Black Screen of Death

[cliometrician]

While you are in your SOWGB.ini file, scroll through your mods list, and if there are any mods that look like this...

ModName48=Mods\Bugles and Flags v10
ModActive48=1

Turn the 1 into a 0 so it looks like this.

ModName48=Mods\Bugles and Flags v10
ModActive48=0

Start your game. Those mods will no longer be activated.

SOWgb.ini can be found in <drive letter>:\NorbSoftDev\Scourge of War - Gettysburg\Work\ directory.


The advice given above was to someone who I think has the same problem I just encountered. Game has been working fine, no new mods added, but now when I try to open the game the screen just turns black and I hear a ping. When I hit escape there is a message: SOWG is no longer working.

Now, if my problem is the same, then I should follow the advice above, but I'm afraid I can't find the SOWgb.ini file. When I open my Work folder I don't see anything that says "directory," nor anything labeled SOWgb.ini. Ok, I must be missing something obvious, and would much appreciate someone helping me out. Thank you.

[norb]

If you do not have extensions showing in your folders, then you would just see SOWGB without the extension. You may have multiple of these, so just edit them until you find which one is the ini file.

[cliometrician]

Norb, I found the file, changed the mods from 1 to 0, but I still get the black screen, with the ping sound--still can't get to the menu.

Should I just reinstall everything??

[Davinci]

Hey, did anything change on your Computer, such as the screen resolution ?

Also - What happens if you just move the Mods folder from your SOWGB directory. Don't delete it, just move it, and then try to start the game.

davinci

[cliometrician]

Nothing changed on my computer. I played an MP game last night, as usual, then a couple of hours later I tried a Solitaire game and got the black screen. I'll move the Mods folder now.

[cliometrician]

I cut the Mods folder and pasted it to my Desktop and I get the same black screen. If Mods is not the problem, what else could it be?

[Jim]

A bit of a long shot but edit your /Work/sowgb.ini file and search for a line:

Screen Res=7

The number may well be different. It should be in the [initialization] section.

Change the number to 1 and save the file. This will reset your screen resolution to 1024 x 768 IIRC.

-Jim

[Davinci]

I cut the Mods folder and pasted it to my Desktop and I get the same black screen. If Mods is not the problem, what else could it be?

After you follow Jim's advice, do you have anything error's in the SOWGB text file, it is also listed in the Work-Folder?

davinci

[cliometrician]

Trying both suggestions now.

[cliometrician]

I changed to Screen Res = 1, but still get the black screen and ping with error message.

Davinci: I opened the only files in the Work folder labeled Text Document, but saw nothing labeled "error." Not sure exactly if that's what you mean.

Any suggestions?