Technical question (Black screen with macbook)

korncob · Post by **korncob** » Wed Dec 24, 2008 12:15 am

My friend uses a macbook and has a windows partition for booting into when he wants to play windows only games (mmorpg's usually) and basically he gets a black screen no matter what 3d device he picks, graphical choices, resolutions, etc. nothing helps it...he says he can hear the music and recognizes that its basically at the character creation screen just a black screen so he can't see it.

He has a intel dual core processor, not sure on the ghz but its fairly good...intel mobile GMA x3100 graphics card and 2 gb of ram. A couple gigs left so not really that pressed on hard drive space.

So if anyone can give any suggestions or knows how to fix this...we would be grateful, thanks.

Post by **Snakebite** » Wed Dec 24, 2008 1:18 am

Don't look at me for answers, but I can ask pertenant questions...

1/ You said he knows he's at the char creation stage, so, that means he's installed AO & patched it up to current?
2/ At what exact point does the screen go black?

korncob · Post by **korncob** » Wed Dec 24, 2008 1:23 am

Snakebite wrote:Don't look at me for answers, but I can ask pertenant questions...

1/ You said he knows he's at the char creation stage, so, that means he's installed AO & patched it up to current?
2/ At what exact point does the screen go black?

1. He had it before on another computer but he sold that computer and got a macbook...he kind of regrets it now...lol

2. Right when it comes up, he doesn't see the loading screen at all it just starts up black.

Post by **Scene** » Wed Dec 24, 2008 1:42 am

sounds like the wrong gfx card is selected in the launcher settings.

korncob · Post by **korncob** » Wed Dec 24, 2008 3:19 am

SceneGG wrote:sounds like the wrong gfx card is selected in the launcher settings.

He has tried all of the settings for that...so that can't be it.

edit : he doesn't have a direct3d T&L hal choice just direct3d hal...I found that kind of strange.

edit 2 : Here are the options

primary display drive - RGB emulation
primary display drive - direct 3d hal
mobile intel(r) 965 explress chipset family - RGB emulation
mobile intel(r) 965 explress chipset family - Direct 3d hal

RGB emulation on both primary and mobile give him an error saying :
"Could not find the selected display driver/device combination! using default!"

Post by **Snakebite** » Wed Dec 24, 2008 5:40 am

korncob wrote:1. He had it before on another computer but he sold that computer and got a macbook...he kind of regrets it now...lol

So is it all patched up? Or is it black as soon as the launcher comes up?

Post by **Snakebite** » Wed Dec 24, 2008 5:42 am

Oh, there's a thought...

Is his account payed or unpayed?
Did he install the large or small client?

Post by **Scene** » Wed Dec 24, 2008 3:39 pm

korncob wrote:
SceneGG wrote:sounds like the wrong gfx card is selected in the launcher settings.
He has tried all of the settings for that...so that can't be it.

edit : he doesn't have a direct3d T&L hal choice just direct3d hal...I found that kind of strange.

edit 2 : Here are the options

primary display drive - RGB emulation
primary display drive - direct 3d hal
mobile intel(r) 965 explress chipset family - RGB emulation
mobile intel(r) 965 explress chipset family - Direct 3d hal

RGB emulation on both primary and mobile give him an error saying :
"Could not find the selected display driver/device combination! using default!"

has he checked to see if there is an updated boot camp gfx driver or trying a different one all together?

korncob · Post by **korncob** » Wed Dec 24, 2008 5:38 pm

@ snakebite : It updates and all on the launcher, just the game that shows a black screen.

Also, he has the large client and is an unpayed account.

@ scenegg : He says he just updated it a few days ago so that probably isn't it. :/

Thanks a bunch, it really helps because this could be anything...going to try and see if he can login to a different account now.

edit : nope won't let him in with mine...this is really odd :/

Post by **Scoopx** » Wed Dec 24, 2008 6:44 pm

@ snakebite : It updates and all on the launcher, just the game that shows a black screen.

Also, he has the large client and is an unpayed account.

Big problem there..... you can't play free account on Large client...

Post by **Snakebite** » Wed Dec 24, 2008 7:39 pm

Scoopx wrote:Big problem there..... you can't play free account on Large client...

Yes you can, you can't play payed on the small client tho...

Post by **Scene** » Thu Dec 25, 2008 12:05 am

have you tried this thread... http://forums.anarchy-online.com/showth ... p?t=519341

I didn't read it all but it might have some solutions

korncob · Post by **korncob** » Thu Dec 25, 2008 1:53 am

SceneGG wrote:have you tried this thread... http://forums.anarchy-online.com/showth ... p?t=519341

I didn't read it all but it might have some solutions

Actually yes.. :/ he is using bootcamp and that's all it really addresses..that and installing graphics drivers for ATI (he has an intel graphics card)

Zeephonz · Post by **Zeephonz** » Sat Dec 27, 2008 8:03 am

My money is on the graphics card drivers..... the graphic drivers that come with the generic leopard disk that are used for Windows, usually have a few issues. I'd try finding the genuine Intel graphics drivers and updating the Windows install with them.

I run AO on a PC, and a iMac w/ BootCamp etc, and found that using true graphics drivers instead of the Apple supplied ones improve things. Apple seem to think you don't actually wanna do kewl stuff in Windows.