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Anonymous's avatar
Anonymous
10 years ago

Re: Black Screen w/ Cursor, Sound, and Flashing on start, no video or input

Try forcing the game to Borderless mode.

C:\Users\<USER>\Documents\PVZ Garden Warfare 2\settings\PROF_SAVE_profile

Borderless:
GstRender.FullscreenMode 2

GstRender.FullscreenScreen 1

I'm pretty sure those are the settings for borderless.

---------------

Make sure the game is using the GT745m and not the HD4400

http://imgur.com/a/6KJBH#87BGUaE   (sub BF:HL for PvZ, same difference)
nVidia Control Panel -> 3D Settings -> Program Settings -> Add Program (PvZ:GW2) -> High Performance Processor

11 Replies

  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    10 years ago

    Hello,

    Thank you for the reply! I tried this and it didn't fix the problem. It did make the game immediately go fullscreen, but the screen still remained black with the in-game cursor present. I've included a capture of what the file looked like exactly when I changed it as it was formatted a little bit different then what you posted.

  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    10 years ago

    Do you have any overlay programs running?  Like  Fraps, RiviaTuner, Overwolf, MSI gaming app or things like that?

    Overlay programs and Origin in Game cause weird issues when used together.

    *Since you did a clean boot it's unlikely this is the case*

    Try going to nVidia Control Panel's 3D settings and Default them.

    Then re-do the forcing High Performance Processor for PvZ2.exe

  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    10 years ago

    This didn't work either unfortunately. I reset nvidia settings to default in the nvidia control panel and forced the game to run with that graphics processor, but all I got was a black screen still.

  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    10 years ago

    Also, none of those services were running in the background.

  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    10 years ago

    Maybe try disabling the nVidia card by either using that 3D setting to force the Intel or just straight up disabling the nVidia card.

    I'm curious if this would cause a different issue (i.e. error message about Intel Graphics) or if it would present itself in the same way.

    If it presents itself in the same exact way with the nVidia card disabled, this would lead me to believe the nVidia card isn't actually doing it's job (i.e. Optimus isn't switching correctly).

    If that's the case (optimus isn't switching on the nvidia)  uninstalling the drivers (intel and/or nvidia) and clean wiping them with DDU can often bring them back up to working correctly.

    My post here should cover it.

    http://answers.ea.com/t5/Technical-Issues/Problem-with-Intel-Driver-update/m-p/5277678#U5277678

    Sorry it isn't exact steps.  Getting a non-working Optimus to work right is always a bit of trial and error but wiping drivers and starting over usually is a step in the right direction.

    --

    If when you disable the nVidia and get a different error or it starts working, then we at least know to point the finger at the nVidia.  In that case wiping with DDU is probably the step I'd take anyways though.

    --

    Sorry for the incoherent ramblings.  I'm heading to bed but I'll check back tomorrow morning.

    If you want, you can post your DXDiag.  Maybe something will jump out.   Maybe it's something silly like Windows DPI settings not being 100%.

  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    10 years ago
    I will try this the next chance I get. I do recall trying with Intel which produced the same result. I will try again after these changes to see if anything is different.

    Also, I looked more closely on the minimum system requirements for the game, and it appears that my CPU doesn't wanna cut it. I looked in to this with one of those "can I run it?" Websites and it said that my computer wouldn't be able to run it at minimum settings. I dug a little deeper into this. The minimum GPU suggested for this game is a 3 year old i5 Intel. However, my i7 Intel, after looking up, is newer and should be more powerful than it. The i5 reccomended did have a higher GHz however, and I am unsure whether or not it is a quad core (mine is a dual).

    Do you think that this could be the main cause of this issue?
    My machine can run games like skyrim and far cry 3 just fine at average to higher settings, which this website said I shouldn't even be able to run.
  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    10 years ago

    If it happens the exact same way when the Intel card is "forced" to be the one working, I'd fall back to suggestion looking at the drivers.

    First try just updating the Intel drivers *edit* Yes it seems there are drivers from 3/8/2016

    https://downloadcenter.intel.com/

    If that doesn't do it, then I'd start wiping them, cleaning the remaining traces with DDU and starting over.  From that thread above I linked should have the details about DDU etc.

    ----

    You can try adding the right-click menu to Windows to force launch apps with the nVdia.

    Described in this article at the bottom:

    https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/documents/ht051526

    You would need to have Origin open and logged in.  Then you should be able to find the game's EXE (or shortcut) and do the right-click force launch.

    ---

    Yeah it's below requirements (rare for games to list mobile anything for requirements).  I think it should still at least launch and display on the screen.  I mean there are youtube videos of people with only HD4400 and they have it running (very low resolution with some framerate hiccups but it "works").

    Your CPU is a dual core with 4 threads thanks to Hyperthreading.  That's the same as the minimum requirement Intel chip i5 650.  Depending on which benchmarking software you use they trade winner scores (i.e. some software/benches take advantage of the newer instructions the 4500 can handle).

    In my opinion it should at bare minimum be able to launch the game and display it.  How playable it is after that could be up for debate.

    ----

    Back to Optimus...

    Windows 10 makes it easy to reinstall.

    http://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/16397-repair-install-windows-10-place-upgrade.html

    If you select the right option you won't loose data but Windows will be defaulted like it was fresh installed.  Games won't technically be installed anymore but if you point Origin to the game's files, it won't need to download them again, it'll just jump straight to installing.

    I wouldn't do this unless you've exhausted all other methods of trying to get nVidia Optimus to act right.

  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    10 years ago

    Hey again,

    Sorry for the delayed reply, but I wasn't able to fiddle around with the DDU quite yet but I'm not sure I'm going to go too much deeper into this problem as I have just started building my own gaming tower that will (hopefully) have no trouble playing this game. I hope that if anyone else faced the same problems with running this game that this forum will help!

  • YRVIL's avatar
    YRVIL
    6 years ago
    @WootCandy Yea I’m having the same problem my game is only showing the black screen with in game sound and the I game cursor bit it’s enlarged by a lot
  • EA_Blueberry's avatar
    EA_Blueberry
    Icon for Community Manager rankCommunity Manager
    6 years ago

    @YRVIL wrote:
    @WootCandy Yea I’m having the same problem my game is only showing the black screen with in game sound and the I game cursor bit it’s enlarged by a lot

    @YRVIL 

    The last response to this post is from 2017, so I will be locking this post down though to avoid further necroposting. If you still need help with this specific topic please create a new post on our boards.

    • Don't "necropost." Reviving, updating or bumping old, outdated and irrelevant threads is not helpful for our community. It's best to check when the thread was created before you hit post, just to make sure it's not 2 years old for example.

    If you're using any overlays like Discord and Origin In-Game, try disabling those before launching the game. If you perform a clean boot, you can quickly identify if it's a third party program running in the background.

    How to Clean Boot your PC

    https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/faq/how-to-clean-boot-your-pc/

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