RPGM MV Black Screens On All Menu's

[Ambarian86]

Okay so I'm something like five day's into using the 20 day RPGM MV trial and I've been getting along just dandy putting together maps and the like, at least I was till an hour ago when my menu's went black. Thinking was just a bug, maybe with the memory or resources or something, I saved, closed and restarted the program. Menu's pop up black right away. Creating a new project then closing and opening the new one brings the menu's back for all of 7 or 8 click's of any menu when they all go black again.


As far as I can tell, everything is working beyond my my ability to see what the menu's are meant to contain. And it's ALL the menu's, even those I click in the database. I've posted an image so you see what I see with my menu's.


Anyone know how to fix this?


Thanks.

 

[Andar]

that is a really strange error, especially since it always comes back after a few clicks.


Can you check if it might be time-related instead of the number of clicks? which means opening the new project, confirming that the menues are normal once, then waiting 10 minutes without using the editor (perhaps even away from computer) and then checking if the second click still works or not?


If it is time-based, it might be an anti-virus or something similiar blocking part of your access after it scanned the program, then you need to find out which background program causes this. Or it could be a program that write-protects your projects after it detects them - where do you create your new projects?

 

[Ambarian86]

that is a really strange error, especially since it always comes back after a few clicks.


Can you check if it might be time-related instead of the number of clicks? which means opening the new project, confirming that the menues are normal once, then waiting 10 minutes without using the editor (perhaps even away from computer) and then checking if the second click still works or not?


If it is time-based, it might be an anti-virus or something similiar blocking part of your access after it scanned the program, then you need to find out which background program causes this. Or it could be a program that write-protects your projects after it detects them - where do you create your new projects?

I tried that. Loaded fresh, new project, checked menu showed correctly (it did) and left it for 20 minutes. Checked it and found no change in the menu, all showed fine. Clicked it a few times and bang, black screens back. I tested it with the clicks, it only takes 5 or 6 for it to go black. I also changed my save path from C disk to Z disk just in case. Issue remains the same.


Edit- Just uninstalled the program, manually deleted the left over files and reinstalled it fresh in hopes of a fix. Again, black screens persist.

 

[Shaz]

What if you completely shut down your PC, leave it for a while, then start it up again.


Did you have any windows update, or update any other software, between the time it was working properly and when this issue started happening?

 

[Ambarian86]

What if you completely shut down your PC, leave it for a while, then start it up again.


Did you have any windows update, or update any other software, between the time it was working properly and when this issue started happening?

I'll try leaving the pc down for a few mins but rebooting did nothing, and yeah, I did have to shut down earlier today for a forced update to windows, Update for Windows 10 Version 1607 for x64-based Systems (KB3199209) but can't seem to find any info on what this latest updates purpose is.

 

[Shaz]

was the problem happening before that update?  If it only started afterwards, and shutting down and leaving for a while (I'd go 15-20 minutes) doesn't fix the issue, you might try a system restore prior to the update point.

 

[Ambarian86]

was the problem happening before that update?  If it only started afterwards, and shutting down and leaving for a while (I'd go 15-20 minutes) doesn't fix the issue, you might try a system restore prior to the update point.

I didn't notice it till earlier today after the update but I can't swear blind it wasn't an issue before the update either since I hadn't ran it for about 4 hours before the update. I did however uninstall the windows update, but it did nothing. I'm still black screened like before.


Edit - So did a system restore to 3 day's ago in hopes of solving this issue. Waste of time, issue persists through a system restore.

 

[Andar]

unfortunately I'm not as familiar with Win10 as with previous versions, so I don't know the resource limits - can you check if there is any chance of either the harddisc space or the memory running low? And If the registry might have reached its limit?


In previous windows versions, when the number of installed programs got large (meaning a large registry as well) and the RAM was limited, Windows simply stopped loading the rest of the registry when it got to a certain RAM-limit, causing some configuration data to be missing. If you then installed more programs, with each addition to the registry more data was pushed behind, until even some drivers wouldn't be loaded - which was when users finally detected the problem.


