Black screen on launch

Mariusds

Hi, I've tried all sorts of solution. From the basics of restarting steam and my computer to deleting everything that has to do with the Walking Dead before re-installing it. Either way I just get a black screen when the game launches. Just black - nothing, and I have to CMD+alt+escape my way out. The game worked throughout episode 1-3. Was in the middle of episode 4 it suddenly would not start up again.

Processor 2.4 GHz Intel Core i7
Memory 4 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
Graphics AMD Radeon HD 6770M 1024 MB
Software Mac OS X Lion 10.7.5 (11G63)

DjNDB

You have multiple active prefs.prop files.
Please try renaming the prefs.prop in the folder below to prefs.prop.bak to deactivate it.

/Users/mariusdalseg/Library/Application Support/Steam/SteamApps/common/The Walking Dead/TheWalkingDead.app/Contents/Resources/Pack/WalkingDead103/

Mariusds

Still nothing.

DjNDB

When exactly do you get the black screen?
Do you get to see the menu and load a certain save slot?

Mariusds

Ok - once again I made sure that every single Walking Dead File was deleted from my Mac. Nothing left. Downloaded the game and installed it over again. And I still get the black screen on launch.

Edit: The game does not open at all. All I get is a black screen.

DjNDB

That's strange. Please run the support tool again, so i can see the current status.

Mariusds

Here

DjNDB

The savegame folder is still there. It is possible that something in there is broken.
You can test that by renaming/moving the TheWalkingDead folder from
/Users/mariusdalseg/Library/Application Support/Telltale Games/TheWalkingDead

Mariusds

Still doesn't work, but there pops up a new folder with a new preps.prof file everytime I try to open the game. The new Walking Dead folder (application support/telltalegames/walkingdead) also contains a SyncFs folder with three empty folders within it (see attached screenshots).

I just tried installing the game directly on my external hard drive, but with no luck. I've also disabled the Steam Cloud Synchronisation to make sure it doesn't download files that might have been corrupted earlier.

I am seriously lost. Any help?

DjNDB

It is normal, that the savegame folder gets recreated the way you noticed.

I am not sure why the game doesn't start anymore.

I have noticed though, that you have two graphics chips:

AMD Radeon HD 6770M
Intel HD Graphics 3000

Is there a chance that the game tries to run on the Intel graphics and fails?

Mariusds

I don't know, maybe.

How can I check that and if it is so - How do I force the game to run on the AMD Radeon?

Edit: Still freaking nothing. The Mac is now telling me that it is using the AMD card, but I still get a black screen after pressing play in Steam.

DjNDB

I'm not a Mac expert, but i think it should work as described here.

Mariusds

Tried that solution just now. Didn't work.

DjNDB

What happens if you press Command + F during the black screen?

Mariusds

Nothing. I get the usual "dmph" sound you get when your mac is telling you that this action does not work.

DjNDB

I don't see what causes it.
One last thing you can try is creating a second user account on your Mac and try starting the game there.

Mariusds

Well that worked, but now I've encountered another problem. The game seems to have forgotten my choices from e1 and e2 when I'm starting episode 3.

DjNDB

Mariusds wrote: »

Well that worked, but now I've encountered another problem. The game seems to have forgotten my choices from e1 and e2 when I'm starting episode 3.

That's good.

The new account has it's own savegame folder, therefore it can't access your previous saves.

At least now we know it's something in your old account that stops the game from working.

Back in your original account, you could try moving the .plist files which start with "com.telltalegames" or similar from
/Users/mariusdalseg/Library/Preferences
to your desktop to make them unavailable for the game.

Mariusds

Ok. I'll see if it helps. However I started the game all over on the new account. So I played through both episode 1 and 2, before starting on episode 3. That was when I discovered that one person who clearly should not be alive still was going strong, while another one was gone. My choice concerning Lily's dad was also changed.

DjNDB

Mariusds wrote: »

Ok. I'll see if it helps. However I started the game all over on the new account. So I played through both episode 1 and 2, before starting on episode 3. That was when I discovered that one person who clearly should not be alive still was going strong, while another one was gone. My choice concerning Lily's dad was also changed.

If you run the support tool on the new account i can look if there's a multiple prefs.prop issue again.

Mariusds

I went back into the game to see if I could figure out what exactly is the problem, and it seems to me that the game is not saving whatever is happening from the last checkpoint in Episode 2.

If I leave the game after completing episode 2, the episode will no longer be completed next time I launch the game. I will have to walk from the farm and find the car with the supplies all over again.

I've also (logically) tried to continue to episode three directly afterwards, but it does not help. When I go back to the menu I will no longer be able to see the stats from the second episode, only the continue button that wants me to do the last part over again.

DjNDB

Please rename the prefs.prop from
/Users/olavdalsegsaetre/Library/Application Support/telltale games/thewalkingdead/
to prefs.prop.old to deactivate it.

Then move the prefs.prop from
/Users/olavdalsegsaetre/Library/Application Support/Steam/SteamApps/common/The Walking Dead/TheWalkingDead.app/Contents/Resources/Pack/WalkingDead102/
to
/Users/olavdalsegsaetre/Library/Application Support/telltale games/thewalkingdead/

Eas7wood

Hi dear Sir,

I have the same problem now since 3 days. Played until Episode 4 and on the next startup the game just does not load up.
Just a black screen. When pressing any button I get a "dumph" sound.
CMD + F does not work.
Relocating my savegamefolder does not work.
Relocating the .plist files from /preferences does not work.

However, if I create a new account it works and starts right up. I even get my savegames. But loading a seperate account each time is not an option.

I copied the files (Application Support/Telltale... and Application Support/Steam/...) from the *working* account to my *not working account, but that does not work either.
Deleting the savegamefolder from Application Support/Telltale.. does not work.

Please refer to my attached files for further information :-)

Thank you,
Ben

DjNDB

Eas7wood wrote: »

However, if I create a new account it works and starts right up. I even get my savegames. But loading a seperate account each time is not an option.

My Mac knowledge is quite limited.
If it works on a new Mac account, but not on the original, I would try to find what is different concerning TWD. You seem to have done that already though by removing the .plist files and the savegame folder.
I am not aware of any other configuration files that could cause problems, but i can't rule that out entirely.

It seems though, that steam downloads the game for each user account individually, so it's worth trying to verify the game cache files or even uninstall/reinstall TWD.

Eas7wood

DjNDB wrote: »

I am not aware of any other configuration files that could cause problems, but i can't rule that out entirely.

I am running a cleaning tool called "CleanMyMac" to get rid of all TWD files on the harddrive, lets see what happens.


Edit: Holy Jesus it worked, CMM detected 5 files connected to the TWD application. After "cleaning" them i redownloaded TWD via Steam and the game did start.