How to Fix a Graphics Card (GPU) Black Screen (STEPS)

Why Does my Graphics Card (GPU) Keep Going Black?

• GPU is damaged
• GPU is dirty and dusty
• GPU is overheating
• Incorrect driver is installed
• Power supply cable is not connected

A black screen is not an uncommon issue on a GPU. A black screen is a sign that the GPU is damaged. In some cases, it is also possible that dust accumulation or the fan is not working properly; causing overheating.

Drivers are the intermediate connection between a GPU card and the system. They are the ones that make sure that the GPU card works perfectly for bringing on the best graphics on the screen.

If the GPU driver installed is not up to date, it causes trouble with the graphics and images on the screen. This is the reason why it is crucial to keep the driver updated at all times.

 

Why does my graphics card keeps showing a black screen?

The crashing and black screen of a GPU is quite common among systems. It can be either a simple power supply issue or can be a software or driver issue.

The problem and its cause can differ from OS to OS and depend on the type of GPU.

Some of the major causes can be:

•      Driver problem: Maybe the new version of the driver is causing a problem, leading to a GPU crash. Make sure to uninstall the driver and then install an older stable version. Also, make the installation clean.
•      Third-party software: If two over-locking software is in use and runs simultaneously, it can cause the GPU to crash. It is better to remove any such software.
•      Hardware issue: Check if there is any damage to the GPU card and see if the capacitors are intact. Also, check the power supply to the system. If the cable is not connected correctly, then it can also cause the screen to go black.
•      Heating: If the printed circuit board undergoes overheating due to any reason, it can cause the GPU to crash and cause the screen to go black. Check the speed of the fan and make sure it is not running slowly.
•      Dust: Open the system and check the heat sink and fan, to see if there is any dust. Having too much of dust accumulated can be the cause of faulty power supply.

 

Does a black screen mean my GPU is dead?

At times, the GPU simply glitches after giving service for a few years. But, other times, it may be dead. Both the time it can give a black screen.

To recognize a dead GPU, there are few signs like blue screen, glitchy games and screen, stuttering, and abnormal fan noise coming from the system.

If the screen is simply going black and yet there is no other symptom of a dead GPU, then it might be a faulty card, or it can be a software issue.

A GPU can die due to many reasons like:

• Incompatible GPU and system installation
• Damaged components of the card
• Build-up of moisture
• Static overload
• Overheating due to broken fan or dust accumulation

 

Signs of a dead Graphics card, which requires replacement are:

•      Glitches: While playing games, if the screen glitches, it may be a sign of a dead GPU. The random sign may appear anywhere on the screen; the screen may start flickering, or there might be off-color pixilation.
•      Screen crashes: If the screen crashes suddenly while playing, and there are a plethora of error codes on the screen, it may be due to the GPU’s non-functioning.
•      Noisy fans: When you are playing games that use certain software not built for the GPU, it can cause the fans to work under extreme load. This load can cause its fan bearings to wear out. If the fans are not working, then the chances are that the GPU is dead or dying.

 

How do I fix a black screen on my graphics card?

If the screen suddenly goes black while playing a video, either the power supply is being problematic, or there is an issue with the GPU. For fixing the black screen issue, it is better to do some troubleshooting steps.

Some of the things that you can commonly see before the screen goes black are stuttering screens, weird objects appearing randomly on the screen, the screen shaking, and the likes.

A few things that you can do fix and troubleshoot a black screen problem are given below. Also, note that these steps can be helpful with GPUs like Asus, NVIDIA, Gigabyte, AMD, Zotac, and Intel.

1. Cooling the GPU: To solve the problem of overheating, the GPU should be cool. In the case of 3D rendering, if the fan gets loud, it is crucial to check the card’s temperature. Clean the card and remove debris and dust with compressed air to cool the card.
2. Update or roll back the driver: The driver and the GPU card should be compatible with each other. If the driver is out of date, then update the driver, and if the card is old, roll back the driver to solve the problem.
3. Check the card and cable: Sometimes, the problems tend to be too small, and you might miss them. Therefore, check if the cards are sitting properly in their seats and check if the additional plugs are plugged in. Also, make sure there is not much wiggle room around. Keep the cable connected properly, and if the cable is not ok, replace it.
4. Replace the card: If after inspection, all seems ok, and yet the card is not working, it is time to change it. One will see that after changing the card, the black screen issue will be gone.

 

Seeing Black screen after installing GPU

If the screen is going black and there is no signal, then either the GPU is not installed correctly, or there is some card damage.