The fastest way to check for this was usually the size of the windows folder, but the critical size went up with each Windows version - in Win95, you could say that windows broke at >400 MB folder, on Win98 it was around 1 GB, and the numbers go up from there.

 

[Ambarian86]

unfortunately I'm not as familiar with Win10 as with previous versions, so I don't know the resource limits - can you check if there is any chance of either the harddisc space or the memory running low? And If the registry might have reached its limit?


In previous windows versions, when the number of installed programs got large (meaning a large registry as well) and the RAM was limited, Windows simply stopped loading the rest of the registry when it got to a certain RAM-limit, causing some configuration data to be missing. If you then installed more programs, with each addition to the registry more data was pushed behind, until even some drivers wouldn't be loaded - which was when users finally detected the problem.


The fastest way to check for this was usually the size of the windows folder, but the critical size went up with each Windows version - in Win95, you could say that windows broke at >400 MB folder, on Win98 it was around 1 GB, and the numbers go up from there.

Wouldn't say its an issue with RAM or space or anything since I'm running 16 gig's of RAM with a 250gb SSD primary and one TB secondary HDD both of which aren't even close to capacity. This is a mixed rig designed for gaming and graphics design/editing, it's not even half a year old so shouldn't have any issues with something like the RPG M MV program. Plus I regularly run cleaning and maintenance programs to keep everything smooth.

 

[Andar]

Plus I regularly run cleaning and maintenance programs to keep everything smooth.

Unfortunately, it is technically impossible for cleaning programs (especially registry cleaning programs) to do their job.


Registry cleaner are supposed to remove entries from the registry that are no longer needed.


But how does the cleaner know if an entry is no longer needed, especially if the program for that entry is a less known one? (like the RPG Makers after all)


No registry cleaner I know of gets a 1GB-update each week to check all new programs in all new versions that have been placed on the market in that time. They can only contain the data for the often-used programs of large companies.


But the big programs have their own deinstallers and are useually adequate for that job, so if you only use the programs from well-known AAA companies, you don't need cleaning programs at all.


So what should it do if it comes across a registry entry from a program it doesn't know? It can't check if the program is still there if it doesn't know which program it is.


If it let's an unknown entry remain in the registry, it doesn't do its job - so no need to use it.


if it erases entries from unidentified programs, it runs the risk of damaging these program if they still need their data - so you're better off without the cleaner.


So no matter how you look at registry cleaners - either they don't do their job and you don't need them, or they run the risk of damaging your computer, and you better don't use them. I have yet to see a single case of where those programs are really useful...

 

[Ambarian86]

Unfortunately, it is technically impossible for cleaning programs (especially registry cleaning programs) to do their job.


Registry cleaner are supposed to remove entries from the registry that are no longer needed.


But how does the cleaner know if an entry is no longer needed, especially if the program for that entry is a less known one? (like the RPG Makers after all)


No registry cleaner I know of gets a 1GB-update each week to check all new programs in all new versions that have been placed on the market in that time. They can only contain the data for the often-used programs of large companies.


But the big programs have their own deinstallers and are useually adequate for that job, so if you only use the programs from well-known AAA companies, you don't need cleaning programs at all.


So what should it do if it comes across a registry entry from a program it doesn't know? It can't check if the program is still there if it doesn't know which program it is.


If it let's an unknown entry remain in the registry, it doesn't do its job - so no need to use it.


if it erases entries from unidentified programs, it runs the risk of damaging these program if they still need their data - so you're better off without the cleaner.


So no matter how you look at registry cleaners - either they don't do their job and you don't need them, or they run the risk of damaging your computer, and you better don't use them. I have yet to see a single case of where those programs are really useful...

Okay, so how does this help me with fixing the black boxes exactly? Because I've tried everything I can think of, and that has been suggested here.


Edit - It seems I don't even need to have a project open for this. Just running the move along the File, Edit, Mode etc menu's when first started up, before creating or opening a project will cause the black boxes to form.


I've lost 2 days of my trial because of this. Should I be getting onto the company itself, because this craps making me less likely to fork out the money to buy this, which was my original intent.

 

[Andar]

no one else has that specific problem, which means it has to be caused by something on your computer. And since you're the first to ever report such a problem, we can only guess what cause it could be and provide you with our guesses.


