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Consistent Black Screen when loading, pls help


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This has started showing up for about three days now and make KSP completely unplayable. Basically, whenever I launch the game from Steam, the whole computer black screens, doesn't matter if it's 32 or 64bit, and the computer just locks up. Only a full restart fixes things. I've found a workaround when using the launcher.exe, but it's only worked once and is 32bit.

System specs:

i5-6600K

32GB Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4

Asus Z-170A

GTX 970 (EVGA SC)

650W PSU

Booting from a 2 TB HDD

KSP 1.2.2 for Windows on Win 7 Pro.

 

Dunno if this is hardware or software. I've uninstalled all mods and reinstalled the game and graphics drivers.

Edited by NightshineRecorralis
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2 hours ago, Benoit Hage said:

This probably is not it, but is your HDMI cable well plugged on both side?

Is only KSP affected by this, or do you see it also somewhere else? Where is you game folder? What is your antivirus?

 

Booting windows is fine, so is photoshop, various other apps like chrome also work. I have yet to test another game, but the folder is under steam, and ksp is whitelisted on my antivirus (avira)

Currently redownloading drivers for my 970.

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Not easy to diagnose when the only output device from a PC goes black. PC may not be locked up at all, but you can't see any way to regain control. It may easily be an application in background taking focus and waiting for user input, but you can't see it while the screen is black (e.g., the firewall I use has this annoying behaviour, it stops the foreground application when it tries to connect to the web and isn't already whitelisted, and asks how it should deal with it. All correct, but doesn't help when its dialog goes hidden below the stuck foreground app window). Perhaps you use KSP fullscreen? If so, I'd make it in a window, that would allow to keep seeing other events on your PC while KSP loads. You don't need to start KSP to change its video mode, best way would be to delete the settings.cfg (it would be rebuilt from scratch with default values, and those are for windowed display). Best if that settings.cfg is saved somewhere else so you can restore it later (I use to zip such files, is a fast way to keep them safe while the original is binned).

In case even with a windowed KSP you get a black screen, that could be indicative of a video mode mismatch (e.g., KSP is instructing the GPU to use a unsupported resolution). Again, that shouldn't happen with default settings values, as those are supported by all known configurations; moreover, if the same settings were working few days ago, there's no reason why they shouldn't now.

Another cause may be tied to the GFX hardware, but I doubt it, you would notice with other applications too. Anyway do test with something graphically intensive, that requires the GPU to work at its maximum. KSP isn't graphically intensive as other games, but requires the GPU to do a lot of computing (GPU can often be the bottleneck with performance in KSP). But lack of performance would normally result in lag, not a black screen, unless the GPU overheats and then shuts down. If you have an overheat (that other apps should also be causing), you would better check GPU temperatures (there are a number of tools for that, generally also from the GPU producer; this is one I find pretty useful). In case of overheats, check the GPU fan(s) are free and there's no dust around.

EDIT: oh, btw, I believe this below should actually result in a shutdown, not a black screen, unless your PSU has multiple independent power lines and the one used for your GPU isn't the same that goes to the mainboard. In case, the PSU may be unable to supply all the power the GPU requires; therefore the latter shuts down (protection from undervoltage). Should result in a lack of signal to the display, most displays provide info when that happens therefore you should notice.

If none of the above helps, could be best to watch for events registered by the OS. Windows has a console to visualize system events (part of the MSC, Admin Tools) and that allows to read what unusual the OS logged before or during the previous session. Something causing a shutdown, but even a system lock, should get logged. However that's a technique I'm not fluent enough to give advice on how to use and would take too long to describe here; maybe for another post if really required.

Edited by diomedea
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Some of what you describe sounds familiar @NightshineRecorralis, though a fully black screen does not.

Have you changed the launch options in Steam? I ask because using the launcher and 32bit sounds awfully like the issue here with textures failing to load.

Using -force-opengl was the cause, and it may be the cause here, if you're also using fullscreen mode that would explain why the whole screen goes black.

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35 minutes ago, sal_vager said:

Some of what you describe sounds familiar @NightshineRecorralis, though a fully black screen does not.

Have you changed the launch options in Steam? I ask because using the launcher and 32bit sounds awfully like the issue here with textures failing to load.

Using -force-opengl was the cause, and it may be the cause here, if you're also using fullscreen mode that would explain why the whole screen goes black.

 

I was not playing in full screen, but I will check that thread.

It appears similar, but my computer freezes upon loading one of the first couple parts, such as the mk1 command pod, and the screen promptly goes black with backlight still on. I can play the game through launching launcher.exe, but it appears that some parts are missing. I will revalidate this results soon.

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3 minutes ago, NightshineRecorralis said:

I was not playing in full screen, but I will check that thread.

