Black Screen Help

5
United States
Ohio
motorhead-1000
Need some help folks.. I've searched this entire board and several others and have not found the solution to my problem.

Background: I have a PS3 Slim and have been playing GT5 for about 1.5 years. Back around May/June I downloaded the latest GT5 update and it trashed my hard drive. I didn't have my saved game file backed up. Oh well. I bought a new 320GB drive, installed the OS, installed GT5 and all the updates. The game acted quirky, would lock up randomly, certain icons/images/cars would not display. It got so bad I could not play the game so in the Options area I selected an option to remove some type of data file (I saw no option to delete cache as is mentioned in many threads). That was the last time I have been able to play the game.

When I start the game it typically displays the start-up screen and then the seizure warning and then goes black and all hard drive activity stops.

Here are the actions I have taken (with no success):
1. Deleted game data file
2. Deleted saved game file(s)
3. Reinstalled game (without and then with updates)
4. Performed a Quick and then a Full format from the XMB
5. Rebuilt the file system (from the PS3 BIOS boot-up screen)
6. Rebuilt the DB (from the PS3 BIOS boot-up screen)
7. Changed every available Display option one at a time
8. Turned off internet connectivity.
9. Restore Default Setting from the XMB
10. Created a new Sony online account
11. Borrowed a copy of the disc from someone else
12. Played other games with no problems.
13. Cussed. Drank a few beers...and then cussed and drank a few more. This usually fixes all issues with everything...eventually.

Everything I have tried has resulted in the same exact result of receiving the black screen. The only 2 things I have not attempted that I am aware of are to low level format the hard drive (reinstall the OS, etc) and connect to a different TV. I have done some research on some utilities and XMB replacements that I could try but I really have no desire to go to that level of work (and risk). Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Heck, I might even buy a beer for anyone that provides the solution. :)
 
Any problems with other games? Did you try a Lens cleaning CD? Did you format the harddrive before downloading the updates or after? I had the black screen problem due to an error with the very LAST update, if that one went screwy u will have to delete JUST the game data, not you game save data, and redownload the updates..

Edit/PS:
Try deleting ONLY game updates data on GT5 and a couple other games, see which games updates are the newest.. If its GT5 try to delete approx 17 GB of data that was downloaded before GT5, after this download the GT5 updates so that they download to a different surface area of your Harddrive, (harddrive are "essential" like a super complex CD, if its scratched or knicked it will skip/not work correctly) if it works then that means your harddrive has a knick or scratch in it where the GT5 data was located, this usually means your PS3 was dropped either in your house while playing GT5 or "IF" GT5 data is the only thing on your PS3 then it would be the first thing on your harddrive and it was probably damaged "in store" if none of this works contact Sony because IT IS and issue with your PS3..
 
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Thanks for the quick response.
I formatted the drive (from the xmb) and then reinstalled the game. Didn't work. I then installed all the updates. Still didn't work. I also borrowed someone elses disc and encountered the same problem.
 
I read that you did an OS update then it got thrashed, you bought a new HDD and installed the OS. How did you exactly installed the OS ? Did you do an online install or offline via USB drive ? Do you have the 4.20 or 4.21 version of the OS ? I stick with 4.20, no problem so far, I read somewhere 4.21 caused weird issues to some PS3 owners. It's also better to update the OS via offline method.

Why don't you try to run the GT5 offline, don't install any GT5 update, don't do any in game installation as well, just straight forward play - it will load slower from the disc. See if the same issue arise.
 
I burned 4.20 to a cd and installed it (offline). I did update to 4.21 online though. But, the game wasnt working with 4.20 at the time. I also tried to run the game with my internet connectivity turned off.
It would be great if PD could provide a diagnostic version of the install that writes its progress to a file when the game is started. The fact that the drive access stops when the screen goes blank seems indicative of the program either encountering an error and simply stopping or of it waiting on something. And there appears to be no watch dog timer, since I have left it sit for hours with no change.

Thanks for the response.
 
Can u delete everything and then start the disc while offline? This should just run the basic version..

Or start a new psn account and try starting the disc?
 
Hi lorider. I deleted all files, disconnected from the network and still got the black screen..
I also created a new psn acct and did the above - same result.
 
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