Thread: video driver crashes, game doesn't, black screen

Originally Posted by Boraxxe

Try a download here. It looks like you have a more current date than what this site has available, but this is where I downloaded a driver that works.

http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us

The date you show (10/8/2010) I cannot find at the above site.

thank you for trying to help

i had that update before i got the october one (its on Nvidia's site too)

just in case.. i did try it. i still crashed.

Update:
5 days after driver update and still no Black Screen.
Looks like I found a solution.
I hope you all do.
I will check back in another week.

I just bought a new graphics card, bumped up all the settings, and now get the BSOD. I'm trying to turn down the settings but it's crashing before I can even select lower options. I have the latest drivers (dated 9/15/10) and it's an ATI Radeon 5670.

Originally Posted by SunJian

I just bought a new graphics card, bumped up all the settings, and now get the BSOD. I'm trying to turn down the settings but it's crashing before I can even select lower options. I have the latest drivers (dated 9/15/10) and it's an ATI Radeon 5670.

You probably know this, but just in case: you can adjust graphics on the character selector screen before you actually get in-game. There is an OPTIONS button.

I had this problem also, after messing with the settings. Through process of elimination I found out my problem was changing the default resolution to my native resolution. After changing it back to where lotro wanted me to have it at (which is only one notch down from native, so no biggie for me) I have had no problems since. Hope this helps somebody else with the same problem.

BTW: I am using Nvidia 260.63 beta driver and the game works fine for me.

what do you mean by "native" resolution.

"However, because of the way LCDs work and their fixed pixel composition, LCD monitors can only provide optimal image quality at their maximum supported resolution, otherwise known as the Native Resolution. At other resolutions, the image can appear more blurry and exhibit glitches." Source TweakGuide.com

My native is 1280 x 800 and lotro sets mine to 1280 x 768 so no big loss for me. At least I don't get the black screen anymore.

My resolution is 1980 x 1080 and that's what lotro is set to, still BSODs. Turning off Dx10 keeps the BSOD from requiring a restart but still BSODs.

Hmm, apparently Vista's automatic update has let me down and I don't have Service Pack 1 or 2 installed. After searching through the update log it seems it attempted to install SP1 but it failed, and never retried the installation. I'm wondering if this has something to do with my BSOD problems.

@Boraxxe Well, I rarely get the BSOD "out of the blue" but I do every now and then. That happens when I change position rapidly (like falling down a hill or rapidly moving my mouse and moving at the same time). If I can avoid those, then I usually only get the BSOD when transitioning to the "full/open environment".

@Zerkin I guess I don't understand "lotro sets mine to 1280x768". I have lotro set to my native lcd resolution (1920x1200 in windowed mode) but still get the BSOD.
And I should say that that is the only selection lotro provides that matches my lcd widescreen aspect ration (1.6).

And this Fall Festival has really brought the "into the full/open environment transition" issue to maddening implications. I can no longer complete the Inn League quest where you visit the shire pubs since I can only visit about 2 or 3 before the BSOD and the same goes for the new Haunted Burrow quests. I can only finish about one or two of those per session.


Has anyone tried reporting this issue to lotro support?

Well when I first installed lotro before I changed the settings to where I liked it I looked at the settings that lotro had before changing them. I changed everything to what I liked and that is when I started getting my issues. Went through the stuff I changed and it was changing my resolution from what lotr had it 1280 x 768 to my native 1280 x 800, so I changed it back to 768 and now all is good.

Not saying it will work for anybody else just saying it worked for me. I am just stating how I fixed my issue which is similar to what the OP has/had.

I have discovered the problem (at least on my pc), this is what was happening to me:

"The issue is not specific to one brand or model of graphic cards. The ATIKMDAG error message occurs when the Timeout Detection and Recovery (TDR) feature available in Windows Vista® and Windows® 7 detects that the GPU is no longer responding. It then disables the GPU and reinitializes it with the Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM)..."

Then I got to this point:

"Run hardware at default settings:
Over clocking system hardware can cause a reduction in system performance, graphic corruption or damage to the hardware.

Set all hardware to its default settings."

I had over-clocked my card before I started experiencing the BSOD. Restoring the default settings solved the problem. I can now run my graphics on good settings and still no BSOD. I haven't tried turning DX10 back on, but I'll try that later. I hope this solution helps the rest of you.

Here's the page I got the info from:

http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles...rmessages.aspx

Similar issues here, CTD loading into high pop areas - http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.p...k-screen/page4

I tried to play again today and it crashed after 15 minutes.
This game is a waste of hard disk space.

