[SOLVED] – Dell Monitor Black Screen

Specific methods need to be carried out when dealing with a black screen display error on your Dell monitor.

I will make sure this tutorial covers every black screen issue your Dell monitor has. I want to cover every black screen issue because Monitor black screen problem is a similar problem everyone has, which might not entirely be the same.

One of these problems is why you are here, but I want to assure you that the methods I will show you today will cover all these problems above.

Some people may be experiencing a temporal hibernation and they just need to wake up Dell from sleep mode to resolve this issue.

Before I show you how to fix this problem, let me show you why you have issues with the black screen.

Why You Have A Dell monitor Black Screen Problem

The leading cause of this is a corrupt system file on your operating system. As long as your Dell monitor boots up to the point where you have to log in then suddenly display the black screen or blank screen right after you log in, you might have a problem with your operating system.

The corrupt system file on your operating system prevents your operating system from loading, leading to a black screen.

Now let us get right to it.

How to Fix Dell monitor Black Screen

I will share different troubleshooting methods with you today, and among these methods, one should work for you.

Here’s a list of the troubleshooting methods.

1. Restart your graphics drivers
2. Force shut down your monitor
3. Boot into Safe Mode
4. Check your display brightness
5. Update your graphics driver
6. Restart your explorer.exe process
7. Reset or Update Bios
8. Perform hard reset
9. Clean reinstall Windows
10. Replace your display panel

1. Restart Your Graphics Drivers

Here’s how,

What graphics driver is your Dell monitor using?

• NVIDIA GeForce graphics driver
• AMD graphics driver
• Intel graphics driver

These graphics drivers depending on which you are using, might encounter a problem that could lead your monitor to have black screen issues.

This is how to restart your graphic driver:

Press and hold these key combinations on your keyboard simultaneously

Windows logo key + Ctrl + Shift + B

These combinations will restart your drivers, and hopefully, your monitor black screen problem will be fixed.

2. Force Shut Down Your Dell monitor

Since you are stuck on a black screen, you might be wondering how to shut down your monitor. There’s only one option you have, which is to force shut down your computer.

Here’s how to force shutdown your monitor when you are stuck on a black screen

Press and hold your Power Button for 5 to 10 seconds

It doesn’t end there. Follow these steps below:

1. Disconnect your Power Cord from your Dell monitor
2. Disconnect or remove your battery
3. Press and hold your Power Button for 50 to 60 seconds without your battery or charger connected
4. Put back Power Cord and connect your battery to your Dell monitor
5. Now turn on your Dell monitor

If this doesn’t solve the black screen error, move on to the following Dell troubleshooting method

3. Boot into Safe Mode

The idea of booting into safe mode is to let your computer run in a basic state. The advantage of booting in safe mode is that it can help narrow down the source of the black screen error.

Here’s how to boot into safe mode on your computer

1. Switch off your Dell monitor
2. Press the Power Button to turn your computer back on
3. Now click and hold Shift while tapping on the F8 key to show the recovery menu. If you are using windows 7, press F8.
4. If you are unable to enter safe mode, then you need to try again. It might take a while.

Once you are in recovery mode, follow these steps:

1. Click on advance repair options
2. Then click on troubleshoot
3. Select advance options
4. Click on windows startup settings
5. Now restart your monitor

Your monitor should boot to safe mode automatically. Suppose your monitor doesn’t show you a black screen error in safe mode. In that case, it means your black screen issue is triggered by an outdated graphics drive, third party applications or computer virus.

While in safe mode,

• Uninstall the applications you recently installed
• Use your antivirus or windows defender to scan your Dell monitor for virus
• Now restart your computer

If you still get the black screen error, move on to the next method

4. Check Your Display Brightness

Yes, you will be surprised how many people think their monitor shows a black screen when in reality, their display brightness is very low

We have to check and diagnose every possible possibility that could cause your Dell monitor to show a black screen.

