I’m having the exact same issue. I’ve tried contacting Funcom with no response. Which “setting” do you change? I’ve tried to change all of the different ones from 1 to 0 with no luck. I still get the weird graphics at log in.

I’ll appreciate it if you can leave a response as to which particular setting you changed, or send me a mail. Thanks man!

I finally got a response from Funcom, where they included a new preference file. This worked well for me, just replace it with the file found in the directory that this blog points to.

Here’s a link to it if anyone needs it:
http://www.gigasize.com/get.php?d=kwxwmk1bodb

I can’t guarantee it’ll work for your set up, but it might be worth a try.

Sorry for the slow reply, been out all morning. Ya, the new file is a good fix too. It’s probably just pre-fixed for ya. The particular setting I changed was the ‘render shader’ setting from on (1) to off (0). Glad you finally got in, if you are in Doomsayer look me up, I’m Blackwings in there.

THANK-YOU! I followed your exact instructions and it worked wonderfully. Thank-you to the person who asked which value to change to 0… this is exactly the value I needed to change for it to work, and I suspect it is the most common cause of the problem. OP, perhaps you should add that to your main post. Thanks again! God, I love the internet and nice folks like you. Thanks so much.

Sorry Will, I originally had it in the main post but somehow managed to screw up and take it out. It’s back in there.

I see a lot of you are downloading the premade prefs file that Ole mentioned from Gigasize, that is the prefs1.xml file. Hope that works for you but if it doesn’t be sure to try the change mentioned in the main post to the prefs2.xml file.

This happened to me last night. I was about to just give up when I saw your post. Lord I hope this works. I’m going to try it when I get home from work…

I’ll love you forever Blackwings if I get it running.

I feel your pain brother. I was pulling my hair out updating drivers and trying to change game settings before I figured out where this file was. It’s in a hidden folder, so make sure to make them visible. Pop back in if you need any help.

I’ve been doing some digging on this issue, looks like this is only happening to folks running ATI cards, model 9800, X800 (me) or X850 cards. If this is you, this should fix your problem. I will be adding a link to a pre-made prefs2.xml file tonight for you to download.

hi i am on vista can someone tell me the instruction for vista.?

I’m not a Vista Pro, but I beleive you go to C:\Users\$USER$\AppData\Local\Funcom\Conan\Prefs.

I don’t actually have Vista, so if someone out there has Vista can back me up on this or point us in the right direction? Best of luck hihiguy.

That’s the correct directory. Thanks Blackwings.

Hi all, i’m having this issue too, but in the Local Settings -> Application Data -> Funcom -> Conan folder there isn’t any Prefs subfolder…anyone know why? i even tried to create it and put in the 2 files, but doesn’t seem to work…any ideas? thanks

I know the prefs folder isn’t created until the first time you try to start the game. Make sure you start the game, even if it’s just a black screen, then hit the space bar until you get past the black screen (7-8 times) to get past all the intro movies, then you should see a mountain scene with some graphics glitches. At that point the prefs folder should be created.

Thanks for the lightspeed reply
I tried as u said and waited till the mountain appears on the balckground, but still no Prefs folder. guess i’ll try to re-install it and see
thanks again

Hmmm…that is odd. Are you sure you are in the Local Setting/Application Data folder? There is a separate application data folder in the same directory as the local settings folder, make sure you go in local settings first and then app data. Otherwise I’m not certain why you wouldn’t be able to see it.

i seem to be having the same problem where i dont have the prefs folder and what it contains. and i do have it set to show hidden files and folders. doing a file search still comes up with nothing. i am using an amd 3200+ xp, 2 gigs of ram and a ati x800xt.

This worked to prefection after about two hours of trying everything else under the sun. Your a legend, thanks for posting this.

Im having the same problem as meme. I opened the correct folder under funcom then conan but under conan its just blank (no pref file anywhere)

AOC tech support is horrible and wont get back to me so if anyone has a solution, you are a god.

I’m assuming both Ryan and MeMe let the game run through the black screen mode until you got to the mountain scene? You have to get that far for it to create the prefs files. You can either just let the previews run (you should have sound) or keep clicking until you get the mountain scene.

Also, again be sure you are not in App. Data but Local Settings/App Data. I’m assuming you did both of these and still are unable to see, I’m researching further to see if I can re-create your issue. Stay tuned.

yes i did wait till i saw the mountain scene.. several times and i even tried to re install it and still have the same issue and yes i did look into the proper folder i know what you mean by looking in the other too because thats where i first looked.. i even did a search for the prefs1 and prefs2 files and have none associated to AOC anywhere on my pc. and i do have my games installed on a separate partition than windows. but have not had a problem with that in the past.

Ya, I can’t see your installation being on another partition as a factor, my own installation is on a separate partition from Windows. I’ll keep working on this, very frustrating.

Okay, one more thing we can try. I got a friend who said he didn’t get his prefs files created until he actually attempted to log in to the game. Basically, he said he kept clicking until he got to the mountain screen with the flickering lights.

