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Black screens5/21/2023 If this screen does appear, click “Cancel” (as shown) and your desktop should reappear in working order. What this screen capture doesn’t show is the power buttons at the lower right, with networking, ease of access and power controls (shut down, restart, and so forth) from left to right. And sometimes when that’s the case, this key sequence will repaint the screen to show you the secure log-in options. Ed Tittel/IDG Ctrl + Alt + Delete invokes the Windows 10 secure sign-in screen.Įven when the preceding combo gets the graphics driver going, it sometimes still won’t light up the screen. Starting with Windows 95 (and Windows NT version 3.5), this key combination now invokes the secure sign-in screen shown in the figure below. It’s notorious to those who’ve been using Microsoft OSes for a long time (since the mid-‘90s or earlier), because it used to forcibly reboot the OS when struck. This is a familiar key combo to longtime Windows (and even DOS) users. Then it’s time to try the second sequence. Sometimes, nothing else will happen after the disk activity light ceases flashing. Sometimes the screen will return to normal operation a few seconds later, showing that the driver has reloaded and is now running successfully. If you see immediate disk activity (from a disk activity indicator), that’s a good sign. I usually do the first three keys with my left hand, then press the B key with my right forefinger while the others remain depressed. This keyboard combo reads: Windows key + Ctrl + Shift + B. ![]() Most Windows 10 systems use only a single graphics driver, but those with multiple graphics cards (or card plus chipset) and multiple displays may have multiple drivers running. This four-key combination tells Windows 10 to stop, then restart any and all graphics drivers that happen to be running. This usually means using one finger to depress the first key and holding it down, using a second finger to depress the second key and doing likewise, then more of the same for a third key - and one of these two combinations requires adding a fourth and final key as well. Two keyboard combos can (usually) restore normal operationsīoth combinations involve pressing multiple keys simultaneously. This means that there’s a very good chance that the desktop can be restored to normal operation using a few well-known key combinations. It indicates that the OS is still working (at least to some extent) behind the scenes, and that the mouse driver can still track cursor position onscreen. The presence of a cursor that responds to mouse movement - as it often will - is actually a good sign. Second is a problem with the graphics driver, the special software that interacts with the display on behalf of the graphics subsystem inside the OS to render pixels on the screen, itself. First is a failure of the graphics subsystem to interact with the display upon waking from sleep. I’ve found that two causes are the most likely culprits when a black screen with cursor appears. In my personal experience, the black screen with cursor occurs far more frequently than a black screen by itself (no cursor). The image at the top of the story shows what this looks like. Often, the cursor will track mouse movement even though it’s mousing over a completely black screen. The second is what’s called a “black screen with cursor.” Just as it sounds, this means that the display is completely black, except that the mouse cursor is shown on that black background. ![]() This means the screen is completely dark with nothing at all showing. The first is a black screen, plain and simple. Windows 10 cognoscenti recognize two different types of black screen in the Windows 10 world. ![]() Two kinds of black screen, with one subtle difference In this story I’ll guide you through the different types of black screen in Windows 10 and the surest methods I’ve found to fix them. That’s a good start, but what users really want is to get their desktops back. And second, because nothing (or nothing much) is visible, they can surmise that the graphics subsystem is likely involved, based on the absence of information on display. First, they know that something is wrong with their PC. ![]() When experienced Windows users encounter a black screen, they know at least two things immediately. Seeing nothing except black screen where the desktop and its applications normally appear is disconcerting for users, because they literally can’t see what the PC is - or isn’t - doing. The “black screen” phenomenon in Windows 10 shows poignantly how nothing sometimes matters quite a lot. Getting the dreaded Windows 10 black screen, with or without a cursor? Here are some simple (and not so simple) ways to banish it and get your desktop back.
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