Thank you for the idea. Sadly, it does not seem to have worked.

I'm going to uninstall and re-install again. That's the only thing that seems to get me back into the game. Then... I dunno. I need to get the resolution fixed or I'll never be able to keep up with other players in PvP and instances. But at least this way I can play solo every now and again while I continue to research a fix and wait for the support staff to contact me.

I have not yet tried setting the resolution that low, or lowering the frame rate. I just got back to checking in with this forum. Though I will say that I lowered the frame rate during my initial attempt to get the game running smoothly. There was no remarkable change in performance. I have not, however, tried it as a way to get rid of the hateful Black Screen.


Here are the things I've learned from forums where others are complaining about this issue (roughly in the order of my trial-and-error):

1- The problem (in theory) seems to be the result of the monitor or video card being incapable of handling the resolution requested of it. I find this odd, since I'm lowering resolution, not raising it.

2- There is a "fix launcher" in the installation client somewhere (I found it once by dumb luck) that patches your game so you can launch the program. This did not fix my problem.

3- Changing values of height and width in client_settings did not fix the issue.

4- Uninstalling and re-installing worked to get the game back online and visible, but when I attempted to fix the resolution again, things went awry.

5- Part of the problem with fixing the resolution is that the entire screen goes black, while the "revert to default settings" ticker ticks away.

6- Changing the Full Screen value in the client_settings file to "false" allowed me to stop the timer after adjusting resolution in-game. The game did not black out the full screen, so visual information was still available.

7- Having the game out of full screen mode made everything absurdly skinny after the resolution adjustment (I tried 1680x1050 at first)... leading me to attempt to change the resolution again as a fix... leading to another crash and the dreaded black screen.

8- Many people online are having many problems with poor tech support from Bioware/EA on SWTOR matters, including this one.

9- Sifting through inane forum hate-chatter to find nuggets of solution-potential is enough to drive a man mad.

10- If SWTOR staff fails me, and I cannot get the game to run in a weildy fashion, I may have to resort to the unthinkable: head outside and find a girlfriend.


Thanks for your help, guys. Hopefully I'll be able to get back to playing soon. Though I'm certain no one from SWTOR's staff is going to walk me through this over Christmas.


Jarmeat

I'm wondering if any Furious Angels can help me with a tech issue that's keeping me from playing right now.

The customer service droids are frequently unhelpful or at least not specific, and calling customer service by phone only gets me directed to the swtor customer service website.

I'll try to keep the issue brief, for those of you who might want to help and are able:


My video card doesn't seem quiiite powerful enough to run swtor without getting laggy on me (though I know it's not a connection issue).

I lowered everything I can to the lowest setting except frame rate and resolution. Things improved, but high-traffic areas still had the hiccups I'm trying to eliminate.

I attempted to lower the resolution... Long story short is that after a couple different attempts where no change in the resolution was actually logged by the program in teh preferences menu, the screen went entirely black (though sound was still playing).

Now, any time I log into swtor, the screen is completely black.

Can anyone help me?


Thanks,


Jarmeat


PS- My OS is Vista, but other than that I don't know a lot about the system. It was a gift from a friend who frankensteined it together. Still, it meets specs for gameplay. As far as I can tell it's just screwing up right now because of my fiddling with the resolution.

Okay, then. Thanks.

I thought I was keeping up with the forums but I guess I was very wrong.

Thanks for the heads up. I'm glad to have that potential annoyance out of the way.

-J

If I've got the SWTOR launcher downloaded so I can be ready for early access, do I only need to wait for the servers to be open at the appropriate time to start playing?

The reason I ask is that I ordered a hard copy of the game that has not yet arrived, but I have this downloaded launcher all ready to go and I'm not sure if that's enough for early access. I'm afraid I have to wait for the hard copy to arrive in the mail before I can play at all.

SWTOR staff is notoriously slow in responding to my queries, and their "droid-helper" automated tech support emails are routinely unhelpful. So, I bring the issue to the FA. Any thoughts?

I'd love to ask for the evening of the 13th off tomorrow so I can get the character name I want secured etc. etc. Not to mention getting started leveling and playing with you guys.


Jarmeat (hopefully: "Aeryn")