I unplugged one screen from the video card and it seems to work flawlessly. I don't really want to have to do that every time I want to play DL2 though.
If it helps I'll answer the questions anyway.
-Windows 8.1 Industry Enterprise
-Don't know what that is.
- Desktop PC.
- No compatability setting enabled.
- Current video card is Gigabyte GTX970 G1 Gaming 4GB
- Display settings are Extend these Displays. So 2x (1920x1080). (2x ASUS VS247)
- The monitor on my left is primary, contains start bar and all programs are run on it. The other screen I use to hold websites up or watch movies. The program loads as usual on the primary screen and stays there the entire time.
What I'm seeing is while the mouse remains unmoved, it looks and works properly. When the mouse is moved at all, the screen goes black until the mouse stops moving. The screen will then display like normal with the cursor in a new location.
- Am not using any other external programs to do with recording/tracking specs.

DDrawCompat is the project from which you downloaded the dll file. You may want to try some other versions (particularly the last 2-3 releases) and see if any of them work better for you. I would also be interested to know if you still get the flickering on your second screen when not using the dll file at all.

Unfortunately, I didn't have a multi-monitor setup back when I was testing stuff on Windows 8.1, and now that I do I no longer have Windows 8.1. Without being able to reproduce the problem it's unlikely I can figure out what causes it.

As for the workaround, if physically disconnecting a monitor works then likely you could get away with the simpler workaround too: just change your display settings from "Extend these displays" to "Show only on 1" or "Show only on 2", depending on which monitor you want to play on. I know it's still a hassle but at least less inconvenient than having to unplug cables. Maybe there are even some tools available to automate this each time you play DL2.

You may also be interested in the DxWnd project: https://sourceforge.net/projects/dxwnd/
I know its author was working on a similar fix for Deadlock 2, though I'm not sure what's the current status on that.

Edit: it seems there is a quick way to switch between Extend and single monitor setups by pressing the Win+P keys.

I downloaded DDrawCompat, but I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do with it. Do I just drag some of the files into the Deadlock directory? I tried doing that, but nothing seemed to change. I also downloaded dxwnd, but I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do with that, either.

Could someone explain, step by step?

Thanks.

EDIT: Never mind, I got it working.

What I did was download DDraw 0.1.2. Earlier, I'd been downloading DDraw 2.0, but that didn't seem to work. Anyway, I copied the ddraw.dll file to the Deadlock folder. I also changed compatibility to run with Windows 7, but I haven't tested it with others, so I don't know if that matters.

In the vein of what dallicant was mentioning, be sure you download DDrawCompat v0.1.3 or before, as you'll find the v0.2+ libraries do not function as desired with Deadlock.

Just wanted to say that this seems to be working perfectly. I downloaded the latest version. 0.2.1

For anyone having trouble downloading, you need to go to the releases tab on git hub, otherwise you're just downloading the source code

I am not sure that I understand. I tried downloading a link that I thought that gave ddraw but when i extracted the zip files I could not see any files that were named ddraw.dll

Please could somone explain step by step how to download and install the file.

Thanks

Thanks for a quick reply. it is working perfectly/. I have spent hours and hours playng this game in the past, and look forward to replaying it some more.

For any new comers that were stuck like me, I've put the various suggestions on this thread together into an ordered list to help with the Black Screen / "Mouse Erasing Screen" issues that have been so common in Windows 8 & 10 trying to run these great games (may assist with more than just Deadlock I & II as it seems to help a null pointer error from DirectX trying to run as though it's 7):

1) Go get DDraw Compat by first going to this url=github.com/narzoul/DDrawCompat
2) on github, DO NOT click the "clone or download" button that most will click. INSTEAD, click on the “releases” button. Just above the “clone or download” button is a bar with some things like commits, branch, releases, etc. That’s where you want to go.
3) I suggest scrolling down past the experimental one to the stable build beneath
4) The current stable build as of this writing (Windows 10) is DDRawCompat 0.2.1
5) click the ddraw.zip there to download it
6) this zip file should have ddraw.dll and license.txt in it
7) unzip & put those files in your game directory (Galaxy has “Show Installation Folder” under “Manage Installation” under the “More” Menu)
8) run the game in compatibility mode for Windows 7 or 8 (may need Admin too)

Finally! Thank you JeLovins77373!

That solved it! This is the first time I've got Deadlock 2 running since I bought it 2014!

Hello all,

I know this is a fairly old post, but I figure it's probably a popular one for people that are experiencing this issue.

I have created a way to eliminate the need for direct draw from the game altogether. It can run using the Windows GDI library just fine, although it will be in 640x480 windowed mode, and the blue cursor won't show up currently. Soon I plan on updating my fix to show the blue cursor without the problems that the real game has.

If this sounds like something you're interested in, check out my other post on this forum (currently it's the very last post in the thread).

[url=https://www(dot)gog(dot)com/forum/deadlock_series/deadlock_ii_screen_goes_blank/page2]https://www(dot)gog(dot)com/forum/deadlock_series/deadlock_ii_screen_goes_blank/page2[/url]