 

Signs of a damaged GPU are:

• Glitch on the screen
• Strange artifacts on the screen appearing randomly
• Overheated GPU
• Loud noise coming from the fan
• Screen stuttering

 

How to fix:

If the black screen’s problem is appearing randomly, then try to fix it by these steps. These steps are effective for certain GPU cards like Zotac, Asus, and Gigabyte.

1. Turn the computer off and unplug it completely. Now remove the GPU card.
2. Connect the video output to the monitor and switch on the computer.
3. After clicking on the start.
4. Type misconfig.
5. Click on the boot tab.
6. Choose a safe boot option (minimal selected).
7. Click on Ok, but do not restart the computer.
8. Shut down the system and unplug.
9. Reinstall the graphic card.
10. Start the computer in safe mode.
11. Click on the device manager and then to display adapter.
12. Disable the driver.
13. Click on start.
14. Type misconfig.
15. Disable safe mode and restart the system.

 

GPU black screen after driver install

Three things can be the cause of the black screen after installing a new GPU driver: power supply, damaged card, or motherboard slot not working.

After installing updates or installing a new driver, the GPU card is not working, then it can be a hardware issue, as the GPU card is not getting recognized.

 

How to fix:

In general, if you have a GPU card from any manufacturer like ASUS, AMD, Gigabyte, and Intel, then these steps can be performed for troubleshooting:

1. Remove the card and clean the card and the contacts.
2. Clean the slots from any dust or debris.
3. Check if the 2 PCI-E cables are connected.
4. Check the power supply and make sure enough power is getting transferred to the card.
5. Update the BIOS settings.
6. Take the card out and reseat in the top slot.
7. Go to BIOS settings and remove the auto option and choose the PCIEx16 slot.

 

A few steps that can be helpful if you have NVIDIA card are:

1. First, download the standard NVIDIA driver and not the HCP version.
2. Download a driver uninstaller tool.
3. Unplug the internet.
4. From the control panel, uninstall the previous NVIDIA driver using the uninstaller tool.
5. Then install the standard driver of NVIDIA.
6. Restart the system.

 

Black screen when the graphics card is plugged in

If the graphic card is plugged in and the screen is still black, then maybe there is an output display issue, or there may be an issue with the BIOS settings.

When attaching the graphic card, there can be a plethora of issues that can cause the screen to go black. However, among them, only a few things can be resolved by any normal PC user. But if after trying all the troubleshooting steps and the screen is still not booting, there might be a direct problem with the graphics card.

 

How to fix:

Few things that can be down if you have an NVIDIA, AMD, ASUS, Intel, Zotac or gigabyte cards are:

 

While plugging in the GPU card:

– Keep the output for display connected to the internal card.

– Open the windows and got to devise manager

– Check the display adapter drop down and see if the GPU driver is there.

– Go to display properties, click on display cloning.

– Now connect the display cable to the GPU.

– Choose the primary display as GPU.

• Uninstall the GPU driver and then reinstall it. After this, attach the GPU.
• Check the BIOS settings. Check the display settings and then put PEG/PCI-E for the primary display.
• You can also reboot the system with safe mode using a DDU.
• Also, check whether the monitor is causing the issue, as many cards like NVIDIA, do not work with VGA anymore and only work with DVI-D and HDMI.

 

Black screen GPU fan maxed out at 100

If the fan is running at max and the screen turns black, this means the fan is overheating. This can be due to bad assembly of the system. Therefore, you need to open the rig and check if the components are correctly put in place.

Every graphic card requires its own fans. This is because the fans tend to pass an airflow that keeps the heat-sink temperature controlled.

When the fans work, they keep the graphic cards efficient and keep the heat conduction low.

CPUs also require their own fans to keep them cool, but GPUs work more extensively and draw more power due to which fans need to work more efficiently.

If the GPU is not assembled properly and id it is drawing too much power, then it can max out the fan’s speed.

Maxing the fans’ speed can make the card glitch over time, which can cause the screen to go black.

 

Check the chip to find the issue:

1. Disassemble the system.
2. Uninstall the graphic card.
3. Check the thermal paste.
4. If the paste has hardened and settled around the chip, making contact with the heatsink. Then this stands to be the major issue.

 

How to fix:

To fix this issue, you can go through these steps one by one:

1. Firstly, clean the hardened thermal paste in and around both the CPU and GPU chip.
2. Clear the CMOS.
3. Verify the EPU and TPU and make sure that they are disconnected from the physical switch.
4. If required, replace the case fan.
5. Check the PSU and make sure there is no physical damage after cleaning the system.
6. Run a stress test for the GPU card and see if the fan speed has come down.

