Advice for black screen on launch

[Yep, Nope is right]

Almost hate to ask, since I have a viable work-around. Figure someone might know an easy answer, though, so here goes. Has to be something I'm overlooking.

 

When I launch CoH on my Alienware Area-51 R5 desktop, it opens a window that is simply black. No matter how long I wait, nothing happens, and I get a standard "City of Heroes (Not Responding" error on the title bar. I am using Win 10 Pro &  Homecoming Launcher, though the behavior is the same with Tequila and Sunrise. More system details below.

 

However, if I add -gfxreset to the launcher, it works fine. I just reset the graphics to something useful for a box driving 3 x 3840x2160 monitors and get on with life. To avoid having to do this every launch, I simply minimize CoH rather than closing to desktop. But that's inelegant and wasteful of bits or something.

 

I've spent an afternoon going through *every* setting on the Nvidia "Manage 3D settings" tab. Tried various SLI configurations. Updated every driver I thought might be conceivably involved. Gone through multiple Windoze updates. Changed lots of windows settings trying to move the problem. Updated the BIOS. Nothing I've tried has changed this behavior.

 

Only clue I can add to this is that if I run the debug console, the last three results on the console are:

 

loading system font.. done

loading other fonts.. done

initializing fonts.. done

 

On a successful launch using -gfxreset, the next step after that is "networking startup", but I never see that on a "black screen" launch. That made me mildly suspicious of firewalls and antivirus, but I made sure to whitelist the executable, and tried launching with both disabled. Also tried running on the WiFi rather than my usual hardwire to the DSL router. 

 

I even got desperate and rebooted the system. <grin> And turned it off and then on again, though I had to go online to find out where the power button is. (Technical note for the humor impaired - that was a joke.)

 

System information

 

Launcher - Homecoming (though I've seen equivalent behavior on Sunrise & Tequila, and in fact this box does the same thing with the Rebirth client)

 

Alienware Area-51 R5

OS - Windows 10 Pro version 10.0.19043 build 19043

cpu - Intel i9-7920X

memory - 32 Gb

graphics - dual Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080

graphics driver - 472.12 (I've tried 5 or 6 different versions over the past few months)

SLI mode - maximize 3D performance (Have tried disabling, and every other possibility)

 

To further add to the mystery, I also have an Alienware 17 R4 laptop sitting right beside the desktop, using as close as possible to the same hardware and software, and it runs City of Heroes without having to play with -gfxreset. I'm really hoping someone here can point me toward what I'm overlooking in getting this working right. Even though I have a viable workaround, it bothers me to not be able to solve this.

[Glacier Peak]

35 minutes ago, TheHunterJLJ said:

Almost hate to ask, since I have a viable work-around. Figure someone might know an easy answer, though, so here goes. Has to be something I'm overlooking.

 

When I launch CoH on my Alienware Area-51 R5 desktop, it opens a window that is simply black. No matter how long I wait, nothing happens, and I get a standard "City of Heroes (Not Responding" error on the title bar. I am using Win 10 Pro &  Homecoming Launcher, though the behavior is the same with Tequila and Sunrise. More system details below.

 

However, if I add -gfxreset to the launcher, it works fine. I just reset the graphics to something useful for a box driving 3 x 3840x2160 monitors and get on with life. To avoid having to do this every launch, I simply minimize CoH rather than closing to desktop. But that's inelegant and wasteful of bits or something.

 

I've spent an afternoon going through *every* setting on the Nvidia "Manage 3D settings" tab. Tried various SLI configurations. Updated every driver I thought might be conceivably involved. Gone through multiple Windoze updates. Changed lots of windows settings trying to move the problem. Updated the BIOS. Nothing I've tried has changed this behavior.

 

Only clue I can add to this is that if I run the debug console, the last three results on the console are:

 

loading system font.. done

loading other fonts.. done

initializing fonts.. done

 

On a successful launch using -gfxreset, the next step after that is "networking startup", but I never see that on a "black screen" launch. That made me mildly suspicious of firewalls and antivirus, but I made sure to whitelist the executable, and tried launching with both disabled. Also tried running on the WiFi rather than my usual hardwire to the DSL router. 

 

I even got desperate and rebooted the system. <grin> And turned it off and then on again, though I had to go online to find out where the power button is. (Technical note for the humor impaired - that was a joke.)

