F.E.A.R 2 black screen on startup FIXED

This is a fix for all the people who get a black screen on startup and can't get into the game! (Tested on Win10 64bits)

FIX 1

Quick Note - If you fail any of the steps below and get stuck with the program not opening anymore or a black screen, press CTRL + ALT + DELETE and open "TASK MANAGER" and right click on "F.E.A.R 2" and then hit "END TASK" and everything should be fine :D

Anyway let's start the tutorial now!

• In your steam "LIBRARY" (1) search for "F.E.A.R" (2)

• Right click on "F.E.A.R 2: Project Origin" (3) and Select "Properties" (4)

• In "GENERAL" under "LAUNCH OPTIONS" type -safemode (5) then exit (6)

• Launch the Game and say "YES" to all!

• While the game is loading SPAM LEFT CLICK to not get sent back to the desktop!

• After the LEFT CLICK SPAM you will get an endless BLACK SCREEN, simply press ENTER OR SPACE KEY and you should see the GAMESPY LOGO appear and then the ingame Menu!

• (1) When you are in the Menu go to "OPTIONS" then "PERFORMANCE" and Change the resolution to 1920x1080 (or anything you want but preferably above 1024x768)

• (2) After you have changed your resolution click on "APPLY RESOLUTION CHANGES"

• You will get sent back to the Deskop but the game should still be open in your taskbar. Simply click on the F.E.A.R 2 logo in your taskbar to get sent back into the game

• You will then see a message about keeping the changes, pick "YES"

• In "ADVANCED SETTINGS" Max out everything if you can but DISABLE MOTION BLUR!
  (People have problems when motion blur is ON so turn it OFF!)

• Save and Exit the game!

• Remove the -safemode in "LAUNCH OPTIONS"

• Launch the game and see if this fixed your problem!

(You might get sent back to the Deskop again! but the game should still be open in your taskbar. Simply click on the F.E.A.R 2 logo in your taskbar to get sent back into the game!

FIX 2

Quick Note - This fix can be used for most old games, but it doesn't work for everyone.

• In your steam "LIBRARY" (1) search for "F.E.A.R" (2)

• Right click on "F.E.A.R 2: Project Origin" (3) and Select "Properties" (4)

• In "LOCAL FILES" (5) click the "Verify integrity of game cache..." button (6)

• Steam will verify the game's files - this process may take several minutes and Exit (7)

• Search for your FEAR2.EXE in C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\FEAR2

• Right click on FEAR2.EXE (1) click on "Properties" (2) and then click on the Compatibility button (3)

• Tick the box "Run this program in compatibility mode for" and select Windows 7 or Windows XP (Service Pack 2) (1) then tick the box "Run this program as administrator" (2) and click on the "Apply" button (3)

• Launch the game and see if this fixed your problem!

FIX 3

Quick Note - You will need to install 7-Zip for this fix, it will help for extracting the file "l3codeca.acm" from "WMFADist.EXE" to your FEAR 2 folder.

• Install 7-zip[www.7-zip.org]

• Search for "WMFADist.EXE" located in C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\FEAR2\Support

• Right click on "WMFADist.EXE" (1) then select "7-Zip" (2) and click on "Open Archive" (3)

• Click on the "l3codeca.acm" file (1) and click on "Copy" (2) and paste it to C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\FEAR2 (3) then click "OK" (4)

• Launch the game and see if this fixed your problem!

Thanks for reading and hopefully your game is fixed!

• If you liked this tutorial don't forget to like and favorite :D

[PvtDonutDJ88]

I found this thread after troubleshooting. I saw the game crashing everytime my monitor would try and to change it's resolution. So I had to set my main monitor to 640x480, run the game and change the resolution. it'll crash, but the game was running at least.

So then I changed my main monitor back to my resolution of 1440p, and still crashing, but I could see the loading icon. Finally found the correct +windowed 1 command to get it to run in windowed mode. And the game starts up. but can't get out of windowed mode once you're in it.

I saw someone years ago had an issue with a second monitor and the game and I lightly unplugged my second monitor and voila the game runs.....

So I imagine, this issue might be connected to a second display issue too.

[WolfBite]

Ignore my last comment it turned out to be Data Execution Prevention, EnforcerRidley mentioned it earlier. So thank you mate for that.

[WolfBite]

Sadly ive tried all this and then some. I dont even get a black screen. It prepares to launch then cancels. Ive messed around with all the installers tried getting another .dll file to replace whats there but nothing works. I just wanted to play some fear :(

[Snipe]

Win 10 Pro+Intel Gen 2, I set compatibility to win7 and Run as Admin for the Fear2.exe worked for me, after getting blackscreen.

[Ka Bali Pena]

@HQDefault , if you've done all of the fixes and still have the error, check if you're using the "Mouse Fix" mod.
The mod now uses the name X3DAudio1_5.dll instead of d3d9.dll and this was the issue for me.

[EnforcerRidley]

FIX 3

If all else fails, check Fear2.exe in Event Viewer.

If this is what you are getting:
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Than this fix will help you.

1. On the Taskbar, type [code]windows security settings[/code] in the search box and click Windows Security settings within the list.
2. In Windows Security, click App & browser control .
3. Click Exploit protection settings under Exploit Protection .
4. Click Add program to customized and, for security reasons, choose Choose exact file path .
5. Navigate to where you have F.E.A.R. installed and select FEAR.exe .
6. Click on the Override system settings checkbox (there is 23 in total) and set all to Off and click Apply .

Now this game can, once again, be like free pizza at an Anime Convention!

[HQDefault]

Sadly none of this worked.

FEAR 2 desperately needs an official patch because this is fucking ridiculous. There are so many people having the same issue with just trying to start the game, and there's like 50 different things it could possibly be. This game is way too temperamental to be sold in its current state (Especially considering I've gotten it working on my PC many times before, meaning all it took was a windows update for it to be effectively bricked)