Black screen on SH3 (WIN7)

[Herz]

I've looked around and I haven't found anything relating to this as of yet. I have SH3 through Steam since I bought the SH bundle to get SH3/SH4 (originally got SH3 on Direct2Drive). It worked great on Vista, but after trying to run the game on Windows 7 I get nothing but a black screen once the box notifying game launch disappears. While this black screen is up I cannot use anything. I hear system sounds already running like music from iTunes playing but cannot stop them with my keyboard music controls. I can't ctrl-alt-delete or minimize. It's just a pure black screen and everything is rendered useless unless I personally power down the machine.

What exactly is going on here? Does anyone have this similar issue? Is it with my video card? The OS? I have heard of a screen of death plaguing Windows 7 at the moment. Could this be it? Any help would be appreciated.

One thing to note is that I also have SH4 installed and JGSME running on that, but that shouldn't effect it I assume.

[irish1958]

I have no idea as to what is occurring. I would suggest you get AlacrityPC or Game Booster, and shut down everything on your computer not needed to run you operating system.
Then start the game, SH3v.1.4b (with no mods running).
If the game runs, you probably should run it this way, as it performs best under these circumstances.
If you want to find out what the culprit is, start adding back stuff until you find it.
You should note that if Starforce is involved, the game will not run on Windows7

[Undefined]

Win 7 and Vista both are pointless OS's these days, they require alot more resources than XP so that means your PC is running slower. Also these OS's are not compatible with most of the games and programs. So the best idea is to downgrade to windows XP. Im sure that then SH3 works just fine.

[Herz]

Win 7 and Vista both are pointless OS's these days, they require alot more resources than XP so that means your PC is running slower. Also these OS's are not compatible with most of the games and programs. So the best idea is to downgrade to windows XP. Im sure that then SH3 works just fine.

Windows 7 was proven to have faster performance than both XP and Vista. It's worked with everything so far, but there are a few programs that don't work. When I say few I mean very few.

Also the game is on Steam so I highly doubt Starforce is involved. Does anyone else have any idea? I'm going to keep looking around for solutions... the fact the game does work for some on Windows 7 is further proof that it's something solvable.

[Herz]

Problem solved! The issue is with COMODO Firewall and can happen on Vista or Windows 7.

This thread contains the fix.

http://forums.comodo.com/defense_bugs/defense_keeps_silent_hunter_3_from_running-t34656.0.html

Moderator, feel free to lock the thread. :)