Screen going black when starting games

Hardware and technical stuff
1

Alright, this is driving me crazy. I´ve looked at a lot of sites and haven´t found an answer (or maybe just an answer I can understand).

It´s like this. When I start a game (not EVE, weird), my monitor goes black. It doesn´t turn off. The game is running, I know this because I can hear the intro playing.

Hitting escape brings games to their menu, monitor still black. Only way to fix it is a pc reset, but of course, I still can´t play the game.

Eve runs for hours with no hitch, as does video, etc.

I have a ViewSonic VA-912, admiteddly on the old side of things.
I have a Radeon HD5770 card, that I plugged in 5 or so months ago.

If I change refresh rate from 60 to 75, the exact same thing happens. This might be related I think (games doing that) but I still don´t know how to fix it.

Any ideas will be greatly appreciated.

2

Recent occurance or has this been going on since you installed the HD5770? If recent occurance, any recent activity that might be relevant: new driver install, major update, etc.?

Other than that, try the usual: try a monitor swap, video card swap, driver update, etc.

3

Weird. If you alt-tab out, does the screen come back? Does this happen for any game other than Eve or just one game? Is it because you play Eve in a window and other games in full-screen mode?

4

To be honest, I´m not exactly sure since I´ve been playing eve for the last months and didn´t notice.

Alt-tab doesn´t fix it. I play EVE full screen, no problem at all. Any other game I try produced this problem. Weird huh.

5

that’s most likely a game going to a certain resolution @ refresh rate. it shouldn’t switch if you go into a game that’s the SAME as your desktop refresh + resolution. ie i run all my games in 1920x1080x60hz refresh which is my windows desktop setting.

run a game in any other setting and it will go black to switch.

some hdtvs run windows not in the proper 60hz but in 59hz or something different necessitating the switch until you force/change it to the proper matching one.

6

Thanks. So mmm how do I fix it?
(Erm if you haven´t noticed, I am really, really ignorant)

7

First, disconnect and reconnect your monitor cable, at both ends. Try a game again.

Second, try running a game windowed and see if it does the same thing. (Alt-Enter when you’re in Eve, I think, if you’re starting it up fullscreen)

8

Uh, change your refresh rate to 60hz.

9

I don´t think I´m understanding right.

Monitor refresh rate IS 60hz.

Hopeless, am I not? grrr.

10

actually re-reading your post sounds like video codec used for game intros.

try downloading and rerunning the directx redist: www.microsoft.com/en-ca/download/details.aspx?id=8109

update your ati catalyst drivers to 12.8.

11

Is the monitor actually on, or in standby/sleep mode? If it’s going into standby then your video card is probably overheating, in which case check that the fan is spinning and clear any dust out.

12

Thanks Rei, did all this, but it didn´t fix it.

13

I had something similar happen a few years ago and it turned out my video card was dying. One question, if you run a game in windowed mode does the game run, or do you still get a black screen? As that’s what clued me into the problem being my card.

14

Hey Jab. I really hope it´s not that, as the card is new(ish). Right now, the only game that runs is Eve (lucky, being CEO of the corp and all). I have a ton of games installed here so over the weekend I¨ll be trying them, I seem to remember playing Sins of Solar Empire somewhat recently and it ran fine.

We´ll see, tx for your ideas!

15

What happens if you Alt-tab out of the game? Still black? It does sound like whenever advanced video functions are called, your card doesnt work. EVE may be an exception because you have it set to some older setting, like Direct X 9 or 7?

Also - did you try turning off your monitor and on again when it happens?

If this was a few years ago, I’d say your Voodoo card was burned out so basically my best guess is parts of your video card is not working.