At that point, type in your username (you won’t be able to actually see the login screen) then hit TAB and type in your password and press enter. Give it a few seconds to go through the login process, the screen may or may not change, I’ll have to ask my bud, but after that go back to where the prefs folder should be and see if it’s any different. We’ll get through this with or without FunCom techs.

I have been having a problem that maybe you guys will have an idea about how to fix. ATI card and after the install of the game, When it try’s to pull up the patch download screen, The screen flickers for a split sec and then minimizes down. Once this happens you can’t get anything to come up yet the task manager shows that the process is still running normal. Any Ideas? PLZ? Pulling my hair out on this one.

i have tried what you mentioned blackwings with no luck. i can see that after typing my account and password it is doing some thing and then i see something flash on the screen quickly and i wait a bit then close it all.. and still have no luck with the prefs folder. i have sent an email to tech support but i am not really expecting a response for about a week.

Spankdhiney, if you can see the downloader in the task manager as a running application, you should be able to right click on it in the taskmanager and maximize. Give that a shot. MeMe, I’m not giving up on ya, I’m going to keep at it. What version of Windows are you running btw? XP or Vista?

im using xp sp2

i’m on MEME’s same boat i’m searchin around to resolve this issue, thanks for the help Blackwings tho, very appreciated
i’ll let u know if i find something

ok, MeMe the files are there, i guess u made my same mistake.
When u are under “USER” folder go in the “LOCAL SETTING” folder non in the “APP DATA” one. I guess u missed this step too.
Ok, thaks alot Blackwings :, but now i got another issue, the intro sound doesn’t work, it just keeps repeat me the first 2 seconds of sounds, while the intro goes…anyone knows why?
Thanks again

by the way i have the same video card as meme

I tried reading through the comments, have you tried creating the prefs folder and saving the prefs1 and 2 files into it? The folder name should simply be “Prefs”. I’m running low on ideas…

Hey i’ve tried everything i searched the web for 8 hours trying to fix mine windows wont work no resolutions while windowed or non windowed changing the shader down wont work i cant even get the lctrl Rshift C debug menu to come up i got a ati radeion 9250 i got a ventrilo 2 blackwing if ya wanna come on and talk i can tellya some of what i’ve read all over the internet and i do mean all over vent3.gameservers.com 4552

I’ll come on when I get home, at work at the moment. It’ll be after 5PM EST. I can tell you though, your card, the 9250, is lower than minimum specs. It may still start up but you’ll probably be pretty laggy. May be time for an upgrade.

There are new ATI drivers released yesterday, nothing in the release notes about AoC but it’s worth a try. MeMe, was curious if you’ve had any progress with your issue or respone from FunCom tech support? I cannot recreate your problem.

http://ati.amd.com/

Also, if you are able to find your prefs file and are trying to change it yourself and your changes keep reverting back from 0 to the default 1, right clicking on the prefs file and select ‘open with’ notepad to make the changes.

If you were a beta tester for AoC and are experiencing the black screen issue, it is now recommended that you uninstall the beta via the control panel add/remove programs. This may fix the problem but you may still need to reinstall the retail version of the game as well.

Another option is to go to the simpleconfig.exe tool (Program Files/FunCom) and go to the graphics tab and uncheck full screen and try it. If it works you can change back to full screen once in the game and it should stay working. Also, simpleconfig.exe can be used to verify/repair your game installation as a possible corrupt file could cause the black screen issue. Hope this helps!

8800 GTS GeForce
Vista 64 bit
everything is updated, i can see and have tried to manipulate the pref file and it is set correctly. (shader values)

I have tried windowed and full (as well as both DX9 and DX10). I am still getting all sound and a black screen during ads followed by a quick blotchy screen of cream color followed by a sweet mountain scene with a banner type doodad.

I have re-instsalled and re-updated everything.

Is this a possible issue with 64-bit OS’s?

Blackwings you sir are a stud for being more informative than AOC support and pretty much anything else I have been able to find on the webs.

This is typically a problem with ATI cards, not sure on Nvidia. Are you running two cards in SLI? I read that was having problems somewhere. Your card supports Shader 2.0 so the shader fix won’t handle your problem.

One thing you may want to try is uninstalling your video drivers, running a program called driver cleaner to get rid of all the old files, then reboot. Check the Add/Remove programs to make sure every mention of Nvidia is gone, if not run cleaner again, try in safe mode (F8 at boot).

Once it is completely gone install the latest Nvidia drivers again.

ya the rest of my computer is well over to play but i’m getting a whole new rig in a few weeks i just want to play til then i have so many games i cant play cuz of my vid card but soon it will all be gone and i can play anything

and i updated drivers dint work for me but the blackscreen shouldnt be there at most it should prompts me upgrade cuz it cant handle the graphics like cod-4 did and ur3 < pixel shader screwed me on those 2

gah guess i’ll have to wait it out til then torrented games and tf2 for me

Ya peanut I know what you mean man, sucks. Could always pickup a descent graphics card at a local electronics store, they are fairly cheap for a way better card than what you have. They have some as cheap at $70-80 that should do the trick. Not smoking cards by today’s standards but still better than what ya got and good enough to at least get into AoC.

this worked great!!

