Black Screen

Seravi · April 2014

I started playing 3/30 with no issues for over 14 hours. I logged back in Monday and it has been hell. I keep getting this black screen. The game is still running as I can hear interactions, my mouse is still working as well as my keyboard but the screen is black. I have to alt tab out and close the window and log back in. Doesn't seem to matter what I am doing, running, standing, fighting, crafting, selling, buying, etc just happens constantly and is quite annoying. I have a ticket into support and have sent them my DxDiag file. They suggested running as admin and also giving the game a profile under NVIDIA for Max/High Performance. I did this and it is worse instead of better. I am seeing out on the net others posting in other places the same issue. I am running Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680,

cethlol · April 2014

Just wanted to say that I do face the same problem. Seems to be an issue with the NVIDIA Driver. I guess we have to wait whatever ESO oder NVIDIA fixes this.

Vistrix · April 2014

Yeah it's the nvidia drivers. Ati users seem to be fine.

I would suggest either trying the latest drivers or try another version.

tokyov · April 2014

Can I get some help? I am having the exact same issue. @ZOS_JasonL‌

Vistrix · April 2014

tokyov wrote: »

Can I get some help? I am having the exact same issue. @ZOS_JasonL‌

Have you tried different drivers? It is a video driver issue...

tokyov · April 2014

Vistrix wrote: »

tokyov wrote: »

Can I get some help? I am having the exact same issue. @ZOS_JasonL‌

Have you tried different drivers? It is a video driver issue...

I guess ill try downgrading to an earlier nvidia driver

cethlol · April 2014

-NVIDIA USERS- Here is the Fix (at least for me)
check out: http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/discussion/61626/please-read-first-known-technical-issues-pc

"#5. Adjust your video card to run the game at High Performance.

Nvidia Video Card.
Open the Nvidia control panel. This can be done usually by clicking the appropriate icon in the bottom right of the computer on the Task Bar. You can also right-click directly on your desktop and you should see Nvidia Control Panel in the list.
Under 3D settings, select the Manage 3D Settings. The Manage 3D Settings window displays on the right.
Click the Program Settings tab at the top in the Window on the right.
Your first step is to select a program to customize. Click the drop down and select eso.exe.
Your second step shows a list of settings for the program. We need to look for the Feature Power Management Mode and change the option on the right to Prefer maximum performance.
At the bottom select Apply and close out of the Nvidia Control Panel.
Now try running the game as administrator"

This one seems to slove the random occuring "Black Screen Problem". Well at least for me. Hope this fixes it for you guys as well!

cheers
cethlol

Chingowey · April 2014

I've been having this problem as well, just tried your fix cethlol, no luck for me. Got a black screen crash about 10 minutes after I tried that.

Seravi · April 2014

Well I found something that seems to be working for now. Not sure if this is going to be a fix all for this issues but I can play without the black screen now.

Try editing this file C:\Users\<Username>\Documents\Elder Scrolls Online\live\UserSettings.txt . Change the line from "SET GraphicsDriver.7 "D3D11"" to "SET GraphicsDriver.7 "D3D9""

I also changed the following:

Make the following change to the Usersettings.txt file

Go to your "My Documents/The Elder Scrolls Online" folder and open the folder in there called "Live."
Check to see if there is a file called "UserSettings.txt" in there.
Locate the line "SET RequestedNumThreads "X" change the X from whatever number it may be to 0.

I had to make the txt file read only as every time I logged in ESO changed the setting back to D3D11. Here is a link to the thread that helped me and the user Lovreone who made the suggestions that seems to work: http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/discussion/comment/509812#Comment_509812

I talked in great length to top level folks at ESO about this issue a few days ago and told them about this "fix" that seems to work. I also explained that I have done a ton of research and testing on this and found that many users out on the net having this issue all have one thing in common, NVIDIA cards. Hopefully they will look into this further. I would suggest sending in a ticket to support with a link to this thread as I did to help keep this issue on the burner so they find out why we are being forced to roll back to DX9 instead of using DX11.

