Blank screen on start up, game doesn't load | Project Zomboid | Page 1

golden saffron Sep 27, 2025, 11:10 PM

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Apologies for making a new post on a common issue but I've exhausted the potential solutions I've seen suggested. I have over 400 hours in PZ on this machine, most recently last weekend when I had a couple bluescreen crashes while playing online. Since then I updated graphics drivers which has stopped any further crashes in any other games but PZ hasn't been able to load since, just a blank screen on startup with no audio. Fixes attempted:

Updated graphics drivers (nvidia geforce rtx 3060 studio driver 581.29) with a clean install and restarted - issue persists
Disabled mods, uninstalled PZ, backed up saves and deleted user\Zomboid folder, restarted, reinstalled, verified integrity of game files - same issue persists, on both normal and alternate start
Set fullscreen=false in options.ini - issue persists
Ran application as administrator - issue persists
Copied the following into launch options:
"-Djinput.useDefaultPlugin=false --" (no idea why, saw it suggested in another thread) - issue persists
Disabled steam/discord overlays - issue persists

I've attached the console.txt from user\zomboid. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks

📎 console.txt

restive narwhal Sep 27, 2025, 11:26 PM

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i had this issue before, i broke options of java and it was like this. What i did to solve it is, at zomboid settings on steam i changed the starting preferences to alternate launch and it worked maybe u can try this

golden saffron Sep 27, 2025, 11:29 PM

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alternate launch makes no difference unfortunately = (

gleaming shale Sep 27, 2025, 11:36 PM

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After uninstalling, did you delete the steamapps/common/Project Zomboid folder as well?

golden saffron Sep 27, 2025, 11:50 PM

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i did check steamapps/common after uninstalling, but there was no project zomboid folder left there to delete

severe shard Sep 28, 2025, 10:48 AM

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Can you try updating your graphic drivers again and this time select the "Clean Install" option? Since that would reset all the Nvidia settings, it can fix issues like these

golden saffron Sep 28, 2025, 4:07 PM

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i did do a clean install when i updated the drivers but just to check i have now attempted again to reinstall the game, checking steamapps/common/Project Zomboid was fully deleted, and updated the graphics drivers again using the clean install option. unfortunately the issue is the same, just a blank screen and nothing else happens

severe shard Sep 28, 2025, 9:21 PM

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Can you ruin the game by using the ProjectZomboid64.bat file in the game install folder?

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Alternatively, use the 32.bat

golden saffron Sep 28, 2025, 11:10 PM

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with the 64.bat file the same thing happens, but with the 32.bat file the window opens for a half second and then closes, and the end of the cmd log shows the following:

LOG : General , 1759096299242> VSync: OFF
LOG : General , 1759096299348> NVIDIA: current available GPU memory is 10619 MB
LOG : General , 1759096299348> NVIDIA: dedicated available GPU memory is 12288 MB
LOG : General , 1759096299352> NVIDIA: total available GPU memory is 12288 MB
ERROR: General , 1759096299752> GameWindow.uncaughtException> Unhandled java.lang.OutOfMemoryError thrown by thread MainThread.
LOG : General , 1759096299752> GameThread exited.

Exception: java.lang.OutOfMemoryError thrown from the UncaughtExceptionHandler in thread "MainThread"
[5.888s][warning][os,thread] Failed to start thread - _beginthreadex failed (ENOMEM) for attributes: stacksize: default, flags: CREATE_SUSPENDED STACK_SIZE_PARAM_IS.

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\ProjectZomboid>PAUSE
Press any key to continue . . .

unfortunately that's pretty greek to me. it's a memory issue? i've now run windows memory diagnostic which found no errors. is there anything else you can suggest? many thanks for your continued help

severe shard Sep 29, 2025, 9:11 AM

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Not a memory issue as this is standard with the 32 file... though there are not many logs to go on unfortunately, could you check your Reliability monitor to see if there are any crashes or extra info there when the game launches?
If you do find any, can you share a screenshot of the Technical Details section so we can check the errors that show up there?

https://www.computerworld.com/article/3575353/troubleshooting-windows-10-with-reliability-monitor.html
https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/sk-sk/000178177/how-to-use-windows-reliability-monitor-to-identify-software-issues

Computerworld

Ed Tittel

Troubleshooting Windows with Reliability Monitor

Built right into Windows 10 and 11, this old-school tool helps diagnose crashes, hangs, and other issues.

golden saffron Sep 29, 2025, 10:59 AM

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reliability monitor didn't show any errors but i do have more info now: i left the game running on the black screen for ~10 mins and this time got a "Loading Lua" message before the game closed, so i have a shiny new debug log

📎 29-09-25_11-31-55_DebugLog.txt

severe shard Sep 29, 2025, 11:11 AM

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golden saffron reliability monitor didn't show any errors but i do have more info now: i left t...

