Black screen on load and slow replaying saving.

bob6789x

Computer Setup:
i7 930 @ 3.2GHz OC'ed
ATI 5870 Vapor-X OC'ed
6GB DDR3 - 1600MHz
Asus P6X58D-Premium
128GB Crucial SSD C300 SATA3
1TB WD Blue
Windows 7 Pro

I don't run any anti virus, and have disabled Windows firewall/defender both. I also have tried different ATI drivers from 10.6 to 10.9 (most recent) and updating Direct X from Microsoft's website. On a side note, I even tried reinstalling Windows and the game running on a clean copy of W7 Pro.

However, the game takes 2-3 minutes (not exaggerating) to open. When I double click the icon it goes to the black screen and hangs for 2-3 minutes then finally plays the intro video. After that the game seems to run perfectly fine until you exit a track. If I have been racing 30 seconds or 2 hours on a track and I try to go back to the main menu it says "saving reply" in the bottom for 2-3 minutes before the main menu is actually responsive. I never had an issue on my 2 older computers and my laptop works just fine on Windows 7. The only difference between my older computers and my new one I can think of is that it's an ATI based video card and all my old machines have Nvidia chips. Any suggestions?
 
Since the slowdown appears to happen when reading/writing files, this would suggest something interfering with that process (such as antivirus (which you say you don't have) or other system components). Perhaps look at any software/system feature that can examine files as they are read/written. I can't remember if Windows 7 comes with Windows defender, but you might want to start with programs along those lines (something enabled that could slow it down). You might also want to check your DEP settings.

It could also suggest spyware or a virus so you might want to check for that.

With Windows 7, make sure you are right-clicking the rfactor.exe and selecting "Run As Administrator..."

You can probably speed up the intro by moving the movie files out of the MovieFiles folder, but this would only be a workaround until you find the source of the issue (and will do nothing to resolve the replay saving issue - however you can turn off replays to work around that as well, but this would all defeat the purpose of finding the source of the issue).
 
Thanks for the reply. I have even tried this on a clean install of Windows 7(it is a legal retail disc/key) so spyware/viruses are out of question. I already turned Windows defender off as previously mentioned as well. I just now tried installing the game to the HDD instead of the SSD and no change, still hangs. I run with UAC off usually and even went ahead and tried run as admin, no change still.

Now for the work around. I tried moving the 2 files in the MovieFiles folder and the problem still exists just as before. Now when I turned off saving replies it still hangs, but at a different point. When I hit "leave track" that car settings/live monitor screen freezes for 2-3 minutes then the main menu appears and is responsive right away. All it did was make it hang at a different point in the leaving track process I guess. I might try installing a different storage controller driver to see if that eliminates the issue, but that will be later tonight. I am still open to any suggestions. I still have a hunch on the root cause being something with my ATI driver and rFactor not playing nice since that's the main difference from my old rig that worked fine. I have no issues in any other games :/.
 
Keep in mind there could be a partition virus, you may still want to check for spyware/virus just to be sure. It's always good to rule out every possibility in the process of elimination.

If it were just a startup problem, it could be related to the DRM or no internet connection. But just out of curiosity, try setting the following in your player file.
Disable NetComm="1" // If 1, network features are disabled

and see if the startup process changes.

However, I still suspect this is more of an I/O issue or access rights issue. If this new computer has different hardware, different drivers and or features may be enabled that might be interfering with the read/write process which the other computers are not.
 
I know what you mean with partition viruses, I used to work as a tech at Circuit City and have dealt with them before. I understand it being a possibility, yet very unlikely and I have no other issues as my computer runs ultra fast and no other games have issues.

I set the NetComm to 1 and back to 0, no change and still hangs :(.

I looked up DEP settings as I had never worked with those before. By default it was set to "Turn on DEP for essential Windows programs and services only" and my computer's processor supports hardware-based DEP. I tried changing the option to "Turn on DEP for all programs" with no change, and then tried the same setting with rFactor.exe on the exlusion list. Still hangs at both spots in the game.

I am busy tonight studying for a test tomorrow so I probably won't be able to test a new storage controller driver to see if maybe that could be an issue since this is a SATA3 motherboard with newer controller than most mainstream boards.
 
I tried each version of the storage controllers and a few chipset controllers for my mother board and still no go. Any more suggestions anyone?
 
