My screen goes black

[Canis Lupus]

What are you system specs? It might have something to do with your video card or something, but we won't find out until we know what video card you are using, as well as your other specs.

You may wanna try uninstalling the game, doing a complete scandisk/defrag, and then reinstalling the game and reconnecting. And you may wanna check out Blizzard's list (http://www.blizzard.com/support/starcraft/problems/gamecrash.shtml) of quick fixes.

Post back with some more details.

[Nfested]

I don't think the specs are relevant. I've been playing starcraft for a almost a year now and the problem just started all of a sudden. I stopped playing for about 2 weeks and then when I started playing again, the problem arose. My specs haven't changed between that period of time when I stopped playing.

When i stopped playing, i deleted starcraft. I reinstalled it when i started playing it again. Could it be a problem with my CD? Also, i downloaded the patch off B.net when B.net was hacked into recently. Could that be the problem?

Does anyone else have this problem?

This is irrelevant but when i press alt+ctrl+del i see a program on the file list called "ptsnoop." Did i accidentally download one of the programs where supposedly other people can toy around with my computer?

I don't know what you mean by specs. How do you find your computer specifications (vga card, mhz, etc)?

[Canis Lupus]

Hmmm, it's not a question on whether it is relevant or not, but rather for me (or anyone who wants to help you) to have an idea of your software/hardware environment so that we can help you out better.

Anyway, you say the game has worked for you for the past year, then suddenly it doesn't. Have you installed anything recently, prior to your game problem?

Have you tried uninstalling the game, downloading the patch directly from Blizzard's website, then reinstalling the game and manually applying the patch before you go to Battle.Net?

What other programs do you have running in the background. Trying going to START -> RUN -> msconfig, and then choose the STARTUP tab .. what programs have a checkmark on them? Do you need all of them?

PTSnoop? Hmmm, sounds fishy. It might not be directly related to your problem, but you might wanna look into it disable it at startup if you can.

In any case, try my suggestions, and if they don't work, Ion Silverbolt can give you better suggestions than I could later today.

p.s. If you still wanna post your system specs, download MVSoft PC Information (http://www.opentechsupport.net/downloads/utilities/mypcinfo.exe). Run this program and you'll see your system specs.

Good luck and stick around.

[Nfested]

I did what you suggested by uninstalling, defragmenting, reinstalling, downloading off of Blizzard's site, but that didn't work.

The reason I stopped playing starcraft for about a week or two was because i couldn't sign onto b.net. It said something about an application error and reinstalling the game. I deleted my game and realized i couldn't get back my CD until my friend gave it back a week later. I reinstalled the game and the problem arose with my screen going black.

Here are my specs:
Computer: Home Series()
Processor: Pentium III ~501MHz (L1 cash: 32.0 Kb, L2 cash: 512.0 Kb)
Video Card: RAGE IIC AGP (English)
Memory: 63.4 MB of ram
Windows 98

[Ion Silverbolt]

When you uninstall the game, I believe the battle.net heading stays installed. Try uninstalling the game and battle.net both from the add/remove icon in the control panel.

Now try a full install and update your patches from Blizzards site. That should do it. If it doesn't, it could be something else causing it. That weird program running might be affecting it or your system somehow.

Post back if the above doesn't fix it and we'll work on some other things that may help you out. http://www.opentechsupport.net/forums/smile.gif

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©2000 Ionic Computer Services.

[Nfested]

Whenever i go to join a game, my screen goes blank.

I'm in the waiting screen with all the other players. They press ok to start and then it has that countdown. When it reaches 0 my screen goes black until I ALT+CTRL+DEL. What should i do?

[Nfested]

Ok, it didn't work..

And i just found out that Ptsnoop is just a modem file that loads up when u sign on so i don't think it has anything to do w/the problem.

[Ion Silverbolt]

Your problem could be a corrupted driver somehwere. Try these things if possible:

Re-install DirectX and also re-install your video and sound drivers. If a driver has gone bad, this may clear the problem up.

You can grab DirectX 8 and find links to driver update pages from here (http://www.opentechsupport.net/faqs/Forum6/HTML/000004.html) if you like.

A bad CD is possible but not likely. If you want to find out, you can run cdcheck (http://ftp.blizzard.com/pub/misc/cdcheck.exe) on it with the Starcraft CD in the drive to test the CD.

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©2000 Ionic Computer Services.

[Nfested]

I can play regular Starcraft on B.net, but Broodwar doesn't work, so a bad cd would be more likely right?

[Ion Silverbolt]

Sure it's possible. What did the cdcheck utility say? If it says the CD is bad, you shouldbe able to get a replacement CD from Blizzard for around 10$. E mail them at Support@Blizzard.com and tell them your CD is bad and they will give you steps on getting a replacement CD.

