Black Screen Issues - Blue Tracker

#1 - Feb. 7, 2014, 2:50 p.m.

I have:
AMD Radeon HD 7700 series graphics card.

When I play with in-game settings set to auto-detect:
the game looks great and plays for a while. when there are too many effects on the screen (fire) the screen goes black, but the sound continues. The game will not return.

When I play with in-game settings in minimal:
the game looks ok and works fine. crashed never occur after days and hours of playing.

When I play with the in-game settings on maximum:
the game looks amazing and runs fine. then with too many effects it crashes.

My ATI settings are all default to allow for the game to use it’s settings.

I have done the following troubleshooting:
-repair data archive. same results on normal or higher settings.
-deleted local gw2 cache and deleted .dat file. currently reinstalling.
-made sure I have the latest DirectX and graphics card drivers. did a clean installation of both.
-ran scans, etc, on harddrive. no malicious items detected and no defragment recommended (did one anyway)

While the graphics card is not top tier high end, since I got it last summer Ive been able to run the game a full / ultra settings and still keep above 60fps, which has been working out well for me. CPU and GPU temps are fine, with no alerts or alarms going off. Since the Marionette update, I’ve been experiencing black screen crashes.

Symptoms of the crash:
Sound goes “BZZZRT” and the monitor goes black.
All sound normally continues. I can still hear the game and those talking on Teamspeak in real time. I can even reply for a short while.
In game my character still auto-attacks (confirmed with another desktop/account in same house) It does not log me until I force restart.

VERY RARELY when this happens it will stay black for a moment then come back. When this happens the graphics look crisper and sharper, losing their depth and fuzziness. Before is normal and after it’s “white outline city”. IF this occurs, I can play with any graphics settings and the game no longer crashes at all during that gameplay session. As soon as the program is closed and reopened we’re back at step one.

After the repair and reinstall finish I’ll post my findings. Please let me know if there is anything else I can do to help correct this.

Ashley Segovia

#3 - Feb. 7, 2014, 3:52 p.m.

Hi roachsrealm – Could you please share the rest of your system specs (CPU, RAM, OS)?

Additionally, if you’re behind a router, have you tried bypassing it to see if you encounter this issue when connected directly to your modem?

Ashley Segovia

#6 - Feb. 7, 2014, 4:17 p.m.

Hey there,

So, your CPU may have a Turbo Boost feature which will raise the cores speeds based on load. This is a feature of the CPU model you purchased, marked with the (k) for Intel or the “AMD Black Edition” for AMD. Any CPU’s of these series are able to run faster than intended, automatically, without you doing or changing anything. This can often lead to freezing or crashing in applications that are not expecting this to occur.

Since this situation simulates over-clocking, I’d still like to try to disable this, and for that I have included some instructions for a work around below:

1. Go into Power options (Control panel → Hardware and Sound → Power Options) and click “Change plan settings” near your plan.

2. Then click on “Change advanced power settings.”

3. Scroll down to “Processor power management” and expand it.

4. Expand “Maximum processor state” and modify the setting to 99%. Be sure to also set the minimum processor state to something below the maximum. I recommend 5%.

5. Then simply click “Apply” and “OK.”

After this has been done try launching the game again. When you do, the turbo boost feature should refrain from kicking in and that may resolve the issue you’ve been experiencing.

Hope this helps!