Black Screen when full screen is enabled in Witcher 2 enhanced edition

[Soulwired]

Okay, where do I begin. I have searched countless forums in hopes of stumbling across this issue and much to my dismay have found nothing. Whenever I try to play the Witcher 2 Enhanced edition with full screen enabled I am able to get past the cinematic intro, into the main menu but, when I try to load any save game or if I try to begin a new game the screen will simply turn black with the background music still playing. It won't shut down the computer, it doesn't crash to the desktop, and it forces me to hold down the power button to force a reboot. The curious thing is that I can play the game in windowed mode but, after a few minutes it begins to freeze and stutter at an alarming rate. If anyone could point me down the right direction or giving me any advice I would really appreciate it.

Here is what I have tried so far:
-Updated to lastest ati drivers for HD 7970
-Moved my graphic card from the second slot to first slot
-Rollback drivers to an earlier version that was recommended on the forum
-patched the game to the latest edition 3.4 (Even tried there hotfix for .Net errors)

 

[archer]

Hi, Welcome to Sevenforums.

Try these

possible Solution 1: Disable all unnecessary background applications before starts the game, especially browser flash-based games. These heavily consume resources which can slow down your gaming experience and just to be sure that nothing is conflicting with the game. Try these steps to close hidden applications.

Click Start > Run > type msconfig > Click the Startup tab > Click Disable All button > Apply > OK, and restart your computer.

Possible Solution 2: Delete the all temporary files from your computer by donning this
Click Start > Run > type %temp% > OK > click Edit > Select All > Delete.

Possible Solution 3: Disable your anti-virus programs and sure to re-enable them after playing.

Possible Solution 4: Alt + Tab out of the game and check if there is any windows firewall or any other

Possible Solution 5: Download the latest version of your DirectX from here.

Possible Solution 6: If you have a multi-core processor, try disabling them, it might do the trick!


Found these here. you can check

Link

 

[Contrabardus]

Witcher 2 requires a multi-core processor, disabling it won't help so don't bother.

I've heard about this issue before and the fix is pretty simple. Go to the config menu and disable any UI mods under DLC settings and it should start working.

 

[Soulwired]

Thanks for the help unfortunately none of those solutions worked. I disabled the Official UI mod from the config menu, disabled my anti-virus, disabled all stop up programs, deleted the temp files, check to see if there was an error or warning by alt-tab but nothing. Interesting however, I managed to actually get in the game on my first attempt, but it suddenly went to the same black screen when I started to move. No noise from my motherboard or graphic card just all of a sudden a black screen. On my second try just to double check the screen went black but this time it there were grey vertical lines as well. I really appreciate the help, and if there are any more ideas you can come up with I'll be sure to try them.

On a side note, I checked several other games to see if it was happening and nothing Skyrim, Dragon Age II, and even Civ V they were all running well. I do have PHysX installed, because it was required to play Batman Arkham Asylum, I don't know if that affect anything. I was able to Play Metro Last Light without much of a problem as well. I also checked the solutions on the link provided and tried the ones that seemed like they might be related to my problem, and still no luck.

 

[Contrabardus]

Witcher 2 does not like overclocking, so if you've got anything overclocked dial it back to default settings and that may help. It's kind of infamous for finding any instability in an overclocked system and crashing like you describe because of it.

If that isn't the problem then perhaps the problem is with the game. Uninstall it, run a registry cleaner, then reinstall the game and try again.

It might also be your CPU. Some games do not run on six core processors. I believe Witcher 2 might be one of them. As I said above it's finicky about the hardware and settings it likes.

Contrary to popular belief, a six core CPU is not really better for a gaming rig. Most games only use four regardless of how many you have with only one or two exceptions, and even those are only coded to accept six cores and still only actually use four of them.

A quad core CPU is optimal for a gaming rig because all current games are coded with four cores in mind. We probably won't be seeing any games that can take advantage of a six core CPU for at least a couple of years. At the moment a six core CPU is more likely to cause problems in games than to give any sort of performance boost over a quad core.

My advice is that if all else fails, remove your six core and store it away for a few years until it's useful and replace it with a quad core.

 

[Soulwired]

Okay, I have a Powercolor hd 7970 with factory overclocking running at 1100 mhz gpu clock and 1425 memory clock I tried setting those numbers back to what would be normally expected from an hd 7970 but, still nothing changed. I also have an Intel core i7 965 3.2ghz cpu, and I thought the processor count which is four was the same as the number of cores, I could be completely wrong, if I am how exactly do I shut down 2 of its cores?