I bet this has to do with something like the game thinks you have good enough card while optimizing to drive with shader model 3. And if your card doesnt have that, it will freak out.

I have x850 XT PE, wich is fucking good graphcard, (except the SM3 that it dont have) So i guess the optimizer thinks I have a better card than I actually have.
Not sure is this theory is true, but atleast it does make sense for me

The shader seems to be turned on as a default whether you can support it or not, just an oversight on the part of FunCom. At least it’s an easy fix. Glad you got in, see you in game!

Im having the same problem as udodou, I have 8800GT and have tried turning the shader value off but still the same black screen problem as described. I guess there must be some other fix for the 8800′s as they do support shader 2.0.

Same deal here..
Vista 32bit, geforce 8400M GT, which is well rated for this game.. The shader option does not seem to matter to the geforce cards.
Going to try the driver cleaner…
If I get this working will see.

Remember, if you were a beta tester, make sure you completely uninstall any beta client software and reinstall the retail software as well.

blackwings, any other sites covering this info?
Looking for some other ideas..

K, so I’m having the problem that is happening to meme, I tried the whole type account info and hitting enter and Im still getting no prefs folder. I tried creating my own prefs folder and puting both files in it, still no luck. PLEASE HELP!!

I just checked on google and there were a few articles based on AOC having the blank screen with a 8800 graphics card. I cant read it though because it is asking me to sign in and put credit card details in. Is there anyway to access the AOC forums without registering the game cause I dont want to start my 30 day trial before I have got the game actually working.

I’m already registered there, I’ll go check the AOC forums on the 8800 and come back here to post it up. I seen info on the Nvidia’s having problems with graphics effects but not black screen so far but I’ll dig deep.

Other than AoC I don’t know of any other sites talking about it. If you find any feel free to post them up here.

Okay, I just read a post on AoC of a guy running Vista 64bit, has an 8800GT card and was getting the black screen problem. He tried everything suggested and finally got the game working by doing the following, his words:

1. Uninstall AoC
2. Uninstall and clean drivers using driver sweeper
3. Installed latest drivers (175.16)
4. Reinstalled AoC – worked.

If you use the driver cleaner, make sure it completely removes the drivers by checking in Add/Remove programs, if you see any mention of Nvidia run it again, in safe mode if you have to. Once it is completely gone then go on to step 3.

You can get the driver cleaner here:
http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=1655

For those of you still unable to find the prefs folder, I’m still looking for other answers, hang in there.

If any of these works for ya, stop by and let me know. Would love to know things are working so I don’t keep looking for answers, or if you find something that isn’t mentioned here come by and post it up so others can get in too. Thanks!!

k so would that driver cleaner work with having an ati radeon vid card?

Radeon 9550

Sprawll, you’d want to try the shader fix instead of the driver cleaner, but you’re card is below the minimum spec of 9800 (yours is 9550). You’ll probably need an upgraded card, just about any card you buy out in the stores now for around 70-100 dollars should do it.

Okay.. I have cleaned up about 80GB of disk space, trashed entirely my drivers and reinstalled the guru3d set of the very newest nvidia drivers for my 8400m gt (rates at 5.9 on the windows experience index, and others seem to be using it) I am installing the game fresh now and will post my results.

SUCCESS!!!
geforce 8400M GT
1. Uninstall AoC
2. Uninstall and clean drivers using driver sweeper
3. Installed latest drivers (guru3d.com)
4. Reinstalled AoC – worked.

A few notes..
I uninstalled everything that provide any kind of vid driver. I had installed logmein and removed that, I also removed ageia-pysx and most of the other games on my system.

To make absolute certain I got the drivers I removed them in normal mode and in safe-mode (you can check the logs) I also had some random ATI drivers sitting around for some reason.

If you have an nvidia card, make sure you entirely wipe all drivers that even mention your vid card.

Anyway.. runs fine in max settings dx9.. have not tested dx10 yet.

That’s great news Joeldg, hope some other folks can get theirs going following your advice. Thanks!

I have an even worse problem. I don’t even have the funcom folder…The only thing I can find relating to AoC is the install dir. Im running Vista 64. I have gone through all my folders under documents and I have searched on my computer for FunCom. That folder just doesn’t exist. I don’t get the black screen, but in the main menu my chracter is almost transparent and the game is too when I load until I change the shader from 2.0 to 3.0 or reverse, doesn’t matter.

The FunCom folder is there, it’s just hidden. You have to change view files and folders to show hidden files. But the prefs files probably aren’t going to help you anyway, not if you can get to the in-game menu. Yours is a graphics tweak, you just need to play with the graphics settings to find something that works.

