Welcome back, in today’s video we’ll be looking at ways to try and fix a black or blank screen
on a Windows 11 PC or laptop. I take it you are probably watching this on a different device
so hopefully one of the methods will work and we can get you back on your PC. Of course, there’s
always the chance that the black screen is caused by physical damage to either your monitor or the
cables, or even the graphics card. Some of the methods we’ll cover will be within safe mode on
your PC, as that will hopefully allow us to access the PC. Click the card onscreen now to watch my
video showing you how to start in safe mode, even from a black screen in Windows. You should be able
to follow the method in that video on any version of Windows. If your PC screen is still black, even
in safe mode then it’s much more likely that the problem is due to connections or ports. Remember
to leave a like and feel free to subscribe if the video helps, let’s get into the methods.
If the black screen appeared whilst you were working on a document, you can press Control
and the S key at the same time to save your work before we look at some of the fixes.
The first few solutions will be for those of you that get the black screen before you even
have a chance to log in. If this is the case, the most common issue will be with your monitor
and connections however there are potentially other causes. The first thing to try will be
to press the caps lock button, this will allow us to test if your PC is responding.
If it is responding, you’ll see the caps lock indicator light up on your keyboard.
If the light does appear, and your PC is responding, you can try refreshing the screen.
You can do this by pressing four buttons on your keyboard at the same time. These buttons are the
windows key, the control key, the shift key and the letter B key. When you press these together,
you’ll probably hear a beep and the screen will refresh. If you’re using Windows 11 on a tablet
PC, you can do this by pressing the volume up and down buttons together
3 times within 2 seconds. If this doesn’t work, we’ll continue with some more fixes.
It’s now more likely that the connection to your monitor, or the monitor itself is the problem.
There are a few things to try. Firstly, ensure that your monitor display is working, you should
be able to check this by bringing up the menu. If that works, the connection is probably the cause.
This could mean that the wires, or the ports are broken or faulty.
Check the ports on your PC, monitor and on the cable itself for any visible damage. If there is a
minor cable problem, you may see an image flicker on the screen, if this happens, you’ll need to
determine whether it’s the cable or the ports. If you have a spare cable, you could try using that.
Also ensure that your monitor is set to the correct input, it might be worth trying all the
inputs available just to check. You can also try using another video output on your PC, for example
if you can, use DisplayPort rather than HDMI or if you have more than one HDMI, use another port.
If you’re using a laptop, it might be worth taking it to a repair shop to check for any
internal connection faults. Also, depending on your keyboard, try increasing the brightness.
This method will be different depending on the laptop manufacturer,
you can search online for how to do this. You can also try searching your graphics card,
to see if there are any problems related to it or if it is even supported by Windows 11.
If the monitor, connections, or graphics card isn’t the problem, it now could be caused by
software. These fixes can be used whenever you get the black screen, whether you are able log
in or not or even if you get a blank screen with a spinning loading circle. For these solutions,
we’re going to need to start in safe mode. The video will be linked in the description
to show how to do that, even from a black screen. When you start up, Windows will be running with
limited features. Firstly, we’re going to try uninstalling any software that may have caused
the problem. You’ll need to think about any recent software changes that may have caused the black
screen. To uninstall software, go to the settings page, you can get here a number of ways but we’ll
be searching for it in the search bar. In the settings, go to apps and then apps and features.
Find the programs from the list, click on the three dots icon and then click on uninstall.
If you use any third-party anti-virus software, that could be causing the black screen so you
could try uninstalling that. Restart your PC to check if these solutions have worked at any
time within safe mode. It may be worth waiting though for a few more solutions,
but feel free to try it now if you think software could be the cause.
We’ll now focus on our display drivers. We’re going to check if we can roll
back our drivers first, and to do this you’ll want to go to the device manager.
You can get here by searching for it in the search bar. In the device manager, find the option named
display adapters and click on it. Then right click on your graphics card and select properties.
Go to the driver tab and now look for where it says rollback driver and click on that if you
can. If it’s greyed out, we can also try updating our graphics card drivers. You can do that from
within here too by clicking on update driver and then choosing the automatic option. Alternatively,
you can search for a driver update and download and install it from the manufacturer’s website.
Use the info of your graphics card in the device manager to download the correct driver for your
device. For more help installing the latest graphics card drivers, click the card onscreen
now to watch my detailed tutorial on that. We’ll now try changing the refresh rate of
the display within Windows 11. To do this, go to the main settings page by searching for it
and then choose system from the options on the left, although you should be in here by default.
Now click on display from the list. In the display settings, look for and click on the option called
advanced display settings. Make sure your monitor is selected in here at the top and then look for
the section that allows you to change the refresh rate. Change this to a different value and see if
that fixes it. It might be worth changing it to all of the available values. If a value
doesn’t work or makes the problem worse, it will revert back if you don’t press anything.
Next, think about any additional hardware that you have connected to your PC. This could
include things like a USB stick or a mouse and keyboard, or even a wired internet connection. Try
unplugging every device from your computer whilst it is turned off and then power it on to see if
anything makes a difference. This is very unlikely to be the cause, but at least we can rule it out.
I know that this has helped me in the past after installing Windows updates so it’s worth a try.
If the issue is still appearing after you have restarted your PC,
there are a few more things you could try. If you get the black screen after logging in, try and
open the task manager by pressing Control, Alt and Delete at the same time, then select task manager.
Alternatively, you can press Control, Shift and Escape to open the task manager.
In the task manager, try restarting the process called Windows Explorer.
Find Windows explorer from the list, right click on it and select restart.
If you still have the black screen at this stage, you might need to completely reset your PC.
Only do this though if you can rule out that the issue is not related to the ports, cables,
connections or your monitor. Try replacing each of these before resetting to confirm it
is software related. You can reset your PC by going to settings, then in the system settings,
choose recovery and then reset PC and finally follow the options it gives you.
Remember that some of these options will delete your personal files so bear that in mind.
Unfortunately, those are all of the methods I have. As always, I will keep the description
updated with any new solutions I find and if any of you find a fix in the future then it would be
great if you could return to the video and post it in the comments to help others. Click the card on
screen now to watch a video of mine showing you ten easy ways you can speed up your Windows PC.
Those methods should work on nearly all versions of Windows. Help support the channel by visiting
the store – the link is in the description and at the end of the video. If you have any questions,
then let me know in the comments below and if you did find today’s video helpful
remember to leave a like and feel free to subscribe for more tips in the future.
Be sure to stick around to see some of my other videos that you might be interested in.
Thanks so much for watching and I will see you in another video!