How to fix Windows 10 black screen issues

Windows 10 Black Screen Issues can be a real pain. Even a Blue Screen of Death is more informative than your monitor turning black and giving you nothing. Typically, these black screens happen just after a Windows update or as you log in. It seems no amount of key pressing or mouse clicking can fix it. Fortunately, the experts at Dave’s Computers can.

There are a couple things you can do to fix Windows 10 black screen issues depending on when it occurs. If you’re experiencing this problem, here is what you can do.

Fix Windows 10 black screen issues

There are four ways that we know of to address these black screen problems. Let’s begin with the simplest.

1. Press Ctrl on your keyboard. While you won’t see anything happen, bear with us.
2. Type in your Windows 10 login password and then Enter. Windows may log you into the desktop as normal. If it doesn’t, try step 3.
3. Hit Enter, retype your password and hit Enter once more. This will retest this quick fix and make sure the password is entered in the right place.

Sometimes, login gets stuck loading your profile and will present a black screen. By hitting Ctrl, you select the password box in the login screen. Entering your password should log you in as usual and allow Windows to load your profile and your desktop as normal.

If that doesn’t work and you have just installed or upgraded Windows 10, check your monitor cable. Windows can often default to a different configuration than you would like and may switch between an onboard graphics chip and a graphics card. If your motherboard has onboard graphics, plug your monitor into the DVI/VGA port on the motherboard and retest.

Otherwise:

1. Start your computer with your Windows 10 installation media inserted and boot from it.
2. Select Troubleshoot instead of Install in the bottom left of the new screen.
3. Select Advanced Options, Startup Repair and let Windows do its thing. If there are file issues, this should repair it.

If it doesn’t:

Boot your computer with your Windows 10 installation media inserted and boot from it.

1. Select Troubleshoot instead of Install in the bottom left of the new screen.
2. Select Advanced Options and Safe Mode. Press F5 and let Windows reload.
3. Install the latest graphics driver for your computer and reboot and retest.

One more important check if you're on a laptop: shine a flashlight at an angle into the dark screen. If you can faintly make out your desktop behind the glass, Windows is actually running fine — the backlight or panel has failed, and no software fix will bring it back. That's a hardware job our laptop screen repair service handles, usually in 2–3 days.

In most cases, one of these will fix Windows 10 black screen issues. If you still can’t fix it — or the screen goes black again after every fix — that usually means hardware, and pinning that down is exactly what our flat-rate PC repair in New Jersey service does in 24–48 hours. Contact Dave’s Computers today at 908-428-9558. We’re here to help!