Here is another development, I tried lowering my screen resolution from 2560x1600 to 1920x1200 and then running the game in window mode at 1920x1200, you know to give a resemblance to full screen and much to my surprise the same thing happened. The screen just turned black, forcing me to reboot. :shock: I have no clue whats going on now.

 

[Contrabardus]

Okay, I have a Powercolor hd 7970 with factory overclocking running at 1100 mhz gpu clock and 1425 memory clock I tried setting those numbers back to what would be normally expected from an hd 7970 but, still nothing changed. I also have an Intel core i7 965 3.2ghz cpu, and I thought the processor count which is four was the same as the number of cores, I could be completely wrong, if I am how exactly do I shut down 2 of its cores?

Here is another development, I tried lowering my screen resolution from 2560x1600 to 1920x1200 and then running the game in window mode at 1920x1200, you know to give a resemblance to full screen and much to my surprise the same thing happened. The screen just turned black, forcing me to reboot. :shock: I have no clue whats going on now.

Your specs say Intel Extreme, most of those are 6 core CPUs. That particular model is 4, so you're fine.

If you haven't I'd try uninstalling and a fresh install. I'd run a registry cleaner after you uninstall just to get all the little bits out and then install and try again.

 

[Soulwired]

Yea, sorry about being so general about my specs. But, I tried your suggestion, and while I had already attempted to re-install the game before, I didn't run a registry cleaner. I did this time, now I'm getting somewhere, I am able to get the game running in full screen mode on the lowest settings, but my graphic card fan starts up as if I was running the thing in ultra. I also didn't patch the game to the latest version, so I have version 3.0 enhanced edition. I'm perplexed as to why it wouldn't be able to run the game in full screen on a lower resolution, or with higher settings as I tried to run the game on medium with full screen enabled and right when I reached the menu black screen crash again.

-Update-
So I tried running the game at its lowest settings with full screen enabled at 2560x1600, did an alt tab to the catalyst control center and found that the card was running at 99% capacity with temps reaching nearly 80 degrees and rising. I know the game is made to push your card to its fullest even at lowest settings but, why is it pushing it degrees well beyond every other game? :huh:

-Update-
Apparently, if I try and run the game in anything other than its lowest settings, even though it recommends high settings, and at a resolution of anything other than 2560x1600 the game will have that same black screen forcing me to power down and reboot. I can still run the game in any resolution other than anything that would cover the whole screen for example if I have the desktop set to 1920x1200 and try a window mode the game to that same resolution I get the black screen again.

 

[Contrabardus]

There might be something wrong with your card. I run the game on Ultra settings with a single 7970 and only reach about 70. Though, you honestly don't need to worry unless your GPU is reaching temps over 90. Though, reaching 80 on low is a problem. It's pretty obvious the game is doing something to your card that it doesn't like. No way it should be running that way.

Also, PhysX is an Nvidia feature. A 7970 doesn't need drivers for it. If you downloaded something and installed it to run PhysX uninstall it. That might actually be your problem.

In fact a 7970 should run the game with PhysX features without installing anything extra. PhysX settings in a game are really just extra physics objects in the gameworld, like papers blowing about or cloth physics. Any decent CPU can run them no problem without an Nvidia card or any drivers. It's not special encoding or software. Nvidia cards have a special physics processor that takes some of the load off of the CPU while running extra physics effects in some games. No game requires it to run and there isn't anything you need to install to make it work.

I've got two 7970s in Xfire in my machine, and just one of them runs any of the Batman games with full PhysX easily. The card and my CPU are more than powerful enough to handle it without the extra physics processor in the Nvidia cards.

If you installed something that says it is supposed to make PhysX run, get rid of it. Even if it is legit it's an Nvidia driver and wouldn't be compatible with your card.

 

[Soulwired]

I have been doing everything I can to rule out the card, I changed its slot, dusted it thoroughly, and ran a bunch of different games just to max them out and see if the card would react wildly, much to my relief aside from the increase in fan noise the games run smoothly..

I uninstalled PhysX, tried the game in medium settings and got a black screen right at the menu screen. I just don't know anymore I suppose I have to live with playing the game in windowed mode, but its just ridiculous to think that can't run a game in full screen... when I previously was able to. The very first day I got the game I played it in full screen well into the night for a couple of hours and everything was okay start it up the next day and those damn black screen start to happen.

