Any help and ideas appreciated while waiting for a CS reply, "blackscreen" on launch through Steam

Bat · August 2022

I know this topic might with relative haste be moved to Players Helping Players, but I'm at a loss. I've always been able to launch the game properly through Steam but Thursday something happened preventing this, and I am greeted with a black screen, which there is no way out of but CTRL+ALT+DEL restart/shutdown of system. I know for a fact it's neither my specs nor my drivers, as I am readily capable of launching and playing the game on an additional account that is not opened through Steam, so it isn't something in either hardware or drivers. I re-installed the entire game, I purged the AddOns folder, I did everything that any sensible gamer would think of to remedy this affliction but it still isn't starting up properly. There was some post claiming setting the SET RequestedNumJonThreads and subsequent line values to "0" instead of "-1" would fix it, alas that did not fix it.

Please note as I also pointed out to CS, that the game launches and runs just fine on an additional account; this is not due to either hardware, driver, or settings issues. There is something that has seemingly corrupted my ESO Steam account and I am looking to you here since I hope someone else has had this problem and has been able to fix it, I'll keep this thread open as back-and-forth with Customer Service can be a bit of a hassle through the format it is provided. Grateful for any ideas, tips, fixes that weren't already pointed out in this here thread start.

Bat · August 2022

Here are the UserSettings, although I doubt these will have an impact as they are the same as they were when I last logged off from successfully playing the game through Steam (Wednesday). I spent all day yesterday going through the steps that are readily available with search engines - including obscure tips in Steam community threads.