Now let’s check if your brightness is the cause of the black screen

• Look closely at your display at every angle to see if you can see any sign of your computer displaying anything. If you can see anything or your display is completely dark, Then you need to increase the brightness with your keyboard

Try these combinations one by one to see which will work for you

• Click and hold Fn while tapping on F4
• Press F4
• Click on F12
• Press and hold Fn while tapping on F12

If this method doesn’t work, then you should move to the next method

5. Update Your Graphics Driver

Graphics driver is one of the major causes of black screen error. It is essential always to update your drivers if you want your monitor to have a better performance.

NVIDIA and AMD are graphics card manufactures, and they keep on releasing updates to improve their previous version.

Visit their website to download their latest driver for your Dell monitor

• NVIDIA – Official website
• AMD – Official website

Suppose you don’t have any of these graphics’ cards. In that case, you should download and install an intel integrated graphics driver for your particular monitor.

After downloading your graphics driver, now you want to install it through safe mode. Go back to the safe mode method and install the drivers you just downloaded and restart your monitor.

6. Restart Your Explorer.exe Process

Restarting your explorer.exe is a simple process, and we are going to perform this through the task manager

Follow these steps

1. While your monitor is on the black screen, press and hold Ctrl + Shift + Esc simultaneously
2. Click on the Details tab (If you are on Windows 7, click on processes tab)
3. Select explorer.exe
4. Now click on end task
5. Then Restart your Dell monitor

If your monitor is still showing a black screen error, move to the next method.

7. Reset or Update Your Bios

Like I mentioned earlier, updating your monitor drivers is very important if you want good system performance.

Bios, if not updated or if corrupt, could cause black screen issues.

Here’s how to reset your bios:

1. Turn on your Dell monitor by pressing the power button
2. Immediately your monitor comes on, click on F2 or F12 continuously on your keyboard till you enter Setup mode
3. Click on F9 or Press and Hold Alt + F to load default settings. Sometimes a load default button could be displayed on your screen, and you don’t necessarily need to enter key combination.
4. Save and exit bios
5. Restart your computer

Here’s how to update your bios

1. Go to Dell official website to download your latest bios driver
2. Now install the bios driver through safe mode

Move to the next method if the updating and resetting of bios didn’t work for you.

8. Perform Hard Reset

A hard reset will solve your problem as long as you can see your windows logo when booting up.

I wrote a simple guide to help you reset your Dell monitor when you have issues that are becoming impossible to fix.

9. Clean Reinstall Windows

If you are still struggling to resolve your black screen error, you should consider reinstalling your windows. Reinstalling your windows will help you refresh your system to a new fresh state.

Here’s how to reinstall your windows

1. Create a media recovery to your USB drive
2. Plug your USB drive into your CPU depending on the format you used to create the recovery media
3. Turn your monitor off
4. Turn it back on
5. Tap on F12 continuously when the Dell logo appears until you see the Preparing one-time boot menu
6. While on the menu, go to UEFI Boot
7. Select the USB media type
8. At the choose an option screen, click on troubleshoot
9. Now select the option to recover from a drive.
10. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the reinstallation

10. Replace Your Display Panel

Replacing your Dell display panel should only be replaced when you are 100% sure your display panel is bad

Here are few tips to help you know if you have a bad display panel

• When you turn on your monitor, the display doesn’t show anything throughout

To also test if your display is working fine, connect an HDMI cable from your PC to your TV to see if anything will display on the TV

If something does display on your TV screen, it means Your display panel is good, and you have to update your drivers or refresh your computer. I mention these two steps above.

If nothing displays on your TV, then I suggest you seek the help of a professional to help you change your display panel.

Conclusion

You’ve come a long way. By now, one of these methods must have worked for you.

Method 8 and 9 is guaranteed to fix your problem as long as your display is working.

Remember always to update your Dell monitor drives and also set your windows to update automatically. Updated drives provide better performance and lesser errors.