Large portions of screen go black in Privateer 2 install

Master Katarn

Rear Admiral
This problem affects my Privateer 2 for Windows installation, but also affects other games (Rogue Squadron and Starfleet Academy) I run as well. I would appreciate any help in getting this fixed.

I run a Windows XP SP2 machine with a GeForce 3 video card and DirectX 9.0c. When I run Rogue Squadron 3D, large portions of the menu screen "go black". The game is still running, and I can "un-blacken" these portions of the screen by moving my mouse around those areas. The mouse cursor unblackens the affected areas of the screen when moved. However, after a minute or so, most of the whole screen blackens up again, until you start moving the mouse again, etc. This only happens in the menu screen of Rogue Squadron 3D, not during actual 3D gameplay.

I can install Privateer 2 (Windows version) fine. However, the same symptoms are found at the install screens. Most of the screen of the Privateer 2 install blacks out, and I have to move my mouse around the whole screen just to see what directory I am installing to and what settings I am installing. The install works fine otherwise though. The Privateer 2 game has not shown these symptoms yet, but I haven't played it much.

This problem also afflicts Starfleet Academy. The symptoms are identical to those found in Rogue Squadron. The menu screen also flickers between "blacked out" and non-blacked out. However, in this game, the gameplay is also affected as the 2d elements of the playing screen (like the starship bridge) start blacking out and you can't read the station readouts for tactical, helm etc. This makes the game almost unplayable because it is tedious to keep moving the mouse to these affected areas of the screen to clear them up, only for those same areas to black out again after a minute or so.

I hope this description makes sense--please ask if you need further clarifications on the symptoms. I run many other games like Neverwinter Nights, Wing Commander Kilrathi Saga, X-Wing Alliance, etc. just fine with none of these problems. I have only encountered them in the Privateer 2 install, Starfleet Academy, and Rogue Squadron 3D. I also know that it is likely not a Windows XP compatibility issue. I ran Starfleet Academy on a Windows XP laptop just fine without this "black out" problem. Please let me know if you have any suggestions to get Starfleet Academy and Rogue Squadron working properly on my desktop computer. Thanks.

Here is an example of the Starfleet Academy menu screen blackout.
download.php
 
Something about your video setup is off. You need to go through adjusting various settings until you find what it is. These can be directx settings such as video acceleration, video-card specific adjustments such as FSAA or overlay programs that might be filtering what you see.
 
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