Green Rectangle Cursor on Black Screen Startup error

[baronaatista]

first off i'd just like to say i'm a complete newb here, never posted on these forums, and while i've been using mods for a couple years, and have done a couple different STEP installs, i'm very much a layman with this whole thing - i can use TESVEdit only because of these guides and the amazing videos from Michael of GamerPoets.  So please forgive my ignorance if i'm doing or saying anything stupid.

 

just finished a new setup of F&LNV - have no other mods installed whatsoever, though i didn't include the entire guide.  Specifically skipped weapons of the new millenia, all of the "new lands" and new quest mods, other than someguy series, also didn't include willow.  there might be a couple others i skipped - certainly not anything dependent on anything else that was skipped.

 

when i try to run the game through MO/4Glauncher, i get this black screen and my cursor is a fairly large green rectangle.  nothing else happens.  i can easily just alt tab out and close the program, no freezing my computer or anything.  

 

one time as i was messing around, I got an error message that said something about not being able to find steam_api.dll or something?  i checked and its there... did a little research and it was suggested this is a STEAM error, due to me having the game installed on my C drive in the program files(x86) folder? i just don't have another SSD, and haven't had issues with that in the past, despite the constant warnings on these and other guides.  it was suggested though that might be solved by running as administrator... ran MO as admin, same thing... then tried running just the 4Gig Launcher outside of MO, as administrator, and it pulls up the startup screen, but there is no text - i'm guessing because its not loading my mods, which are replacing the UI.  pretty sure i also tried to set admin privileges to the entire FNV folder, to no avail.

 

is this a STEAM issue?  are there solutions that don't involve me purchasing a second SSD (not an issue cost wise, just a hassle), and completely uninstalling STEAM and all my games (not THAT huge an issue - i only play TES and Fallout, and atm only Morrowind, Skyrim, FNV and FO4.... oh and Pillars of Eternity) as well as my mod setups?

[AyleidRuin]

Welcome to the STEP Community Baronaatista.  I hope you enjoy your stay :)

 

This sounds like a UAC issue. For having the SteamApps under \Program Files(x86)\Steam

I would suggest disabling your Windows UAC under the Control Panal->User Accounts and Search "UAC".

Or you can check out this guide below for a diferent solution.

 

https://wiki.step-project.com/Guide:Skyrim_Installation =under "Security Settings".

[baronaatista]

Forgot to mention that, UAC is indeed disabled... Seems like I just have tobite the bullet

[MonoAccipiter]

When the game boots to the start menu and there's no text it's almost always a patch or mod referring to a deleted record (like a gun using an ammo type that was removed or something similar), which sounds really strange since you're launching it outside of MO (and I assume you haven't installed any other mods). Perhaps try verifying the integrity of the game cache with Steam. If that doesn't work make a backup of the MO folder, delete everything, reinstall the game and add the MO folder again, making sure to run the game at different intervals (once without anything added, once with just the 4GB loader, once from MO etc) until you get to the point where it doesn't work. Then I can much more easily be able to help you.

 

I'm afraid I haven't really experience what you're describing so anything else before you went through that check would be guesswork, but at least you won't need to redownload any of the mods (probably some of the tools, depending on where you installed them, but you can back them up as well) if you backup your MO folder.

[baronaatista]

verified game cache, found 7 missing files, re-aquired, launched MO as administrator and ran 4GLauncher - was able to access the menu, and get into the game, but none of my mods seem to be installed, and could look around but not move.  currently making a copy of MO folder on my desktop, going to delete everything and reinstall.  really appreciate the assistance.

[baronaatista]

okay, so did everything you said, ran at various conditions - at this point, the game itself starts and even plays fine.  if i open MO, i can start the game using the launcher, through the .exe, 4G Loader, or NVSE, and play it, fine... seemingly without any mods though, other than ENB.  if i run MO as administrator though and use 4G, it gives me that black screen with green rectangle cursor - does display a steam community message in lower right, and ENB messages in top left.

also, and i did forget to mention this before - any executable i start through MO gives me the "steam is required to be running" message, when steam is already running.

[GrantSP]

okay, so did everything you said, ran at various conditions - at this point, the game itself starts and even plays fine.  if i open MO, i can start the game using the launcher, through the .exe, 4G Loader, or NVSE, and play it, fine... seemingly without any mods though, other than ENB.  if i run MO as administrator though and use 4G, it gives me that black screen with green rectangle cursor - does display a steam community message in lower right, and ENB messages in top left.

also, and i did forget to mention this before - any executable i start through MO gives me the "steam is required to be running" message, when steam is already running.

Still sounds like UAC issues to me. If your administator account is running Steam and you start MO as a user it won't see the executable running in memory.

Not sure what you mean by: "seemingly without any mods though". If you can start MO the profiles you created, and hence those mods installed will be available. Unless you have changed the path settings and the mods are now located somewhere other than where the profile is expecting them.

[baronaatista]

not sure I understand it myself.  I can start the game through the proper executables - so long as I have NOT started MO to run as administrator, and it runs fine, but does not seem to load any of my mods.  if I run MO as administrator, it no longer launches the FNV Launcher first (indicating that it IS running mods - or at least attempting to) but I get that black screen, and my cursor becomes a green rectangle (well, color is debatable, I'm partially colorblind).

 

as a side note, I have a full install of Skyrim STEP 2.2.9.2, installed in the same fashion, and it gives me the "try to start STEAM" message when I run my .exe's, just the same, but the game itself runs like a dream.

 

*oh yeah, specifically, I have not touched my path settings for MO... earlier in troubleshooting, I did copy the entire MO folder to my desktop, deleted everything, reinstalled the game, moved the MO folder back into game folder, reinstalled the .exe's and so on - not sure if there are any extra steps there I should have taken to make MO work properly with the game?

Edited February 18, 2016 by baronaatista

[baronaatista]

hey, just checking in - tried a couple different things, thought maybe I accidentally (couldn't remember specific instructions) included FNVLODGen in the bashed patch, when I wasn't supposed to (was I?), so rebuilt bashed patch making sure to exclude that, and tried activating/deactivating any mods with more complicated installs, to no avail.

I've decided to surrender - I'm not buying a new SSD and setting everything up proper just yet though.  Gonna wipe everything, and re-do the entire guide from scratch, being even more meticulous this time.  I was really careful on the last go-through to dot every i and cross every t - but I did forget to playtest after some of the more complex installs, which I will do this time.  If I run into the same problem or get any new information I'll touch back here.

[baronaatista]

Alright so started clean. Began the guide, being super careful, and all was going well. Was able to launch 4GB without "-laa" argument. Then I installed ENB and ran into some troubles.

So first, for me at least, it was necessary to place d3d9.dll in the 4GB folder.

Second, it seems like running MO as administrator, if the FNV Launcher is opened, it resets the .ini's, both in MO and out, as well as all other launcher settings.

It also seems like running MO as admin causes MO to skip the 4GB loader/NVSE I was eventually able to get everything working after resetting the .ini's and simply running MO as it is.

[MonoAccipiter]

You shouldn't need to run MO as an admin, that will most likely just lead to unwanted issues.

[baronaatista]

okay so now I am trying to generate bash tags for the merged fixes.esp, and running into this error:

 

exception number  : 1

exception class   : EFOpenError

exception message : Cannot open file "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Fallout New Vegas\FNVEdit\Edit Scripts\mteFunctions.pas". The system cannot find the file specified.

[MonoAccipiter]

Try downloading it from here and putting it in the corresponding folder.

[baronaatista]

truly, you are the man, and this community is ridiculously amazing.  i hope i can contribute to it eventually.