Opening the .exe fixed my black screen problem

[MClark]

I don't know whether or not this will work for anyone else, but I've been having the "black screen" problem that so many other people also have reported. I figured out something strange, though. If I open OBS from a shortcut, I get the black screen. If I open it by going directly into the C:\Program Files (x86)\obs-studio\bin\64bit\ directory and clicking on "obs64.exe" then my screen immediately shows up on OBS.

I've double-checked and triple-checked that the path is exactly right in that shortcut. I can't figure out why this works, but thought I would post it in case it helps you troubleshoot this for anyone else.

Log file with black screen: https://gist.github.com/e9eb4d7ae1de8db822b968a3198d7d38
Log file when it works (opened directly from the .exe): https://gist.github.com/3aaf99c31d47037033ddc83e84f46b2d

Thanks,

M

 

[MClark]

Trying to make sure i was clear enough: I consistently get a black screen if I open OBS from my shortcut. I consistently (so far) get the video I expect if I open it directly from the .exe. I've copied the path where the .exe resides and pasted it into the shortcut to be sure I'm accessing the exact same .exe file. But if I try the shortcut again... black screen every time.

Thanks.

 

[Sapiens]

You have one monitor, but two display capture sources. You can't use display capture on the same monitor more than once. Delete the duplicate source.

 

[Finn Henderson]

I found just ticking "Multi-adapter compatability" on a "Game Capture" layer makes recording Minecraft Java work.

 

[MClark]

Thank you Sapiens. It's strange, though. Deleting the 2nd source has now caused OBS to work consistently when I open it from the shortcut, but to give me a black screen consistently when I open it directly from the .exe. That's the opposite of the previous behavior. Any idea why? I can work around it, but if I'm still doing something wrong I'd like to know.

Log when opened from .exe, giving black screen: https://gist.github.com/ea66a8f52737612593dca276d5ee5229
Log when opened from shortcut, OBS works: https://gist.github.com/4dc6cef287e7e2b68316d5e072d1fadf

Any idea why?

Thanks very much,

M

 

[Sapiens]

Both logs still show two display capture sources present.

 

[MClark]

Thanks Sapiens. I'm puzzled, because had already deleted the 2nd source when I uploaded those logs. So to continue testing, just a moment ago I added a 2nd source and output the log: The screen shows 2 sources but the log shows only 1 source, and OBS is working despite having 2 sources (see attached screen shot called "TwoSources_OBSWorking.png").

Here's the log that shows only 1 source (even though my screen shows 2):
https://gist.github.com/anonymous/78f3848b67f8409b2fc2a3c28e58ca5e

So I closed OBS and opened it again. My screen still shows 2 sources, OBS is still working, and the log now shows 2 sources. It looks like the log is kind of delayed, maybe not showing the 2nd source until after OBS has been closed and reopened? But in any case I've got 2 sources and OBS is still working. What am I missing? I'm definitely not trying to argue with you, by the way, just trying to troubleshoot so that I understand for sure how to keep OBS working in the future.

Log now showing 2 sources (my screen still shows 2):
https://gist.github.com/anonymous/968dbe4424c36d9eeaae2bc0e9898948
Screen shot: "TwoSources_OBSWorking2.png"

Thanks again,

Mary