort of loop, the horses, carriage, ambient. So it never gets anywhere, pretty much stuck at it while displaying a black screen.

Bout as I expected the results might be unless Bethesda was doing something really bizarre, since you could get to the title screen menu fine.

Do you get any of the NPC Dialogue that starts up about 45s into the infamous cart ride intro that lasts about 3.5 minutes until reach the actual character creation bit? As the sounds you describe hearing match up with it.

As I mentioned it's like I am in a loop, I don't really get anywhere at all but only hear looped sounds over and over. Pretty much "froze" so to speak

[Liquid Inc]

Originally posted by mage6614:

Yup i've been using rivatuner to cap the framerate to 60 fps, even tried radeon chill too but no results. Drivers are at latest, forgot to mention but i'm on a integrated AMD Radeon(TM) R5 Graphics, it sounds weak but I am able to play fallout 4 just fine, I was even able to play the legendary version of skyrim a long time ago with no issues in it

If you have them enabled, what do the Steam Overlay, and AMD's Overlay. say the framerate is?
Just to confirm the game really is running at 60 or under.
If it isn't capping to 60, you can use the FTC (Frame Target Control) option under Advanced in AMD's software, which will cap it.

Given the game "loads", but then goes into a loop on new game, gives me the feeling it isn't capped. Usually that results in the cart ride going crazy and you rolling about all over the place, but there's no reason as to why it couldn't give you a black screen instead.

[mage]

Originally posted by Liquid Inc:

Originally posted by mage6614:

Yup i've been using rivatuner to cap the framerate to 60 fps, even tried radeon chill too but no results. Drivers are at latest, forgot to mention but i'm on a integrated AMD Radeon(TM) R5 Graphics, it sounds weak but I am able to play fallout 4 just fine, I was even able to play the legendary version of skyrim a long time ago with no issues in it

If you have them enabled, what do the Steam Overlay, and AMD's Overlay. say the framerate is?
Just to confirm the game really is running at 60 or under.
If it isn't capping to 60, you can use the FTC (Frame Target Control) option under Advanced in AMD's software, which will cap it.

Given the game "loads", but then goes into a loop on new game, gives me the feeling it isn't capped. Usually that results in the cart ride going crazy and you rolling about all over the place, but there's no reason as to why it couldn't give you a black screen instead.

Steam overlay, Rivatuner & AMD overlay does show that the framerate is locked at 60 fps. However all three of them show the same framerate when the audio loop (new game black screen) happens, it locks itself at 12 FPS

I should have mentioned that I also have to end the game process through task manager, as it freezes even though its clearly playing audio. albeit looped and never gets anywhere

[hawklaser]

Originally posted by mage6614:

Steam overlay, Rivatuner & AMD overlay does show that the framerate is locked at 60 fps. However all three of them show the same framerate when the audio loop (new game black screen) happens, it locks itself at 12 FPS

I should have mentioned that I also have to end the game process through task manager, as it freezes even though its clearly playing audio. albeit looped and never gets anywhere

This makes it seem like it could be related to the grid transition issue when loading thats mentioned in the pinned Troubleshooting & Crash Resolution thread. Which has the suggested solution of disabling antivirus software.

Have you looked through that thread and tried the various things listed? As my next suggestion for troubleshooting, which is also listed in that thread, would be seeing if using the mod "Alternate Start - Live Another Life" lets you at least load fully into the game. As instead of trying to spawn you in on a moving carriage like vanilla, it spawns you in nearly empty jail cell. It could just be that something is causing you to spawn in slightly out of place resulting in the physics engine going nuts from collisions with the cart as you load in locking things up.

[mage]

Originally posted by hawklaser:

Originally posted by mage6614:

Steam overlay, Rivatuner & AMD overlay does show that the framerate is locked at 60 fps. However all three of them show the same framerate when the audio loop (new game black screen) happens, it locks itself at 12 FPS

I should have mentioned that I also have to end the game process through task manager, as it freezes even though its clearly playing audio. albeit looped and never gets anywhere

This makes it seem like it could be related to the grid transition issue when loading thats mentioned in the pinned Troubleshooting & Crash Resolution thread. Which has the suggested solution of disabling antivirus software.