 

[sygnus21]

Errr... don't know where the overclock thing came from but I have Witcher 2 (enhanced edition) and it ran just fine on i7-950 overclocked system. I'm currently running the Steam version on an i7-4770 quad core and Windows 8.1 and it's still running fine so I'm not sure where the quad core thing came from either...

That said, if you have the Steam edition it should automatically be patched to the latest version. If you've got the boxed version, make sure you have the latest patch installed. If you've got a hacked version, well.... expect issues.

 

[sygnus21]

If you installed something that says it is supposed to make PhysX run, get rid of it. Even if it is legit it's an Nvidia driver and wouldn't be compatible with your card.

Some games, Metro 2033 for example, require PhysX to be installed or won't run, even if you don't have an NVidia card. Why this is, I don't know. You can check Programs & Feature, and if you've never owned or installed any NVidia products but see it there, there's a 100 percent chance a game installed it because it's required.

Just to double check this, I uninstalled it from my system, then attempted to run Metro 2033; The first thing the game did was install PhysX before running. This is the Steam version. I'd imagine if couldn't download it, it'd complain and wouldn't run until installed. So, yeah, some games require it.

Anyway I swore Witcher 2 also required it but... Anyway if it's needed the game will (should) install it. But if i's needed, and for some reason you don't have it, it can be gotten here - NVIDIA DRIVERS 9.13.0725 (PhysX Software)

Peace

 

[Contrabardus]

Errr... don't know where the overclock thing came from but I have Witcher 2 (enhanced edition) and it ran just fine on i7-950 overclocked system. I'm currently running the Steam version on an i7-4770 quad core and Windows 8.1 and it's still running fine so I'm not sure where the quad core thing came from either...

That said, if you have the Steam edition it should automatically be patched to the latest version. If you've got the boxed version, make sure you have the latest patch installed. If you've got a hacked version, well.... expect issues.

Just because it works on your overclocked system doesn't mean that it particularly likes overclocking. A lot of people have had problems with Witcher 2 because it doesn't agree with the overclocking they've done with their systems. It's notorious for not getting along well with overclocked hardware. You were lucky.

The quad core thing came from the fact that the OP has a Intel Extreme CPU, the majority of which are six core CPUs. No one said anything about the game not running well on a quad core. In fact, it was specifically stated that a quad core was optimal. OP's particular model of the Extreme series is a quad core.

Video games aren't made for six core processors so having a four core CPU is best for a gaming rig. Most games will run fine on a six core system, but only four cores are actually being used most of the time. A few games won't run or will have issues when you try to run them on a six core system, especially games that are picky about hardware like Witcher 2.

 

[Contrabardus]

If you installed something that says it is supposed to make PhysX run, get rid of it. Even if it is legit it's an Nvidia driver and wouldn't be compatible with your card.

Some games, Metro 2033 for example, require PhysX to be installed or won't run, even if you don't have an NVidia card. Why this is, I don't know. You can check Programs & Feature, and if you've never owned or installed any NVidia products but see it there, there's a 100 percent chance a game installed it because it's required.

Just to double check this, I uninstalled it from my system, then attempted to run Metro 2033; The first thing the game did was install PhysX before running. This is the Steam version. I'd imagine if couldn't download it, it'd complain and wouldn't run until installed. So, yeah, some games require it.

Anyway I swore Witcher 2 also required it but... Anyway if it's needed the game will (should) install it. But if i's needed, and for some reason you don't have it, it can be gotten here - NVIDIA DRIVERS 9.13.0725 (PhysX Software)

Peace

I stand corrected. I've had it for so long I just forgot about it. Still, PhysX should not cause any problems unless your CPU is seriously underpowered. The Intel Extreme series CPUs are more than enough to handle PhysX on any game, especially with a 7970 GPU backing it up. If other games are running fine, there's no reason Witcher 2 should be running like it is on low settings.

At any rate, PhysX is not the cause of Witcher 2's issues. Witcher 2 does not use PhysX, it runs on Havoc. There's talk that Witcher 3 will use PhysX, but 2 is optimized for AMD cards. In fact, it was given away as one of the free games that came with an AMD card purchase not too long ago.

