The omg black screen or “black screen of death” can happen for any number of reasons in Windows 10 from loose connections to faulty graphics drivers. Here we’ve gathered some quick fixes showing you how to fix this age-old problem. – five easy methods. Being greeted with a black screen (or “black screen of all-consuming nothingness” as I like to call it) is always a bit of a shock. It may even be more terrifying than the dreaded blue screen of death, because at least the latter shows you some signs of life. Here we’re going to take you through the most common causes and fixes for a black screen on Windows. The obvious stuff. Loose connections, dying monitor cables or the simple possibility that your screen may be switched off, particularly on laptops where pressing the function key and the F key (with the screen symbol on it) can toggle the screen on and off, are some of the most obvious reasons why your screen’s not working.
Before we move on to the more comprehensive stuff double-check that all the aforementioned things are in order. Windows Outputting to wrong monitor. If you dabble in multi-monitor setups and second screens and if that second screen isn’t on or connected at that particular time, it may cause your main screen to fire blanks. Assuming you’re in Windows press Win + P twice and then hit enter. If that fails hit win + P three times then enter. If THAT fails then do it four times and hit enter. Even though you can’t see what’s going on when pressing these buttons, you’re toggling through windows 2nd screen options, selecting a different one each time and potentially triggering your main display to reappear. Video output port has changed.
Sometimes without your permission or after a Windows or GPU driver update, the default video port might change unexpectedly. So, if you are using a DVI cable the default port might change to HDMI. Or the default output port might change from the HDMI ports on your GPU to the one on your motherboard. Try to plug an HDMI cable into the different HDMI ports on your PC combine this with the Win + P tip we mentioned earlier if you finally do get a picture, plug the cable back into the port you want to use and Windows should register it. Misinstalled or buggy graphics card driver. A common one for gamers this. Sometimes a graphics driver update, be it AMD, Nvidia or Intel, doesn’t go as well as it should or your current graphics drivers have picked up some bugs leading to a black screen. If this happens you should go into Windows Safe Mode and reinstall or update the drivers from there. Safe mode doesn’t load your GPU drivers so your display should be unaffected there. To go into safe mode you’ll need a Windows 10 recovery drive or installation disk or drive.
Once you’ve created or found it to insert it into your PC, reboot your PC or turn it on, and then in the recovery menu to select your keyboard layout followed by troubleshoot – > Advanced Options -> Command Prompt. Here enter the command C: hit enter and type “bcdedit /set {default} bootmenupolicy legacies” followed by enter. Next close the command prompt window and click “turn off your PC”. Then, as it’s booting repeatedly press f8. In the Advanced Boot Options menu select “safe mode with networking” Once you’re in safe mode with networking reinstall or update your graphics drivers. BONUS Have you overclocked your monitor? Alternatively if you’re into overclocking your monitor and have just updated your drivers there’s a chance that Windows is still trying to run the screen at a higher refresh rate: 90Hz, 120Hz or whatever, even though the updated drivers reset the refresh rate to default.
To fix this you’ll need to go into safe mode. Find whatever program you use to overclock your monitor, Custom Resolution Utility in our case, and remove the overclocked resolution. After that login to Windows as you normally would and the screen should work. After that you can get back to patching your GPU drivers again and overclocking your monitor. Conclusion. A black screen issue is a tough issue to pin down because it’s so frustratingly broad. Hopefully however we’ve covered enough bases here that with their help, you’ll be able to get to your screen back to its lucid best.