Have you looked through that thread and tried the various things listed? As my next suggestion for troubleshooting, which is also listed in that thread, would be seeing if using the mod "Alternate Start - Live Another Life" lets you at least load fully into the game. As instead of trying to spawn you in on a moving carriage like vanilla, it spawns you in nearly empty jail cell. It could just be that something is causing you to spawn in slightly out of place resulting in the physics engine going nuts from collisions with the cart as you load in locking things up.

I'll try that mod, I also don't use any antivirus software, not even windows defender and yeah I had already looked over that thread yet I skipped over this one

- Have Skyrim SE installed on the C:\ Drive (Not any other letter and not the external drive)

Gonna try that as well

EDIT: No luck on having skyrim on the C: drive, however now the only sounds that are looping are the horses breathing and the wind. Somehow makes it even more weirder.

EDIT 2: The alternate start mod doesn't help sadly, with it enabled now the audio loop & black screen have carried over to the mod's character creation scenario it seems.

[hawklaser]

Well that at least helps figure out that it might not be something tied to the physics engine getting overloaded by events at the start then.

Next best thing I can think of is following the guide below to ensure a clean re-install. As its seeming like something either installed wrong or got corrupted, or running into some kind of hardware or software incompatibility issues that are resulting it it freezing up once in-game.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2743619856

If a clean re-install doesn't fix things, its will take someone with a lot more knowledge of the game's workings than me to pin it down and find a solution for you.

[mage]

Originally posted by hawklaser:

Well that at least helps figure out that it might not be something tied to the physics engine getting overloaded by events at the start then.

Next best thing I can think of is following the guide below to ensure a clean re-install. As its seeming like something either installed wrong or got corrupted, or running into some kind of hardware or software incompatibility issues that are resulting it it freezing up once in-game.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2743619856

If a clean re-install doesn't fix things, its will take someone with a lot more knowledge of the game's workings than me to pin it down and find a solution for you.

I follow the good practices shown in that guide naturally but even them couldn't help on this one. Still I really appreciate you and the others helping me out on trying to solve this issue. Bethesda wouldn't be bothered to fix anything like this ever by themselves, especially when it's only me reporting it so far. I'm pretty sure i'll have to follow a downgrade guide at some point.

I think the final consideration is that my integrated graphics, is simply out of support on this new version. even though it loads the main menu and assets properly it might still be the culprit. that or just the whole game itself.

[ralphtobybob]

Originally posted by mage6614:

Yup i've been using rivatuner to cap the framerate to 60 fps, even tried radeon chill too but no results. Drivers are at latest, forgot to mention but i'm on a integrated AMD Radeon(TM) R5 Graphics, it sounds weak but I am able to play fallout 4 just fine, I was even able to play the legendary version of skyrim a long time ago with no issues in it

Did your frame rate end up being capped at 60 fps? If it is, that isn't the problem.

The AMD software is kind of kludgy. It doesn't seem to save settings unless the game is immediately launched after making changes.
Click on the game's icon from Gaming. That takes you to the performance details for the game.
You'll see an option for Gaming Experience. Set that to Quality
After that, you can make changes to Chill, and manually set the max fps.
Then launch the game from that screen so it will save the settings.

[AlmeidaAlberto]

Também não consigo abrir o jogo ... quando clico no jogar , pisca uma tela preta e o botão de jogar da steam fica verde novamente

[mage]

Originally posted by ralphtobybob:

Originally posted by mage6614:

Yup i've been using rivatuner to cap the framerate to 60 fps, even tried radeon chill too but no results. Drivers are at latest, forgot to mention but i'm on a integrated AMD Radeon(TM) R5 Graphics, it sounds weak but I am able to play fallout 4 just fine, I was even able to play the legendary version of skyrim a long time ago with no issues in it

Did your frame rate end up being capped at 60 fps? If it is, that isn't the problem.

The AMD software is kind of kludgy. It doesn't seem to save settings unless the game is immediately launched after making changes.
Click on the game's icon from Gaming. That takes you to the performance details for the game.
You'll see an option for Gaming Experience. Set that to Quality
After that, you can make changes to Chill, and manually set the max fps.
Then launch the game from that screen so it will save the settings.

Yeah it's definitely capped at 60 fps since the start, I only used amd chill to see if it would change anything but I always stick with rivatuner for frame limit