DDO launches to a small, black screen and hangs

[TavernTails]

All, I have been in IT longer than many of you have been alive (yeah, that long) and have been able to fix any and all DDO problems that my friends have brought to me over the past 18 years. But I finally found one that has me stumped. A guildee found himself unable to launch DDO sometime around the 66.0.2 update. After the sign-in screen, he selects a server and then... bam, black screen and locks up. If he waits for a long time (like 10+ minutes), he receives the "No Logon server available..." error. Here is what has been tried (the system is Windows 11 w/ NVidia RTX 2080 card)

• Rename the Dungeons and Dragons Online folder in Documents and restart.
• Uninstall/Reinstall DDO
• Completely remove NVIDIA drivers using DDU (which was just installed around the time of the issue) and reinstall an older driver
• Uninstall the game, reinstall with Steam
• Remove from Steam, and install on a different drive
• Remove ALL Dungeons and Dragons Online folders (including the one in APPDATA) and reinstall
• Reinstall DirectX 9.0c
• Tried 32-bit & 64-bit client
• Tried without DirectX 11 support at launch
• Checked permissions on the Documents\Dungeons and Dragons Online folder to ensure system and admins had full control
• Reviewed and tried (most) topics here: https://forums.ddo.com/index.php?th...-as-crowdsourced-by-many-players-advice.1666/

I confirmed that no other Windows patches or system updates occurred around this time. When DDO crashes, I see this error in the Windows application log:

The program dndclient.exe version 6600.52.2289.4004 stopped interacting with Windows and was closed. To see if more information about the problem is available, check the problem history in the Security and Maintenance control panel.

It worked without issue for years and years, so this one has me stumped. Any suggestions?
**UPDATE** My guildee disabled Malwarebytes...and it worked! But as others below report, he said it still fails about 1/2 the time. Odd, but I think we are on the right track.

 

[Aymerick]

Had the same thing : I had no problem launching the game since 2005. Turns out it was my anti-malware (specifically the real-time Malware Protection) that no longer allowed the dndclient64.exe to launch. Maybe try to launch it while deactivating whatever you have.

 

[TavernTails]

Had the same thing : I had no problem launching the game since 2005. Turns out it was my anti-malware (specifically the real-time Malware Protection) that no longer allowed the dndclient64.exe to launch. Maybe try to launch it while deactivating whatever you have.

Will try asap when he is available. If that's it, I will have to turn in my Troubleshooting 101 badge. I checked firewall, but I remember him saying he ran Malwarebytes. Grrr

 

[Br4d]

Just a peripheral note: I'm getting the black screen hang on exiting the client. Sometimes it responds to an alt-tab and exits the client and sometimes I need to force-quit.

This is very recent since Update 66 released.

One thing that has occurred to me is that my AV notified me that it was installing software to prevent coin-mining processes from running without my permission. This occurred directly after Update 66 although I have no reason to believe that the two events are related.

I've noticed in recent months that when I am running certain programs, including DDO, that the fans sometimes go into overdrive and become very loud. This loud action stopped after my AV installed the anti-mining component.

None of the above is meant to suggest that DDO is coin-mining in the background. It is likely that some other miner software got installed on my system and that my AV is now preventing that and that somehow the DDO shutdown process is in conflict with that process.

The other thing is that I now get a message when I launch DDO that DDO is using my microphone. I get this message on nothing else. I am assuming this is related to trouble-shooting the sound problems with Teal from IoD.

 

[rabidfox]

If you find a solution I'll add to the debug mega thread.

 

[Ragrude the Reclusive]

I'm also getting the black screen hangup > Logon Error: Logon Server is full
* Saturday was the first time I have tried to log in since Wed early morning before update

Repaired/reinstall from client didn't work.

DDO is allowed in my Win Defender settings. (Also made and exception rule to allow DDO folder)

Turned off WIN DEF> >> more data was installed from via client
- game eventually booted up Argo server.
shut Argo down > turned on WIN DEF > tried to log into Cannith > black screen hangup > Turned off WIN DEF > tried to log into Cannith > black screen hangup > Server full error > tried Ghall > same result and Server full error

 

[Endo]

Same issue, if I wait long enough it will finally load (about 50% of the time)

 

[TavernTails]

Update: after disabling Malwarebytes (but not messing with the Windows Defender) it works. BUT, only about 1/2 the time.

Thanks, Aymerick, for putting us on the right track. I will keep you posted if we find a permanent fix.

 

[TavernTails]

More data - the problem began happening to me last night. You can see it in the first part of my 3/11/24 stream on twitch.tv/taverntails. I was hung at a black screen (not small, but I think that is probably due to others resetting video as a troubleshooting attempt). I created a Windows firewall rule allowing all traffic from DDO (even though one was already in place) and disabled ALL detections in Malwarebytes.

It worked flawlessly after that.
To test, I reenabled all protection in MalwareBytes. Result: Black Screen
I added the dndlauncher.exe and dndclient.exe to the Malwarebytes exclusion list. Result: Black screen.
I excluded the entire Program Files\StandingStoneGames\Dungeons & Dragons Online folder. Result: Black Screen
While the system was "hung" at the black screen, I disabled ONLY malware protection in malwarebytes. The game immediately launched!

The only other thing on my computer that changed was a Nahimic audio driver update. Oddly, I know that this can break apps as well (there is a known issue with Microsoft Teams video and this driver), so I added DDO to the config's "blackapps.dat" which excludes programs from the audio enhancement features. Still, a black screen on launch.

Only disabling the malware protection of MalwareBytes allows DDO to run. I am running the latest version of Malwarebytes Premium (4.6.10). I will do more investigation. It does not appear to be a false detection, but an actual conflict... almost like a file lock somewhere else?

More experiments to come!