Black screen after trying to start FFXI

[Otter]

Hello all I have been just dying to get back into this game, but I have just not been able to get things to work correctly.

I am running Windows Vista Home Premium 64bit on my Custom PC using the EVGA 680i mobo with 4gigs of ram and dual 8800GTs Now I have disabled SLI for this game to run bt nothing doing its not working still. Though the Benchmark does run flawlessley and quite fast on this machine.

So recap after I hit play FFXI on pol (I also have the vista compatiple pol and I reinstalled the game after installing the new POL) the screen goes black, but nothing else. No error messages, nothing.

So far i have not been able to find anyone else who has had this problem and I am hoping someone here can assist me. I am using the 177.84 drivers from Nvidia to also add.

Any help would be a god send I really wanna go back to Vanadiel. I have alot of fond memories and I wanna try out the game after ebing away for 2 years x.x

[Tickmeoff]

Re: Black screen after trying to start FFXI

I am running Windows Vista

There's your problem.

[Otter]

Re: Black screen after trying to start FFXI

so anyone got some solution?

[Otter]

Re: Black screen after trying to start FFXI

Upon further investigation i was unable to play the game due to hardware and software being affected by the infamous SecuROM installed from installing spore. This affected multiple other programs and had the same effect on each of them. So to those searching for the answer to your troubles on this matter the only thing I can give as a solution is a SecuROM removal program or reloading your OS.

And for the record. FFXI runs quite well in vista 64bit. Just be sure to intall the viewer first (the vista version) and the game second. AFTER PATCHING THE VIEWER FIRST. Also please note having UAC turned off did aid alot in this process.

[TheGrandMom]

Re: Black screen after trying to start FFXI

Thanks for the info Otter. I'm sure you'll end up helping someone along the way.

[Nuriko]

Re: Black screen after trying to start FFXI

I always think of UAC as being "ok, you said to do this ... are you sure?"

[Otter]

Re: Black screen after trying to start FFXI

Oh yeah SecuROM is also found on other EA games for the PC so be wary of that.
______________________________

I always think of UAC as being "ok, you said to do this ... are you sure?"

yeah I think its a lot better to disable it if you know what your doing at least 90% of the time. It feels like vista is nagging at you a lot when you use UAc and also having it activated creates a security layer that some programs get installed on making some programs incompatible. So the whole backwards compatiblity of vista gets kinda shot XD

[Firewind]

Re: Black screen after trying to start FFXI

I've never had any problems with Spore or SecuROM. The fact that you are running the game in Vista without disabling the UAC and enabling Run as Administrator is the problem.

[Susurrus]

Re: Black screen after trying to start FFXI

There's your problem.

Because THAT isn't an overused and old joke. /sacasm

[Otter]

Re: Black screen after trying to start FFXI

I've never had any problems with Spore or SecuROM. The fact that you are running the game in Vista without disabling the UAC and enabling Run as Administrator is the problem.

Well After disabling UAC before i figured out the SecurROM problem it still wasn't solving the issue and I had multiple ones not just with FFXI. Also various other games I had were having the exact same issue.

I also am running the 64bit version of Vista so my problems may differ from the 32 bit users. I understand not everyone is affected by SecuROM in the same way :/ I did alot of research before I fixed the problem to make sure.

[Firewind]

Re: Black screen after trying to start FFXI

I have no idea how the 64 Version of Vista effects FFXI. Vista issues are as varied as the SecuROM issues in that some people have no trouble at all while others can barely get things to work.

FFXI DOES have issues with the 8800 series of cards though. Not sure on how to fix it though.