There are other possibilities. Anything from a virus to a corrupted line in the registry, to low hard drive space may be the cause. If you crash or have problems elsewhere, post back and tell us about it. Here's some more things you can check:

Run a full scandisk and defrag. Before that, make sure your hard drive has at least 200 Megs of free hard drive space. The more the better. Running low on hard drive space may cause the blank screen. Especially in multiplayer when more system resources get used.

If you wish, check here (http://www.opentechsupport.net/cgi-bin/faqcgi/forumdisplay.cgi?action=topics&forum=Tools+|AMP|+Utilities&number=7&DaysPrune=1000&LastLogin=) and grab a virus scanner. The regcleaner utility may help too.

Try uninstalling Anything that has to do with Starcraft and make sure the folders get deleted too. Then run regcleaner and it might wipe out any bad lines leftover in the registry. Back up the registry too. Now try installing again. I'd try the virus scanner first. Use your own if you have one and make sure it's updated first.

Hope you get it working. Keep us informed of your progress.

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©2000 Ionic Computer Services.

[Nfested]

Originally posted by Ion Silverbolt:
Your problem could be a corrupted driver somehwere. Try these things if possible:

Re-install DirectX and also re-install your video and sound drivers. If a driver has gone bad, this may clear the problem up.

You can grab DirectX 8 and find links to driver update pages from here (http://www.opentechsupport.net/faqs/Forum6/HTML/000004.html) if you like.

A bad CD is possible but not likely. If you want to find out, you can run cdcheck (http://ftp.blizzard.com/pub/misc/cdcheck.exe) on it with the Starcraft CD in the drive to test the CD.



How/Where do u find the exact name of your video and sound cards?

[Nfested]

I just downloaded the new version of Direct X and I tried to play BroodWars. My first attempt was not on BNET and i guess it was successful. The screen went black, and I thought it didn't work, but then 15 seconds later it worked, but 2 seconds later it froze for 1 second then resumed normally. I thought this was just a fluke so i pressed restart... and it stayed black. Then, my brother just pressed the button on the cd and when the blue screen appeared he presses esc and said see it brings u back to the desktop. So i just went w/it. My next attempt was on BNET. It took me the usual troubles to sign on but when i did w/red lag i finally created a game against comps to test if it worked. It worked perfectly normal.

So far, Starcraft is working pretty well besides a few problems like the freeze. But thx to u guys, i can play bnet again. Should i still reinstall the video/sound cards and run regclean? Well anyway, thx for ur time i really appreciate it.

[Nfested]

More bad news, after It started working again i uninstalled SC totally and cleaned it up w/regclean to be sure. I then defragmented restarted the computer, and reinstalled BroodWar. I went to play it, but the first time i tried i had to wait 20 seconds for it to start. Then i tried again and it wouldn't work, but after exiting the game i got a Data file error or something like that. It said trouble opening up setup.exe try reinstalling the game and i did but nothing happened.... Just when i thought i finally got this fixed.

[Ion Silverbolt]

Now it really is starting to sound like your CD-ROM is having trouble reading the files off that CD properly. Have you tried cleaning the CD with a soft cloth? All it takes sometimes is a fingerprint to keep a CD from reading correctly.

Try re-installing again. This time, shut down all extra programs before installing it. Hit CTRL+ALT+DEL and only leave systray, explorer, and point32 if you have it.

If your CD-ROM has trouble installing things from other CD's, it could be the CD-ROM is either going bad, or the lense needs cleaned. There are cleaning kits available in computer stores and sections that might help you there.

Another possibility is if you're using a copied CD. If so, try installing with the original CD. Burned CD's tend to not be as durable as originals.

If nothing here, or things in the above posts help you, then you probably should get a replacement CD from Blizzard. Support@Blizzard.com

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©2000 Ionic Computer Services.

[Nfested]

Thx alot for ur time and patience. I took ur advice and cleaned my cd and that completely fixed the problem. I guess that was the only thing needed to fix it after all the things i tried. Well, thx again i really appreciate it because now i can play Broodwars again. Thx alot.

[Ion Silverbolt]

I should have suggested that one 3 posts ago. (Smacks self)..hehe It's easy to overlook the simple solutions sometimes. Anyways I'm glad you got it working. http://www.opentechsupport.net/forums/smile.gif

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©2000 Ionic Computer Services.

[zyphon]

speaking of which, im using the nocd patch and my screen blinks out almost every second and then reappears. this is really annoying, and restarting seems to help. how can i stop being a slave of the Almighty Blizzard God?

[REVENGE]

The NOCD patch is really for offline play. From what I remember, it was not created originally for B-net play.

But, it sounds like it is doing a search. Does your cd-rom light up when it pauses while on b-net?