If you have full screen error problem black screen
 

If you start the game and see a black screen with a gold mouse cursor, then you most likely have a second (or third) monitor plugged in.

Remove all but your primary monitor's DVI/HDMI/VGA cable.

Now it should work properly on your main monitor. If it doesn't work right away, restart the game.

But...
 

What if I don't want to always have to remove it or disable it? Anyone have a fix?

Huh, is this a new problem?

Setting Windowedmode=true fixed this for me, FYI. You want this anyway if you have more than 1 monitor.

It's not a new problem, however there's multiple causes for the black screen.

A) For some people it's because the default resolution in EQ ini file is too low or too out of whack with their monitor's native resolution. I.e. 2560x1600 30"
B) Another reason is that it defaults to windowed mode, and alt-enter does not work because of a graphics tool (like ATT) running in the background.
C) Another reason is as Pringles mentioned, the Windowedmode setting in the EQ ini file. Most people set it to FALSE - otherwise when clicking near edge of the screen, it drops you back to windowed mode(thinks you're clicking on the Windows desktop)
D) And the reason I put, was because of multiple monitors - something people would probably over look.


So reason four isn't as common, but hopefully helps someone...Growlers for example.

@Growlers not that I know of. But you could search on Windows XP/7 forums to see if anyone knows how to force the computer to not recognize a second monitor.

So how do I fix it?
 

Hollywood, could you explain how to fix each of the possible issues above?

I've been playing the game fine for a few months, then one day screen goes black while I'm running along. Sound is up, game is running, just black screen. Not disconnected from game. Ever since then, and half dozen loggins, the game will let me get to character loading sometimes, sometimes a few seconds into the game, but always goes to black screen. I play with the EQ window smaller than my desk top, but I've always played like that with not problems.

I don't know where the ini file is or how to search for it.

I don't know how to adjust the screen size/mode (especially if you're talking about adjusting it in game, since the screen is black).

I'd appreciate any technical help. (I have the game set to run as admin XP sp1 and all that stuff; and as I said, game worked fine up until two weeks ago.)

Thanks in advance.

Fixed It
 

Sorry, but I managed to figure out how to adjust the screen size/mode ("A" in Hollywood's post below), from another post. If you don't want to search forums for "black screen" here's how you adjust screen mode in "EQ ini" file...

Problem: EQ window is black, but still have mouse cursor, sound, and you're not link dead.

**Your in-game Options/Display/Video Modes may be set to a different standard than the eqclient file in your C-drive (or wherever you have the game on your hard drive).

Fix: (Assuming you cannot adjust Options/Display/Video Mode in-game because the screen is black)... use Windows Explorer to go to the location of EQ Emulator's eqclient file. For me it was C:\Program Files (x86)\Sony\EverQuest\

Double Left click eqclient file to open it in Notepad

Use tool bar at top to Edit-->Find... type in "[VideoMode]" without the quotes.

You should see something like this:

WindowedWidth=1280
WindowedHeight=720
Width=1280
Height=720
FullscreenBitsPerPixel=32
FullscreenRefreshRate=0

To fix - I changed WindowedWith=800...WindowedHeight=600...Width=800. ..Height=600.

Re-start computer, then restart game. It fixed my problem.

Error was, in the game I had been messing around with the display settings in (Alt+O) Options/Display/Video Modes. I had changed my screen to 800x600.

After the game was up and running (meaning, the screen wasn't black), I've gone into Alt+O Options/Display/Video Modes and changed my Video Mode back to 1280 x 720 like I prefer. I did not change the eqclient file to reflect this, so I hope there are no conflicts again later.

If you're an energy saver and have settings to turn off the display after inactivity, that causes me a black screen...so I'm no longer an energy saver :p

Other things like opening task manager (on Vista at least) can also cause the black screen - game is still running okay but you've suddenly got worse than human vision :D

Un Fixed
 

Well, everything was working fine. I got up did some laundry and food stuff, came back and screen was black.

So, I made sure the eqclient file read the same window dimensions as I had established in the Options window in the game (1280 x 720). Rebooted, started, killed a mob to make sure game worked. Sat down, walked away for about 30 seconds - screen black!

Ugh!

I have been having such a rough time with this error. I can get it to work sometimes. Next day it is back to not working again and I spend hours trying to fix it.

I am editing the EQ ini file correctly, the same exact way every time. It just does not work sometimes. Sometimes it does work? I did not know about the multiple monitors thing I just unplugged it and it still does not work correctly.

I can reinstall EQ, run the game once or twice. Then it reverts to crashing at start up. Its so strange. I am posting a log of my INI file.

