BLACK SCREEN CRASH

Chingowey · April 2014

This issue has been brought up many times without any official acknowledgement or help from Zenimax, but I thought I'd try my luck as many people are experiencing this problem and it is making the game unplayable.

The Problem:
At a random moment during game-play my game freezes on frame for a short second and then goes completely black. Audio is still there; if I click I can hear my character swinging his weapon. Nothing brings it back to normal, and waiting only results in a critical error. Sometimes after the crash I receive an Nvidia driver error, which states there was a problem and it has recovered. I experienced this briefly in beta, more consistently in the early access, and now it is at the point where this occurs about every 5-10 minutes. On average I can't finish a quest line without crashing multiple times, and can't even think about doing group dungeons.

My attempts at fixing the issue:
This was the ONLY post a Zenimax employee has made on the number of threads for this issue. I have gone through all of these steps.

ZOS_MichaelD wrote: »
Hello Tokyov,

We have examined your diagnostic files. Here are a few suggestions:

1.) Check your Graphics Card Drivers

It is dated at 3/20/2014. It is very likely that Nvidia has an updated driver for your GeForce GTX 660. Additionally, you may want to try the "Beta" version, if the normal driver has no effect on your situation. Here is a link:

geforce.com/drivers

2.) Windows Updates

Make sure you have all of your current Windows Updates. The Graphics Drivers may be included in this step automatically.

3.) Disable Overclocking

If you have any Overclocking setup, please consider returning all settings to default. The game is very sensitive to these changes. If it is not balanced correctly, it could cause your issue.

4.) Antivirus Programs

Make sure you have made an exception for the game in any Antivirus Programs you have installed. Additionally, if you have multiple installed, this could cause system instability. It is recommended only to have one Full Feature Antivirus Program installed at a time.

5.) Compatibility / Permissions

Try "Running as Administrator" Additionally you may want to try setting the "Compatibility" settings to "Windows 7". Here is a link for Windows 8:

eightforums.com/tutorials/9564-run-administrator-windows-8-a.html

If you are still having issues, please submit a support ticket! We will try our best to get back to you right away!

I realize this was a response to someone's specific system, but it is pretty general and I've taken the steps carefully all the same. Note that I have installed the latest Nvidia beta driver which is dated at April 7th 2014. I have created a ticket for this issue about a week ago with no response, and as I said earlier there has been no other responses to the multiple threads I've been following on this issue.

I would absolutely love to keep playing this game but that is currently not an option (And I don't think I am to blame). If this isn't worthy of a refund or some type of free game time I don't know what is. I would much rather have the fix than a refund, but I feel I am cheated out of my money at the moment. So please, to any Zenimax employee, give us at least an ACKNOWLEDGEMENT that the issue is being looked in to if you can't give us a fix. Multiple people with this issue have speculated through various methods that our graphics cards/drivers are not at fault here.

Here are a few of the other threads for reference:
http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/discussion/comment/584806#Comment_584806

http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/discussion/69921/constant-crashes#latest

http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/discussion/64179/black-screen

ParkerHale · April 2014

Geezer5000 · April 2014

I also have this Problem.
None of the proposals worked. Not able to solve the Problem.
Can't play since 4 days without crashing 5 times in one hour.
Also played Beta and Early Access w/o Crash.

Geezer5000 · April 2014

Login - played 1 hour - crash
Login - 1 min - crash
Login - 10 sec - crash
Login - 30 sec - crash
Login - 5 sec - Crash

I'm really disappointed. No Information from ZM.

First step to solve the Problem - just quit my abo!

Azurya · April 2014

Playing a AMD graphic, but there also this happens quit often and so far I did not get any response from support
today I had the pleasure to experience a unknown failure, which occured just after my char arrived in the game....
then the system said I was playing from an unknown system (Altair or Aldebaran?) although I just have one PC, so why does it not recognize it??

Or, and this is just a slight idea, maybe the multiserver or whatever it is called, is not such a graet idea when all are playing together? perhaps we should give time windows for regions where they can play, so the server is not that much stressed?

I want to play, and not being forced to dump my frustrations in the forum

Vadorin · April 2014

I have already added a lenghty post to the first thread mentioned by the OP, so I won't repeat everything here.
I just want to add that I am also monitoring a couple of those threads regularly in the hopes of finding a solution to the problem. I am definitely not an expert, but it seems clear to me by now that this is a problem with the game itself. It seems to occur on a variety of different hardware (not just limited to Nvidia graphics cards) and it definitely can't be solved by generic suggestions like "try installing the latest driver", "shut down programs running in the background" or something like that, because people have already tried that (myself included).
I would guess that it has something to do with the way the game handles video memory or maybe certain effects are causing the problem. As I mentioned in the other thread it seems to happen more frequently during conversations with NPCs and also while I'm in dungeons. I can't run any group dungeons because of this problem which is VERY annoying.
I really hope the developers are aware of this problem and are working on a solution. Whatever causes it - it must be something that was added with a patch towards the end of early acces, because I had no problems during the beta and most of the early access.

Maybe the problem is also related to the framerate issues that some people are having. The game just seems badly optimized. I'm running it on a GTX 780 and an i7-4770K with max settings and my framerate drops to 30 in some areas. That's still playable of course, but I don't think it should happen with this kind of hardware.

Arcaniya · April 2014

I also experience this problem. Using an Nvidia graphic card as well. However, the problem seems to occur only when my own character is visible on the screen. For example, in the third person view, but also when crafting.

