GameBanshee Forums

Recently acquired this game. But am having trouble shooting with it. For some reason when I start the game, I see only pitch black. There are the sounds and music its all going fine, just that my screen is blank, black. Been through all those trouble shooting procedures I could find including trying to ensure i have 1400 memory for the swap, changing my resolution and all, but its not working. I am currently using NVIDIA GeForce 4 Mx440 with AGP 8. Any one who has the game encounter the same problem or might know how to fix this? Please help, thanks!

Wow....64 MB RAM Graphics ? Have you installed latest drivers ? And DirectX 9c ?

Well either way, 64 MB is the minimum requirement stated in the game infos. I had problems with speed when I had a Radeon 9600 XT 128 MB RAM card.

If you haven't installed latest drivers, try that....if you have them allready and it still doesn't work it looks like you need a new graphic card, you should get an older 128 MB RAM card of even 256 MB RAM card quite cheap ( below 100 $ or € ) nowadays.

You should give more info on your system.

What Video Drivers version are you using?
What Sound card and driver version are you using?
Do you use a VIA motherboard, if so what version of 4 in 1 drivers are you using?
Did you install the Official patch?
Have you tried reinstalling?
What version of Directx are you using?
What operating system are you using?

NVIDIA GeForce 4 Mx440 with AGP8x version 4. 18.28. 13.00
nForce VAPU/Sonata v4.42
Did you install the Official patch? Yes
Have you tried reinstalling? No
What version of Directx are you using? 9.0c
What operating system are you using? AMD athlon(tm) XP 2000+ 1.66GHz, 512mb of RAM

[QUOTE=Blackjay]NVIDIA GeForce 4 Mx440 with AGP8x version 4. 18.28. 13.00[/QUOTE]

This might be your problem. If memory serves, the GeForce 4 series only had DirectX 8 capability, and you need a DirectX 9 card. The first DirectX 9 cards from ATI were the 9000 series, and the first decent ones from Nvidia were the 6000 series. Something like a GeForce 6600GT or ATI's 9800pro would run you $75-150. For the newer cards you're probably looking at $200 or more.

The required specs seem a bit misleading, though. On the one hand, it says it needs a "100% DirectX® 9.0c-compatible 64MB video card." On the other hand, it says it will work with "All NVIDIA® GeForce™ Chipsets," which includes cards which do not support DX9, like your MX440. The source engine doesn't require a DX9 card - half-life 2 ran just fine on my old Ti4200 - but maybe Troika made some changes for Bloodlines that do require DX9?

Memory

I think I know what your problem is. My old computer had a Radeon 8500 with 128 Mb of ram, and it was barely capable of playing VTMB. I had to go into the card settings and set everything up for maximum performance before it would play reasonably smoothly, and even then it still slowed down in the rain. I spent a year playing full stealth mode simply because my display was too slow for hand-to-hand type sequences.

With only 64Mb, of display RAM, I gotta figure your computer is chugging something awful.

Maybe you could ask a friend who has a better card to lend it to you for a trial ?
That could confirm the problem...

Hello, I have the same problem as the threadcreator. I get no graphic at all, but the music and everything else seems to be working fine.

I am using Windows XP. My graphic card is a GeForce 8800 gts 320 mb. I have 2048 mb RAM and my processor is a duel core 2.0 ghz.
As far as I understand, my specs should have no problem playing this game. I have tried the first version, the 1.2 official... the 3.9 unofficial, all with the same problem.

If anyone still reads this thread, please help if you can.

Cheers,
Mivke

Mivke wrote:Hello, I have the same problem as the threadcreator. I get no graphic at all, but the music and everything else seems to be working fine.

I am using Windows XP. My graphic card is a GeForce 8800 gts 320 mb. I have 2048 mb RAM and my processor is a duel core 2.0 ghz.
As far as I understand, my specs should have no problem playing this game. I have tried the first version, the 1.2 official... the 3.9 unofficial, all with the same problem.

If anyone still reads this thread, please help if you can.

Cheers,
Mivke

while I understand your tendency to focus on the graphic card, it might not be that. I rememeber a few things from a couple of years ago about such things. First, for card settings:

Set Brightness to High, and if you have contrast, set it to Low (sometimes that works). I know that sounds counter-intuitive, but give it a shot. No harm, no foul, yes?

One post from long ago mentioned that the problem may not be your graphics card at all, but the Monitor. Maybe the card is playing outside the range that your monitor can deal with, so as a safety measure, it's simply being blacked out. The only solution to this, however, is a new monitor. To test the theory, borrow a friend's and see if it helps. If your 'black screen' suddenly becomes good with a different monitor, that is where your trouble lies.

Good luck.

Jhereg wrote:while I understand your tendency to focus on the graphic card, it might not be that. I rememeber a few things from a couple of years ago about such things. First, for card settings:

Set Brightness to High, and if you have contrast, set it to Low (sometimes that works). I know that sounds counter-intuitive, but give it a shot. No harm, no foul, yes?

One post from long ago mentioned that the problem may not be your graphics card at all, but the Monitor. Maybe the card is playing outside the range that your monitor can deal with, so as a safety measure, it's simply being blacked out. The only solution to this, however, is a new monitor. To test the theory, borrow a friend's and see if it helps. If your 'black screen' suddenly becomes good with a different monitor, that is where your trouble lies.

Good luck.

Thanks for your reply.

When you talk of Brightness and Contrast, do you mean on the monitor or in the graphic card settings?

I know it is not my monitor. With my old processor, graphic card, motherboard etc I could play the game just fine and I use the same monitor now.

Thanks again for taking the time

Mivke

AHH

so i had this problem today and not last night.
i came on here and checked my old posts, certain that i had posted somewhere for a problem like this. and, i think last time, changing the refresh rate [to 60] may help.

im off to try it now.