It appears similar, but my computer freezes upon loading one of the first couple parts, such as the mk1 command pod, and the screen promptly goes black with backlight still on. I can play the game through launching launcher.exe, but it appears that some parts are missing. I will revalidate this results soon.

Okay, another thing to try is to verify the cache in Steam, often a file will download badly and Steam does not check unless told to.

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55 minutes ago, NightshineRecorralis said:

ok, I have removed the graphics card and the game runs fine. I can launch it from steam or through the folder, I can launch rockets again!

But wait! 2 minutes into a flight and my computer BSODs, I caught a glimpse of invalid_work_error, but I don't know what that means.

Okay you'll need to check the Windows log to get the stop error (bsod), there's a guide here, in my experience these are almost always a graphics driver issue, and the driver needs reinstalling, don't forget to reboot after a driver install though.

But before installing drivers, find out what that error is, you'll need it to figure out where to go next.

Edit:

Searching invalid_work_error turns up worker_invalid or invalid_work_queue, both seem to point to other software on the PC causing the error, such as antivirus software.

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30 minutes ago, sal_vager said:

Okay you'll need to check the Windows log to get the stop error (bsod), there's a guide here, in my experience these are almost always a graphics driver issue, and the driver needs reinstalling, don't forget to reboot after a driver install though.

But before installing drivers, find out what that error is, you'll need it to figure out where to go next.

Edit:

Searching invalid_work_error turns up worker_invalid or invalid_work_queue, both seem to point to other software on the PC causing the error, such as antivirus software.

 

my intel drivers are up to date as of yesterday, and I'm running a memory test at the moment, not sure if those are the issues.

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Just now, NightshineRecorralis said:

my intel drivers are up to date as of yesterday, and I'm running a memory test at the moment, not sure if those are the issues.

If you can get the actual stop error it might tell you what application caused it.

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3 hours ago, sal_vager said:

If you can get the actual stop error it might tell you what application caused it.

Should I use a program like bluescreenview or something? I will try running a different gpu and see what happens. So far I have tried a GTX970 and intel integrated, and both have failed one way or another. I will also see if any ram sticks are the issue. I am uncertain software wise, however, so any tips would be appreciated ^^

 

Okay, I am back with the invalid_work_queue BSOD, it is caused by discache.sys, which is very disturbing. Perhaps the KSP root files are corrupted?

Edited by NightshineRecorralis
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13 hours ago, NightshineRecorralis said:

Should I use a program like bluescreenview or something? I will try running a different gpu and see what happens. So far I have tried a GTX970 and intel integrated, and both have failed one way or another. I will also see if any ram sticks are the issue. I am uncertain software wise, however, so any tips would be appreciated ^^

 

Okay, I am back with the invalid_work_queue BSOD, it is caused by discache.sys, which is very disturbing. Perhaps the KSP root files are corrupted?

If the KSP files are corrupted a Steam cache verification should solve it, if it finds a bad file run it again until it doesn't, though there will be at least one bad file after you've run KSP, as Steam sees the updated settings.cfg as a 'bad file'.

That Windows reports an issue with discache.sys is worrying however, and searching shows a number of reports of issues with this file, this file is a Microsoft device driver and can indicate corruption in the operating system or a virus.

If the OS is corrupted you may be able to roll back to a working state, but only after you are sure you have no viruses, for that the usual recommendation is to use malwarebytes, unfortunately avira can fail to remove many viruses, especially boot sector viruses, as can avast and avg.

If you don't have a restore point far enough back to solve this issue you may be able to repair Windows using the Windows disk, but that is not something I can provide any help with.

You'll likely find that other software can cause this bsod as well, KSP or the Unity game engine just happens to be the one that is consistently triggering it, if you happen to have other Unity 5 games you could try those, but so far everything you have provided points to a much deeper issue.

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7 hours ago, sal_vager said:

If the KSP files are corrupted a Steam cache verification should solve it, if it finds a bad file run it again until it doesn't, though there will be at least one bad file after you've run KSP, as Steam sees the updated settings.cfg as a 'bad file'.

That Windows reports an issue with discache.sys is worrying however, and searching shows a number of reports of issues with this file, this file is a Microsoft device driver and can indicate corruption in the operating system or a virus.

If the OS is corrupted you may be able to roll back to a working state, but only after you are sure you have no viruses, for that the usual recommendation is to use malwarebytes, unfortunately avira can fail to remove many viruses, especially boot sector viruses, as can avast and avg.

If you don't have a restore point far enough back to solve this issue you may be able to repair Windows using the Windows disk, but that is not something I can provide any help with.

You'll likely find that other software can cause this bsod as well, KSP or the Unity game engine just happens to be the one that is consistently triggering it, if you happen to have other Unity 5 games you could try those, but so far everything you have provided points to a much deeper issue.

 

okay, I'll try malwarebytes first. Thanks for the tip ^^

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