@Zerkin Ah, OK, I get what you are saying now. I changed my settings to the way I liked them long ago so I don't remember what lotro had set initially.

@SunJian LOL, tonight, I came across a Microsoft link about the TDR feature:
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device...m_timeout.mspx

I was able to run with no BSOD's tonight with around 8 "into the full world transitions" (I was even able to complete the Inn League "visit all the pubs" quest again - made Kindred rep so don't need to do it anymore lol).

Previously, I had just been trying to tweak a setting at a time but I finally said screw it and put my overall lotro graphic setting back to Medium and switched back to DX9.

The one very obvious difference that made is that transitioning back into the full world now took no longer than transitioning into an interior location (e.g. an Inn). I'm talking 1 or 2 seconds vs around 15 seconds before the change to settings.

So it seems to me the BSOD is caused by my graphic card taking too long to load up the full world environment with all the bells and whistles turned on. I was going to investigate what the timeout setting is set to by default and if it can be increased somehow.

But I may also need to investigate the over-clock scenario. I have not over-clocked my card (I don't even know how) but it is possible it came over-clocked from the manufacturer. It is a "high performance" laptop.

Wow, guess I should have read that MS link before I posted. It explains the BSOD technically and answered my questions.

Based on the article information, looks like LotRO Devs would have to fix this issue.
And changing the timeout value would be a Windows Logo Program violation so I'm not going there lol.

Guess I'll just have to play at lower graphics settings for now.

Wow, guess this has been solved or peeps have given up.
Peace out folks!!

No the issue is still around. (Free Player - 1 week playing)

I get them very often and been looking for a solution.

My system:
E8200 Intel
4Gb RAM
GTX460 Video - Latest Driver
Windows XP SP3
1600x900 Video settings (DX9)

Game crashes in both Full Screen and Window Mode.
Have changed Graphics and Audio settings to hopefully help reduce the crashes.
So far I am running at medium settings and still crashes after a couple hours.
Will try some of the ideas here that I have not done yet.

Well, after much playing around with settings I can say my particular issue was 100% solved by switching from DX10 back to DX9.

So, looks like Turbine did something with DX10 for the F2P rollout that makes it no longer compatible with my graphics card.

Wonder what they changed/added/tweaked?

I see there was a DirectX End-User Runtimes update back in June 2010. Looks like it's for DX9 and I can't tell if I've already got the update but, what the heck. Think I'm gonna download it and see what happens.

EDIT 12/02/2010 11:27 PM - Tried the update but it said I already had something equivalent or better.
So, guess no DX10 for now.

Same problem here. 2- GTX 275's in SLI mode. 3.0gHz quad core CPU, 8G RAM
I've also determined that LOTRO does NOT like SLI.
With SLI disabled, I've tried every switch in the video and advanced video panel. The game still runs at 60+ FPS at 1920 resolution with everything enabled, Antialiasing at 8X. Game will stutter slightly and screen will black during skirmish events (lots of effects going on at once), and still at 30+ FPS; or by using various on-screen items, such as clicking on a loot box or the chat window. On my end the game is still playable, as this only happens once a day or so. But it always picks the WORST time to happen, ask my skirmish buddies.

This isn't NVidia driver related, I think. I've gone through several driver updates to no avail. Other system drivers are at their newest versions, I'm kinda anal about all that.
I'm running Win 7, 64 bit version. Everything else is running fine, other games on the PC run fine with SLI enabled (or disabled, for that matter).

I wish someone (Turbine) would figure this out, I've exhausted all means of doing so myself. I've been working on this problem for our 'kin now for a month or so.

Maegilthalion of Tenacity Folk

I have this issue myself. I am running an Nvidia GTZ 285 2G card. I run the video settings on default/high/low anything. I still have the problems. I reinstalled on a fresh client trying every single driver possible. I even went to extreme lenghts of (NOT KIDDING) trying a driver and if it crashed I reinstalled Windows. Yes Windows and Lotro. I can safely say it is not a driver problem. Something with this game is messing up people's game and you (Turbine) need to fix this issue. Heck i'll even send you my computer and pay you to figure it out.

The only possible fix I can think of this is a sign of the video card getting ready to tank out. If so I would glady buy a new one to stop this from happening.

My problem was resolved. DX 10 was the problem. I switched to DX9 and no problems. Wonder if DX11 is bad also?

