Since the recent patch, i been having a weird load issue with WoW Retail.
When i click “Play” from the Launcher, it starts to load the game, but the screen goes black; the cursor changes to the WoW one, the load music plays, but the Character Selects screen doesn’t visually load, & it micro-flashes my taskbar every few seconds, along with a 4-5mm white line down the right side of the screen; if i hit ‘Enter’ on my keyboard, it will load a character (obviously, the last one from my previous load), & i get the game loading screen - but then the screen goes black again. i hear the in-game music for the zone i’m in, but it doesn’t visually load in.
Everything was fine before the patch; every other Blizzard game is fine (WoW Classic, Warcraft Reforged, HotS, Hearthstone)… it’s just WoW Retail i get this issue…
I am having this EXACT same issue. At first I thought the game wasn’t loading at all, then I realized I could hit enter and it would log me in. The load screen is completely normal, then back to flashing black screen in-game.
I’ve tried scan&repair, updating drivers, etc. Not sure what to do now.
Good news, this issue has been solved for me. Had to delete the Retail > WTF > Config.wtf file. But everything is back to normal now. Hope it works for you, too!
In reply to Kozzae (this page won’t let me ‘reply’ directly to your post): i don’t have any overlays or anything; but the article you’ve linked is dead; takes me to an error page…
And Koreth - your suggestion unfortunately didn’t work for me. :-/
Edit: Koreth - ultimately, your suggestion actually did work; at first, i deleted the Retail > WTF > Config.wtf file, then scanned-and-repaired the game, & it didn’t fix the problem. But THEN i just deleted the file without repairing, logged back in & it worked. It disabled all my add-ons, & reset all my game settings back to default, but i got back in & the black screen thing isn’t happening now!
Black Screen - World of Warcraft
Updated: 2 years ago Article ID: 14477
Product:
Common Problems
I want to play World of Warcraft but only get a black screen
The game seems to crash, but music is still playing
If you encounter a black screen at startup or during gameplay, follow the steps below to solve the problem:
Reset your WoW settings through the Blizzard Battle.net App: Options > Game Settings > Reset In-Game Options button under World of Warcraft
Overlay incompatibilities can cause black screens and crashes. Your overlay programs may need to be updated or disabled to resolve the issue
Update your drivers to resolve any compatibility issues
If your game is using DirectX 12, try switching to DirectX 11. If WoW is using DirectX 11, try switching to DirectX 11 Legacy. World of Warcraft Menu > System > Advanced > Graphics API
Start the game in windowed mode
Click the Blizzard icon on the Blizzard app
Select Settings from the dropdown menu
Select Game Settings
Check the Additional command line arguments box under World of Warcraft
Type -Windowed in the box and click Done
Restart the game
Advanced Troubleshooting