SET RDPGameCameraFix "0"
SET InputMode "0"
SET WasLastInputGamepad "0"
SET MouseRawInput "1"
SET MouseSensitivityFirstPerson "1.60000002"
SET MouseSensitivityThirdPerson "1.60000002"
SET MouseSmoothing "0"
SET InvertMouseWheel "1"
SET InvertMouseY "1"
SET InvertMouseX "1"
SET SoftwareOcclusionCullingEnabled "0"
SET SHOW_ADDITIONAL_ALLY_EFFECTS "0"
SET HDR_MODE "0"
SET HDR_UI_CONTRAST "1.15999997"
SET HDR_SCENE_CONTRAST "1.20000005"
SET HDR_UI_BRIGHTNESS "1.54999995"
SET HDR_SCENE_BRIGHTNESS "1.12000000"
SET HDR_PEAK_BRIGHTNESS_v2 "500.00000000"
SET DistantFoliageEnabled "1"
SET PFX_SUPPRESS_DISTANCE_v2 "50.00000000"
SET PFX_GLOBAL_MAXIMUM "1310"
SET MULTI_GPU_CHECK "1"
SET CachedRLREnabled "0"
SET CachedReflectionResolution "0"
SET CachedShadowFiltering "3"
SET ScreenshotFormat.2 "PNG"
SET PregameScreenAdjustEnabled "0"
SET PregameGammaCheckEnabled "0"
SET HardwareCheckEnabled.3 "0"
SET SUB_SAMPLING "2"
SET FSR_MODE "0"
SET DLSS_MODE "2"
SET WaterReflectionSettingUpgraded "1"
SET PLANAR_WATER_REFLECTION_QUALITY "0"
SET SCREENSPACE_WATER_REFLECTION_QUALITY "0"
SET REFLECTION_QUALITY_v3 "0"
SET PARTICLE_DENSITY "0"
SET HIGH_RESOLUTION_SHADOWS "0"
SET SHADOWS "1"
SET GAMMA_ADJUSTMENT "88"
SET VIEW_DISTANCE "2.00000000"
SET GPUSmoothingFrames "0"
SET MIP_LOAD_SKIP_LEVELS "0"
SET RAIN_WETNESS "0"
SET LENS_FLARE "1"
SET GOD_RAYS_v2 "1"
SET AntiAliasingSettingUpgraded "1"
SET ANTIALIASING_TYPE "2"
SET ANTI_ALIASING_v2 "1"
SET AMBIENT_OCCLUSION_TYPE "2"
SET COLOR_GRADING_v1 "0"
SET BLOOM "0"
SET DepthofFieldSettingUpgraded "1"
SET DEPTH_OF_FIELD_MODE "1"
SET DEPTH_OF_FIELD "0"
SET TONE_MAPPING "1"
SET COLOR_CORRECTION "1"
SET SOFT_ALPHA "0"
SET DISTORTION "0"
SET CHARACTER_LIGHTING "0"
SET DIFFUSE_2_MAPS "1"
SET DETAIL_MAPS "1"
SET NORMAL_MAPS "1"
SET SPECULAR_MAPS "1"
SET CLUTTER_2D_QUALITY "1"
SET CLUTTER_2D "0"
SET SIMPLE_SHADERS "1"
SET WATER_FOAM "0"
SET RENDERTHREAD "0"
SET VSYNC_INTERVAL "1"
SET VSYNC "1"
SET MAX_ANISOTROPY "0"
SET PreferMaximizedWindow "0"
SET PreferExclusiveFullscreen "1"
SET FULLSCREEN_v5 "2"
SET ACTIVE_DISPLAY "0"
SET FullscreenHeight "1080"
SET FullscreenWidth "1920"
SET WindowedHeight "1041"
SET WindowedWidth "1904"
SET PregameAccessibilitySettingMenuEnabled "1"
SET PregameAccessibilityPromptEnabled "0"
SET SendTranscriptToTextChat "0"
SET TextChatAccessibility "0"
SET VoiceChatAccessibility "0"
SET AccessibilityMode "0"
SET BnetEnvironmentOverride ""
SET MaxFreezeSeconds.7 "0"
SET MaxNumPetRigs "0"
SET EnableLuaClassVerification "0"
SET UsePrecompiledXML.2 "1"
SET UsePrecompiledLua.2 "1"
SET MaximizeVanityCamFarClippingDistance "0"
SET MaximizeControllerCamFarClippingDistance "0"
SET SubtitlesForVideosEnabled "0"
SET StartLuaProfilingOnUILoad "0"
SET ForceDisablePSFreeTrial.3 "0"
SET UIErrorShowMoreInfo "1"
SET ProfileControlCreation "0"
SET SharedCacheVODepotFilename ""
SET SharedCacheGameDepotFilename ""
SET SharedCacheDepotFilename ""
SET InstallHome ""
SET SharedCache ""
SET IgnorePatcherLanguageSetting "0"
SET ScreenShakeMagnitude "0.00000000"
SET OpeningCinematicSeen "1"
SET ChapterUpgradeSeenVersion "-1"
SET HousingEditorSurfaceDragEnabled "1"
SET GRAPHICS_MODE_XBSX "0"
SET GRAPHICS_MODE_XBSS "0"
SET GRAPHICS_MODE_PS5 "0"
SET CONSOLE_ENHANCED_RENDER_QUALITY "0"
SET ShowPetsAtCharacterSelect.2 "1"
SET TrialAccountType3SeenVersion "0"
SET TrialAccountType2SeenVersion "0"
SET TrialAccountType1SeenVersion "3"
SET ScrollingCombatTextShowOverHeal "0"
SET ScrollingCombatTextIncomingPetDoTEnabled "0"
SET ScrollingCombatTextIncomingPetDamageEnabled "0"
SET ScrollingCombatTextIncomingPointGainsEnabled "1"
SET ScrollingCombatTextIncomingStatusEffectsEnabled "1"
SET ScrollingCombatTextIncomingHoTEnabled "1"