What I would try is first to set the in-game resolution to the same as your desktop in full screen mode. Then I would set the in-game graphics to the minimum setting (there is a minimum option). Then close and re-open AoC. After words, start moving settings back up one at a time until you start having problems to try to find your optimal setting.

Thanks for finding that out blackwings. Ill have to try it out. Ill let you know if it works.

Brilliant, thank you for this thread. I thought I was going to lose it. And make sure you are in local settings people, don’t let the similar path fool you.

It worries me that hundreds of people a day still view this thread. If you are reading this and are still unable to fix your graphics glitch, please post up so we can try to help you get working!!

I get the black screen but sadly that is not my only problem. Often when I hear the background noises – such as the nVidia logo and such – my computer just freezes. I have tried upgrading my power supply, didn’t help. I changed RAM, didn’t help either. I have updated or removed just about everything I can update or remove, but no go there either. Only thing I can think of is that somehow Vista SP1 has caused the problem.. anyone else have the same problem after SP1 was installed ?

What are your specs (mobo,cpu,mem,etc)? Particularly what sound card are you running? Is it on-board or is it a pci card? Have you updated the drivers for your soundcard?

I have a AMD Athlon 4200+ 64X2 dual, 2.2 GHz with 6 GB Ram. A GeForce 8800 GTS. Also I have a RealTek onboard sound card and yes, I tried updating them as well. The motherboard I don’t know, whatever Fujitsu Siemens is using these days..

Oh and I am running Windows Vista SP1 as well.

Damn that’s a pretty smokin’ rig actually. SLI would be nice icing on that cake along with a pair of raptors or a solid state hdd.

What version of vista? 32 or 64 bit? Only reason I ask is 32 bit only supports up to 4gb of ram, I’ve seen going over the max supported causing problems. If it’s 64 bit then you’re good. To be honest I can’t say for certain yet why you are experiencing lockups on intro, have you tried skipping past with the space bar?

Also, I assume you ran the SimpleConfig Verify/Repair tool on AoC? It’s found in your Program Files/Funcom/Age of Conan directory.

I’m having a similar problem, only, I’m not getting a black screen, instead, no screen appears when I click play. Even though in my task manager is shows AgeofConan as a process, no application of it is running. Any thoughts on that?

Jamber, try deleting your Pref folder, that worked for me. As for my Vista version, it’s a 32 bit. I used to have 4 GB, I just installed 2 more, to see if that would help. I can skip past the black intro, but then I just lock up at the screen with the rock where server select is supposed to be. But I just don’t get why that would lock up not all my games, so it shouldn’t be a Gfx problem. I did run the repair a few times, yes

Mordread, been looking around and apparently there are lots of people experiencing problems with the game freezing on them. It appears to be a memory leak after a recent patch apparently causing the problem. One player suggested a fix, not sure if it will work. They suggested deleteing all the shader files in your game directory.

I would personally recommend renaming them or copying them into a backup directory to try it out. Move anything Shader*.*

Also, since you have 2 gigs of extra memory that is new, you could try taking all 4 gigs of your old memory out and replacing it with your new 2 gigs, just to insure your old memory is good. If it doesn’t change your symptoms add back in to 4 gigs. I wouldn’t keep 6 gigs in unless you upgrade to a 64 bit OS to take advantage of it all.

Jamber, any luck with deleting the prefs files?

Nope. After I deleted the Pref Folder, nothing different happened. :\

Ok, thank you Blackwings, I will try that and post a update soon.

The game just redownloads the shader files after I remove them.. If I delete them after I have run the file scan I still get a black screen. After installing AoC again though, I can get into the char creator screen. But I still freeze soon after I get there, sadly. I also tried with different ram setups, it didn’t help. I guess I will just have to wait and hope that Funcom will release a patch soon that will fix the problem. But thank you again for your help, I apprecieate it a lot!

MordreadCP .. if you see the ‘rock’ screen (which I have NO idea what that is because that is not an image you see in the actual game) then you need to totally and completely wipe your video drivers.
That is what I had to do and the ONE thing that everyone with bad video drivers have in common is that screen.
Uninstall the game, totally wipe your vid drivers (and anything that provides any kind of video driver interface like remote desktop apps) and then get the bleeding edge new vid drivers (verify them) and then reinstall the game..
For myself and several people I know this worked for.

If you go that route, make sure you completely wipe the vid drivers using the driver sweeper mentioned above. After doing the driver sweeper, verify that any and all mention of Nvidia video software is out of your add/remove programs, sometimes you have to run the sweeper multiple times and even in safe mode to accomplish this.

Not sure this is going to fix his problem given the addition of the lockups, which appears to be a wide spread problem after a recent patch. But it’s worth a try.

I already did the reinstall thing, I get the normal graphics now. The only problem is that my computer locks up every time I either watch the intro or once I get to the login/char creator. Todays patch didn’t help either I’m afraid. I have tried everything I know and then some and nothing is working. I am guessing it’s down to three things. Either it’s the game that is causing the crash, or perhaps a sound driver of some sort (I tired disabling sound and even disabling my sound card, didn’t work) or perhaps Vista SP 1 did something naughty to my computer that some programs don’t want to play along with. I have tried to search the web to see if others might have problems after Vista SP1 but I haven’t seen any such signs.