Tyetonious · April 2014

hmm also you will notice in the user settings file that the resolution will not be what you have set it to ingame. make sure the 2 are the same by editing the file and saving. by doing this i tend to get atleast about 45 mins to an hour before the black screen arrives lol. better than the 30 seconds it was before tho :P id also recommend you have the latest DX installed.

Also just a thought, has anyone tried windowed mode? could be just happening when using fullscreen. if so i know its not the best but atleast you could play the game untill a fix is released

Seravi · April 2014

I have tried windowed. The only thing that works for me is the settings above on maximized. I cannot run full screen or windowed. Again another issue NVIDIA users are having. My screen was going black literally every 5 seconds. The game is still running but you can't see anything. The changes I mentioned above work for me. They may not work for the next NVIDIA user. It's a really strange bug that was around during beta and turned into a monster when they went full release and had more users.

tokyov · April 2014

This needs to be acknowledged by ZOS. The fact that it hasnt is troubling. None of the fixes work for me.

Seravi · April 2014

Please submit support tickets on this. I have a ticket that has been used since 3/30 with all suggestions, what works what doesn't work and phone calls. They have made top level support folks aware of this so we need to submitting tickets and hope they can get this fixed. I talked to a top level support person this Saturday. They called me to see how it was going and I let them know that while some "fixes" are working for me they are not for many other players.

tokyov · April 2014

Incident: 140404-040271. I sent them all my files 2 days ago, no response since. Cant play at all.

Seravi · April 2014

When you make the changes to the UserSettings.txt are you making the file read only? The reason I ask is I made the changes and still had the issues and realized that when I logged in the game was reverting the changes back to D3D11 instead of D3D9 like I saved. Once I made the file read only so they couldn't change it, the game worked.

Hellsing24 · April 2014

Seravi wrote: »

Well I found something that seems to be working for now. Not sure if this is going to be a fix all for this issues but I can play without the black screen now.

Try editing this file C:\Users\<Username>\Documents\Elder Scrolls Online\live\UserSettings.txt . Change the line from "SET GraphicsDriver.7 "D3D11"" to "SET GraphicsDriver.7 "D3D9""

I also changed the following:

Make the following change to the Usersettings.txt file

Go to your "My Documents/The Elder Scrolls Online" folder and open the folder in there called "Live."
Check to see if there is a file called "UserSettings.txt" in there.
Locate the line "SET RequestedNumThreads "X" change the X from whatever number it may be to 0.

I had to make the txt file read only as every time I logged in ESO changed the setting back to D3D11. Here is a link to the thread that helped me and the user Lovreone who made the suggestions that seems to work: http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/discussion/comment/509812#Comment_509812

I talked in great length to top level folks at ESO about this issue a few days ago and told them about this "fix" that seems to work. I also explained that I have done a ton of research and testing on this and found that many users out on the net having this issue all have one thing in common, NVIDIA cards. Hopefully they will look into this further. I would suggest sending in a ticket to support with a link to this thread as I did to help keep this issue on the burner so they find out why we are being forced to roll back to DX9 instead of using DX11.

I went to do this and fount my Settings were already changed so i canged the back to the Default and it fixed my game.

Hinetoa · April 2014

The solution suggest by Seravi ✭ seems like the same type of solution for Ubisoft games when they get the black screen, audio only. It always seems to be a DX problem. I'll see how it goes.

Hinetoa · April 2014

This Adminstrator post by the way seems to cover the Black Screen issue http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/discussion/61626/please-read-first-known-technical-issues-pc

terryammon · May 2014

I had the same problem with my game, changed my SET GraphicsDriver.7 "D3D11" to D3D9 and still nothing

Changed it to D3D10 and BINGO! started working again :disagree:

Shade1982 · December 2014

[Try editing this file C:\Users\<Username>\Documents\Elder Scrolls Online\live\UserSettings.txt . Change the line from "SET GraphicsDriver.7 "D3D11"" to "SET GraphicsDriver.7 "D3D9""]

This was the one that did it for me. I also had to set the file to read-only to stop it from reverting back.

iliev.rumenb16_ESO · January 2015

It's not working for me. Tried D3D9, 10, 11 ... nothing works.