In this case, the description was meant to tell you why it would be a good idea to disable the background function of those cleaning and optimizing programs and then reinstall and test if the menues stay with those programs disabled.

 

[Ambarian86]

no one else has that specific problem, which means it has to be caused by something on your computer. And since you're the first to ever report such a problem, we can only guess what cause it could be and provide you with our guesses.


In this case, the description was meant to tell you why it would be a good idea to disable the background function of those cleaning and optimizing programs and then reinstall and test if the menues stay with those programs disabled.

The program itself worked for days without issue. The cleaning programs don't run in the background, they run when I run them, and get closed fully when I don't need them, as verified through the task manager. I attempted to run MV program in safe mode to verify certain things myself, but sadly it won't run at all in safe mode, which makes matters more complicated.


Checking my system restores, which as mentioned failed to correct the issue despite backdating my PC by 3 days, states that aside from the windows update that I removed, both via restore and manual removal after it reinstalled, the only program that changed in the days between a working copy of the RPGMMV and the bugged copy, is my AVG Protection, which updated itself. Nothing else changed. And I ran the program with said AV turned fully off.


So I'm at a total loss.

 

[Andar]

At the moment, so am I - it has to be something on your computer, but I simply don't know enough about that and never encountered such a problem myself.


You can contact the official support with a ticket from the main site (just places zeroes in the field for the serial number) if they have heard about this. Unfortunately they don't work on weekends, unless you're extremely lucky you won't get an answer until next week (Degica is a small company, they have only a limited number of employees - forum moderationis done by volunteers).

 

[Ambarian86]

At the moment, so am I - it has to be something on your computer, but I simply don't know enough about that and never encountered such a problem myself.


You can contact the official support with a ticket from the main site (just places zeroes in the field for the serial number) if they have heard about this. Unfortunately they don't work on weekends, unless you're extremely lucky you won't get an answer until next week (Degica is a small company, they have only a limited number of employees - forum moderationis done by volunteers).

I would have thought the same, that its a issue with my PC, but I've ran it into bare bones, diagnostic mode etc, but nothing changes it. BUT I have discovered/noted two knew things. When I move the mouse down the black box's, when I get to where the last menu line would be, a small piece of what I would identify as a highlighted menu appears at the top of the black box, as shown in Img1. It's like something have moved the menu out of bounds or something. This is visible on the last line of EVERY blacked out menu.


Next of all, I full screened when the menu's were black. As img2 shows, everything beyond the basic frame goes black AND everything is displaced, i.e the menu bars etc no longer align to where it says on the screen.

 

[Andar]

do you have any software for desktop enhancements, or redirections? Like multi-desktop or multi-monitor functions?


And have you tried to reinstall with the full 1.3.2 installer that came out yesterday? That will automatically turn into your remaining trial if you don't give it a key.


And no, the 1.3.2 doesn't adress such a problem, but since it changes some code internally it might move the conflict with whatever causes this on your computer to a different area.

 

[Ambarian86]

do you have any software for desktop enhancements, or redirections? Like multi-desktop or multi-monitor functions?


And have you tried to reinstall with the full 1.3.2 installer that came out yesterday? That will automatically turn into your remaining trial if you don't give it a key.


And no, the 1.3.2 doesn't adress such a problem, but since it changes some code internally it might move the conflict with whatever causes this on your computer to a different area.

Nope, no enhancement software. I have two PC's but each is a single monitor system with it's own keyboard and mouse,  the only software like redirection etc I use is 'Mouse without Borders' that allows me to transfer my current mouse and keyboard functionality to my secondary computer, so I can use the secondary system for web browsing etc when using the primary for things I don't want to tab out of, like games, films etc etc. But said program isn't running.


I'll download the new installer and see if that does anything. Can't make the situation worse I guess.


Update - Okay so whatever the heck was wrong with my install of 1.3.0, installing the 1.3.2 update has effectively corrected it, so I can only assume something was messed up in the code somehow. Let's hope this doesn't reoccur. Though I have to admit, I'm still damn curious what was wrong with my 1.3.0 install that caused the issues.