When i switch to first person view, i never experience the black screen crash. Anybody else tried this? Or is it just me

Geezer5000 · April 2014

Playing for 3 hours w/o Crash.
Just logged in again a few minutes ago and i had two Crashs. One of them during the intro before the character selection Screen.

Since 5 days no Feedback from ZM.

Geezer5000 · April 2014

and one more time.....yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

charnelhouse1 · April 2014

In case anyone official is monitoring this thread, same here; random black screen crashes where all I have left is a stock Windows mouse cursor. I have to use the Windows key to get back to my desktop and and close the game.

AMD Phenom II Quad Core 2.81 GHz
nVidia GTX 480 with 335.23 driver (up to date according to GeForce Experience).

Geezer5000 · April 2014

and again....after 2 min playing

marin.franjciceb17_ESO · April 2014

I'm also having the same problem crashes every 5-10min, really unplayable, anyone has solution that works?
Please help.

Chingowey · April 2014

I've been talking with a Zenimax employee and have made no progress thus far. Will keep you all posted.

marin.franjciceb17_ESO · April 2014

Well that's disappointing, but thanks, i hope it gets fixed soon.

Edhelraukoeb17_ESO · April 2014

Hi, now it start to get strange, i got the blackscreen problem this morning and i can atm no longer log into that charakter without getting the blackscreen. ALL my other Charakters are able to get played. Im no pro but for me it looks like the blackscreen problem its a serverside problem. i already send ingame a bugreport about it.

Edhelraukoeb17_ESO · April 2014

looks like the ingame report was a good idea after i was a while on my crafter (10-15 minutes after i report it) i was curious if im able to get back on my char and it worked.

Chingowey · April 2014

It's been 2 days since I've last heard from the employee who's contacted me. Asked me to run the game consultant and send the info gathered and has since not responded.

Vadorin · April 2014

I was able to "fix" this by reducing my monitor's refresh rate to 100 Hz (I have a 144 Hz monitor).

As I mentioned before the game seemed to crash more often during conversations with NPCs. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that the frame rate is much higher during those?

Reducing the refresh rate is not a satisfying solution of course, because now I have to remember to do that everytime I want to play the game and have to revert the change afterwards. But I have tried it for a couple of hours now and didn't experience those crashes anymore.

Tango · April 2014

I had a similar issue, except the screen would turn white and display the Windows 7 loading icon. When I would click, a message popped up saying "ESO has stopped responding." All I did was put the graphics setting on "low." It looks awful but runs without a problem.

Chingowey · April 2014

I've been at 100hz all along and changing the graphics has had no effect for me. It has now been five days since I sent a customer support employee the information he requested with no response. This is becoming increasingly frustrating and there has been NO mention by Zenimax of this issue yet. On top of all that, the quest to get me to Veteran content is bugged, and customer support only recommended that I go and try Cyrodill...

Chingowey · April 2014

Sent another message to the employee who had contacted me in hopes for some follow-up on the issue. I have not heard back yet...

Elsonso · April 2014

I had this problem during the last two beta weekends.

For nVidia, a driver that has stopped working and recovered is a generic error that applies to any time that the driver loses contact with the card, for whatever reason.

It can be due to a fault on either side, the driver or card, hardware, firmware, or software.

In my case, I solved the problem by replacing my nVidia adapter with a new one. I would have never thought of this as the solution since ESO was the only game where I was having problems like this. I was finally able to eliminate ESO once I figured out how to get 3DMark to cause the same failure. The card would fail when pushed to the limit and while ESO could knock it down in short order, three different GPU stress programs had trouble duplicating it.

I am not saying that everyone one of these situations is faulty hardware, but I also want to caution that it may not always be ESO, either.

mrjasonbearub17_ESO · April 2014

I also have had the same problem since early beta. i have reinstalled all my drivers and done every fix out there to no avail. These crashes ONLY happen on this game and is very frustrating. I would just like to see zos confirm that its their software so people dont have to worry about having faulty equipment.

troi4n · April 2014

I downloaded and installed the game yesterday and I never get the chance to even create my character... Everytime I login, the black screen appears and freezes my computer for a while.

I already opened a ticket and tried many 'solutions' like:
- Execute as administrator;
- Delete the ShaderCache file;
- Change DirectX configuration inside UserSettings file;
- Change Resolution configuration inside UserSettings file;
- Execute with compatibility mode to Windows 7 and XP SP3 (I use 8.1);

Nothing worked until now...

athreus · May 2014

After last patch my screen goes black every play session - two, three times at random. Have no idea what to do with it.

tommcdermottb16_ESO · May 2014

Same here - Working fine till the last patch and then I have Graphics failures several times a play session

bebezed_ESO · May 2014

I am having the same issue. It doesn't seem to happen consistently while doing any one particular thing and it's gotten better as of late (I did update my video drivers and that seemed to help a bit) but I'm still experiencing the odd crash.

mlscott0 · May 2014

I am having this exact issue as well with my gtx 770 using the most recent drivers (non-beta). It could be 5 minutes in, or 5 hours. I never know.

You can always depend on it happening when you are fighting a mob though. =-P

Sullycanuck · May 2014

I am just about at level 24 and up until tonight, I've never experienced this black screen issue. Now I can't get 10 minutes of game time in before it crashes.

Sullycanuck · May 2014

I never experienced any of these issues until after last night's (05/22/14) patch.

Unknown_poster · May 2014

Jesus, whatever you do, don't force logout of game if you get the black screen. Seems to be the common denominator for everyone else who now has the dreaded login timeout lock. Game crashes to black screen. Close game manually. And never get past login screen again. 100s of post on this in different threads now and increasing hourly.