Maximum PC

Certain graphics modes go dark while gaming after driver install, ATI 12.8 going to 12.10? ver. 6800 series card. I am away from my home PC and using my laptop so, I don't know exactly what the rev. for the card and driver are but here's the deal:

Download and install new video driver onto perfectly functioning AMD/ATI clone.
Reboot and and play Deus Ex Steam version. (GOTY) Local, no internet involved.
Game behaves just as before except for one thing.

When you try to access a computer terminal within the game, everything goes dark. But the menu screen is a different kind of graphics than everything else in the game. It's more like graphical text, if you know what I mean. If you manage to click your way out of the terminal while staring at a blank screen, you are returned to a normally functioning game and you can see just fine.

Tried different game. Trine. Works perfectly. Then, when you exit out to the menu, Nothing. Totally dark. But the menu screen is a different kind of graphics than the in-game graphics. If you click the correct menu choice while staring at a blank screen, you are then returned to the game and everything looks just fine.

Rolling back the driver does not help. I might have changed something in the configuration, but I don't know what. I don't recall changing anything. But, it's been over a week since I have had time to mess with it.

Must be something obvious but, What am I missing?

I willing admit defeat. somebodypleazhepme

did you uninstall all old drivers before installing new ones?
did you turn off the antivirus before doing the download and install?

No

..and,

No

avast runs in game mode all the time and gives no indication of interfering. I think I would have to uninstall avast if I was going to make sure it's not getting in the way. Is that really necessary?

When I installed the updated driver, I just clicked on the install program and followed the defaults. Doesn't the ATI install routine uninstall the previous driver and then install the new driver?

Anyway, if that's what I've got to do, then that's what I've got to do. But, I don't want to go that route if it doesn't make sense to do it.

It seems odd that it effects only graphical text screens but, it does it in two different games. So, obviously it's not a Deus Ex kind of thing. DX and Trine are separated by about a decade's worth of video technology but, both exhibit the same symptoms since the new driver install. Now when I roll back to the previous driver, the symptoms remain. This was strictly a driver upgrade. No hardware upgrade involved.

Sounds like you are using post processing effects.

This often happens when the steam overlay pops up.

Try tabbing out to desktop, then back in.

Deus Ex plays horribly beyond Windows XP, as do all Unreal Engine 1 games. This guide: http://kentie.net/article/dxguide/ should help you get up to speed on running it nicely on a modern system.

Thanx for the input guys. I will check out the link. I have been doing the "acoustic guitar trading on ebay thing" for awhile and have slacked off on gaming. So, I will post system specs and driver revisions if I don't sort this out before the weekend.

I am thinking that since the game menu in trine exhibits the same symptom, but the game itself works just fine, that maybe there is a strictly 2-D setting that needs to be changed.

Does this make sense? (I tend to go down a few dead ends when I trouble shoot video cards, as opposed to networking problems.)

tayl

To uninstall/install a Nvidia or AMD driver:

Download the new driver.

Download Ccleaner and install it.

Shut off your anti-virus!!!

Uninstall the driver and say no to restart.

Find and delete the AMD folder, then empty the recyclebin.

Run the registry section of Ccleaner, when it is done reboot the computer.

Cancel the two popups

Shut off the anti-virus!!!

Install the new driver and reboot as required. This should give you a clean install of the video driver. I have done it this way for years and it works for Nvidia as well.

As for Deus Ex, go into the games folder, find the .exe, right click on it and choose win 98se mode, hit apply and try the game. I think you will find it runs just fine that way...it does on my system.

Nasty

Uninstalled driver, rebooted
ran drivesweeper, rebooted
installed driver, rebooted
downloaded new-vision 1.5.exe for deus ex which suggests using different rendering program as opposed to Directx and opengl (I guess)

no reboot for the new vision process. no disabling of anti-virus.

All is well.

...for now.

After having thought that I had solved the above problem, an interesting thing happened while playing Trine. The monitor went dark (in the middle of the actual game play) This was a new symptom. See Above. So, I fired up Deus Ex to see if other games were experiencing the same problem.

I tried to use a computer terminal mounted on the wall, which is the symptom for DX as stated above. As soon as I got close enough to the wall, the screen went blank. I had never thought of this before, but with my monitor, an ASUS VE248, you can cycle through scenery, theater, standard, sRGB, and Game; with just the push of a button.

The monitor was set to "Scenery". I switched to sRGB and, well waddayuh know!? ... Everything came back. All of the aforementioned settings work with both games just fine except for scenery mode. I don't know why, but ever since the ATI 12.8 driver install, this has been my situation. So, I just thought that I would pass along the info in case other inquiring minds want to know.

tayl