The Windows 10 operating system, like its predecessors, is prone to various technical failures and critical errors. One of the most common problems is the chaotic, or constant, appearance of a “black screen” on the monitor. Moreover, this “darkness” can manifest itself both immediately, when the OS is loaded, and during the operation of the PC.
Content
- 1Types of “black screen” on Windows 10
- 2When a black screen may appear
- 3Reasons for the appearance of a “black screen” on Windows 10 and how to fix it
- 1The presence of malware on the computer (viruses, Trojans, “worms”)
- 2Problem installing a new version of video drivers
- 2.1Video: How to Roll Back a Video Driver on Windows 10
- 3Video card driver conflict after system upgrade to Windows 10
- 4Redirecting the video signal to another video card connector
- 5Invalid screen resolution
- 5.1Video: How to Boot Safe Mode on Windows 10
- 6Connected devices conflict with Windows 10
- 7System (software) failure of one of the Windows 10 processes
- 8Corrupted “user profile”
Varieties of “black screen” on Windows 10
There are two types of “black screens” in total:
- “Empty”, i.e. completely black (appears before Windows 10 is loaded);
- “With the mouse cursor” (appears immediately after the system boots, or already while the PC is running).
If a “black screen” appears after loading, then most often the user can only move the cursor across the screen, without accessing system settings (including using hot keys).
When may a “black screen” appear
The list of occurrences of such a screen is very diverse:
- when booting into Windows 10 (right after the welcome screen);
- when the system is rebooted (however, the “black screen” may not appear if the PC is not restarted, but turned off / on);
- After downloading an update package for Windows 10 (or while installing updates);
- when Windows 10 resumes from hibernation;
- when minimizing (using the “ALT + TAB” keyboard shortcut) games or programs / applications;
- while working in applications that use the graphics resources of the PC.
Reasons for the appearance of a “black screen” on Windows 10 and how to fix it
There are several reasons for the appearance of a “black screen”. Most often, they are preceded by any actions of the users themselves. Let’s consider the most common ones.
The presence of malware on the computer (viruses, Trojans, “worms”)
If you encounter a problem related to the appearance of a “black screen”, the first thing to do is scan your PC for unwanted software.
The author of this article recommends running an antivirus scan of the system in two stages: first, scan the “critical zones” (the system disk with Windows installed), and then run the scan again, but this time “full” – of the entire PC. This method will increase the efficiency of malware search and elimination.
Any popular antivirus has several options for checking your PC
Problem installing a new version of video drivers
“Black screen” periodically starts to appear after installing a new driver assembly. You can fix the problem by rolling back the driver to a previous version. This requires:
- Right-click on the “Start” menu and select the “Device Manager” section.You can also open the “Device Manager” by finding it through the search bar WIndows
- In the opened dispatcher, find the line “Video adapters”, where, by right-clicking on the installed video card, select the “Properties” menu.You can also open the properties window by double-clicking the left mouse button on the installed video card
- In the appeared video card information window, go to the “Driver” tab and click the “Rollback” button.After rolling back to the previous version of the video driver, remember to restart your computer
- Wait until the end of the rollback process and restart the PC.
Video: How to Roll Back a Video Driver on Windows 10
Sometimes downgrading to a previous version does not fix the black screen problem. Therefore, the author of this article suggests in this case to try to uninstall the driver (through the device manager / properties of the video card, in the same “Driver” tab), before that, remembering the version of the last installed driver (it is also recorded in the properties). Then go to the official website of the developer of your video card, find and download the penultimate version of the driver (with which your system worked properly) and install it again.
Video card driver conflict after upgrading to Windows 10
The problem can occur if you did not perform a “clean” installation of Windows 10, but an older version of the OS (for example, Windows 7 or 8.1) was updated. In this case, you will have to “roll back” the system to the old version, then remove all drivers and update Windows again.
- Press the “WIN + PAUSE” key combination to open the “System” settings window. Go to the “System Protection” category.System settings can also be opened by finding them through the Windows 10 search bar
- In the window that opens, we find the “System Protection” tab. Click on the “Restore” button.You can also create your own restore point in the System Protection settings menu.
- Select one of the available system restore points, click the “Next” button. After the end, restart the PC.If you have not personally created system restore points, then you will still have at least one available point
- After returning to the previous version of Windows, go to the “Device Manager” / “Video adapters” and in the properties of the video card (driver tab) press the “Delete” button.
- Now you can update Windows again to the tenth version.