I suggest trying running an adware, malware, and virus scan. Adware or malware can both cause issues with games. You need some sort of anti-malware program aside from whatever your Virus protection is. Most Virus scanners don't get rid of adware and malware, just viruses. Even if yours does, it's a good idea to have a secondary program for it as one will often find things the other misses. I recommend Malwarebytes, it's free and works well for cleaning out adware and malware.

Also, try turning off background programs. Go to your system tray and turn off any extra programs running in the background. Try going through your Program Files and see if you've maybe picked up some extra toolbars or other junk programs that might be running in your background. It's a good idea to scan through them on occasion just in case something slipped past you when you were downloading something. Some programs like to dump extra little toolbars and trackers into their installers. It's never a good idea to just blow through an install as they'll often try to make these installs look like part of the program installation.

You can also try [temporarily] disabling firewalls and antivirus. Either can interfere with games sometimes. You can add exceptions and get around it if either is causing the problem, but the easiest way to find out is to disable them and try running the game. Again, -do not leave them off even if they are causing the issue-. Just use the settings in either program to let the game through so it can work properly if it is the issue.

You can also try disabling scaling in the CCC settings if you have it turned on. I know it's weird but I've had scaling cause issues with some programs in the past. Probably not the case.

Another possible [but unlikely] fix is the AMD gaming Evolved app. You can get it from the AMD site and it does improve performance slightly for AMD GPUs. It is also free.

It opens a window and runs in the background, but it does optimize a lot of games to run better on AMD GPUs. It 'rewards' you for playing games with some sort of points system I've honestly not paid much attention too and if you like you can use it to enter a drawing for hardware or game giveaways if you want.

It's similar to the Steam Client in some ways and has some social features and a ranking system. It also keeps track of how long you play and lets you know how long you've been playing. I do kind of like having it tell me how long I've been playing when I close a game. That stuff is easily ignored if you're not interested and I only use it myself because it does actually optimize a lot of my games to run slightly better.

Not sure what else might help.

 

[sygnus21]

Errr... don't know where the overclock thing came from but I have Witcher 2 (enhanced edition) and it ran just fine on i7-950 overclocked system. I'm currently running the Steam version on an i7-4770 quad core and Windows 8.1 and it's still running fine so I'm not sure where the quad core thing came from either...

That said, if you have the Steam edition it should automatically be patched to the latest version. If you've got the boxed version, make sure you have the latest patch installed. If you've got a hacked version, well.... expect issues.

Just because it works on your overclocked system doesn't mean that it particularly likes overclocking. A lot of people have had problems with Witcher 2 because it doesn't agree with the overclocking they've done with their systems. It's notorious for not getting along well with overclocked hardware. You were lucky.

The quad core thing came from the fact that the OP has a Intel Extreme CPU, the majority of which are six core CPUs. No one said anything about the game not running well on a quad core. In fact, it was specifically stated that a quad core was optimal. OP's particular model of the Extreme series is a quad core.

Video games aren't made for six core processors so having a four core CPU is best for a gaming rig. Most games will run fine on a six core system, but only four cores are actually being used most of the time. A few games won't run or will have issues when you try to run them on a six core system, especially games that are picky about hardware like Witcher 2.

If you actually read what I posted you'd see I'm trying to help by providing factual information - the game does run with quad core processors, and does run on over clocked systems. You might visit other forums to find that out for yourself instead of acting like I don't know what I'm talking about.

And it's not like I have no experience with troubleshooting Witcher 2 as well - Fixes for 2.1 and TW2EE Issues and 142 error or W2 stopped working Update 8/19/2013 - The Witcher board

In the end it's about providing help, not trying to be the king of the hill.

Later.

 

[Contrabardus]

If you actually read what I posted you'd see I'm trying to help by providing factual information - the game does run with quad core processors, and does run on over clocked systems. You might visit other forums to find that out for yourself instead of acting like I don't know what I'm talking about.

And it's not like I have no experience with troubleshooting Witcher 2 as well - Fixes for 2.1 and TW2EE Issues and 142 error or W2 stopped working Update 8/19/2013 - The Witcher board

In the end it's about providing help, not trying to be the king of the hill.

Later.

I did read it and you said you weren't sure where the topic quad core support came from. So I pointed it out. No one said that the game didn't run on quad core systems, but the way your post is worded about it makes it sound as if someone had previously suggested that the game did not run well with a quad core when in fact the opposite is true.