SET ScrollingCombatTextIncomingHealingEnabled "1"
SET ScrollingCombatTextIncomingDoTEnabled "1"
SET ScrollingCombatTextIncomingDamageEnabled "1"
SET ScrollingCombatTextIncomingEnabled "1"
SET ScrollingCombatTextOutgoingPetHoTEnabled "0"
SET ScrollingCombatTextOutgoingPetHealingEnabled "0"
SET ScrollingCombatTextOutgoingPetDoTEnabled "0"
SET ScrollingCombatTextOutgoingPetDamageEnabled "0"
SET ScrollingCombatTextOutgoingStatusEffectsEnabled "1"
SET ScrollingCombatTextOutgoingHoTEnabled "1"
SET ScrollingCombatTextOutgoingHealingEnabled "1"
SET ScrollingCombatTextOutgoingDoTEnabled "1"
SET ScrollingCombatTextOutgoingDamageEnabled "1"
SET ScrollingCombatTextOutgoingEnabled "1"
SET ScrollingCombatTextEnabled "1"
SET SiegeCameraChoice "0"
SET IsServerSelected "1"
SET SelectedServer "0"
SET OverscanHeightAdjustment "0"
SET OverscanWidthAdjustment "0"
SET OverscanYOffset "0"
SET OverscanXOffset "0"
SET CharacterSelectForceAllCharacterPreloads "0"
SET PlayerStandInsMaxPerFrame "8"
SET PlayerStandInsEnabled.2 "1"
SET FOVChangesAllowed "0"
SET AgreedToPEGI "1"
SET FootInverseKineticsEnabled.2 "1"
SET KeybindDisplayMode "2"
SET GamepadUseKeyboardLogin "1"
SET GamepadUseKeyboardChat "1"
SET GamepadSensitivityFirstPerson.2 "0.72000003"
SET GamepadSensitivityThirdPerson.2 "1.04999995"
SET GamepadInvertX "0"
SET GamepadInvertY "0"
SET GamepadVibrationEnabled "0"
SET VoicePreferredGuildRoom "0"
SET VoicePreferredGuildId "0"
SET VoiceAllowGroupUse "1"
SET VoiceAllowAreaUse "1"
SET VoiceJoinPreference "1"
SET INTRO_MUSIC "1"
SET SOUND_ENABLED "1"
SET FOOTSTEPS_VOLUME "13.00000000"
SET FOOTSTEPS_ENABLED "1"
SET SPEAKER_SETUP "0"
SET VOICE_CHAT_VOLUME "65.00000000"
SET BACKGROUND_AUDIO "1"
SET VO_VOLUME "46.00000000"
SET VO_ENABLED "1"
SET VIDEO_VOLUME "33.00000000"
SET VIDEO_ENABLED "1"
SET UI_VOLUME "0.00000000"
SET UI_ENABLED "1"
SET AMBIENT_VOLUME "26.00000000"
SET AMBIENT_ENABLED "1"
SET SFX_VOLUME "19.00000000"
SET SFX_ENABLED "1"
SET MUSIC_VOLUME "19.00000000"
SET COMBAT_MUSIC_MODE "2"
SET MUSIC_ENABLED "0"
SET AUDIO_VOLUME "100.00000000"
SET AUDIO_ENABLED "1"
SET LastValidLanguage "en"
SET Language.2 "en"
SET GraphicsDriver.7 "D3D11"
SET PatchDataPath "game:/GameData/"
SET ViewedAddOnEULAVersion "5"
SET AcceptedAddOnEULAVersion "5"
SET AcceptedNDAVersion "-1"
SET AcceptedCodeOfConductVersion "2"
SET AcceptedPrivacyPolicyVersion "9"
SET AcceptedTOSVersion "4"
SET AcceptedEULAVersion "4"
SET SkipEULAS "0"
SET DirectionalDamageIndictorVisibleInThirdPerson "0"
SET CameraFramingTransitionEnabled "1"
SET SkipPregameVideos "1"
SET HasPlayedPregameVideo "1"
SET AssassinationKillCamera "0"
SET MinFrameTime.2 "0.00000000"
SET ParticlesEnabled "1"
SET MaxCoresToUse.4 "4"
SET RequestedNumJobThreads "0"
SET RequestedNumWorkerThreads "0"
SET FreeUnusedGrannyFileSections.2 "0"
SET IsTrustedMachine "1"
SET RememberAccountName "0"
SET AccountName ""
SET LastPlatform "Live-EU"
SET LastRealm "EU Megaserver"
SET GamepadCustomUIScale "0.51999998"
SET UseGamepadCustomUIScale "1"
SET CustomUIScale "0.63999999"
SET UseCustomUIScale.2 "1"
SET RollDodgeDoubleTapEnabled "0"
SET RollDodgeDoubleTapTimeWindow.2 "185"
SET ClampGroundTargetEnabled "1"
SET MonsterTellsEnemyBrightness "50.00000000"
SET MonsterTellsEnemyColor "00fb00ff"
SET MonsterTellsFriendlyBrightness "50.00000000"
SET MonsterTellsFriendlyColor "0000ff0a"
SET MonsterTellsColorSwapEnabled "1"
SET MonsterTellsEnabled "1"
SET CameraZoomDistancesSynced "1"
SET SiegeCameraZoomDistance "9.39444828"
SET WeaponsOutCameraZoomDistance "2.50000000"
SET WeaponsSheathedCameraZoomDistance "2.50000000"
SET MaxNetworkWriteBuffer "10485760"
SET MaxNetworkReadBuffer "10485760"