MordreadCP – I am assuming you have fully checked your computer for any viruses or spyware?
In my case I did a complete check for those, defragmented the HD after I uninstalled a whole bunch of stuff I didn’t need.
You may also want to check what services you are running on your machine and turn off some of the security stuff. You may also need to set your router to DMZ your IP through so you can rule that out.
Which video/sound drivers are you using? The ones I have found that worked the best were from guru3d.com, you might want to specifically look for others with your card on the aoc forums (which are open now, so this thread will probably get a lot less traffic)
One other thing I did in vista was to turn off all the ‘ultimate’ features, the fluff, animations and transparency etc. Set it to “performance” settings in the CP. Just try to slim it all down, kill all processes you don’t need running.. Then you can at least start narrowing down what it might be.

Yes, I have checked all those things. That is what bugs me the most. I’m not a total newbie when it comes to computers, I work with them daily, selling them. So I know a lot of things to try out when something doesn’t work. But this just has me totally stumped

I also am stumped and I’ve been trouble shooting computers for 10+ years, so don’t feel to bad. If it’s completely locking up but only in one program, common sense usually tells you it’s something in that program. My only other though was a bad area in upper memory but you already swapped out your old memory for the 2gb of new sticks to test that, completely taking out the previous 4gb, right?

If disabling the sound card didn’t do the trick, then it probably isn’t a problem with the card or a sound driver. Video driver is the other most common cause, if new driver doesn’t do it, you could try an older version or a beta driver. If that isn’t it, I’d have to agree that something in Vista may have gotten hosed when you did SP1, but I would have thought you’d see that in more than just Age of Conan. If you have the time and energy and are desperate enough to get it working, you could try reinstalling your OS.

And on a side note, if you have the cash and go with the OS rebuild, I’d invest in a 64 bit version OS since you already have the extra ram. May as well take advantage of it since you have it, it’s sitting idle now. That’s if you have the cash flow to afford the new OS, I know I don’t lol.

Hehe no, sadly I don’t either.. A update though.. Today I was bored and installed Star Wars : Empire At War again, thinking I would at least destroy the Empire if I couldn’t romp around in AoC. But, as I started the game, it froze at the music started in the intro. This has not happend before and it leads me to belive that perhaps Vista SP1 and my sound card don’t really play nice together. At least not in some instances. I have played other games and they have worked. At least I’m hoping it’s just a problem with sound drivers, although disabling my sound card has not stopped my computer from locking up. Now I just need to find a way to fix this problem. So, if anyone knows a good way to fix a RealTek sound card problem, feel free to let me know

If you are disabling the soundcard in the BIOS and the PC is still locking up, then it’s not sound. Just muting is a different story, but if it’s turned off completely then it’s not the problem. If it were the problem, sound cards are cheap.

Unfortunately I don’t think you can uninstall SP1, may want to do the OS reload to try it. Good thing about a fresh OS is you know you have all the possible problem drivers replaced and a clean registry.

Now you have me wanting to go play some Empire at War!

I tried removing SP1 (it can be done).. I thought it fixed the problem, I was able to get into the menu of EaW and I also managed to watch most, if not all, of the intro movie of AoC. But then my computer froze again. So I don’t think SP1 has anything to do with my computer problems. I really don’t want to do a clean install, but it looks more and more like I might have to..

Just for kicks may want to run a stress test on your hardware. If it’s locking up only in certain scenarios it’s probably a software problem but I like being thorough before you do something like an OS reinstall. It’s such a pain.

Yes, I agree. Can you recommend a good stress test ?

It’s a free trial, but try this one. Tests everything. Don’t worry about doing loopback tests on com ports or anything, just concentrate on CPU, HDD, video, etc.

http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Benchmarks/BurnInTest-Professional.shtml

I tried the stress test, didn’t find any problems. I then tried downloading the new 3DMark benchmark trial. It crashed. So, it doens’t seem to be a hardware problem, it is a driver somewhere. Darn computers!

I spent countless hours trying to figure out this issue, I WAS running Vista and could never even get to the login screen. Found out my AGP motherboard driver was not Vista compatible and they weren’t planning on making one anytime soon. I went back to XP, clean install current ATi drivers and made it past login. Now it seems to freeze at the start of a boat scene. I’m about ready to give up on my want to play this game. Thought I would post in case any of my experience may help.

Hmmm. That boat scene is the beginning of the character select screen. I’ll have to look up on AoC forums to see if there is still a trend of people locking up. There was one a few days ago, I thought they released a fix in the most recent patch though.

