3 different computers, all black screen/minidump crash, game unplayable

Stardock epic fail

from Sins Forums

I played Sins a while ago and had fun (not sure how many years ago) so I purchased the Trinity pack for $9.99 on sale and was looking forward to a few hours of fun.  Instead I am terribly disappointed in Stardock.  I have installed this game on THREE different machines and NONE of them can get past the black screen at start/minidump crash. It's ridiculous.  I updated to latest video drivers on all three, disabled intro movies, and get nothing but a black screen crash.  Not even a loading screen, not even a title screen.  This is not just an older nVidia driver problem.

1. Custom build Core i7, ATI HD 6700, 12gb RAM running Windows 7

2. Almost new Asus X401 laptop with integrated video - was running Win7, upgraded to Win8 - 4gb RAM

3. Dell XPS 400 desktop - a few years old but powerful for its time - 3gb RAM, fresh install of XP Pro, nVidia 8800GT

THREE different machines, I can't play this game on a single one.  Epic fail.  I like supporting game developers and I won't be asking for a refund of the measly $10, but I am quite disappointed in Stardock and have now lowered my expectations for all future Stardock products - very unprofessional.

technical
8,513 views 22 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

Agreed I have run into the same problem is there a way to patch this up or re we out of ten bucks?

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

Same problem here.  I do want a refund.  I see no reason to support a company that delivers a defective product. 

If I'm unable to play the game over the holiday weekend, chances are I will never play it and Stardock does not deserve the $10.  Only wish I could get the time I already spent trying to get the game to work back since it is worth more than $10 to me. 

 

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Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top

Check your install. Mine only installed 64 megs. I havent found any solution yet but it seems to be the installer.

Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top

I am sorry to hear about your trouble.

 

The Black screen bug plagues a certain video card configuration. You should contact the Stardock Support.

 

It is highly unlikely that this bug does happen on 3 machines.... I recommend you redownload the setup.

 

What video card driver version are you using on all 3 machines? Support will likely need that information.

 

 

Leaving this - for you of course terrible - issue aside, Sins  is rather well written game. Most certainly well above the standard of several other game companies.... who are multi billion dollar heavy.

 

It runs very stable and crashes are very rare under most circumstances.

 

The game does run fine under

 

XP

Vista

Win 7

 

Although I dont know if Trinity does support Win 8.

Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top

I hope that this is an anomaly for Stardock and I do remember playing a very well-done Sins game a while ago, so I will give them the benefit of the doubt here.  I think you are on to something about the installer - my installation is 64mb on the XP and the Win7 machines (I'm near those atm), which is obviously too small.  It is amusing/annoying that the 1.1gb or so installer results in a 64mb installation.  XP, Win7, Win8 - ATI, nVidia, Intel graphics - all fail. I did freshly download the installer on all machines, so the stock installer they're offering up may be the problem.  

Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top

I bit the bullet and purchased the $20 Rebellion game and it works fine.  Conspiracy theorists would say this is deliberate to push you into buying the latest and greatest instead of the old game pack.  

Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top

Just bought Rebellion as well and found out they need 1 business day to process my order. No wonder people pirate games with a clear conscience.

Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting ypylypchenko, reply 8
Just bought Rebellion as well and found out they need 1 business day to process my order. No wonder people pirate games with a clear conscience.
End of ypylypchenko's quote

If you bought it from steam you should be able to download it right away. If not they'll be e-mailing you a CD key more than likely.

Reply #10 from Sins Forums Top

Same issue, rebellion works fine but the stardock download of trinity is an absolute bust.  I get a full installation so that is not an issue. I have a new ati radeon card, latest drivers, windows 7, and 6 hours of wasted time trying to get past the black screen.  This is such a prevalent issue I can't see why stardock is not all over this as it is a major reputation killer potentially and this ridiculous process they have setup and changed over and over for digital downloads, switching platforms, serial keys as being read as used, activation emails never making it to your email inbox and on and on I'm pretty well done almost.  

Reply #11 from Sins Forums Top

I actually just bought Rebellion today. All I get when I launch is the main menu doing a strobe effect, not to mention I can only see the top left corner of the menu in the bottom right portion of my screen. I'm hoping someone could give me either a solution or a refund.

