Driver recovery black screen

stalintc · 03-13-10, 08:30 AM

Hi all,

I have been diagnosing the issue I have with the game where, when I am inside the submarine or in port, the screen goes black for 3 seconds or more and then comes back.

Looking into my event viewer I can see that the graphics driver is recovering, likely a TDR error....

I have tried many things to solve the issue:

(Windows 7 x64, 8800GTX 768mb)
- Driver clean and rollback
- Cross check card temperatures and voltages
- Minimum settings
- Compatibility modes
- nHancer settings for the graphics card
- CPU core affinity fixes mentioned here
- Update directx and all system drivers

However, what baffles me is that there is one setting within Silent Hunter 5 that stops the problem from occuring for me...

It is of all things the shadows slider. When I first got the game I put shadows on the lowest possible setting, ever since that I have suffered the above issue. I decided to ramp up all my settings in a last ditch attempt to resolve this issue, the shadows being one of those first settings.

Putting the shadow slider to full has stopped the issue with the black screen, I get super low FPS in the radio room and docks, but it doesnt crash and there are no screen atrifacts.. ill take low FPS over crashing any day

Some of you getting the same issue as me, may want to give this rather strange workaround a try?

Just thought I would share.

Happy hunting

stalintc · 03-13-10, 03:19 PM

bumping for those who may need to try this...

lehovsky · 03-15-10, 03:46 AM

It all depends what graphic card you have got.
I am running on NVidia GeForce 7600 GS with 256 MB only.
Problem is that the game resulted in black screen after few minutes of play.

what I have done is:

-remove all graphic enchancing mods
-reduce Anti Alising to 0
-go to Nvidia Control Panel (can`t remeber right now were exactly, but it should be something with 3D options (will edit the post later)), and set all AA options for SH5 to 0

Now I don`t have to reload the game every 5 minutes.

stalintc · 03-15-10, 10:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lehovsky

It all depends what graphic card you have got.
I am running on NVidia GeForce 7600 GS with 256 MB only.
Problem is that the game resulted in black screen after few minutes of play.

what I have done is:

-remove all graphic enchancing mods
-reduce Anti Alising to 0
-go to Nvidia Control Panel (can`t remeber right now were exactly, but it should be something with 3D options (will edit the post later)), and set all AA options for SH5 to 0

Now I don`t have to reload the game every 5 minutes.

Yeah I think you are right there are many triggers for the problem, depending on the card.

I had tried the things that you mentioned, but none of them worked for me, I just find it bizzare that the problem goes away when I whack up the shadows, and the second I turn the shadows down to 0 the problem re-occurs. Means I can play with AA at least.

I wonder if it worth collating these fixes that people have managed into one place as a sticky for the driver black screen issue

I will of course check back for your edited post, to see if there is anything else that I might have missed.

Thanks for your response matey

smehan · 03-15-10, 11:04 AM

I too have experienced this problem with my Nvidia 7950gx2 cards. It only happens when I am in or near a port. Whether it is a friendly port or enemy port. I will usually have to go to nav map mode and go out to sea. Once there I alt-tab out then back again, and the problem is gone. While in port I just hold down the alt key (the 2 people I need to talk to can still be seen, as a yellow highlight) and walk towards them. This has been my only solution to play. Anoying for me, but still playable, just not around ports.

lehovsky · 03-15-10, 11:20 AM

It looks like graphic is breaking up when near big number of detailed models, trees, buildings, ships and other. I don`t know how it reacts when aproaching large convoy. Will test it though.

Like I mentioned earlier, you need to open 3D options managment / program settings / and add SH5. Then you need to disable AA.

I hope that they will fix it with the patch (yeah... dream on...)

03-13-10, 08:30 AM	#1
stalintc Seaman Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 36 Downloads: 42 Uploads: 4	Driver recovery black screen Hi all, I have been diagnosing the issue I have with the game where, when I am inside the submarine or in port, the screen goes black for 3 seconds or more and then comes back. Looking into my event viewer I can see that the graphics driver is recovering, likely a TDR error.... I have tried many things to solve the issue: (Windows 7 x64, 8800GTX 768mb) - Driver clean and rollback - Cross check card temperatures and voltages - Minimum settings - Compatibility modes - nHancer settings for the graphics card - CPU core affinity fixes mentioned here - Update directx and all system drivers However, what baffles me is that there is one setting within Silent Hunter 5 that stops the problem from occuring for me... It is of all things the shadows slider. When I first got the game I put shadows on the lowest possible setting, ever since that I have suffered the above issue. I decided to ramp up all my settings in a last ditch attempt to resolve this issue, the shadows being one of those first settings. Putting the shadow slider to full has stopped the issue with the black screen, I get super low FPS in the radio room and docks, but it doesnt crash and there are no screen atrifacts.. ill take low FPS over crashing any day Some of you getting the same issue as me, may want to give this rather strange workaround a try? Just thought I would share. Happy hunting

03-15-10, 03:46 AM	#3
lehovsky Swabbie Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Katowice, Poland Posts: 5 Downloads: 24 Uploads: 0	Driver recovery black screen It all depends what graphic card you have got. I am running on NVidia GeForce 7600 GS with 256 MB only. Problem is that the game resulted in black screen after few minutes of play. what I have done is: -remove all graphic enchancing mods -reduce Anti Alising to 0 -go to Nvidia Control Panel (can`t remeber right now were exactly, but it should be something with 3D options (will edit the post later)), and set all AA options for SH5 to 0 Now I don`t have to reload the game every 5 minutes.

03-15-10, 11:20 AM	#6
lehovsky Swabbie Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Katowice, Poland Posts: 5 Downloads: 24 Uploads: 0	Driver recovery black screen It looks like graphic is breaking up when near big number of detailed models, trees, buildings, ships and other. I don`t know how it reacts when aproaching large convoy. Will test it though. Like I mentioned earlier, you need to open 3D options managment / program settings / and add SH5. Then you need to disable AA. I hope that they will fix it with the patch (yeah... dream on...)

03-13-10, 03:19 PM	#2
stalintc Seaman Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 36 Downloads: 42 Uploads: 4	bumping for those who may need to try this...

03-15-10, 11:04 AM	#5
smehan Nub Join Date: Mar 2010 Posts: 3 Downloads: 29 Uploads: 0	I too have experienced this problem with my Nvidia 7950gx2 cards. It only happens when I am in or near a port. Whether it is a friendly port or enemy port. I will usually have to go to nav map mode and go out to sea. Once there I alt-tab out then back again, and the problem is gone. While in port I just hold down the alt key (the 2 people I need to talk to can still be seen, as a yellow highlight) and walk towards them. This has been my only solution to play. Anoying for me, but still playable, just not around ports.