I've been having this problem for months now. I'll try going back to DX9 today to see if that helps any. I don't think the 'black screen' has anything to do with loading an area... I will get it randomly at any location... sometimes even when I'm just standing around.

Running win7 64bit with a nvidea gtx 295 1.8g card.

Edit: 5/30/11 12:20pm PST... Changed settings from dx10 to dx9 from character select then exited and relaunched. Black screen occurred within seconds of my character loading into game... not even enough time to move. Haven't had this issue occur outside of LOTRO. Why do I pay for this service again?

Edit: 5/30/11 12:40pm PST... Tried a different character. Black screened again but this time after 10mins. More frequent black-screens than with dx10 it seems like. I have already tried most everything else posted in this thread. Drivers are up to date. All windows updates are installed. Tried hitting Enter and then typing /exit once blackscreen occurred but it didn't do anything for me. Had to shut it down manually like always. Next I'll try windowed mode to see if I can see an error message.

Edit: 5/30/11 1:00pm PST... Windowed mode didn't help. The black screen is the whole screen... had to manually power off system. I'm at the end of my patience with this issue. I've tried everything I can think of with my limited repair knowledge. This issue only occurs with LOTRO and I'm beginning to feel I should just cut ties with the game so this problem stops pissing me off. Going to try going back to dx10 :/ don't know what else to do.

I believe I have found a way to resolve this issue, go to your nvidia control panel, under Set PhysX configuration, change from auto to either GeoForce or cpu havent had a crash yet

I have been playing on my Gateway P6860FX for 3 yrs with very few problems. Played yesterday, upgraded to RoI and now geeting the crashes. Sometimes I can play for 10 minutes other times it crashes at log in. Any resolution of this issue?

I've been having this issue for months too. I'm running an ATI Radeon 5870, Windows 7 64bit SP1, 6GB RAM, Intel i7 750 processor. I believe I've tried just about everything:

Lowered graphics settings
Lowered settings in the in game troubleshooting section
Tried Directx 9, 10, 11
Tried various display driver versions
Tried changing the computer power settings
Tried using cooling tools to keep temperatures down

Not sure what to do next. I can run every other game I own on the highest settings without issue. Either way, looks like it may be time to say goodbye to Lotro, it's been a fun 4 years...

Tonight I had the blue screen 2 times, when going into a building/zoning. The computer ends up rebooting. Here is a link to another thread on here where someone else is having the same issue as me:

http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.p...-playing-LOTRO


Surprises me that the development team has yet to fix this bad bug. My computer is more than capable running any other game on the market now at nearly full settings but it crashes on this game.

Got alsmost same issue - http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.p...sktop-crashing. Still it didnt solved for couple of months. Also found that on NVidia forums - http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=214643.

The blue screen issue appears to have happened just recently. If you look at that link I posted youll see that a long time player just started having the issue. Probably something they did in a patch or maybe the new NVIDIA driver isnt working right with the game, who knows. I hope the devs are looking at this now because its a game breaker for me. SUcks too, I just spent $20 or so on a pack for the game. Cant play a game like this that keeps crashing.

Not sure how well this will work or how I will like it:

Greetings ,



Thank you for contacting Turbine Technical Support. Please perform the steps outlined below:

Click on the Windows "Start" button.
Then click on My Documents or Documents.
Double-click the The Lord of the Rings Online folder.
Within there locate and open the userpreferences.ini file.
Within that file under the sectioned titled [Display] make the following changes:

Change AllowFakeFullScreen=True to False
Change SyncToRefresh=False to True
Verify that the number following Resolution= matches your current Windows desktop resolution.
Change Antialiasing= to Disabled if set to 2x/4x etc. (e.g. Antialiasing=Disabled )
Change AllowDesktopCompositing=False to True
Under the section titled [Render] change the GraphicsCore option to D3D9 (i.e. GraphicsCore=D3D9 ).

Under the section titled [Troubleshooting] change the MaximumFrameRate option to 57 (i.e. MaximumFrameRate=57 ).

Exit the file and choose yes when prompted to save changes prior to launching the game to test these settings.

Some additional settings changes can be made from the in game Options menu:

Under "ADV Graphics" disable the "Player Mesh Combining" setting.
Lower the "Player Crowd Quality Control" slider to 0.
Under Audio change to the "Software on" setting and ensure that "Use EAX" is disabled.
Under the Troubleshoot section lower the Engine Speed to Medium.
Thank you,
The Turbine Technical Support Team


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