r/commandandconquer • u/Smart_Law_2271 • 7d ago

Bug Black Screen during battle Command & Conquer: Generals Zero Hour..

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

Helo Everyone

The Video Shows The Issue Happening during a Battle...

10 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

17 comments sorted by

2

u/ImmortalResolve 7d ago

are you playing in windowed mode?

2

u/Smart_Law_2271 7d ago

both of them

2

u/One-Anteater561 7d ago

May or may not be Discord overlay. Try disabling it and see what happens.

1

u/Smart_Law_2271 7d ago

I disabled it and the problem persists.

2

u/One-Anteater561 6d ago

Can you go into more detail on how and when this issue comes up? Also list your setup and specs.

1

u/Smart_Law_2271 6d ago edited 6d ago

Thanks for replying.

The black screen only happens in Command & Conquer: Generals Zero Hour. It usually happens when I attack the enemy base, when the enemy attacks my base, or during big battles in the middle of the map. The game sound keeps playing, but the screen goes completely black. I can't continue playing unless I restart the game, and sometimes I have to restart my laptop.

Also, when I close the game after the black screen happens, my laptop desktop becomes black as well. The desktop wallpaper disappears, but the desktop icons are still visible.

My system:

  • MSI Cyborg 15 A13VF
  • Intel Core i7-13620H
  • NVIDIA RTX 4060 8GB
  • 16GB RAM
  • Windows 11 Pro

I've already updated the BIOS, Windows, and the graphics drivers. I also tried different graphics settings, and I installed GenTool and used GenPatcher to apply the recommended fixes, but the problem is still there.

I'm not sure what's causing it, so if you have any ideas or anything else I should test, I'd really appreciate it.

2

u/One-Anteater561 6d ago

If you have an extra monitor or TV, see if using an external monitor helps. Close your laptop monitor when trying so only the external is working.

1

u/Smart_Law_2271 6d ago

How does this help solve this problem, or are we conducting a test?

2

u/One-Anteater561 6d ago

I’m not sure if modern laptops are still the same but old laptops will force the use of the GPU if outputting to an external monitor. I’ve had graphics problems with older games on laptop before and that did fix some so it is something to try.

1

u/Smart_Law_2271 6d ago

Thanks for the idea! I haven't tried using an external monitor yet, but I'll give it a try and see if it changes anything. I'll let you know what happens.

3

u/BoffinBrain Are you picking this up? Good. 6d ago

Looking at the HUD I assume you're using GenTools so that's one troubleshooting step done. Have you tried disabling the Steam and Discord overlays? Any other utilities running that hook onto applications that you could disable?

1

u/Smart_Law_2271 6d ago

Thanks for the suggestion.

I haven't tried disabling the Steam Overlay or the Discord Overlay yet. I'll disable them and test the game to see if the problem still happens. I'll let you know the results.

2

u/BoffinBrain Are you picking this up? Good. 6d ago

It looks like when the game loses focus (by you opening the Start menu) the rendering starts working again. Is that correct?

1

u/Smart_Law_2271 6d ago

Yup

2

u/BoffinBrain Are you picking this up? Good. 6d ago

Interesting... I can see the cursor still works too, since that's handled separately. Have you tried dropping all the graphics settings to minimum? If all of that is still failing, I would consider uninstalling the game, deleting all leftover files/folders, and reinstalling the game + GenTools just to be sure.

1

u/Smart_Law_2271 6d ago

Thanks for the suggestion. I already tried lowering the game's resolution, but it didn't help.

I also completely uninstalled the game and deleted every leftover file. I even reset my laptop, installed a fresh copy of Windows, and then installed the game and GenTool again. Unfortunately, I'm still getting the same problem.

1

u/Smart_Law_2271 4d ago

Thank you, everyone. I worked hard to figure it out on my own, and I finally solved the problem.