Defaults]
Sound=TRUE
TextureQuality=1
VertexShaders=0
20PixelShaders=0
14PixelShaders=0
1xPixelShaders=0
MultiPassLighting=1
UseLitBatches=TRUE
InspectOthers=TRUE
Log=FALSE
AttackOnAssist=TRUE
ShowInspectMessage=TRUE
LockWindows=FALSE
InvWinLabels=TRUE
HidePlayerWin=FALSE
HidePartyWin=FALSE
HideTargetWin=FALSE
HideSpellsWin=FALSE
HideBuffWin=FALSE
HideHotboxWin=FALSE
HideChatWin=FALSE
HideMainMenuWin=FALSE
ChatLineSpacing=0
ShowDynamicLights=TRUE
ChatFontSize=3
ShowNamesLevel=4
VideoMode=0
MousePointerSpeedMod=0
ShowSpellEffects=1
CombatMusic=1
MixAhead=8
ServerFilter=0
TrackPlayers=TRUE
TrackSortType=NORMAL
TrackFilterType=0
DefaultLanguage=0
ShowGrass=TRUE
UseArrowCamera=FALSE
NetStat=FALSE
DoProperTinting=FALSE
Sound44k=0
SpeakerType=0
UISkin=Default
AtlasSkin=Default
LoadSocialAnimations=TRUE
UseLuclinVahShirMale=TRUE
UseLuclinVahShirFemale=TRUE
UseLuclinElementals=TRUE
LoadArmor17=FALSE
LoadArmor18=FALSE
LoadArmor19=FALSE
LoadArmor20=FALSE
LoadArmor21=FALSE
LoadArmor22=FALSE
LoadArmor23=FALSE
DefaultChannel=8
LastCharSel=0
SystemInfoDelay=0
WindowedModeXOffset=-1916
WindowedModeYOffset=-15
WindowedMode=TRUE
SendSystemInfo=1
LastSysInfoDate=1364873486
ShowCreationHelp=FALSE
Music=0
SoundVolume=10
Gamma=11
SpellParticleOpacity=1.000000
EnvironmentParticleOpacity=1.000000
ActorParticleOpacity=1.000000
ShowAlarmWindow=false
SpellParticleNearClipPlane=8.000000
SkyCubemapSize=0
Shadows=0
UseLuclinHumanMale=TRUE
UseLuclinHumanFemale=TRUE
UseLuclinBarbarianMale=TRUE
UseLuclinBarbarianFemale=TRUE
UseLuclinEruditeMale=TRUE
UseLuclinEruditeFemale=TRUE
UseLuclinWoodElfMale=TRUE
UseLuclinWoodElfFemale=TRUE
UseLuclinHighElfMale=TRUE
UseLuclinHighElfFemale=TRUE
UseLuclinDarkElfMale=TRUE
UseLuclinDarkElfFemale=TRUE
UseLuclinHalfElfMale=TRUE
UseLuclinHalfElfFemale=TRUE
UseLuclinDwarfMale=TRUE
UseLuclinDwarfFemale=TRUE
UseLuclinTrollMale=TRUE
UseLuclinTrollFemale=TRUE
UseLuclinOgreMale=TRUE
UseLuclinOgreFemale=TRUE
UseLuclinHalflingMale=TRUE
UseLuclinHalflingFemale=TRUE
UseLuclinGnomeMale=TRUE
UseLuclinGnomeFemale=TRUE
UseLuclinIksarMale=TRUE
UseLuclinIksarFemale=TRUE
UseD3DTextureCompression=TRUE
MipMapping=TRUE
TextureCache=TRUE
EnvironmentParticleNearClipPlane=8.000000
AllLuclinPcModelsOff=FALSE
LoadVeliousArmorsWithLuclin=FALSE
WaterSwap=0
SkyUpdateInterval=60000

[Options]
IgnoreFile1=1
Camera1-Distance=30.000000
Camera1-DirHeading=192.000000
Camera1-Heading=0.000000
Camera1-Pitch=0.000000
Camera1-Height=5.000000
Camera1-Zoom=90.000000
Camera1-Change=1
Camera2-Distance=82.000000
Camera2-DirHeading=277.000000
Camera2-Heading=0.000000
Camera2-Pitch=0.000000
Camera2-Height=18.000000
Camera2-Zoom=90.000000
Camera2-Change=1
Realism=20
ClipPlane=20
FogScale=4.000000
MaxFPS=100
LODBias=10
MouseSensitivity=4
ShadowClipPlane=99
ActorClipPlane=99
[VideoMode]
WindowedWidth=800
WindowedHeight=600
Width=800
Height=600
FullscreenBitsPerPixel=32
FullscreenRefreshRate=0
WidthWindowed=800
HeightWindowed=600
[News]
LastRead=00000000
Automatic=0

Ok Here is how I fixed it.

I cut my eqclient.ini file out of the directory so it was forced to create a new one. Violia it works. I loaded EQ didnt touch a SINGLE OPTION.

It worked again when I loaded it.

Went into game, changes resolution to native, 1920x1080, reloaded it. WORKED!

Have not touched anything since.

I see a lot of advice being thrown around on various forums, including this one, telling people to modify their eqclient files. For me this never worked and I was following the instructions. Removing it and starting with an essentially empty one was the only thing that worked