To be sure to remove all old video drivers, the author of this article may advise you not to uninstall the driver in the video card settings, but uninstall the video adapter itself. To do this, go to the “Device Manager” and in the “Video adapters” tab, right-click and click “Delete”. Then proceed to the repeated process of updating the system.
After updating the system to Windows 10, the auto search for all devices connected to the PC will again be performed (with the subsequent installation of drivers)
Redirecting the video signal to another video card connector
Relevant for all modern models of video cards with multiple connectors (HDMI). Redirection is done manually by switching the cable from one slot to another.
Sometimes it is enough just to reconnect the HDMI cable to another connector of the video card
However, there is another way to redirect the video signal. To do this, you just need to open the factory settings of your monitor (usually the settings button panel is located at the bottom front of the monitor). Where, by going to the settings “Input Source” (“Input Select”), select the appropriate connector.
Similar settings are available on any brand of monitors
Invalid screen resolution
“Black screen” appears if the screen resolution does not match the capabilities of the monitor (video card). The solution to the problem is to lower the available resolution. Since the “black screen” appears immediately after rebooting the system, you need to change the resolution through the “safe mode” Windows.
- While loading Windows 10, hold down the “F8” key until the “Select action” settings window appears, where you need to go to the “Troubleshooting” / “Advanced options” category.You can also use the SHIFT + F8 keyboard shortcut to launch the Action Selection settings (if F8 does not work)
- In the next section, go to the “Boot Options” settings.You can also try to automatically diagnose and fix the black screen problem by selecting “Startup Repair”
- Then, from the list provided, select one of the safe mode boot options (F4-F6).When fixing the black screen problem, it makes no difference which of the safe mode options you choose
- After booting the system in safe mode, right-clicking on the desktop, select the “Display settings” settings.You can also open the display settings using the Windows search bar
- In the settings window that appears, click on the line “Advanced display settings”.Before entering the settings “Additional screen parameters” you can click on the item “Define” to automatically adjust the monitor
- Then set the required resolution (first try setting the standard 1024 × 768).Initially, it is better to set the standard resolution and after restarting the PC, try to gradually increase it
- To restart a computer.
Video: How to Boot Safe Mode on Windows 10
Remember that when solving a black screen problem, it makes no difference which of the three safe mode options you boot into.
Connected devices conflict with Windows 10
There can be several such devices: a second monitor, an integrated discrete video card, network adapters, and even a card reader. Most often, if there is such a conflicting device, then you can find out about it in the “Device Manager” Windows.
- Start the “device manager” (RMB on the “Start” button). Expanding all the tabs one by one, find all devices that conflict with the system (they will be marked with a yellow exclamation mark).Some conflicting devices may also be called “unknown device”
- On each such device, right-click and select Disable.If you do not disconnect, but delete the conflicting devices, then after restarting the PC, the Windows system will automatically find them again and turn it on.
- Reboot your PC.
System (software) failure of one of the Windows 10 processes
A black screen may appear if the RunOnce system process fails. The solution to the problem is to temporarily stop this process.
- Open the “Task Manager” (by right-clicking on the “Start” menu).You can open the “Task Manager” using the hotkeys CTRL + ALT + DELETE
- Stop the process “RunOnce.exe” (it may also be called “RunOnce32.exe”) in two tabs: “Processes” and “Services”. Right-click on the running process and select “Stop” from the list that appears.Don’t forget to stop RunOnce in both tabs (Processes / Services)
- Reboot your computer.
Damaged “user profile”
The problem occurs when the user profile settings system registry fails. To repair a damaged registry file, you need to create a new account:
- Open the command line (hotkeys “WIN + R”) and write the command “mmc”.You can also call the command line by right-clicking on the Start menu
- Select the line “Local users and groups” and open the “Users” folder in the window that appears on the right.After double clicking on the “Users” folder, a complete list of all previously created users will open
- Click on the top command line on the item “Action” – “New user”.You can also create a new user using the console on the right by clicking “More Actions”
- In the appeared form for creating a new user, enter your personal data and click on the “Create” button.If there is already a check mark at some point, it is better not to remove it.
- Now close your console and reboot your system.
If, due to the fact that the “black screen” appears immediately after the PC boots, you cannot use one or another method to solve the problem, the author of this article recommends booting in Windows “safe mode”. In this mode, you can easily try any of the above methods.
Black screen problem is one of the most common on Windows OS. There may be several reasons for its appearance, but none of them is critical, requiring drastic measures to eliminate the problem. After all, even if the “black screen” appears immediately when Windows 10 starts up, you can always start the “safe mode” and solve the problem that has arisen.
