Help with random black screen!

When I play NTW for a few minutes, the video connection to the monitor will be lost, the screen goes black but the music can still heard, for a while. After a few seconds, the music also dies and the computer must be rebooted.

My computer's spec is as the following:
- Phenom II X4 3.5gh
- ATI 5970
- WinXP 32-bit
- 3.2gb DDR3 RAM

WinXP is patched to SP3, ATI Catalyst 10.6 is the driver version (and latest).

I have tried the solution in this thread:
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=335569
changing the settings in CCC to "use application setting" does not seem to help.

Heat does not seem to be an issue either. Log file from GPU-Z suggests that video card temp stayed around 75c during gameplay. When running a more intense game or FurMark, my video card temp can go up to around 85c and it is stable at that temperature.

Please help me resolve this problem.

edit: the black screen problem does not seem to happen during sea battle, but I have seen it happen in land battle and on the campaign map.

How hot does your cpu get? many newer boards have an overtemp autoshutoff built into them.
How hot does it get in your case? How is the ventilation?
Dumb quesion: Are you using the correct cable between your card and monitor? Are the connections tight?

Originally Posted by irishron

How hot does your cpu get? many newer boards have an overtemp autoshutoff built into them.
How hot does it get in your case? How is the ventilation?
Dumb quesion: Are you using the correct cable between your card and monitor? Are the connections tight?

Didn't check the CPU or case temp, but in all honesty, I don't think overheating is the issue. When I built this PC, I stress tested all the components. That is, the CPU was stressed to 100% (using prime95) for at least 24 hours, and if it none of the 4 cores crashed and the cores temps are all stable, then I deem it stable enough for daily use. I don't think this game is nearly as stressful as prime95's torture test.

As for the physical connection, a loose connection cannot consistently cut the signal a few minutes into a particular game, and once cut, the signal does not automatically come back when the computer is rebooted, without some kind of tightening.

have you made any profile for the game>?

I trust you know what you are doing then but my experiences going back to DOS and CGA monitor days, I remember black screens from, picture tubes dying-including tube and solid state boards,had both, graphics cards loose or dying, loose cable, wrong cable, underpowered or dying or overheated power supply, BIOS crapping out, bad memory sick, and last but not least software conflicts.

I have packed brand new hardware back to the store before with my receipt inmy hand because it died when I just put it in and hit the on switch.

Have you thought of upgrading to Win7 64bit to take advantage of your new computer?

Originally Posted by irishron

I trust you know what you are doing then but my experiences going back to DOS and CGA monitor days, I remember black screens from, picture tubes dying-including tube and solid state boards,had both, graphics cards loose or dying, loose cable, wrong cable, underpowered or dying or overheated power supply, BIOS crapping out, bad memory sick, and last but not least software conflicts.

I have packed brand new hardware back to the store before with my receipt inmy hand because it died when I just put it in and hit the on switch.

Have you thought of upgrading to Win7 64bit to take advantage of your new computer?

The problem that I have is specific to this game. All other games work just fine. I don't think I am upgrading to Win7 anytime soon. But then, NTW is supposed to work with XP.

dxdiag pretty please

I will get the dxdiag asap. I ran the game for a while with shader 2 instead of shader 3 and didn't get the black screen.

What are the specs for 5970 ion the 12volt rails in amps and what is the max your power supply's 12volt rails in amps?

Originally Posted by irishron

What are the specs for 5970 ion the 12volt rails in amps and what is the max your power supply's 12volt rails in amps?

Not sure how many amp the 5970 takes. My PSU is a Corsair TX 950W, it has 78 amps on the 12v rail. Should be more than enough to power the video card. In fact, I think it has enough juice to run 2x 5970 plus an overclocked Phenom X6, which I hope to acquire soon.

Originally Posted by yiplong

Not sure how many amp the 5970 takes. My PSU is a Corsair TX 950W, it has 78 amps on the 12v rail. Should be more than enough to power the video card. In fact, I think it has enough juice to run 2x 5970 plus an overclocked Phenom X6, which I hope to acquire soon.

It should but some power supplies have had a short life span from manufacturing. Have you checked the ingame voltages? I had a power supply die in less than six months.

Originally Posted by irishron

It should but some power supplies have had a short life span from manufacturing. Have you checked the ingame voltages? I had a power supply die in less than six months.

I don't see how the black screen problem with a video game would require a PSU checkup. My computer works just fine in all situations, I have no problem playing any other game or running stress test. It should be clear that this is a software problem, like 90% of all computer troubles.

where is the dxdiag?

As Iscaran at www.totalforums.com has put it himself, this game is a stress test.

Originally Posted by irishron

As Iscaran at www.totalforums.com has put it himself, this game is a stress test.

Funny. This game does not stress my CPU or GPU 100%. In fact, virtually no game can generate constant 100% load on the GPU or CPU like Prime95 or FurMark. My computer is stable running Prime95 and FurMark stress test for 24 hours.

I do suspect that the problem is somehow with a setting somewhere, or the driver, or directX or with the game itself.

and have you done any profile for this game? since that card is a xfire... this game needs one

Originally Posted by Mr MM

and have you done any profile for this game? since that card is a xfire... this game needs one

I dont' think i have a profile in CCC for the game. Let me do that now.

oy this is not a debate, when you ask for advice you do what you're told.

actually when it comes to delivering anything that could help you, you don't

so dxdiag, have you done any profiling?

what about going to the redist folder and installing those 2 files?

Then, have you installed http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en and http://www.microsoft.com/net/Download.aspx? Both are required by the game. You may want http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en while you're at it.

I have had exactly the same problem as Yiplong for several weeks. About 4 months ago I replaced the Graphics Card in my old Advent T9103 with an NVidia 220 (plus upgrading to 2 GB RAM). For about 8 weeks the new card ran all my TW games no bother, but now I have the same black screen crash with all the high end ones (MTW retrofit, ETW and NTW), always at random times but often within the first couple of minutes. TW is the only game affected. I have stopped playing TW until I upgrade to a new PC.

Having done my research, I'm a bit confused - the GT 220 should not run ETW/NTW on high settings at all, but initially it did, now it doesn't - keen to know why. I know that, like Yiplong, I'll be asked for my dxdiag - no problem, but where exactly is it and do I simply cut and paste to get it onto here?

Finally, I would be keen for simple advice on upgrading to a computer (base unit) suitable to play ETW/NTW on high for about £/$ 1000 (could go higher if necessary). Like many coming to this site, I'm not a technician or self-builder so really looking for a list of potential PC purchases. I live in UK.

Med