problems with the game (Black screen)

[pontypool]

A friend of mine recently purchased Empire total war, so gave me his old copy of mtw2.
I installed fine, but when i try to run, I just have a black screen.
I know there is no video, because on my tv when the computer turns off, the monitor says (no video) the same applies if I am tuned into any device such as a usb player and then shut it down.
I can hear the audio and when i alt tab - I arrive back at the desktop. The mtw2 task is NOT frozen (doesn't say not responding)
My nvidia drivers are up to date, as are my chipset drivers, I have only recently re formatted and installed windows. Here are my specs.

I5 -3570 quad core intel.
asrock z77 extreme 6 mother board
gtx 660 graphics with a coolermaster atatched fan
ssd drive intel 550 (which the game is installed to)
ram 8 gigabyte , corsair, dual ram 2x4

Really shouldn't be a problem with hardware, but I am at a loss what the problem could be.
I am far from a novice and have googled variations of mtw black screen but cannot find specifically the same problem. Most people seem to have a black screen only when a battle has ended, or at some point during a specific point of the game. I haven't heard anyone else who had the same kind of problem with me, with one single exception.... but he replied to his own post to say nevermind, it's my firewall playing up : /
In response to that, I checked my firewall and made sure to allow the launcher and medieval2.exe but still have the same problem, even when i disabled the firewall (Which is a windows firewall)
I anticipated that it might be the actual video from the loading which causes this, I know from experience there was games in the past where the actual intro video was what caused the screen to go black, but i cannot find any mention of how to disable the intro video and besides, it seems a lot of effort to go through when it might not even be the cause. Any help ?

[irishron]

Moved from NTW GD to M2 Tech.
If not right, we'll move it, again.
This game is ancient compared to anything considered new. It liking tvs as monitors can be a trick in itself but for most, it can be done. The biggest problem 90+% of the time are resolutions the tv is capable of and what resolutions the game will accept, ancient. What is the brand and model of the tv?
The game will run on the i5 but low graphics. In Nvidia Control Panel, do you have the game's profile set to Maximum Performance?

[pontypool]

sorry? did you say the graphics can only be set to low on the I5? the i5 isn't an old processor?
My tv is a full hd toshiba max res of about 1920x1080i native res.
I don't know what profile you're talking about, but according to the section "compatibility with games" in the nvidia control panel, mtw2 is "excellent" shouldn't have thought it would be a problem with my card based on that? surely?

still cannot find 'profile' but did find a manage 3d section where you can add an application and then disable or enable certain features, such as antialiasing. Is that what you was talking about? it seems to be set on global rules at the moment.
BTW I should mention I have played other, very very old games with no problem what so ever, for example, even populous the beginning ??

[irishron]

sorry? did you say the graphics can only be set to low on the I5? the i5 isn't an old processor?

It still gets run through the integrated graphics art of the i5 and robs from the RAM, not VRAM. This means low graphics. If you can get Medium, great but not expected.

My tv is a full hd toshiba max res of about 1920x1080i native res.

I'm running 1920 x 1080 on a LG Flatron 223W DVI. Possibly the game is noe recognizing the tv. Not the first time for this game.

I don't know what profile you're talking about, but according to the section "compatibility with games" in the nvidia control panel, mtw2 is "excellent" shouldn't have thought it would be a problem with my card based on that? surely?

still cannot find 'profile' but did find a manage 3d section where you can add an application and then disable or enable certain features, such as antialiasing. Is that what you was talking about? it seems to be set on global rules at the moment.

I haven't had an Nvidia card in about 18 months but if memory serves me right, you are in the ball park. Nvidia Control Panel > Settings > 3D Settings > Program Files tab or close to it. About half way down the list was the one for Power, Perfotmance or something related. Auto and Power Saving are useless for the game as the Optimus Technology built into the 15 will never use your dedicated card with those settings.

BTW I should mention I have played other, very very old games with no problem what so ever, for example, even populous the beginning ??

I have a AMD FX 6300 and a AMD 1gb 6770 with Win7 Pro and running SimCity4 and Kings Quest Collection on them. You can't get much older.
Indignation is okay but I've been battling computers building my own since DOS 3. I think I've learned a few things along the way, too.

[pontypool]

i'm not quite sure what you mean, you're saying the i5 will restrict me playing mtw2 to a medium setting, even though the gtx660 should theoretically achieve excellent?
Or are you saying the game is not running from the gtx but straight from the internal graphics?
I have my monitor plugged into the gtx, not the other seperate dvi slot which goes directly into the motherboard (internal graphics)
Also I can play skyrim on high/ultra settings not completely maximum settings, but pretty close. And get no lags what so ever, a pretty decent frame rate of about 30, depending on location etc. but averages at 30

[pontypool]

I plugged in a much older lcd monitor, which didn't show up as a second monitor from the nvidia control panel, but did show up from the intel graphics control panel. I set the older monitor as the main display 1280x800 and the game booted up normally.
I tried the lowest resolution my toshiba could be but it still didn't display the video, this must mean that it's using the intel graphics right? is it safe to disable the intel graphics? or is there a way of just making it correctly use the graphics the same as the desktop and what my monitor is plugged into?
I would really like to figure this out, as I play a mix of games new and retro and I have come across glitches many times in the past with older games (albeit not as bad as with mtw2) so I would value a workaround.

I wasn't even aware it's possible for a game to just decide to ignore your graphics card and use internal graphics, even when the desktop isn't using it and no monitor is plugged into it. It's just downright bizzare. Maybe I will just avoid internal graphics in future.

Edit : Disabling intel hd graphics from device manager makes no difference, display still says no video when launching mtw2. So how can it be using the internal graphics when it's disabled?

[irishron]

Skyrim is relatively new. Medieval2 was released eight years ago, a couple of lifetimes in computer games. Tvs as monitors in those was an after thought for programmers if the thought process even got that far. Stock resolutions it was programmed for were 10224 x 768 and 1280 x 1024.
The fastest way to find out if the card is being read is plug it into the integrated chip. If it fires up, the game is not using the 660.
If it is still a black screen something is a miss with the game recognizing it as a monitor.

[irishron]

The best ways I know are (1) the Windows Power settings in the picture and the profile one in Nvidia Control Panel to try to force Optimus to use the 660.
There have been some tvs this game just absolutely refuses to recognize and members have had to invest in a monitor. It's a crapshoot. Some get lucky, some don't.

[pontypool]

I figured this problem out and just wanted to post it here in case anyone googling has the same problem.

in the nvidia control panel > desktop size and position choose the tab that says "scaling" in my control panel this was configured to 'no scaling' but in the tab underneath it said perform scaling on 'display' I changed from display to gpu and that fixes the problem and now the game runs fine and displays video.

BTW my power options was always maximum performance for video. Multimedia > optimize power saving /balanced or optimize video quality which was set.

[kkchen88]

I figured this problem out and just wanted to post it here in case anyone googling has the same problem.

in the nvidia control panel > desktop size and position choose the tab that says "scaling" in my control panel this was configured to 'no scaling' but in the tab underneath it said perform scaling on 'display' I changed from display to gpu and that fixes the problem and now the game runs fine and displays video.

BTW my power options was always maximum performance for video. Multimedia > optimize power saving /balanced or optimize video quality which was set.

This seem helping !!!!!!! My problem Is been black screen while Champaign,music still can hear.

[irishron]

Good info for the next person. Thank you for sharing. Enjoy playing the game.

I forget what version of Windows I found the power settings and I've been setting mine this way since.

[jmiah]

Subbed for future ref