Yeah this does show issues with rendering... could you also check if there are any "hs err pid" files in the game install folder?

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With such crashes, they can get generated with more info

golden saffron Sep 29, 2025, 11:31 AM

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no hs err pid files i'm afraid but i tried again and did manage to get to the menu screen and then load into a new world and do some light bashing. it just loads at a glacial pace when before it took a matter of seconds to get to the menu

severe shard Sep 29, 2025, 11:32 AM

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That is fairly confusing... could you try running using the .bat file again? 64 bit one

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There was a similar issue with some Windows problems that caused very long loading

golden saffron Sep 29, 2025, 11:54 AM

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64.bat seems to do the same thing: very long to load into the menu, i was able to load into a game, but then quitting back to the menu again takes a very long time

severe shard Sep 29, 2025, 12:43 PM

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Could you share the logs of this attempt? So I can see what takes the most load time

golden saffron Sep 29, 2025, 1:57 PM

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of course:

📎 29-09-25_11-57-51_DebugLog.txt

hallow crater Sep 29, 2025, 7:49 PM

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golden saffron Apologies for making a new post on a common issue but I've exhausted the potenti...

ok i know this sounds stupid but have you tried spamming the escape key

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i had a similar issue upon loading saves and that seemed to work, i think it was some error popup thing

golden saffron Sep 30, 2025, 9:17 AM

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no dice, but thank you for the suggestion, it was worth a try

severe shard Sep 30, 2025, 11:42 AM

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golden saffron of course:

Hm, it seems like most time is taken on loading the GPU info, then it seems to take around 10 minutes to actually display the menu. Basically everything is already loaded, its just waiting on the display

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Can you try turning on the DXGI Swapchain in your Nvidia control panel? Since this is display related, doing this could help
https://www.reddit.com/r/nvidia/comments/yf6hiw/psa_you_can_now_elevate_openglvulkan_games_to_a/

From the nvidia community on Reddit: PSA - You can now elevate Open...

Explore this post and more from the nvidia community

golden saffron Oct 1, 2025, 12:08 PM

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heyhey, so i turned on DXGI Swapchain and then attempted to play yesterday and again this morning. seemed to make no difference, still a long load time overall and a ~4 minute delay between GPU info and AngelCodeFont. then today i updated bios and updated GPU driver to the 581.42 version released yesterday and restarted. long load time again, and then after ~5 minutes in game i lost all display as my GPU seemed to turn off and i had to reboot. no info in event viewer of reliability monitor though, and no "hs err pid" to be found

📎 01-10-25_12-12-26_DebugLog.txt 📎 01-10-25_09-21-50_DebugLog.txt 📎 30-09-25_16-06-09_DebugLog.txt

severe shard Oct 1, 2025, 12:17 PM

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Hm.. do you only have a single display connected to your PC?

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Are you using HDMI or DP?

golden saffron Oct 1, 2025, 1:06 PM

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yes, just one monitor connected via DP

severe shard Oct 1, 2025, 1:21 PM

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Could you go to your Device Manager > View > Show Hidden Devices

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Then check your Display Adapters + Monitors sections

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See if there are any devices that are listed as hidden or disconnected

golden saffron Oct 1, 2025, 1:58 PM

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can do; there's no hidden display adapters but a couple hidden monitors. recently i've plugged the pc into a tv a couple times while playing silksong (shaw!). i think i've seen it mentioned elsewhere that previous monitor settings could interfere with PZ but since i don't think i ran PZ while using that display i figured it wouldn't be the cause. might it help to uninstall those devices?

severe shard Oct 1, 2025, 2:59 PM

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golden saffron can do; there's no hidden display adapters but a couple hidden monitors. recentl...

Yeah you can try uninstalling those and see if it helps

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You can also try installing a driver specific to your monitor, some monitors have those on their websites in the Software section

#Blank screen on start up, game doesn't load