Black Screen on Start (Yet Again)

[sleepyrabite]

Hi all, I'm new. That said, I'm getting the infamous black screen issue with YsF and I'm hoping someone can help me out.

First, the basics:

OS: Windows XP Professional SP3 (32-bit)
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6750
Direct X: 9.0c
RAM: 4 GB (Windows is seeing 3.328 GB as per 32-bit rules)
Video Card: NVidia GeForce 9800 GT (1 GB RAM) with Forceware 181.20

This is a fresh not-even-a-day-old install of XP. I have a legal version of YsF (the premium box set DVD, though I'm not sure that matters). The game is currently patched to 1.2.03 VE. I don't have any translation patches installed.

I generally run in English (Canada) mode and run Japanese programs through AppLocale.

Neither of the config programs start (regular version nor DX9 version). Sometimes they'll stay resident and start gobbling CPU time.

When I try starting either version (regular version and DX9) of the main program, I get a black screen for all of 10 seconds before it boots me back to the desktop.

I have tried:

- Reinstalling DX9.0c
- Installing the regular 1.2.03 patch (as opposed to the VE version)
- Setting my language to Japanese by default and bypassing AppLocale
- Disabling Google Desktop
- Disabling Windowblinds (note: this was on my previous install -- it's not installed now)
- Reinstalling Windows and retrying the first four steps

I'm pretty much open to tweaking settings on my video card if I have to.

I used to have this working before, but I had a different video card (a 8600 GS). This is my first time trying to get the game to run on this 9800 GT.

Ys Origin works fine and I run it like I always have in the past (load through AppLocale). The difference is that I do have the Vista-enabled version of YsO (unlike YsF).

I'm open to pretty much any suggestion. Heck, I'm willing to go back to Vista at this point just to get my Ys on.

[korzic]

Not sure if this will be of any help or not, but there was someone on GameFAQs that had a similar problem, except it was for Ys II Eternal/Complete. Turns out that a firewall was blocking the game from running, or something along those lines. Perhaps something similar is happening in your case...?

Also, is there are any particular reason you don't have the translation patch installed? You don't need Applocale to boot up the game once you have that installed. Even so, I'm pretty sure that the "VE" patch is needed to properly run the game; that's how I recently got the game to run properly again, anyway (although, if you're going to install the English patch, do Falcom's "VE" one before running the English patch). Even if the "VE" patch is not needed, you probably still want to be up to date with the latest Falcom patch.

If none of that stuff works, you could always try contacting Nightwolve or Deuce (creators of the English patch) - they've probably had this issue reported to them quite often.

[sleepyrabite]

Thanks for replying! I'm desperate enough to try anything right now, so I killed AVG and Comodo and then tried running the game... no dice.

Also, I just tried the patch and it didn't work. (I don't normally install the patch because I know just enough Japanese to get by.)

[korzic]

Hmm, the problem might be with the XP SP3. I'm no computer expert, but there was a topic here a while ago where some people were having various problems with it, even in regards to some of the Ys games not running properly (although, I don't know if this specific issue was brought up). Apparently, switching back to XP SP2 helped. I've never used SP3 before, so try it at your own risk.

[sleepyrabite]

Ouch. I've just finished reconfiguring this install. Still, I'll keep that in mind -- I have SP3 currently on my laptop and I need to wipe it clean, so I'll do a little testing on that. Thanks for your help!