Finally did some extensive testing. **EDIT: could not re duplicate the below result, leaving it just for speculaction**

Took an old 200GB WD drive out of an old ass computer I had laying around and installed a clean copy of W7 Pro on it. I unplugged my SSD and 1TB storage drive and disabled the SATA3 controller so it ran only on the ICHR10 storage chip. I proceeded to install the 10.9 catalyst drivers and rFactor. I rebooted (for the video driver) and opened rFactor and it was super slow load as usual. So I uninstalled the ATI drivers and took my rig back apart.

Now I put in a stone-age NVIDIA GeForce FX 5300 PCX 128MB card I had up in my closet for testing purposes. Installed a ghetto Vista 64bit driver (doesn't have any W7 drivers for that old card) and they seemed to work and give me DX9 ability and resolution adjustment. Now here is where things got interesting. Since the card sucks balls I had to use only my 22" 1680x1050 display just to get the computer to show anything on the screen. My 23" display runs 1920x1200 and the card wouldn't show anything. I usually run a dual screen setup with both on my main video card. So I booted up rFactor @ 1680x1050 on the single display setup and it instantly loaded!!!!! To me, this proves the issue is either dual display or ATI driver/card related.

Taking this information I just learned I put the ATI card back in and uninstalled NVIDIA drivers and reinstalled the 10.9 Catalyst drivers. I only connected the 22" display running 1680x1050 and opened rFactor. Loaded instantly!. Stoked to find out that the issue may after all just be a dual display issue I connected my 1TB drive and SSD with the now enabled SATA3 controller. I then booted from the SSD (my main W7 64bit install) and tried to open rFactor with the single 22" 1680x1050 display (drum roll) SLOW LOAD!!!

I am totally baffled as to why in my clean install of Windows 7 the ATI card loads rFactor instantly with a single display, but SUPER slow with dual display. Yet in my main install of Windows 7 rFactor loads slow dual or single display. It initially seemed to be an issue with dual display as i can easily reproduce the slow and normal rFactor loads by just switching between single and dual display when using my bare clean copy of W7. However, when switching back to my SSD (with the SATA3 controller) the game loads slow both ways. So it could be the SATA3 controller although I highly doubt it.

Attempting to rule out the SATA3 controller I booted from it into my normal W7 install. I then launched rFactor from the 200GB drive (using the ICHR10 controller) and it loaded slow in both single and dual display. So I assume the SATA3 controller has nothing to do with any possible I/O file issues as the game loads slow via the other controller and different hard drive.

I am sorry I got so long winded with the explanation, but I felt it was necessary to fully describe what I have figured out in various testing methods and wasting 2 hours of my night swapping video cards, drivers, hard drives, and windows installs. Hopefully some of this information will be useful for a dev or someone who has a very technical understanding of how this could impact the slow load I am receiving when opening rFactor. **EDIT**The NVIDIA card no longer causes the game to load quickly, nor does the single monitor ATI setup. Only thing I can think of that happened was that I forgot to turn off the SATA3 controller when going back to the clean install and it installed that driver. I disabled it and tried again, but it still loaded slow. Not sure if that caused my retry of the these tests to change results or not.**/EDIT**

If there is any testing someone wants me to try that could fix the issue, let me know please. I will be willing to try just about anything to fix this frustrating issue as it is annoying to install mods and change mods when the game takes forever to load each time.
 
Last edited:
Hi all,

i just registered to bring up again this thread because i have EXACTLY THE SAME PROBLEM.
rF needs a veeeeeery long time for Startup and Exitig Tracks. Apart form this, everxthing runs smoothly.

Win 7 freshly installed o a brand new ssd, rF freshly installed. I spent the last three days innstalling, formatting, i believe you can imagine.

Should i try disabling any controllers, as suggested before?

Any help would be very appreciated. Greetings, Joern

Heres the problem described in detail:

However, the game takes 45 secs (not exaggerating) to open. When I double click the icon it goes to the black screen and hangs for 2-3 minutes then finally plays the intro video. After that the game seems to run perfectly fine until you exit a track. If I have been racing 30 seconds or 2 hours on a track and I try to go back to the main menu it says "saving reply" in the bottom for 45 secs minutes before the main menu is actually responsive.
 
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