Screen goes black at the start of a map

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sanchez
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El Salvador

Screen goes black at the start of a map

Post by sanchez »

I am having problems with my graphics card, every time when I start the game or when the map changes right a the beginning my screen goes black, I can still hear all the action but no picture, I found out that by pressing ESC key the menu screen shows ok, then press ESC again and then its all good I am ok to spawn and start playing. any ideas?
thanks.
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tonawandares
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Re: Screen goes black at the start of a map

Post by tonawandares »

If you could share some system information, it would help...
Is this a new card or something you've used for a while?
Does it only occur during a video game or does it occur when viewing videos as well?
Do you use Steam?
Are the drivers updated?

~ tona
sanchez
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Re: Screen goes black at the start of a map

Post by sanchez »

windows 10
500 GB SSD
8 GB ram
XFX Radeon HD 5770 1 GB graphics card
GA-Z77X-UD3H motherboard
I have been using this card for about 8 years the fan was a bit louder prior to this problem, one day about a month ago while playing with you guys the screen went not off but a dark color almost black, I could still hear the game but no picture; at the beginning, I just went ALT F4 but later I figure out that by Esc out and in again the picture will come back. This only happens when first starting a game or map changing, never on movies. I have to mention this Motherboard has a built-in HDMI which I tried but the screen during the game was smaller with a big thick frame around, could not figure out the best resolution. I don't really know if I am using Steam or cd key because at one point I had both, then did a hard drive swap a couple of times just transferred the whole info to new SS drive, I am not using a cd in my cd tray for sure.
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tonawandares
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Re: Screen goes black at the start of a map

Post by tonawandares »

What driver version are you using for the card?
sanchez
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Re: Screen goes black at the start of a map

Post by sanchez »

checked it says date:11/4/2015
vesrsion: 15.201.1151.1008
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Trench
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Re: Screen goes black at the start of a map

Post by Trench »

The fact that it "can" display the game just fine, but "won't" initially until you ESC back to the menu (which changes the resolution to 800x600 again) makes me want to suspect it could even be a monitor behavior, but easily yes also a driver behavior (although it doesn't seem like the driver changed lately).

Maybe use the in-game Video menu to select a different resolution and see if it's then able to reliably switch to that resolution "on the first try" when changing maps. Maybe even just a different refresh rate for the same resolution you're currently using, if the game Video menu is offering that.

(Note the "GameSpy shutdown fix" on the http://ea117.com/dcinstall page includes a "widescreen fix" which allows the in-game video menu to list the actual resolutions supported by the video driver & card. If that's not already something you had installed.)

The other thing that comes to mind is that this might be around the time the Windows 10 "game bar" and game DVR might be trying to activate, and having an issue on the older game and/or older DirectX version. (I turned my Windows 10 game bar off, but just because of the delay, not a failure.) So you might try going to the Windows "Settings", and "Gaming", and turning off the Game Bar and see if that causes any change in the issue.
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Re: Screen goes black at the start of a map

Post by tonawandares »

I do not believe that your issue is uncommon with your card.
I had the exact same card before my last build and experienced similar issues in a Windows 7 environment.
My issue wasn't at startup though but seemed to be more random when it would go black but always in a video game.
There was/is a ton of requests for help with this on the internet forums and I'm not sure there was ever a resolution or viable workaround to this.
Resolution Settings for the Unit and/or monitor, PSU, old drivers, new drivers, overclocking were all looked at.
After trying a few things with no success, I took my old card out and put it in my Brother's pc and it did the same thing there where he was having no issue with his previously.
I swapped out mine for a spare GeForce 8 series I had and I experienced no further issues.
I gave up trying to figure out what the exact problem was (the internet had no solutions) and eventually rebuilt and didn't buy that card.

If this has just recently started appearing, then perhaps check your PSU? There could be some fluctuation there.
I mentioned Steam, because if I'm recalling, there was an issue there and there was a fix for it at one time.
Sorry I couldn't offer much...I just remember trying all the different suggestions and ending up with being stuck with an issue without resolution.
Unfortunately, replacing the card resolved my issue.
There are more folks better qualified for hardware issues than I am, so maybe someone has some more viable options. To me, it was more, "how much time to I want to invest in rabbit holes"


~ tona
electronics have a life-span
sanchez
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Re: Screen goes black at the start of a map

Post by sanchez »

thanks, guys I will look into your suggestions. I should mention after exiting the game most of the time my screen resolution changes to 800x600 so I have to manually change to the recommended settings for my monitor.
question is this a good deal? EVGA GTX 770 4GB VRAM $100 Canadian about $75 US
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