Reply #12 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting valuevestor9110, reply 11
This is such a prevalent issue I can't see why stardock is not all over this as it is a major reputation killer potentially and this ridiculous process they have setup and changed over and over for digital downloads, switching platforms, serial keys as being read as used, activation emails never making it to your email inbox and on and on I'm pretty well done almost.
End of valuevestor9110's quote

I don't think its necessarily a prevalent issue. The real issue here is that I bet you anything Stardock support has not been working since Wednesday at the least because of the Thanksgiving Holiday in the US, yet Thanksgiving Sales have created a bunch of new customers, which is when support is needed the most. If it was a normal week I'm sure this thread would not be getting ignored.

Reply #13 from Sins Forums Top

I was wondering if the expansion would help.  I did not check the size of my install directory yet but the installer completed in less than a minute so I expect it is much less than 1GB as well- YEP, 64.8 MB on disk.  I understand that this has been known to be a symptom of a driver/video card conflict in the past but I think it is time to stop assuming that is the case here.  

I'm downloading Rebellion now myself.  In the end, I'd like to be able to try the game!

 

Reply #14 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting GoaFan77, reply 13
I don't think its necessarily a prevalent issue. The real issue here is that I bet you anything Stardock support has not been working since Wednesday at the least because of the Thanksgiving Holiday in the US, yet Thanksgiving Sales have created a bunch of new customers, which is when support is needed the most. If it was a normal week I'm sure this thread would not be getting ignored.
End of GoaFan77's quote

 

The game has been out for some time. there was no reason for that installer to be broken in the first place

Reply #15 from Sins Forums Top

The Installer is most definitely broken, for both Sins Trinity and Galactic Civilizations I: Ultimate Edition on Steam...

I'm not sure where the problem is (Steam?  SD?  Both?) both it is not just Trinity, it is multiple SD products through Steam....

For either game, the downloaded file is extremely small and clearly not the complete game assets...for Trinity, you get a minidump...for GCI, you get a steam error (corrupted files)...

Even if this is a problem with Steam, I think SD needs to get involved because it is multiple SD products...more importantly, it is making SD look really bad to new customers even if it is entirely Steam's fault...

Reply #17 from Sins Forums Top

I'm having the same issue, Launch game Black screen Mini Dump....  I havent changed anything and it played fine in the past but when it launched today its just not working.  Ive deleted and reinstalled, verified cache. n othing fixes it.

    X(

Reply #18 from Sins Forums Top

One thing that may help some of you is this:

 

  1. Close Steam
  2. Restart steam but do so by the "Run as an administrator method"
  3. Delete the local content for the problem game
  4. Reinstall
  5. Verify cache
  6. Play

 

This didn't work for GCI but it may work for Trinity...

Reply #19 from Stardock Forums Top

All one needs to do is go through the multiple threads the past year and see how prevalent the black screen bug is for so many folks and it boils down to the control through steam, stardock, impulse, to protect creative content which is poorly executed.  The irony here is that it may drive away more customers than anything else.

Reply #20 from Sins Forums Top

The installer is broken.  I imagine someone simply paid little attention to it since Rebellion is the latest and greatest.  It is very likely that the root cause of the issue is insufficient resources at Stardock.  

Reply #21 from Stardock Forums Top

Ran into the same issue as well.

Bought Trinity directly from Stardock when it was on sale a few weeks back.  Downloaded installer "SinsTrinity_setup-1.34.050.exe" from stardock.com, which is ~1.11GB.  The installed size is only ~64MB.

For kicks, installed my original Sins (non-Trinity) via GameStop, and that runs fine.  Comparing the directories, the Trinity installation is missing all of the sub-directories like AppData, Font, Galaxy, GameInfo, Mesh, etc.

Trouble ticket submitted.

Reply #22 from Sins Forums Top

Submitting a ticket to [email protected] will sort folks out who purchased direct. If you purchased via Steam or elsewhere, verifying your install files via Steam should fix things on incorrect install sizes.  If it doesn't, please contact Steam tech support.

For those with Trinity that do have correct installs, try running the game directly from its installation directory - Sins of a Solar Empire Diplomacy.exe and see if that works.