I found that after installing vista, the game isn't detecting the sound driver. The sound has to be selected manually from config, or the game will crash immediately, and so will config.

I have the same problem, the black screen sword

Im using windows 2000 profesional. And allways when i try run Final Fantasy VII im just getting a black screen?... i have downloaded all the patches what i have found but still not working.? whats the problem?..
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 4
System: Manufacturer ASUSTeK Computer INC.
BIOS: Phoenix-Award BIOS v6.00PG
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) XP300+, ~2,2GHz
Memory: 1536MB RAM
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c
Graphics card: GeForce FX59000XT

I Have Windows XP, It runs perfectly until I get to the part when I Mount in the Rope car In Mt. Corel. I See three videos and in the third the car stops in the entrance of The Gold Saucer and the screen turns black. I can quit the game and everything, but nothing happens from there, just a black screen. Maybe a Broken video??? I don't know because the videos run perfectly (except that sometimes the sound dissappear) I have Windows XP Professional and a GeForce Fx5200. It's a little weird don't you think???

Im using windows 2000 professional. And always when i try run Final Fantasy VII im just getting a black screen?... i have downloaded all the patches what i have found but still not working.? whats the problem?..
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 4
System: Manufacturer ASUSTeK Computer INC.
BIOS: Phoenix-Award BIOS v6.00PG
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) XP300+, ~2,2GHz
Memory: 1536MB RAM
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c
Graphics card: GeForce FX59000XT

I have a problem just like you are. I can play FF7 with my 9800 pro without problem but when I change my video card to x1950pro FF7 can not run anymore.

I got the blank screen after i hit the new game option this is when the movie should start but didnt so i did some searching and the answer is to download a codec from here:

http://wiki.qhimm.com/FF7/Technical/Customising

Once U installed this the game worked! and U was so happy hope this helps the rest of you.

I have the following specs on my PC:

MoBo: Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3P

Processor: Intel(R) Core2Duo(TM) CPU E6420 @ 2.13GHz (2 CPUs)

Memory: 2046MB RAM

Hard Drive: 250 GB Western Digital SATAII 8MB, 250 GB Western Digital SATAII 16MB

Video Card: HIS Radeon X1950 Pro 512MB Turbo 590MHz

Monitor: 19" Samsung 931C LDC Monitor

Sound Card: C-Media USB Headphone Set

Speakers/Headphones: C-Media USB Headphone Set

Keyboard: Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural PS/2 Keyboard

Mouse: Logitech USB Mouse

Operating System:
Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2 (2600.xpsp_sp2_gdr.070227-2254)

All I get is a black screen and the music playing the sound from the first movie loaded.

I agree with the person two above me, download the codec (the third download option) from http://wiki.qhimm.com/FF7/Technical/Customising (and the other patches will probably help too) and it'll work. Good luck playing!

System: Acer Aspire 9300; AMD Turion 64X2 1.6; Nvidia GeForce Go 6100; Realtek audio

After original install. Game only went to New Game or Continue. Then dreaded black screen.

Installed the first three patches from this site http://wiki.qhimm.com/FF7/Technical/Customising

Chocobo Races Patch
FF7 v1.02 Official Patch
TrueMotion 2.0 Codec

Ran FFVII Configuration utility.

Under Graphics:
Direct3D Hardware Acceleration
Nvida
TNT

Under Sound:
Left it alone

Under Midi:
- Changed Midi Data to Yamaha XG Midi and was missing sound in some parts, and the battle song was sometimes delayed.
- Chanded MIDI Data to General MIDI and game runs completly flawlessly.

Hope this helps.

I'm using a notebook with a core2duo 2x 2.00Ghz and 2048MB Ram and a graphics card Geforce 8600 GT with 512MB internal Ram.
I tried everything. At last I managed it to hear the Eidos beginning! But without pictures or whatelse. And then the game gone frozen!
It doesn't works! I'm using the german version of FF7.

Try installing the movie player from the install CD main menu, and perhaps your problem with the blank screen will go away. It worked for me.

I'm using Vista and have tried to run FF7 on my laptop. I could get the game going but the graphic moves too slow and it irritates me a lot. Does anyone know how I could fix this problem?

Hi everybody, here my specs :

OS Name: Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate 32-Bit
MOBO: Asus P5L-VM 1394
Processor: Pentium Dualcore, 1.80GHz
RAM: 2048Mo
Pages Files: 4096Mo
HDD: Western Digital 400Go SataII 16Mo
HDD: Western Digital 500Go SataII 16Mo
Graphic Card: MSI PCI-E GF8 NX8600GT-OC 256MB DDR3
DVD Drive: HL-DT-ST DVD-RAM GSA-H54N ATA Device
Sound Card: C-Media USB Headphone Set
Headphones: C-Media USB Headphone Set
Keyboard/Mouse: Logitech Cordless Desktop LX710 Laser
Monitor: Old IBM 17" CRT lol

Note : Not tested on isos, I used the original game. So use the original game like me! ;)

First : Install your FF7 Game (Uncheck the Yamaha, the directx and the directshow cases) and choose the Maximum install.
Follow the steps until the end.

Second : When installed, apply :
1.02 patch,
the chocobo patch,
truemotion codec
in this order.
*Available at : http://wiki.qhimm.com/FF7/Technical/Customising*


Third : Apply the goodies if you want.