 

Black screen flickering NVIDIA GPU

If you are using an NVIDIA GPU card, then at times, the screen may go black and start flickering for a few seconds and come back. This issue may be due to either incompatible GPU driver installation or an outdated driver. If not, then this can be a general display setting issue.

 

How to fix:

Steps to fix this issue are:

1. Run troubleshooting for the GPU.
2. Go to the device manager.
3. Go to the display adapter and uninstall the graphic card drivers.
4. Restart the computer.
5. In case the issue is still there, then, go to NVCP.
6. Go to Adjust display color settings in the sub-menu.
7. Choose the Full-screen video option from the autoselect.
8. Restart the computer.

 

NVIDIA graphics card keeps blacking out

If the graphics card is by NVIDIA and after installing it, the screen goes black randomly, then it might be a driver related issue. The card may be unstable due to which it is making the system unstable, causing it to crash.

 

How to fix:

Steps to fix this issue are:

1. Uninstall the driver and reinstall it.
2. Take out the graphics card and check if there is any damage to it and check if there is any debris or dust.
3. Check the power supply and cables.
4. Upgrade the BIOS settings. Clean the BIOS and remove any corruption and also set up the BIOS to PCI-E.

Some people are reporting a problem with the current version of the NVIDIA driver. Therefore, you can go back to the older version and see if the issue is still there.

 

GPU crashes and showing black screen

If the GPU crashes and suddenly shows a black screen, that means either the GPU driver has crashed, or the GPU card is not signaling to the screen. This is very common among cards like NVIDIA, Asus, AMD, Intel, and the like.

 

How to fix:

Either you will have to change the GPU card because it is dead, or there is some software issue that needs fixing. A few troubleshooting steps are:

1. Check the GPU card for any physical damage or hardened thermal paste.
2. Set the BIOS for PCI.
3. Lower the GPU clock speed.
4. Uninstall the driver and reinstall it.
5. Increase the speed of the fan to keep the GPU cool.

 

AMD RX 5700 XT black screen

If you are running AMD RX 5700 XT graphic card and suddenly there is a black screen, it could be a driver issue. The best way to solve this is by updating the software to the latest version and installing it.

 

How to fix:

Few things that can be done to solve this issue are:

1. Take out the GPU card and reinstall it.
2. Roll back the driver to the last version.
3. Update the driver to the latest version.
4. Keep the windows settings blocked to make sure that the driver does not get updated.
5. Use DDU to uninstall and reinstall safely.
6. Keep the ram speed high.
7. Keep the fan speed high.
8. Make sure that the temperature is not above 52 degrees.
9. Check the power cables and supplies.

 

5700 XT black screen and no signal

If you are using an AMD 5700 XT, then many times, the screen goes black, or there is a loss of signal that is shown in the dialog box. This can be a hardware or software issue.

Usually, this problem is seen when the heatsink temperature rises or when the GPU card is running on an outdated driver.

 

How to fix:

Few troubleshooting steps to fix the problem are:

1. Do a hard reset in the GPU settings.
2. Check the monitor and see if there is any display issue.
3. Check the card’s clock speed. Ensure that the clock’s speed is not too high, specifically above the required advertised speed.
4. Use a DDU software and uninstall the driver safely and then reinstall it.
5. Make sure that the connecting cables are of PCI type.
6. Do a stress test on GPU using AIDA64.
7. Run a test on the RAM and make sure that the RAM speed is high.

 

 

GeForce GTX 1060 black screen

Those who are using NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 can sometimes display problems when they are playing any heavy graphic games, and the screen starts flickering. The screen can go completely black in some other certain cases, as well. Common reasons can be either a problem with the GPU driver, or it can be a video cable issue.

 

How to fix:

Few things to fix this problem are:

1. Use DDU to uninstall the driver safely and reinstall it.
2. Use the latest version of the NVIDIA GPU.
3. Check the power cable and power supplies and change the cables if required.
4. Change the GPU plugin from PCI to SLI.
5. Check the video cable and make sure the HDMI cable is plugged in correctly. Make sure that the HDMI cable is connected to the HDMI port only.

 

GeForce RTX 2080 and black screen

Suppose you have just invested in a new NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 to and you face a problem of the recurring black screen while playing games or using any other application. In that case, it could be a video cable or driver issue.

 

How to fix:

Few troubleshooting steps to fix the problem are:

1. Uninstall the GPU card and then look for any damage.
2. Plugin to another working monitor.
3. Use HDMI cable to the plugin.
4. Uninstall the NVIDIA driver.
5. Uninstall GeForce experience.
6. Click on custom installation and then click on clean installation.
7. Reinstall the GeForce experience.
8. Update any other type of software.
9. Plug the system into the first monitor.