Dead Space 3 Black Screen on Startup

Hello @CleWe

Sorry you have a troubles running the game. Can you try  to install Origin again, and repair the game from Origin library?

Hey, thanks for looking into this!

Reinstalling Origin failed at first because both the thin (50MB) and full (180MB) installers could not connect to the EA network.

I thought it was a login problem and tried to login via webbrowser, which worked in Internet Explorer and Firefox, but not in Chrome.

Chrome login worked when I allowed 3rd Party Cookies, which is a privacy concern to me, but it did not fix the problem the installers were having.

I've downloaded and successfully installed an old version of Origin, which updated itself to the current version.

In this new installation, I downloaded and installed Dead Space 3 again, with exactly the same black screen problem.

At the end of DS3's installation, a DirectX error pops up. I accessed the _installers\directx\redist directory in DS3 and deleted all files except the Setup and *.dlls, ran the dxsetup again without error - but I've already had the current DirectX.

I tried installing DS3 on my System C: drive, but the error persists.

I've disabled Origin in-game for DS3, set it to run as Administrator and enabled it in my firewall.

It seems stuck at loading, never getting past ~40MB in RAM.

Is there an error log for debugging when I terminate the process?

It just started after sitting idly at the black screen for 10+ minutes!

I disabled all HID input devices in Device Manager, my Wacom aswell.

DS3 is set to run in compaitiblity mode for Windows 7 (although I'm on 7) and is executed with Administrator rights

I used visual studio 2010 to run a debug on the process, but it came up inconclusive, just a list of dll calls.

BUT: some of those dll calls were named 'Activation'

Could it be that after installation, DS3 tries to activate itself with EA?

Could it be that this process takes 10+ minutes?

So far the solution seems to be to just let it sit until it starts by itself.

I am very surprised, disappointed and happy.

Hello @CleWe 

All I can say is Wow. You`ve done some pretty awesome troubleshooting for Dead Space 3. I am impressed. 

It might take some time for the game to connect with EA servers, but it should not take so long. I assume you do not have any other EA game to run it with Origin, so we can see the difference? 

The game loads now after ~10 minutes of black screen, then prompts me to press any key.

It then gets stuck at "scanning for downloadable content".

What does it scan here? Its install directory? Online?

How much of DS3's implementations rely on online connectivity?

I'll let it scan for now. Cheers.

I just tried Battlefield 3, Dead Space 2 and Syndicate, all start without a delay (DS2 needs Steam to be running though).

This problem seems to be limited to DS3.

Ok @CleWe, can you try to disable Origin in Game and Cloudsave for Dead Space 3 in the game properties menu from Origin Library? 

Overlay and cloud saves disabled, still the black screen at startup and the loop "looking for DLC".

I have checked my network settings, too. I dont use a proxy.

I'm going to reinstall Origin on the external HDD and download DS3 to it.

And I'm going to see if a VPN connection helps to eliminate my internet provider from the equaiton.

Are the any authentication servers I could tracert to see if I reach them alright?

Good job on figuring all this out, @CleWe 

and your solution post is nice and really helpful. If you like, you can browse Answers HQ and help other players with different issues. I am sure a lot of players would appreciate this. 🙂

Cheers,

Archi