Avatar mod for Advent children avatar in the menu
*Available at : http://wiki.qhimm.com/FF7/Technical/Customising*

HD Patch to have better graphics for some characters (all mains and many others).
*Available at : http://www.ffdream.com/out.php?table=file_2&id=833322&type=*
(Accept the popup below the adress bar to download it)


Fourth : Run FF7.exe, and the config utility will pop-up,

Graphics : I used 640 x 480 Full Screen and checked NVIDIA TNT
with renderer Direct3D hardware acceleration.

Sound : Don't touch it.

MIDI : MIDI Driver Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth and MIDI Data General MIDI


Fifth : My game started perfectly and it plays well!!!!!!

I wish to thanks everybody here cuz I didn't think I could play anymore to FF7 cuz I got Vista, until I found this forum, I read all thoses topic under vista and tried every solutions. Without any results, yesterday, my game crashed with an error in the startup of FF7, so I uninstalled it and I thought "I give up". But the day after (so, today) I said "I'll try a last time, everything or nothing", I follow exactly theses steps and here we go it works fine and I didn't use this damn compatibility mode.

I hope that was helpful.
Long Live FF7!

To the person above me: I run Vista Home Premium. I did everything you mentioned in this post to the letter, with absolutely no change. As soon as I start the game, no opening movie plays, and as soon as I select New Game, it crashes. There has to be some solution here. I downloaded the 1.02 patch and chocobo patch, and the True Motion codec. Nothing helped. Suggestions?

Vista Business
Intel Duo Core 2.16 GHz
2.00 GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce Go 7900 GS

Black screen at start up; can hear music at first but then stops and shows only a black screen. Must force close with alt+ctr+del. I have tried the number of proposed fixes above.. appears as though this game cannot run on this computer.

Has anyone else with similar specs/problem found a solution?

I cannot even install FF7 on my computer. I have tried running the setup program with every compatibility option from Windows 95 to Vista. Setup opens, and when I click "install" my computer appears to be doing something for a few seconds, but the installation never starts.

At first I could not get it to run at all. I thought it was all Vista's fault but I tried some things. First i installed the 1.02 patch. Then I realized that I had installed the directory in a weird place and that I put all my movies from all cd's into the movie folder in data. So i ran regedit and I corrected the paths for everything and it finally worked - I also have it running under windows 98/me compatibility.

i can run the game just fine but after a while it crashes for no aparent reason anyone got any ideas

Here are the steps I have taken (still not working)

-Installed from perfectly legal cd's
-Installed 1.02 patch
-Installed XP Compatibility patch
-Laptop Keypad patch
Try to run game...it loads the SOUND only from the first movie (the eidos movie, before the new game/continue menu) It will be a black screen, nothing goes, I have to CTRL-ALT-DEL to get out.

I have tried many combinations of compatibility modes, patches, video codecs.

Then I edited some registry entries to point where the movie folder is. The movies will not load, neither sound or video. But now I can get into the game (New/continue menu) but when I click new game the movie does not load. So i tried multiple places to place the movie location. CD, .iso image (copy of cd), and moving the movies folder into the game directory. I am still not able to play this game. I know it has something to do with the game not being able to read movies from the cd (but i can explore through the cd and play them in media player.) Any help is appreciated!

I'm replying to my own post...I uninstalled my k-lite codec pack. Now it works fine. Just a little bit messed up video but i'm sure i can work it out on my own! thanks for everyone's help!

Windows Vista (Ultimate) SP1 RC1
Yup you heard it right, I'm running the game on Vista SP1 RC1.

I followed the step-by-step guide found a few posts above to the letter (except for the mods). However, I noticed that the exe wouldn't load and turned on in compatibility settings: Windows 98/Me compatibility, Run the app in 640x480 (for redundancy) and let the game run in Administrator Mode

Also for those who're getting Please Insert Disc 1,2,3; It's probable that you may be inserting the Disc in a secondary Drive. In regedit for my case, the game always points to the primary DVD drive I have, probably due to the nature of Windows 95 PCs having 1 CD Drive at that time (remember how expensive CD Drives were?).

The video issue is probably caused by the removal of a very old codec in Windows that FFVII uses, that's why we have to get a compatible codec in order for the movies to run.

Download the Codec patch on this link http://www.ffdream.com/?cat=downld&rub=divers
If it goes black when you open the game.

I have windows vista, and the setup was easy... but the issue is when i try to click new game, nothing works... i juss bought a new numeric keypad for my laptop but i cant get pass this screen

Hi all, I'm getting the black screen problem under vista. After reading the above post I understand that it is the k-lite codec pack problem. So, to fix it, I did:
1. Goto K-lite codec pack -> Configuration -> ffdshow video decoder.
2. On the main codec tab, find the "TrueMotion 1,2" line, and click to disable it. (Since libavcodec is having a problem)

Voila...everything just worked. Note: You of course have to install the TrueMotion codec first. Check above posts if you don't know where/how to get it.

For anyone that is using k-lite codec pack....there is no need to uninstall it. :)

Have a good time!

Well I was thinkin of buying a brand new PC edition of this game off play.com... but by sounds of things it's a bugger to run, shame an all cus i'd of kept it in mint condition 4eva with it bein such a great game.

I am suprised people with duel procesors are getting it to run, i know with some older games I had to dsable one of the processors to stop them crashing (eg. System shock 2 / Grim fandango)

So for people above who claim it does run but crashes/freezes now again for no reason, this may be due to you having a duelcore proccesor which can sedd older games into a frenzie... try disabling the 2nd proccesor in the task manager section whilst playing the game, this may prevent it from freezing completely :)