Fixing the Black Screen in Windows 11—Real Aussie Solutions
If you’ve ever whacked your computer and ended up staring at a black screen in Windows 11, you know it’s pretty bloody annoying. It’s like running into a wall. Most of the time, it’s not a hardware disaster—it’s often just a stubborn software gremlin. Here’s a few simple steps to turn the lights back on before you lose the plot and chuck your monitor out the window.
First things first: Check those cables
No kidding, this might sound obvious, but you’d be surprised how often it gets overlooked. Make sure all your cables—HDMI, DisplayPort, VGA, whatever you’re using—are plugged in properly. If one’s a bit loose, your screen might as well be a black hole. A quick unplug and replug often does the trick. Still no luck? Swap the cables entirely—sometimes they pack it in without warning. It’s like they know you’ve got a deadline or something sneaky like that.
Time for a restart
When your screen’s gone black but you can still hear the PC running, it’s time to restart. If it’s completely frozen, hold down the power button for about 10 seconds—yeah, it’s a bit brute force, but sometimes that’s what it takes. Once it turns off, flick it back on. Strangely, many glitches are fixed with this simple trick, as if your PC just needs to have a quick breather.
Update your graphics driver—Because why not?
Drivers can be a real pain when they’re out of date. When the screen’s black, it’s tough to update them normally. The trick is to boot into Safe Mode. Here’s how:
- Hold Shift and click Restart from the power icon on the login screen.
- You’ll land in the Windows Recovery Environment.
- Go to Troubleshoot > Advanced options > Startup Settings, then click Restart.
- Pick option 4 or 5 to enter Safe Mode with Networking.
Once you’re in, press Win + X and select Device Manager. Find your display adapters — whether it’s NVIDIA, AMD, or Intel — right-click and choose Update driver to look for newer versions. You can also get the latest drivers directly from the manufacturer’s website for peace of mind.
Feeling a bit techy? In Command Prompt, you can run these commands:
DISM /online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth followed by:
SFC /scannow
They fix corrupt system files, which might just save your display from being forever black.
Check if you’re projecting somewhere else
This happens a lot—plugging into a projector or a second monitor and suddenly you’re staring at a blank screen. You might be projecting somewhere else without realising. Hit Win + P to toggle your display modes—select “PC screen only” and hope for the best.
If that’s too hit or miss, get into Settings:
- Hit Settings with Win + I.
- Go to System > Display.
- Under Multiple displays, click Detect — sometimes Windows can’t tell where your monitor went.
- Use the Identify button to see which screen’s which — sometimes they get mixed up.
Just changing display modes can often do the trick to get things back on track.
Disable Fast Startup—Yep, it’s a thing
If Fast Startup’s turned on, it’s supposed to make your PC boot quicker. But sometimes it causes more hassle than it’s worth and leads to that dreaded black screen. Head to Control Panel > Power Options, click on Choose what the power buttons do, then untick Turn on fast startup (recommended).
You can also run this in Command Prompt:
powercfg /h off
It turns off hibernation and Fast Startup, which can clear up any conflicts. After that, restart your PC and see if the screen works again.
Many folks have found that simply turning off Fast Startup fixes the problem. It might seem a bit counterintuitive, but sometimes the basics are best.
By the end of all this, lots of blokes and sheilas have managed to get their screens back up and running. Doesn’t always seem like it, but the simple stuff often does the trick. And if not, at least you’ve knocked out the usual culprits—which makes future troubleshooting way easier. Fair dinkum.