Hi Blackwings, I have scoured the web trying to find some answers to this AoC issue and have to say your comments by far are the most helpful I’ve seen (time to call Funcom and get on payroll?). Anyway, I have the black screen problem as well but with a few twists. I ran Aoc with out any issues for about a week. then changed something in ingame settings and crashed the game and now black screen. I tried most all of the fixes I have seen to no avail. Twist 1: when I tried to uninstall Aoc it wouldn’t. It says I am missing a file and stops. Tried doing it manually and removed any trace I could find of Aoc but still get the previously installed version notice at new install screen. I even tried restoring my computer to the day before this all happened. No dice. Twist 2: I don’t even get “the mountain scene” if I leave the screen up long enough it turns white with multi-colored changing pixels. I do hear the music and have tried entering log in info and pw but nothing happens. I even had a friend log on my account on his rig and reset game to default. again, no dice. I am running vista home 64 bit(sp1) with a intel E8400 duo and Palit/nvidia 8800gts w/1gig video ram. 4 gig ram w/Asus p5N-D MB. On board sound. All I can add is that I am reduced to sitting in a stuper and staring at my $90.00 Aoc ce paper weight and wondering if there is someway to dispute the charges on my credit card heheh. Any comments would be helpful thanks!

Okay, my first question would be where are we now as far as game files? Are you still without any trace of the game or have you managed to at least get the game files back with the restore?

If you have the game files back with the restore I would first run the SimpleConfig Verify/Repair feature and set the graphics to windowed. If that doesn’t allow you in at least it may repair the game enough to uninstall?

Your friend logging in and changing the graphics settings on his rig won’t help I’m afraid. Those settings are stored locally on your machine so they will only be changed on his PC. Your graphics settings should be stored in your Prefs folder (noted above where to find it). If you don’t know what you changed when you started having the problem, I would backup your current prefs somewhere, then download the ones I have available in the bottom of the main post to try, they are set to minimum graphics settings since my rig is no where near yours. Hope this helps!

[...] help from people experiencing problems with the black screen issue in Age of Conan in response to my post on the issue.  But now I’ve also been getting a lot of complaints of people freezing or [...]

When i changed the Prefs_2 from 1 to 0 When shall i save it?

When you change the shaders setting in prefs 2 from 1 to 0, save it as “All Files” type if using notepad or some other text editor, or save as “Prefs_2.xml”. If saving by file name instead of type, make sure to include the quotes AND the file extension.

CPU
Minimum: Pentium 4/Athlon XP or better
You Have: 2 processors running – Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU T5200 @ 1.60GHz PASS
CPU Speed
Minimum: 3 GHz
You Have: 1.60 GHz Performance Rated at 3.11 GHz PASS
System RAM
Minimum: 1 GB
You Have: 1021 MB PASS
Operating System
Minimum: Windows XP/Vista
You Have: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium Edition, 32-bit (Build 6000) PASS
Video Card
Minimum: 128 MB DirectX 9.0c Graphics Card with Shader 2.0 support (NVIDIA GeForce 6800+ / ATI Radeon 9800+)
You Have: NVIDIA GeForce Go 7600 (GeForce Go 7600) PASS
Video Card Features – Minimum attributes of your Video Card Video RAM: Required – 128 MB , You have – 256 MB
Video Card 3D Acceleration: Required – Yes , You have – Yes
Video HW Transform & Lighting: Required – Yes , You have – Yes
Vertex Shader Ver.: Required – 2.0 , You have – 3.0
Pixel Shader Ver.: Required – 2.0 , You have – 3.0

Video Card Driver Version (DirectX)
Your driver version number is: 7.15.10.9815 FYI: Your video card driver version is provided for your information, but it is not part of this analysis. But proper video card driver versions are important to the proper operation of your product.
Sound Card
Minimum: Yes
You Have: Intern højttaler/hovedtelefon ( PASS
Sound Card Driver Version
Your driver version number is: 6.0 FYI: Your sound card driver version is provided for your information, but it is not part of this analysis. But proper sound card driver versions are important to the proper operation of your product.
Free Disk Space
Minimum: 30 GB
You Have: 73.0 GB PASS
DVD
Minimum: Quad-speed (4x) DVD-ROM drive
You Have: HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-4084N ATA Device PASS, but the Speed could NOT be analyzed.

the website http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/referrer/srtest can test your system to see if you meet the requirement of the chosen game (theres a large list of games to test) And I got the same results as my cousin. We both has the minimum requirements for AoC .. Still, as I write he is playing it and I’m not. ATM I’m reinstalling it to see if it helps (I doubt it will) My problem is, when I enter the game its all black through the intros and stuff, doesn’t really matter though, then it’s laggs a bit when i write my login info and it does too when choosing server. Then when I try to create a new char it loads and when the slaves on the ship intro, or whatever it is, appears it laggs like crap, some of the objects isn’t there, it keeps switching from it and the loading screen from before and i’m unable to create a char SO ANNOYING I WANNA PLAY ! please help asap !

Okay, first thing I would try is once you get into the login screen, click settings in the lower right. Go to visual settings and select overall quality as low. See if that helps straighten it out, if not:

1. Uninstall AoC
2. Run driver sweeper to remove all traces of Nvidia VIDEO drivers (not chipset drivers)

http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=1655

3. Install latest Nvidia video drivers for your card
4. Reinstall AoC

5. And this is important! Stop back by if it’s successful or if you find another fix. Your tips help countless others get in the game.

