Dealing with a black screen while gaming on Windows can be frustrating, as it disrupts your gameplay. It's a common issue that troubles many gamers. There are various reasons behind a black screen during gaming, and let's explore them along with their solutions.
You can read the following article for more suggestions:
A PC that experiences a screen turning off while gaming issue indicates a significant problem with your system's hardware or software. Faulty or outdated graphics card drivers, interference from third-party applications, or sometimes Windows updates can cause such issues.
Modern games have minimum requirements and specific graphics card standards to run these high-performance games smoothly. If any of these are lacking or malfunctioning, it can cause black screens while gaming.
If you're experiencing a black screen with no cursor issue on Windows 11 when not gaming, this article will provide assistance.
[2023 New Solution] Windows 11 Black Screen with No Cursor Issue
To fix the Windows 11 black screen with no cursor problem, we'll show you 5 solutions with detailed steps and screenshots.
We have compiled a list of 6 effective solutions to fix the black screen issue and get your game back on track. They are outlined below. Try them one by one and see which works for you.
First, check your computer's Power Supply Unit (PSU). If it's underpowered, it might not be able to support the demands of gaming applications, which can lead to temporary blackouts. In this case, your screen might go black in the middle of a game.
Check the power source, plug the cable back into your computer, and try playing the game again to see if this resolves the black screen issue while gaming.
Read more: Windows 11 Black Screen with Cursor
A restart is like a blessing for all electronic devices as it loads the operating system afresh, providing a clean slate to resolve minor software issues. So, after confirming that your power supply is fine, you should first try restarting your computer to see if the black screen issue while gaming in Windows 10/11 goes away.
Hardware devices provide backend support for software to function efficiently. However, they tend to age over time, and it's essential to monitor and update drivers, such as display adapters and graphics card drivers, to ensure optimal performance.
Sometimes, compatibility issues will arise meaning that the hardware doesn't meet the minimum requirements. In this case, you may need to upgrade your hardware in order to play the game again.
Step 1: Press Windows + R to open the "Run" dialog box. Type cmd or powershell and press Enter to run the command.
Step 2. After about 60 seconds, the Diagnosis Results will display. Click on the Diagnosis Results section now to view the status of your computer's components in the subsections.
If your system's graphics processing capability isn't up to the game's graphical demands or resolution, your graphics card driver could be the culprit for the black screen issue in Windows. Make sure your graphics card driver is up to date and meets the game's minimum requirements. You can use the Task Manager to monitor your graphics card's performance.
If you're wondering, “What graphics card do I have?” you can click the link to learn how to check.
"Screen going black while playing games with Nvidia graphics card"
If your computer is experiencing black screens while playing games like League of Legends, Minecraft, Overwatch, or others, it could be due to Nvidia driver issues or overclocking problems. Users have reported black screen issues occurring specifically while gaming.
Thus, it's recommended to update to the latest version from the official site, or if the issue persists with the new driver, you could roll back to an older version to see if that solves the problem.
Black screen issues when using AMD for gaming
Black screens during gaming are also common for another major graphics driver manufacturer, AMD. The causes are similar, and AMD drivers have had a history of crashing. Therefore, an update or further investigation to understand the cause and act accordingly is recommended. Open Device Manager and update them.
Since a third-party app might also be causing this issue, you can perform a clean boot to see if the problem persists. A clean boot means that no third-party applications are running, making it an ideal state to check if any of these apps are problematic.
1. Press Windows + R to open the Run window, type msconfig, and press Enter.
Step 2. Go to the General tab, and check the Selective Startup box. Make sure that Load System Services and Use Original Boot Configuration are also checked.
Check the system configuration
Step 3: Next, go to the Services tab, check Hide all Microsoft services, and then click Disable all.
4. Click “OK.” A window will appear, prompting you to click “Restart” to perform a clean boot.
Step 5. If the black screen issue is gone, you'll need to enable these one by one to find the culprit. Once you've found it, uninstall it and try playing the game.
Resetting on Windows 10/11 refers to restoring all settings to their default values. You can do this in two ways – either without losing your data or by removing everything from your device. The article "How to Factory Reset Your PC Without Losing Data" teaches you how to perform a clean install while keeping your operating system up-to-date. The purpose of this is to improve your device's performance, battery life, and security.
Step 1: Go to Start > Settings > System > Recovery. Here, you'll find “Reset this PC.” Click on it.
Step 2. On the Reset this PC screen, choose the option you need. For this example, select the Keep my files option.
Step 3: In the next window, select Local Reinstall to reinstall the operating system on the device.
Step 4. Follow the on-screen instructions and then restart your computer when you're done to see if the black screen issue while gaming has been fixed.
While modern games save all data to the cloud, many popular titles still keep game saves locally. In this case, there's always a risk of losing progress if something goes wrong. Thus, if you're a gamer and want to back up and restore your game data on demand, Todo Backup is a professional backup and recovery tool that offers various backup solutions.
Tools Todo Backup is an efficient and secure offline backup tool for data protection. Currently, it's the best backup software for gamers to back up PC game saves. Once you locate the game data files, you can use Tools to back up Steam cloud saves, configurations, custom data, and even entire game disks.
You can use the Tools to create a scheduled backup. Thanks to the advanced backup options it provides, Tools will automatically update copies of your game data whenever you make progress in your game.
Other notable features of Todo Backup include:
Here are the steps to follow:
Step 1: To begin the backup, click on Select what to backup.
Step 2. There are four types of data backup: files, disks, operating system, and email.
Step 3: On the left, you'll see a list of local and network files. Expand the directories to locate the files you want to back up.
Step 4. Follow the on-screen instructions to choose where you want to save your backup.
Under "Backup Options", click "Options" to encrypt your backup with a password, set up a backup schedule, and choose whether to initiate backups during specific events in the "Backup Policy". There are many customizable features for you to explore, allowing you to tailor the backup process according to your specific needs.
Step 5: Backups can be stored on a local disk, the Tools cloud service, or a network-attached storage (NAS) device.
Step 6. Todo Backup lets users back up data to a third-party cloud drive or the company's own cloud storage.
If you want to back up your data to a third-party cloud drive, choose “Local Disk,” scroll down to add a “Cloud Device,” and enter your account information.
Alternatively, you can use Todo Backup's own cloud storage service. Click Todo Cloud, create an account with your Todo Backup account, and log in.
Step 7: To initiate the backup, click “Backup Now.” When the backup process is successfully completed, it will appear as a card on the left panel. You can right-click it for more detailed management of your backup tasks.
In many cases, the black screen issue on Windows 10/11 while gaming is caused by your graphics card driver. In rare instances, it can be due to something else. Try the solutions mentioned in the article and see if they fix the black screen while gaming. If it's a hardware issue, you can run specific troubleshooters or replace the hardware.
Also, game files safety is important for gamers. You can use the automatic backup software Todo Backup Home to build a smart backup solution for your game data.
A black screen can be caused by a graphics card issue or LCD backlight failure, though the computer is still running in the background. Use another monitor to check if the issue is with the screen itself. If it is, replace or repair the screen, or try fixing driver problems to get the display back.
It depends on the specific cause. Usually, a "black screen of death" is caused by software issues, which can be resolved through repairs or fixes. If the black screen appears randomly and disappears on its own, it might indicate a hardware problem that would require repair or replacement.