 

System information

 

Launcher - Homecoming (though I've seen equivalent behavior on Sunrise & Tequila, and in fact this box does the same thing with the Rebirth client)

 

Alienware Area-51 R5

OS - Windows 10 Pro version 10.0.19043 build 19043

cpu - Intel i9-7920X

memory - 32 Gb

graphics - dual Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080

graphics driver - 472.12 (I've tried 5 or 6 different versions over the past few months)

SLI mode - maximize 3D performance (Have tried disabling, and every other possibility)

 

To further add to the mystery, I also have an Alienware 17 R4 laptop sitting right beside the desktop, using as close as possible to the same hardware and software, and it runs City of Heroes without having to play with -gfxreset. I'm really hoping someone here can point me toward what I'm overlooking in getting this working right. Even though I have a viable workaround, it bothers me to not be able to solve this.

No helpful input, but just wanted to comment - damn you've got a GTX 1080 running 3 4k monitors??? What is your framerate in game? I have a 1440p monitor and I get between 60-165HZ with my GTX 1080. 

[Yep, Nope is right]

only 60ish, cuz I have all the dials turned up to 11. But it pretty much never drops even in the ugliest mixups. I could probably tweak things to get it up a lot, but there's not much point. (lol)

 

(edit) I should clarify, the max I see is 60s, the lowest around 35 or so. I get better framerate on the laptop even though it's in theory a slightly less capable machine. I did a little work on optimizing  CoH on that box, since it launches more reliably there. I use Mouse without Borders to be able to control either machine from either mouse and keyboard, so I've got a semi-circle of 5 4k monitors plus the laptop screen way off to the right. It's kinda scary.

 

I experimented briefly with using Surround to span all three displays on the desktop into one 11,520 x 2160 display. City of Heroes will actually run at insane resolutions like that, but I didn't play with it long enough to get it stable. Besides, the surround sound no longer works like it did on live, so you don't get the audible clues that something is coming at you from the side. BaBs I think it was is sorta responsible for my interest in a multi-screen setup for gaming, he mentioned in the old forums running dual monitors and how cool it was other than the line down the middle. 3 monitors gets rid of the 'line', or really moves it somewhere you don't care as much. But I quickly decided the better use for all that extra screen real estate is references like wikis, forums, and MIDS

Edited October 22, 2021 by TheHunterJLJ

[Marine X]

I have seen on here several times that the GeForce Experience, if installed can cause numerous problems for COH, the cure is to uninstall the GeForce Experience and then simply install the nVidia drivers for the Card or Cards. Might be worth a look, and may explain why your work-around works. Good Hunting.

[Yep, Nope is right]

I could believe it. I've avoided GeForce experience for quite a while because of similar problems in other games. It has some nice ideas, but too often gets in the way. Besides, Alienware has their own more comprehensive system update utility. Only problem with that one is that it takes considerably longer for them to certify drivers, so if you rely on them you're often several revs behind. I suppose I could try another round of driver updates in hopes that somebody finally found the problem and fixed it.

 

Another system I've found somewhat problematic for just day-to-day gaming is the Windows "Xbox Gamebar". It definitely has some uses for streamers and whatnot, but for me it's just another thing to go wrong. (Windows is kinda like Westworld, really... in SO many ways.) I wonder a bit if the streaming component of GeForce Experience might be the real problem child. Not even sure they're still chasing that rainbow any more, it's been so long since I looked at GeForce Experience. Besides, they don't have a profile for City of Heroes anyway most likely.

 

 

[Hyperstrike]

2 hours ago, Glacier Peak said:

No helpful input, but just wanted to comment - damn you've got a GTX 1080 running 3 4k monitors??? What is your framerate in game? I have a 1440p monitor and I get between 60-165HZ with my GTX 1080. 

I've got a 2060 running 3 4K monitors.

Triple monitor is just flaky in Windows.
There's no real "fix" unfortunately.
I've tried multiple solutions, running the monitors separately, windows to span the displays as a single display.
Using NVIDIA drivers to span the displays as a single display.
Using Display Fusion to span the displays as a single display.

They're ALL hinky about this.

The best workaround I've gotten is to simply play in Windowed mode.
Then drag the window to cover all three screens.
I've had the least frustration and the most stable results from this.
And yes, UNINSTALL GeForce Experience.
The "native" settings for CoH are still in there and they're so out of date it's not funny.

[Yep, Nope is right]

My main problem with spanning using Nvidia was updates got weird. It works OK day to day, you just have to do a lot of fiddling every time Windows Update changes something. About half the time I'd come in and find the system only using one screen and claiming the others weren't working, and have to manually reinstall. I finally gave up and don't span the desktop, just leave it as three separate monitors. You're right that it seems to be three monitors that gives it fits. Never had any of those problems with the laptop that only has two external monitors attached through the Alienware 'external graphics adaptor'. But, yes, you're right about GeForce Experience. It is on my list of software to be avoided on a real gaming rig, which is really rather ironic. I've avoided GeForce Experience for years now, so I doubt that's the problem. Though it can be bad enough I'll check.