Update time.. I have reinstalled Windows. I have tired AoC without any Windows updates at all and it’s running. I will now slowly try to install the usual windows updates and also install my Razer keyboard and mouse. As a clean slate I have used an old Logitech mouse and a Fujitsu keyboard with only standard windows drivers. I have also not updated my GeForce 8800, I am running old drivers. Anyway, I will update later and let you know if any of my installments will stop the game from running.

Great info Mordread, thanks for the update on the status and glad you made it in.

Blackwings, thank you for the prompt reply, though mine was not quite as timely as yours. Since my rig is fairly new and after hours of cleaning drivers and installing, uninstalling and reinstalling. I decided to wipe it all and start fresh. new windows install and new drivers and programs install. Whew, not what I would recommend if avoidable. But, it works fine now. The only thing I can add is that the Nvidia driver seemed to be my problem. I have tried both AoC and Nvidia support and have received no answers from either. Not a big surprise. I thank you again for the effort you guys put forth in this issue for everyone and I’ll let you know if I hear anything from either “support” groups.

Good stuff nvrenuf, glad to have another one in the game! Thanks for coming by and providing more insight to the problems, beleive me this is still happening to hundreds or thousands of others with all the views I get on this thread.

Your posting your success story will no doubt help other gamers get in and play. Thanks!

I updated Vista with SP1 and I installed the latest Nvidia driver and my computer froze again. Then I uninstalled the gfx driver and installed version 169.25 and lo and behold.. AoC works perfectly. So, it’s a conflict with the new geforce drivers. I will try installing one or two of the older nvidia drivers to see how far up I get before my system freezes on me, but that will have to be tomorrow, I’m beat and am going to bed Still, it’s nice to finally have found the root of the problem!

Still getting about a hundred people a day viewing this post – this long after launch that’s troubling that AoC hasn’t had a fix for this. If you are still having trouble – post up and let’s see if we can help.

Ya, im having this problem also. post link to direct to dl to fix plz

Give us some more info on your system specs Gwith so we can see what’s causing your problem. Specifically, do you have an ATI or an NVidia graphics card? Do you have Windows XP or Windows Vista?

I am running windows xp prof
video card i believe is

ati x850 plat 256

vid card drivers are up to date

Easy enough. First, download this file:

http://gamezig.com/downloads/Prefs.zip

Second, UNZIP the file to C: => Documents and Settings => *USER* => Local Settings => Application Data => Funcom => Conan => Prefs.

If, when you get to your user folder and don’t see Local Settings, you’ll need to click on Tools > Folder Options > View and select Show Hidden Files and Folders and check again. If you get to the Conan folder and don’t see a Prefs folder, create one but you should already have one.

I just put those files in my folder and the game still shows up in a black screen

Which folder did you put them in? The prefs folder under users or the program files folder?

They are under that folder
C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Local Settings\Application Data\Funcom\Conan\Prefs

Okay, in that case the only thing left to do is uninstall the game and your video drivers, run the driver cleaner (in a comment somewhere up above) and reinstall the video drivers then the game.

okay i guess ill do that, ill be back in 1 week and ill let u know how it went… its a shame it had to go this far.

hey blackwings, near the beginning of this forum there was a post by a guy named spankdheiney, where he was saying that everytime he started the client, the patcher screen would briefly flash up, and then minimize. he kinda disapearred and i was wondering if u have heard anything else about this. i am having the same issue, and ive uninstalled and reinstalled about 5 times to no avail, and aoctechsupport is completely useless. do u have any ideas what i can do? (i have tried right clicking to restore and that wont work) pls pls pls, any input would be greatly appreciated

Hrmm…if you right clicked in the task manager, under the applications tab to maximize and it didn’t do the trick, the only other thing off the top of my head is in the same place, right click and select ‘bring to front’. I’ll work on my install at home to try to reproduce your issue if that doesn’t do it.

i cant bring it to front either, do u think it might have something to do with th fact that i used the software once already on my laptop? it works fine on the laptop, although i do get an error on both computers talking about hte universe being a live universe, and having an invalid patch key. i dont know what else to do.

[Scratches Head] … Don’t think having it previously installed on the laptop is going to effect this kind of problem. This is probably a mix of bad coding by the AoC folks and some kind of problem unique to the desktop machine. I’ll be home in just a few hours to be able to try to reproduce the problem. I don’t have an installation of AoC in my office or I’d try it here.

Stay tuned bro – we’ll get you in there.

i really appreciate the help

Okay, I wasn’t able to reproduce the problem but I did find other people around the net with the same issue. Apparently for some, it’s a resolution issue though they aren’t clear if it’s desktop or game resolution that is the problem. So I would try changing both.

Personally for me, I had both in game and desktop set to the same resolution for performance. I would try setting your desktop to it’s minimum resolution and the try it, then the same with the game and try again. Not sure what else to try at this point.

