Unable to access the game: Black screen video crashes since update.

Xinihp

I am running Windows 10, NOT Windows 7. Latest NVIDIA drivers on a GTX1080, no overclock, good temps.

I can play any other game for hours with no problem. Skyrim AE, Assassin's Creed Odyssey, Cyberpunk, etc.

As soon as I launch ESO, my system video crashes to black within minutes. I can still hear sound in the background, and jumping etc. I can still make out my character doing stuff. My system is still running, just the video layer is being crashed by some new thing the game has been doing since the High Isle PTS, probably related to an anticheat change.

When it does work I can tell something weird is happening because when I log out my screen flashes to a screenshot from minutes earlier, as if there is some secondary layer running taking screen grabs.

What's even worse than not being able to play ESO or work on addons, is that once I launch ESO my system remains unstable until I completely shut down and unplug the power for 15 seconds to clear all memory. If I boot up and never touch ESO, my system it completely stable for days (literally).

But the second I launch ESO, my entire system is corrupted and I have to manually power off and unplug.

EDIT:

OK, I have managed to play for about an hour now after making some discoveries and changes. Not saying it is fixed but this might help others.

First, I discovered that the 472.84 NVIDIA driver I was using was NOT the newest, just the newest that the NVIDIA driver page shows available as a STANDARD driver.

Apparently there is a new format, "DCH," and NVIDIA is no longer updating their standard driver. They SAY it is the same, but then why a different name? Well, because apparently they no longer package the NVIDIA control panel for actually CONFIGURING your video card with the DCH drivers! For that, you are FORCED to enable and use the Microsoft Store (that thing that dumps Candy Crush and a bunch of other bloatware on your system without your permission).

Our network has this disabled for obvious security reasons. I think maybe ESO should add "Microsoft Store" to their list of hardware and software requirements now that it seems the latest standard NVIDIA driver no longer works with their game.

Anyway, I can't detail my workaround other than I used Display Driver Uninstall to remove the old drivers in safe mode, then installed the latest DCH 516.40 drivers. If you have Windows Store enabled it should download the control panel for you after that. Otherwise, you basically have to install a "dummy" PC with Windows 10 and enable the Windows Store on that PC, install the same NVIDIA drivers and download the control panel, then transfer that control panel to your actual windows PC.

I think it is really terrible that you are forced to enable what I consider malware just to be able to play a game you purchased on a video card you purchased, but I can at least confirm that the game SEEMS stable so far on this driver.

phaneub17_ESO

But did you upgrade from Win7?

TaSheen

phaneub17_ESO wrote: »

But did you upgrade from Win7?

Hmmm. I did. And I'm not having anything like this issue. My GPU, however is ancient - a GTX 960 (which is quite happily running 2 4k screens).

I haven't allowed win 10 to update beyond about the second numeric iteration however. So yeah, I'm on a seriously antique OS version (though all the security updates since however many years back it was are in place).

So, I really can't help you. I hope you can get it sorted.

Xinihp

Spoke too soon. With the new SCH driver the game doesn't blackscreen anymore, but it completely locks up instead. You can't alt-tab or anything.

I am able to Ctrl+Alt+Shift+B to re-initialize the display driver, enough to see the error and window key + tab to another desktop to kill it. Still, this is really unstable.

Trying with windowed fullscreen now instead of regular fullscreen, maybe that will help.

ZOS_Exile

Hello,

Just as an FYI we moved this thread to a more appropriate category.

Thank you

ZOS_Bill

@Xinihp

Thank you for listing all the steps you've taken so far. At this point we recommend starting a ticket with customer support for further help.