Related to: Screen goes black when I open X-Plane 11

Question

So, I have X-Plane 11 installed in its own folder on my Desktop. When I double click and open the X-Plane folder, I find the X-Plane application icon at the bottom of the folder, below X-Plane 11 Installer application.

When I double click the X-Plane application icon the screen goes black. By chance I found that if I then press Ctl-Alt-Del to open Task Manager I see under Processes,"X-plane (4)" When I click this icon, 4 lines of "X-system" appear and if I right click the top row, a box opens with options to: Switch to; Bring to front; Minimise; Maximise; End task.

I select "Bring to front" and X-Plane boots up.

Is this "normal" behavior or a problem with my installation/setup?

Answer 1

Hi Rob,

I am not with Laminar Research; just a flight simmer.

It is definately not the "norm".

Does your unit meet the minimum requirements and hopefully for the best results meet the recommended specifications?  Details can be found at https://www.x-plane.com/kb/x-plane-11-system-requirements/

The important issue is that you need to have a dedicated graphics card and not use the integrated graphics connection on the motherboard.

For best performance, if you need to upgrade your system, use a NVidia graphics card (GPU) and an Intel processor (CPU).  Other brands will work but not as well.. 

Good luck.

Glenn

Comments

Thanks Glenn.

I recently upgraded my system and it runs X-Plane pretty smoothly at ~20-30 fps with three monitors. PC hardware specs are as follows:

 Z370 AORUS 3 GAMING MOTHERBOARD; INTEL CORE i7-8700 @ 3.2 GHz processor; 16 GB RAM; NVIDIA GEOFORCE GTX 1070 Ti GRAPHICS BOARD; 64-bit OS; WINDOWS 10; X-PLANE 11 DIGITAL DOWNLOAD.

So if the "black screen" scenario I describe above is not normal I guess the question I am asking is whether there is a fix, or should I rather try a reinstall from scratch?

Rob

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Hi Rob,

My system has also been upgraded and is slightly above your specs.  But, I am not fully functional yet due to other issues.

I am of the opinion that your system should work.  I would suggest attaching your log.txt file for others to try and ascertain what your problem is.  It seems to me to be a configuration problem with the installation process conflicting with windows.

To ascertain what the problem may be, it may be prudent in the first instance  to run the x-plane installer file which will pick up any corrupted files and missing files and hopefully correct the problem

Good luck.

Glenn

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Hi Glen

I ran through X-Plane Installer - did updates and then selected Run X-Plane to get this screen:

And I discover that I have two copies of X-Plane installed! In File Explorer there is only one desktop folder named X-Plane. When I select either of the two copies above I get the black screen and must go to Task Manager and select "Bring to Front".

And here is my log.txt file:

http://questions.x-plane.com/?qa=blob&qa_blobid=281751196625349648

So, how can I verify that there are two copies of XP11 on my PC and what do I do about it.  I have a license for only one copy.

Can anyone pick up a problem in the log file?

Rob

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Hey there! Would you send me a copy of your log.txt? Thanks!

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Thanks for picking this up. Will the link above not do?

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Happy to report problem solved after reinstalling X-Plane 11. Thanks for responding!

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Hi Rob,

Good news.

Glenn