Black Launcher Screen

Good evening.

I'm going to be away for a few days next week so thought I would install ARR on my girlfriends laptop so i can play while she is at work.

However, This is what happens when I start the launcher.

Any help...?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...ps26f73cda.jpg

this happens to me too.... its irritating

Hit Ctrl F5 and you should get this:

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i2...us/FFmaint.png

Dude , I guess everyone will get such error.
So look at Maintenance/update section of the forum and you will have your answer why who have " black screen"

Thanks for the replies, however, as this was posted on the 15th, and I could still log in on my desktop I am certain that the maintenance had nothing to do with it.

So any more advice?

The launcher is basically just a wrapper around Internet Explorer (see http://frontier.ffxiv.com/arr_win/in...?rc_lang=en-us) - I guess if you're on a slower network and/or the launcher site is heavily loaded, you could get a blank black page like that.

Local security may also be blocking the connection, preventing the page from loading. If so, it may time out and disconnect after a short while. Might want to check the logs to see if the executables are getting blocked, or IP addresses starting with 124 or 199 are getting flagged and make exceptions for them. It also seems to depend heavily on browser technologies as well, so may want to make sure things like Flash and .Net are current as well.

No it's cause of the Maintence this is normal i got the same reply

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Wolfgoddesscheza

No it's cause of the Maintence this is normal i got the same reply

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That may well be the case now but at least when the issue was originally posted it wasnt!

OP do you have any other internet connection issues on the machine?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Will01

That may well be the case now but at least when the issue was originally posted it wasnt!

OP do you have any other internet connection issues on the machine?

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Thank you Will, you saved me pointing that out...

No, there are no other connection issues, tried it with firewall off and on but its still the black screen.

Did you turn Virus checking off during installation? I know it shouldn't make a difference BUT.:D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Gerak

Did you turn Virus checking off during installation? I know it shouldn't make a difference BUT.:D

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Yup, disabled AVG while installing :(

Don't make me go back to star trek online for these 4 days.... lol

We can't really do much troubleshooting at the servers are actually down at the mo.

However, when they come online, try accessing the link given previously in IE (not any other browser) and let us know what happens.

One thing to try is to install Wireshark or a similar tool and sniffing the network activity of the launcher.
It should make 2 HTTP connections - one to a server to check the version (to a URL including "win32" and the full launcher version string). That request will normally get error 204 ("no data") but include an HTTP header with the latest version.
The second is the link I posted earlier; it should get a response for that.

If you don't see any response coming in, ISP/network/firewall are prime suspects. If it gets an HTTP error, that error may give insight as to the cause (especially if a direct IE connection doesn't have an issue). If it gets no error, but the launcher still shows nothing, it's probably the launcher itself messing up (in which case, try renaming "C:\Users\<username>\Documents\My Games\FINAL FANTASY XIV - A Realm Reborn" so that the launcher doesn't start out using pre-existing settings).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Will01

We can't really do much troubleshooting at the servers are actually down at the mo.

However, when they come online, try accessing the link given previously in IE (not any other browser) and let us know what happens.

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Cool, will give that a go tomorrow when everything is back up and report back. Thanks.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Zastai

One thing to try is to install Wireshark or a similar tool and sniffing the network activity of the launcher.
It should make 2 HTTP connections - one to a server to check the version (to a URL including "win32" and the full launcher version string). That request will normally get error 204 ("no data") but include an HTTP header with the latest version.
The second is the link I posted earlier; it should get a response for that.

If you don't see any response coming in, ISP/network/firewall are prime suspects. If it gets an HTTP error, that error may give insight as to the cause (especially if a direct IE connection doesn't have an issue). If it gets no error, but the launcher still shows nothing, it's probably the launcher itself messing up (in which case, try renaming "C:\Users\<username>\Documents\My Games\FINAL FANTASY XIV - A Realm Reborn" so that the launcher doesn't start out using pre-existing settings).

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Just out of interest, before I try anything what should it be renamed to?

You can rename it to anything, just add "- copy" to the end or something, the reason for this is that if you do end up messing something up, you can always revert back again.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by notoriousgtt

Yup, disabled AVG while installing :(

Don't make me go back to star trek online for these 4 days.... lol

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hmm.. AVG... IDK if disabling it will truly take it off the suspect list. I once had a client that couldn't get in to the local Tech College's online school for almost a week while they kept trying different things. In spite of adding exceptions for the site and all, it just wouldn't let her sign in. On a whim, I uninstalled AVG and she got right in. So, something in there was getting in the way. Seen this happen with Avast from time to time after an update as well. Several times over the years it has knackered up Windows Update, requiring you to not only disable shields--but stop the Avast Service as well to get the updates to download/install properly. Recently, it was noted there was an issue with their firewall injecting micro-stuttering in not only XIV, but streaming apps as well.

Just saying, Your security software might still be a factor even if it's disabled. If you still have access to your license key and installer (unless you are on free version, not an issue)--might want to try an uninstall just to test. If a full uninstall is not an option, at least try stopping their services from running--may need to go into msconfig to set up a stripped down startup, as some services are hidden and cannot be stopped in the services.msc snap-in.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Will01

We can't really do much troubleshooting at the servers are actually down at the mo.

However, when they come online, try accessing the link given previously in IE (not any other browser) and let us know what happens.

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Opening the link in ie results in the same black screen as the launcher :(

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Will01

You can rename it to anything, just add "- copy" to the end or something, the reason for this is that if you do end up messing something up, you can always revert back again.

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Renaming has made no difference :(

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Zastai

One thing to try is to install Wireshark or a similar tool and sniffing the network activity of the launcher.
It should make 2 HTTP connections - one to a server to check the version (to a URL including "win32" and the full launcher version string). That request will normally get error 204 ("no data") but include an HTTP header with the latest version.
The second is the link I posted earlier; it should get a response for that.

If you don't see any response coming in, ISP/network/firewall are prime suspects. If it gets an HTTP error, that error may give insight as to the cause (especially if a direct IE connection doesn't have an issue). If it gets no error, but the launcher still shows nothing, it's probably the launcher itself messing up (in which case, try renaming "C:\Users\<username>\Documents\My Games\FINAL FANTASY XIV - A Realm Reborn" so that the launcher doesn't start out using pre-existing settings).

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Since i dont really know what im looking for this was a screenie of what Wireshark came up with...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...ps7c71d79d.png

It seems that there have not been any further posts about this concern being an ongoing issue. Because of this, we are considering it to be resolved. If this does continue to be a concern, please create another thread to further discuss resolutions or contact the Support Center at support.na.square-enix.com for assistance.

- Furlamseere