Windows 7: Black Screen Clarification?

I see a lot of complaints about games black screening. This has more than one form and one form of it is due to improper video drivers so we will put that aside.

I always get a black screen after launching COD5 however if you wait a few moments the black screen goes away and the game plays fine from that point forward.



Does anyone know the cause and/or a solution to the black screen issue?

I have had the same problem for ages now, it's the same on Vista and I think it might be more to do with the game updates then Windows 7 or drivers.

I'm surprised that no one else has mentioned anything about it, I was beginning to think it was just me, I think we may just have to wait for a new game update unless someone else comes up with a fix.

I've actually had a few. i figured they were due to my gfx card being dated. but i've read a few 'help me Howard' posts on some gaming sites. they state that the black screen (pertaining to games, obviously) is caused when the gfx card drivers reset themselves when under a lot of stress. some kind of fail-safe, i guess, so the card doesnt blow a gasket.

i dont know the technical basis of these claims, or any of that stuff. but hell, i makes sense to me.... maybe some buggy relay in the driver?

-the world may never know

Well if we just have to wait so be it I suppose.

I don't understand it though. COD5 is pretty new and you would think that under Vista it would not have this issue.

It is a weird problem but I can deal with it for now I suppose.

As I understood it, some ported to PC games are not coded correctly and they just take a little more time to start, Vegas & Vegas 2 come to mind.

When that happens (as I am not a very patient man), I just hit the task manager and if I don't see the game executable, then I worry if I do, all I got to do is go for a smoke and give the game its space

Yeah I generally wait it out because the game will one of 2 things. If it actually is working the black screen will eventually go away and the game runs fine. But once in a while if there is some kind of issue the game will eventually dump with an error.

Either way it's a real hassle.