Age Old Problem: Menus work followed by a black screen/no warnings or sounds

Specter on 5/7/2008 at 19:33

Ok, I tried it. I had to remove the other ffdshow and my version of Divx, but I did so, installing new versions all around. Nothing changed. On a plus side, the movies work every time. I seem to have THAT problem licked. :laff: :(

sNeaksieGarrett on 5/7/2008 at 23:51

Wait, so can you play the game now?

And like someone else asked, have you tried ddfix? There's a video fix with ddfix.

Specter on 6/7/2008 at 05:23

No, the problem is the same now as it has always been. I only get a black screen following the loading screen and menus. What started the issue was me trying to remedy the videos no longer playing. Since then, the videos work everytime (the intro plays every time I start the game) but after loading a game, be it a save or a new game, it loads like normal, but never actually enters the game. All I get is a black screen. There is no noise and no error message. All I can do is ALT-TAB out of the game, or press CTRL/ALT/DEL and shut it down. My joke in the last post is that the movies play every time now, despite everything else.

I tried the DDfix, as well as everything suggested here and in the FAQ, and anything suggested in other threads which I found via search. Whatever I did, its really made a mess. Ive never NOT been able to play before...

bikerdude on 6/7/2008 at 15:34

Quote Posted by Specter

Thanks guys. I know this is an age old topic, but I did my damndest to solve this without creating a new topic.

Hi Specter

I have to same prob, as I've just reinstalled windows, Ive fixed this before so give me a sec

biker

Specter on 6/7/2008 at 16:22

I'm glad someone sees what I mean. I appreciate your help!

Ive taken this opportunity to made backups that are long over due. I was preparing to format and start fresh. If you find a fix, I might hold off.

bikerdude on 6/7/2008 at 17:59

Quote Posted by Specter

It was the install.cfg, I restored a backup of that file and the game started working as normal.

biker

sNeaksieGarrett on 6/7/2008 at 18:52

You can also put skip_starting_checks in your cam.cfg. I'm not sure what it actually does, but I believe it tells thief to not check for hard drive space for example (and other things), if the game thinks you don't have enough space. This could possibly help you, just throwing it out there. Also, yes, if you modified install.cfg at all, perhaps you could restore a backup. I noticed you said you uninstalled and reinstalled thief gold and that did not help. Make sure when you uninstall thief that you remove all traces of it and reboot before installing again. Unless of course you tried this already and it didn't work.

Specter on 7/7/2008 at 02:33

I'll try restoring it again, however I did try uninstalling it (and I deleted the folder) then reinstalled. I'll try replacing the install.cfg. Can it be found on the CD, or should I reinstall completely?

EDIT

I tried adding that line to the cam.cfg. I didnt see the install.cfg on the CD, so I'll uninstall and delete the folder again.

EDIT 2

I removed all traces of Thief Gold (and Thief 2 for good measure) from my computer. I did a fresh install of only Thief Gold and trying to start a new game yielded nothing new. The moves worked. The menus worked. The game itself, did not. This seems a bit odd, no?

absentblue on 7/7/2008 at 03:57

Specter, I was able to get Thief Gold to work on my system but no luck with Shock2 (which I want more...). What I did in order:

1. Pre-req: I have an 8800GTS, same GPU and general architecture as yours just less bells and whistles. I'm on 175.19 on Windows XP Pro 32

2. Installed Thief Gold, had to change setup.exe properties to 2000 compatibility

3. Downloaded DDFix, installed

4. Downloaded DEF, installed

5. Downloaded and configured Dark Loader

6. Changed resolution as fit with DarkWidescreen

Now when I launch Thief through Dark Loader it works every time, I can't get it in full screen but I haven't really dug around much since I was able to get it working. I may have reg'd LGVID.AX but it was a long time ago-- I only use All In One Codec pack and it plays the movies from Thief or SShock2 with or without FFDShow.

Hope this helps.

sNeaksieGarrett on 7/7/2008 at 05:14

install.cfg is a file put in your thief gold dir when you install the game. So it would be in the thief folder, not on the CD.

Install.cfg tells thief where the CD resides and the resources it must reference. Judging by the fact that you are not familiar with the file, I can make an educated guess and say you never modified that .cfg file. Unless something else modified your install.cfg, there is no need to mess with this file.

Your EDIT 2: did u put the skip_starting_checks line in again?
This is odd..... i take it ddfix is not helping you?\

I also take it that the regindeo.bat trick someone mentioned had no result, correct?

You didn't mention anywhere setting compatibility mode (setup.exe or thief shortcut and or thief.exe)- perhaps try what absentblue said.