Tandor · August 2022

Best place for this is actually the PC Technical Support forum, as well as raising it through Steam.

Bat · August 2022

Tandor wrote: »

Best place for this is actually the PC Technical Support forum, as well as raising it through Steam.

This is the forum section that has the most interactions, but thank you for the suggestion - I have also raised this through Steam as per yesterday.

Bat · August 2022

I would really appreciate it if further replies could be kept to ideas on solutions, as I am actively keeping an eye on replies while being locked out from my main account due to this bug, thank you all for understanding.

Tandor · August 2022

Bat wrote: »

Tandor wrote: »

Best place for this is actually the PC Technical Support forum, as well as raising it through Steam.

This is the forum section that has the most interactions, but thank you for the suggestion - I have also raised this through Steam as per yesterday.

The reason I made the suggestion is that the Technical Support forums are actively monitored and responded to by the ZOS admin and technical support staff who won't see or respond to anything posted here where you'll only see occasional replies by the community managers and moderators. Entirely up to you of course and I hope the issue gets resolved.

SeaGtGruff · August 2022

Make sure your Steam client is up-to-date. Yesterday I was prompted to exit Steam so it could update, which was quick.

Also make sure your OS is updated.

What is your OS, by the way? I think the only time I've ever had anything similar to what you've described (black screen on startup) was on my MacBook Air; it would eventually "come back" to normal, but it would often take a few minutes before that happened, and I may have had to fiddle with the window settings (that is, full screen, or windowed full screen, etc., whatever the various options are).

Bat · August 2022

SeaGtGruff wrote: »

Make sure your Steam client is up-to-date. Yesterday I was prompted to exit Steam so it could update, which was quick.

Also make sure your OS is updated.

What is your OS, by the way? I think the only time I've ever had anything similar to what you've described (black screen on startup) was on my MacBook Air; it would eventually "come back" to normal, but it would often take a few minutes before that happened, and I may have had to fiddle with the window settings (that is, full screen, or windowed full screen, etc., whatever the various options are).

Steam's been updating properly at launch so it is the most current version I'm assured through waiting for that to update before launching. Windows 10 prompts any updates that it provides, and there aren't any such update prompts currently, and checking manually for Windows updates gives me the result that everything on the OS side of things is up to date. I can't see why changing the window size would impact this, as I've always had the same window size for the game and it's always worked up until yesterday, but I will try setting these line values to 1 and 0 respectively

SET PreferMaximizedWindow "0"
SET PreferExclusiveFullscreen "1"

I'll update with a reply whether this change helped or not.

Bat · August 2022

Thank you for the suggestions, unfortunately changing game window size preferences did not work to alleviate this ailment.

Bat · August 2022

By the way, when you said "it would eventually "come back" to normal, but it would often take a few minutes before that happened", do you mean you just let the black screen stay up for a few minutes or that you were able to close the game down and then it would be possible to start up after a few minutes?

