No menu, but no secondary monitor either.

[67313ab3ea75bShaitan]

Hi guys, recently stumbled across a link to this site and re aquired SS2, trying to get things to run, but encountering the "no menu, humming" thing.

Followed the installation instructions here.

installed divX codecs.
clean hotud version install.
extracted the sound files as per the readme. (Including deleting the files it said where no longer necessary.)
installed the ss2 tool (merged the files, didn't patch. (the hotud version is patched already yes?) Installed bug fixes and everything else except wide screen mod)
installed the mod manager.
No mods installed as of yet.

Only reference I've found to the problem is in the Technical FAQ : "If you cannot see the menu but hear it humming, disable your secondary monitor."
The problem is, as near as I can determine, my video card is only registering a single monitor, so I can't disable a second monitor

Any help or further information would be much appreciated.

System Specs.
CPU : AMD Athlon X2 250 3.00 GHz.
Graphics : GeForce 9800 GT (512 MB)
RAM : 3 GB
OS : XP Service pack 3
Monitor : IBM P76 CRT
Motherboard : Gigabyte GA-M720-US3

[67313ab3ea9deKolya]

Looks like you did everything correctly. You'd also probably know if there's a secondary monitor installed, but just to make sure, right-click your desktop, select Properties to get the Display Properties window, change to the Settings tab. There should be a monitor depicted with a "1" on it and a second with a "2", but greyed out. If the second monitor is not greyed out, right-click and disable it.
If that didn't work, re-start the SS2Tool, select widescreen-mod and DDFix. In DDFix leave the resolution as is, just apply the patch, confirm the message and close it. In widescreen mod enter the correct resolution for your monitor (1600x1200, FOV:100).

[67313ab3eab5fShaitan]

Hi Kolya, thanks for the suggestions, tried them out.

Definately no second monitor on, redid the SS2Tool : DDFix + Widescreen mod, set resolutions as specified.
Still no luck unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be getting focus correctly, as when I alt-tab away, the menu appears briefly.

Alt-tabbing back and forth, I can navigate the menu to enter the game. The starting movie is doing the same thing as the menu, however, once I've entered 3d, everything works fine, including the menu's if I then back out of the game and return to them.

Glad to get it working, starting behaviour is definitely odd though

[67313ab3eac47Kolya]

Huh, that is odd, well glad you can play at least. Have fun.

[67313ab3ead49Marcus]

I'm using Windows 7 to play the game. I installed the SS2 Tool which fixes nearly everything. When I hit esc to the menu though, it won't show. It's the SS2 tool that's doing it. The Tool is necessary to advance past the first stage. Any idea what's causing this, and how to fix it? Thanks!

[67313ab3eae22Marcus]

It seems that at least on my system, the tool makes it so the Menu, and videos don't display...

[67313ab3eaeedKolya]

So the menu and videos worked before?

[67313ab3eaffdMarcus]

Yes, they worked... If I hit esc I can hear the menu, but I continue to see the game engine. If I alt-tab out and come back in, I can see the menu, with a flickering cursor. If I do that while a video is playing though, the game crashes.

I've also noticed that I can't interact with items, like picking up the wrench. I was able to do that before.

btw, I love the widescreen option.

Thanks for the help!

[67313ab3eb395Kolya]

I take it you have no secondary monitor. (If you do, disable it in windows display properties.)
Now make sure you have latest drivers for your graphics card. If possible update them. Don't skip this point.
If none of this has helped so far, go into your game folder, start ddfixGUI.exe and hit "Remove Patch". This might not work at all or even worsen things, and you'll definitely lose 32bit scene rendering, but it's worth a try, so we at least know, if that's where the problem lies. If you want to reenable ddfix just hit "Apply Patch", don't change the resolution there.   

I've also noticed that I can't interact with items, like picking up the wrench. I was able to do that before.

That's a separate issue, see here for a solution:  SS2 Broken Use/Shoot Mode Problem

[67313ab3eb4afMarcus]

I don't have have a second monitor. I updated my graphics card, but it didn't help. When I disabled the patch, the menus and videos did work ok. I wonder if it's a certain setting in there that's doing it? The game looks so much better with the patch though.

I also got the keybinds issue taken care of, thanks.

[67313ab3eb5e5Kolya]

ddfix changed SS2's behaviour in the menu in so far that it gets displayed at the same resolution as the main game. This actually fixed problems on many cards that couldn't deal with the menu's low res (a stretched 640x480) and the resolution switching between menu and game.
Apparently it breaks the menu on your card.
What is your graphics card? I'd like to know for future troubleshooting, I don't have a solution at hand. It might be worthwhile to play around with the settings in ddfix.ini though, namely setting these to zero:

UseSysMemOverlay=0
OverlayColourKey=0
AnisotropicFiltering=0

[67313ab3eb6e2Marcus]

hmm, I have Dual NVIDIA GeForce 9800S cards. Is there a way for me to set the game at a higher widescreen resolution, but leave the menu as it's meant to be? The game just looks unbelievably better with the patch applied.

I'm not getting a difference messing with the ddfix.ini...

[67313ab3eb7cdKolya]

Not that I know of. Now you'll have to excuse my ignorance, but is there a way to turn off one of your dual graphics cards? It might well be worth a try and the game certainly doesn't need them both.

[67313ab3eb8c2Marcus Aurelius]

That's very interesting... Yeah I disabled one of the cards and checked the game. I think it works alright now. I guess we'll need fixes for dual graphics cards soon!

Thanks for all your help. I wanted to get an ultimate version of System Shock up and running again.

[67313ab3eb99bKolya]

Interesting. I added this to the trouble shooting section of the SS2 Tech FAQ.
Have fun with the game.