Are you getting any errors besides the updater blinking away at all?

ok, ill try that, th only other errors it says are “universe is live universe” “invalid patch key” and “invalid client hash”, i think, im not sure because this message only flashes very briefly and i cant bring it up manually. although it does this on the laptop before it starts the game and it works on that

oh i love u so much, changing the reslotuion fixed the problem, thanks for all this help, funcom really should be paying u something

Oh it would be nice lol – we can only hope with all the cash they are raking in they can afford some real tech support. In the meantime I’ll always be here to help.

Hi, all.

Maybe someone can help me here… I run Vista 32-bit, and 9800 GX2 card. When i hit the “play” button, the game(and machine!) crashes.

Have tried the prefs-fix, and also tried an older driver for the 9800 card… nothing works. Theres gotta be someone else out there with the same problem?? How do i fix this? No help with Nvidia or Funcom support, ether..

When trying the older drivers – did you try the driver cleaner program from guru3d before reinstalling the video drivers?

http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=1655

Have you uninstalled and reinstalled AoC also? Just trying to get a feel for what you’ve tried. Were you in the beta?

Thanks for the quick response!

No, havent tried the cleaner. Have the latest driver, should i remove it and run the cleaner?

Have not uninstalled it, either. Is that enough to fix the problem? Not in the Beta..

gonna try the cleaner and come back to you. Thanks

Try the cleaner – sometimes you have to run it several times – possibly even in safe mode. Make sure to remove all mention of Nvidia drivers related to the video card but NOT the chipset drivers for the motherboard.

Reinstalling AoC may be a good try for a fix too.

Hi again.

No luck. Tried the cleaner + reinstall. I got a little further(first commercial), before everything crashes.

Seems i have to give up Conan.
I suspect it got something to do with the Nvidia controlpanel…? Tried the “prefs” thing, to.. no change. Searched everywhere, but cant find anyone with 9800 GX2, that has the same problem. ARG!

would like to know if this is a Vistaproblem or a Nvidiaproblem…

Bought a overclocked card.. could that be the problem?

It’s possible I suppose… but if it was overclocked properly it should still be fairly stable.

Ok, I am having this same issue. I am running Vista 64 bit, with two GTX 9800 geforce cards. Not in SLI mode. Previously I had an Asus N5-T Deluxe mobo 780sli. I just bought the machine. I had severe problems with the mobo, because apparently SLI 700 series had major problems. I had installed AoC when I had that Mobo. It worked but the computer had an issue with locking up every 20 minutes of gameplay. I sent the computer back to cyberpower because I was having so much trouble with the the system crashing. I upgraded to a Asus Formula Styker II hoping that a different mobo would help, this is before I found out the problems with SLI 700 series. Well in the mean time the 700 series issue was fixed with a special fix from nvidia. so when I got the computer back with a fresh bios on a new mobo, the computer runs great, hasn’t locked up yet. Only problem is i am getting the weird transparent wavey video on after hitting play. Then I get to the mountain screen. I’ve even tried updating the prefs file but that wouldn’t work because I have model shader 3.0 which is what the game wants. WTF?

Okay, I would guess that yours is not a shader problem at all. I wouldn’t worry much about the prefs. Yours sounds like it’s going to be the driver issue, given the different mobo’s and the nvidia chipsets.

You’ll want to first uninstall AoC, I know that sucks. But after that, before you reinstall, remove all your video drivers, just to knock out all possibilities at once to save time in the long run.

Before you reinstall the drivers for the video, run the driver cleaner here:

http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=1655

Remove all mention of Nvidia VIDEO drivers, if you have Nvidia chipset drivers on your new mobo be careful not to remove those as well. Run the cleaner more than once, including in safe mode to make sure the drivers are completely cleaned off.

Then reinstall the latest Nvidia video card drivers available. Last, reinstall and patch AoC. That should do the trick brother.

Anyone still here?

anyway, I’ve got the black screen problem, I’ve played the game, then for some reason i looked for a driver update, and i got one, installed and started the game, when i was in the character menu, i saw that i could change the settings there, so I’ve changed something and bang!! it goes black, and never again i could play the game, I’m noob on this so i don’t know what to do, I’m using vista 32 with a nvidia gforce 9600 gt. pls anyone help

I’ve got a slightly different problem. I’m able to change settings and even log in, but at the character selection screen and when I log in I can’t see my character. There is nothing where the terrain or character is supposed to be except black. I don’t know what is causing this, any suggestions?

What worked for me, I renamed the pref file, to 1pref then restarted the game and it worked fine. I guess it just made a new one with the right settings..

bah. nver mind.. just set it back to dx9. still dosn’t work in dx10

Thank you very much:) I had no idea how the hell to fix that thing:P

Hi, if ur having problems finding the win 7 file you can find it in the following directory: C:\Ageofconan\data\gui\default I found my mainprefs in here and that could be the cause of the prefs being wrong.