With my launch the problem is the black screen locks the entire PC up; I can't interact with task manager, even though I can open it, I can't winkey+D to come to desktop, the only thing that takes me out from the black screen is a system restart or shut down through ctrl+alt+del.

SeaGtGruff · August 2022

Yes, my recollection is that it would eventually respond and the Bethesda/ZeniMax logos would appear as expected.

My Windows 10 desktop and laptop computers have been updated to Windows 11, so I can't try launching on a Windows 10 machine to see if there are any issues.

Bat · August 2022

I'll just go have a nap instead as this is all just depressing. Depressing I'm losing the opportunity to clear vDSR this evening, depressing I'm losing my daily login rewards, depressing I'm losing my weekly and daily Seals of Endeavour, all because of some obscure bug that shouldn't even exist.

spartaxoxo · August 2022

Have you tried this?

If this don't work, I can't help you. I don't even play PC, this is just what I found with a cursory search.

Memory_In_Motion · August 2022

that entire settings file you should delete and use the defaults that the system wants just to get booted. if you delete it the game will write a new default one.

Bat · August 2022

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Have you tried this?

If this don't work, I can't help you. I don't even play PC, this is just what I found with a cursory search.

Good news is, this has helped ridding the immediate black screen that locks my entire PC down and I now make it to the login page of the game where the login is automated for Steam users; this means I can tab out of the game, winkey+D for desktop, and force the program to end by task manager properly, bad news is the game freezes on login and does not progress to character selection. This has me thinking the reason it couldn't reach that screen to begin with, is due to some character corruption. I have not yet received another reply from John at Customer Service.

ZOS_Icy · August 2022

Greetings,

After further review we have decided to move this thread to a category we think is more appropriate for this topic.

Thank you for your understanding.

Bat · August 2022

Memory_In_Motion wrote: »

that entire settings file you should delete and use the defaults that the system wants just to get booted. if you delete it the game will write a new default one.

But the problem here is that I literally can not get inside the character selection screen so that I can run the game, it freezes on launch through Steam. So I can not get inside the game where the UserSettings file would be automatically created.

Memory_In_Motion · August 2022

Bat wrote: »

Memory_In_Motion wrote: »

that entire settings file you should delete and use the defaults that the system wants just to get booted. if you delete it the game will write a new default one.

But the problem here is that I literally can not get inside the character selection screen so that I can run the game, it freezes on launch through Steam. So I can not get inside the game where the UserSettings file would be automatically created.

NO you go through your file manager to delete it

Memory_In_Motion · August 2022

Memory_In_Motion wrote: »

Bat wrote: »

Memory_In_Motion wrote: »

that entire settings file you should delete and use the defaults that the system wants just to get booted. if you delete it the game will write a new default one.

But the problem here is that I literally can not get inside the character selection screen so that I can run the game, it freezes on launch through Steam. So I can not get inside the game where the UserSettings file would be automatically created.

Bat wrote: »

Memory_In_Motion wrote: »

that entire settings file you should delete and use the defaults that the system wants just to get booted. if you delete it the game will write a new default one.

But the problem here is that I literally can not get inside the character selection screen so that I can run the game, it freezes on launch through Steam. So I can not get inside the game where the UserSettings file would be automatically created.

NO you go through your file manager to delete it

so go into documents and settings, open the elderscrolls online folder, then go into live folder, then finally delete UserSettings.txt

that should sort you out.

ZOS_Bill · August 2022

@Bat

Could you provide us with your current support ticket number?

Bat · August 2022

ZOS_Bill wrote: »

@Bat

Could you provide us with your current support ticket number?

Hello it's been sorted out, apparently I was on a temporary account suspension for having told a toxic player to shove it, but in less mild terms.

ZOS_Bill · August 2022

We appreciate the update on this issue with the black screen. Since the OP has resolved the problem, we will go ahead and close the thread going forward.