I also said that the game has a reputation for not running well, or sometimes at all, on overclocked systems, and it does. You were one of the fortunate ones who didn't have problems, but many who have had issues with the game have discovered that dialing back overclocking has fixed the problems. No one ever said that 'it never ever runs on an overclocked system' or 'you're lying and it couldn't have run on your system because it's overclocked'. I only suggested that dialing back overclocking is often found to be a fix for various issues with running Witcher 2, and it is.

I also provided factual information and none of it contradicts anything you said previously.

As I understand it, the reason Witcher 2 is such a system hog is because it runs on DX9 and doesn't have DX 11 support. The game does so much that it really should have used DX 11 and it runs hard even at low settings because of it. There are really too many effects in the game for DX 9 to be completely stable. That's why it's often unstable with overclocked systems.

Others who have overclock related problems have said that other games run fine on their OCed cards, but Witcher 2 often misbehaves. Usually framerate issues, but sometimes worse issues such as black screens and crash/freezing come up. It's also apparent that it's sometimes an issue even with factory overclocked cards. Sometimes dialing back from the factory overclock settings to the card's base clock settings will stabilize the game and run it properly.

I suggest going into the CCC and dropping the clock settings and see if there is any improvement. Especially if the GPU in question has factory overclocking.

I have the same card as OP in my system, not overclocked, and the game runs fine at max settings complete with ubersampling. I've got three of them actually, but I only use one most of the time. I usually kick on the second when I play Witcher 2 just to lighten the load, but it runs the game at a good framerate with the max settings on a single card as well.

Edit: I knocked it up to overclock settings of 1125 and 1575 [from the stock 925 and 1375] just to see, and my framerate in Witcher 2 dropped by about 40fps and movement became jerky along with audio skipping. I've little doubt that trying to play for a while will lead to crashing. Booted up Skyrim, Arkham Origins, and Max Payne 3 with no performance loss on the OCed card settings at all.

Every system is different so it likely isn't universal, but I've confirmed that OCing can make Witcher 2 unstable on some systems, including my own with the same GPU as OP. It also confirms that dialing back OC settings can make the game run stable again at a decent framerate.

 

[sygnus21]

Witcher 2 does not like overclocking, so if you've got anything overclocked dial it back to default settings and that may help. It's kind of infamous for finding any instability in an overclocked system and crashing like you describe because of it.

Quite a few people besides me are running overclocked systems and Witcher 2 runs just fine. That said, it is good advice to dial back and try; but unless they're running uber overclocked, usually not a factor.

It might also be your CPU. Some games do not run on six core processors. I believe Witcher 2 might be one of them. As I said above it's finicky about the hardware and settings it likes.

Contrary to popular belief, a six core CPU is not really better for a gaming rig. Most games only use four regardless of how many you have with only one or two exceptions, and even those are only coded to accept six cores and still only actually use four of them.

A quad core CPU is optimal for a gaming rig because all current games are coded with four cores in mind. We probably won't be seeing any games that can take advantage of a six core CPU for at least a couple of years. At the moment a six core CPU is more likely to cause problems in games than to give any sort of performance boost over a quad core.

My advice is that if all else fails, remove your six core and store it away for a few years until it's useful and replace it with a quad core.

System Requirements - The Witcher 2 System Requirements Revealed - IGN. Note the game was released May 2011 - a few hexa-cores were out by then.

Now, this isn't to say there couldn't be issues there; as I like to say... with computers, anything is possible. However, the empirical evidence says otherwise. In short, there are many running the game on a hexa-core processor and/or overclocked system without issue. But yes, anything is possible.

And yeah, it's still a demanding game - performance wise.

Peace

 

[Soulwired]

Okay I have heard about doing something like that, lowering the clock settings, now I am wondering do I enable graphic overdrive in ccc or not when lowering the clocks?

 

[sygnus21]

If you're not overclocked you don't need to lower anything.

BTW I seemed to have missed it.. what version of Witcher 2 do you have? Steam or boxed retail?

Also have you looked through this guide - http://www.sevenforums.com/gaming/77293-tips-troubleshooting-game-issues.html. Maybe something in there might help.

 

[Contrabardus]

Okay I have heard about doing something like that, lowering the clock settings, now I am wondering do I enable graphic overdrive in ccc or not when lowering the clocks?

If your clock settings are already set to 925 and 1375 you shouldn't bother changing anything because those are the default settings for a 7970 without overclocking. Going lower than the defaults probably won't hurt, but it isn't likely to help. If your clock speeds are set over that then turning the settings down might help.