Seravi · January 2015

Did you make the file read only? If not it will get changed back to the default setting when you log in.

iliev.rumenb16_ESO · January 2015

Seravi wrote: »

Did you make the file read only? If not it will get changed back to the default setting when you log in.

Yup.

First check the drivers - up to date.

Then check DirectX - up to date.

Then try the file fix - still getting black screen.

Try contacting the support they respond with a quote from this thread.

I think I will go for a refund or I will sell my account or somthing. I can not play the game since I can't complete quests due to having to alt+F4 every 10 or 15 minutes and my character dies during that time, my group leaves me ... and so on and so on ... idk but I am really dissapointed ..

Seravi · January 2015

I have to run Windowed Full Screen (SET FULLSCREEN_v5 "2" from "2" to "1" (windowed fullScreen) ) and I also changed the following:

"SET RequestedNumThreads "X" change the X from whatever number it may be to 0.

I also have to run with VSync on. My NVIDIA driver is 344.65 as I have issues with the newer drivers.

iliev.rumenb16_ESO · January 2015

Seravi wrote: »

I have to run Windowed Full Screen (SET FULLSCREEN_v5 "2" from "2" to "1" (windowed fullScreen) ) and I also changed the following:

"SET RequestedNumThreads "X" change the X from whatever number it may be to 0.

I also have to run with VSync on. My NVIDIA driver is 344.65 as I have issues with the newer drivers.

My Nvidia Vsync is globbaly allways ON I had my SET RequestedNumthreads to 0 but I havent tried running it on Fullscreen. I'll try it when I get back from work.

Thanks for trying to help.

iliev.rumenb16_ESO · January 2015

YES. I fixed it.

How, you may ask.

Well by applying all the possible fixes.

First check your drivers - Im with Nvidia.

Then go to Nvidia control panel and make the prefered option for Power Management Mode to be maximum performance.

Then go to documents/elder scrolls online/live and open the file User Settings.

Change the following lines

From
SET FullscreenHeight "0"
SET FullscreenWidth "0"
to
SET FullscreenHeight "1080"
SET FullscreenWidth "1920"

SET FULLSCREEN_v5 "2" from "2" to "1"

SET RequestedNumThreads "X" change the X from whatever number it may be to 0.

SET GraphicsDriver.7 "D3D11"" to "SET GraphicsDriver.7 "D3D9"

Then close and save and make the file read only.

I did all of the mentioned above and now I play without the black screen.

I really hope this helps people.

I play on a laptop Lenovo y510p with one GT750M. I know that if you have the model with SLI you might have a bad time but I don't know about sli support. It works for me.

Special thank you to all the users that helped me and to customer support for giving me a permission to access the forum.

steveaxeman1 · August 2016

I tried all the fix's here and it didn't help much, after 5-10 mins of play it will go to black screen. I did find 2 temporary fix's , 1) set your graphic option in the game to default. that help 6- 8 hrs of game play or option 2) keep the ultra or high option and just shut off the shadows, again this last for a very long time. I beta tested this game and played ever since until they made it compatible with other systems like Xbox and Playstation . I never had a problem until then. this is the only game that my computer crash on. so I have reason to believe what ever they did to make compatible is what mess it up for us PC game users . I love this game very much and now I can at least play for a few hours without it crashing . I hope this helps you all as well

e1team · August 2016

People! The issue has been discussed extensively. If you use the search function you may come across it. There has been a way around the issue which is downclocking you GPU 50-100Mhz. with Precision X or similar apps. Helped me and many other people with the issue.

PaulD · June 2017

Simply renewing the heat sink grease on my machine fixed my issues. I use arctic silver.

ZOS_Bill · June 2017

This thread is from back in 2014 and some of the information is now outdated. For this reason we are closing it as a necro so players don't get misinformation on older troubleshooting that may not apply anymore.