Age Old Problem: Menus work followed by a black screen/no warnings or sounds - by Specter
Specter on 5/7/2008 at 03:53
Hey again guys.
I know this is nearly as bad as asking about Thief 4, but Ive got a problem that has come up more than a few times in the past however I have not been able to find a solution in any of the past topics.
I was playing through Thief Gold. Everything was fine, movies included. After a few days, the movies stopped playing. So, consulting the handy red FAQ, I followed the fix where you create a .bat file and copy the regsvr32.exe to the Thief folder. I did nothing else. When I attempted to play the game, the movies worked, the menu worked, but loading a game yields nothing but a black screen. Not yet upset, I simply uninstalled Thief Gold, deleted the folder, and did a fresh install. No dice.
Next, I went back to the FAQ. By far, the majority of old posts point to the the entry about the texture memory fix. I added the new .exe however, no luck. I tried editing the user.cfg that some people recommended before. No luck. Someone in an old topic mentioned their game started working when they used a no-cd patch. So I downloaded one. It didnt work.
I tried a newer driver for my graphics card (Geforce 8800GTX) and I downloaded some updates for windows. Nothing changes.
Unfortunately, all the other topics I looked at seemed to die off. Either people gave up or the game started to mysteriously work for them. Either way, I'm pretty sure Ive tried everything ever suggested, hence the new topic. All of this started when I did that stuff with regsvr32.exe and the new.bat file. I dont know what either of those things do (what effect they have on my computer) so is there anyway to undo the effect they have had? I already wiped the folder from my computer, with no success, so it must be done another way.
The only thing I can think of is a system restore. I'll try that with fingers crossed. Are there any other ideas out there?
Thanks guys. I know this is an age old topic, but I did my damndest to solve this without creating a new topic.
Specter on 5/7/2008 at 03:57
No luck on the system restore. I dont have one prior to my messing around to FIX this problem.
KoHaN69 on 5/7/2008 at 08:51
did you try ddfix?
Go2doug on 5/7/2008 at 13:15
Are you having the problem where you start Thief, go into the game's options (Video, Audio, etc), hit "Done" and the game crashes?
I had the same problem. I believe I fixed it with DDFix.
Specter on 5/7/2008 at 15:07
My bad on putting this in the wrong spot.
No, this problem started only after I tried to fix something related to the movies. The games options had already been set since I had been playing the game fine before, so I hadnt changed anything. The only thing Im doing is trying to start the game. The loading screen works fine, and when it finishes loading, all you get is a black screen. No warnings. No sounds.
Can anyone tell me what is happening when I create a .bat which says regsvr32.exe /s LGVID.AX and I place a copy of regsvr32.exe in my Thief folder? I know this is a fix for the movies, but what is it telling my computer to do? If I can undo it, Im sure that will solve my problem.
What is the DDfix KoHaN69?
ffox on 5/7/2008 at 16:41
regsvr32.exe /s LGVID.AX registers the LGVID.AX library with OLE so it can be used within other programs. /s = silent, ie don't display messages. The /s is unneccessary. If you remove the /s you should see a message box saying that the registration was successful.
You were advised to put regsvr32.exe in your Thief folder so it could be accessed easily. Otherwise that line would probably have to start
C:\WINDOWS\system32\regsvr32.exe ........
If you make another one line batch file called undoregindeo.bat containing:
regsrv32.exe /u LGVID.AX
it will undo what regindeo.bat did (/u = unregister). The message box should say that the unregistration was successful.
There is a sticky about DDFIX at the top of this forum.
Specter on 5/7/2008 at 18:15
Thanks for the replies.
I tried both things, no luck. Am I correct in assuming that since messing around with the .bat file started the problem that it is the cause?
I'm pretty well out of ideas. Ive got a fair amount of crap on my computer, and Ive been wanting to format and reinstall fresh for a while, so I guess this is my chance.
Specter on 5/7/2008 at 18:55
I couldn't find ffdshow on my computer (which is odd, cause I was sure it was there) so I downloaded and installed a version called prebeta 5. Now, when I went to start Thief, it asked if I wanted ffdshow to run or not. I tried first without it (since in the other thread, the guy mentioned adding SS to an exception list), to no avail. Then I tried with it on, again, to no avail.
However, this isn't exactly the way they person in the other thread you showed me did it. The version I have didn't have an exceptions list. But I assume the effect is the same when my version asks me if it should run or not. I don't know nearly enough about any of this to know what to try or what to look for. I appreciate your efforts so far and forgive my ignorance with this stuff.
