Bluestacks is a software that you can use to run Android applications on your Windows computer. This makes it possible for anyone to play their favorite mobile Android games or their Android apps on their Windows 10 machine. Although this is a solid performing software there are instances when certain issues can occur. In this latest installment of our troubleshooting series we will tackle the Bluestacks black screen on windows 10 issue.
What to do when you get a black screen when using Bluestacks
Before performing any of the recommended troubleshooting steps listed below it’s best to restart your computer first. This action refreshes the operating system and remove any corrupt temporary data that could be causing the problem.
There are several factors that can cause this particular problem ranging from a corrupted file to outdated drivers. Listed below are the recommended troubleshooting steps you need to do to fix this problem.
Try running Bluestacks with the integrated graphics card
If your computer has two graphics card installed, a dedicated GPU and an integrated GPU, then you should try using the integrated GPU. Right-click Bluestacks shortcut and choose the option to run it with integrated graphics. Check if the Bluestacks black screen issue still occurs. If you don’t experience the black screen problem then you will want to make this setting permanent by finding Bluestacks in the Nvidia Control Panel or Catalyst Control Center and assign your integrated graphics as the default graphics processor.
Update your graphics card driver
One of the main reasons why you will experience a black screen when using Bluestacks is because of a corrupt or outdated graphics driver. It’s therefore best to make sure that you have the latest graphics driver installed in your Windows 10 computer.
If you have an NVIDIA graphics card then follow the steps listed below.
- Press Win+R (Windows logo key and R key) at the same time to invoke the Run box.
- Type msconfig and click OK. Then the System Configurations will open.
- When System Configuration opens, click the Boot tab. Under Boot options, check Safe boot then click OK.
- When you’re prompted to restart your computer to apply these changes, click Restart then you will boot into Safe Mode.
- Go to your local hard disk by clicking on This PC then Local Disk C. You should be able to see the NVIDIA folder right there. Right-click on it and choose Delete.
- Click Start and type Run. Select Run, the Run dialog box will appear.
- Type “devmgmt.msc” in the run box and click the OK button which should open the Device Manager Window.
- Expand the “Display Adapters” field. This will list all network adapters that the machine has installed. Right click on the Nvidia adapter you want to uninstall and select “Uninstall”.
- Click “OK” when prompted to uninstall the device. This will remove the adapter from the list and uninstall the driver.
- Press Win+R (Windows logo key and R key) at the same time to invoke the Run box.
- Type msconfig and click OK. Then the System Configurations will open.
- When System Configuration opens, click the Boot tab. Under Boot options, uncheck Safe boot then click OK.
- When you’re prompted to restart your computer to apply these changes, click Restart.
- Download the latest NVIDIA driver for your computer from here https://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx.
- Run the setup file and follow the instructions which appear on screen. Choose the Custom installation option and check all the boxes in the custom install options windows. Also check the box which states “perform clean install”.
- Restart your computer
If you have an AMD graphics card then follow the steps listed below.
- Download the AMD Cleanup Utility from here https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/faq/gpu-601.
- Locate the file where it was saved and double-click on the “AMDCleanupUtility.exe’ file.
- A dialogue box should appear stating AMD Cleanup Utility has detected the system is not in safe mode and provide an option to reboot the system to run the Utility in safe mode:
- Click “Yes” the system will be rebooted and AMD Cleanup Utility will run in safe mode.
- The next dialogue box provides a warning message stating that the AMD Cleanup Utility will remove all AMD driver and application components.
- Click “OK” to continue
- After clicking “OK” the Utility will be minimized to the notification area (system tray) and the progress will be displayed as a tool tip.
- The cleanup process will continue to run in the background. To check the progress, hover the mouse over the AMD icon in the notification area.
- Once the cleanup process is finished, a message is displayed stating it has successfully completed. Click “View Report” to see the list of components that were uninstalled, otherwise click “Finish” to exit the Utility.
- Reboot your computer.
Once the drivers have been uninstalled it’s time to install the latest driver update. You can do this with the help of the AMD Driver Auto-detect tool which you can download from https://www.amd.com/en/support.
- Visit the AMD Driver and Support page and see section Auto-Detect and Install Radeon Graphics Drivers for Windows.
- Click the DOWNLOAD NOW button to begin downloading the executable file for the tool.
- Once download is complete, run the file to launch the Installer.
- Click Install to extract the needed files.
- After file extraction is complete the tool should automatically launch.
- Review the End User License Agreement and information about the User Experience Improvement Program.
- Click Accept and Install to continue or close the window to exit the AMD Driver Auto-detect tool.
- After clicking Accept and Install, the tool will attempt to detect the installed AMD graphics product and operating system.
- Upon successful detection of your system configuration, the tool will display the latest Recommended and Optional driver packages that are compatible with your graphics product, as well as the currently installed driver version
- Select the desired version and choose Express installation.
- After the driver package has been downloaded, installation should begin automatically.
- Restart your computer
If you have an integrated graphics (Intel)
- Press the Windows Logo key + R to launch a Run
- Type devmgmt.msc into the Run dialog and press Enter to launch the Device Manager.
- In the Device Manager, expand the Display adapters
- Right-click on your graphics drivers, click on Uninstall and then go through the uninstallation wizard to uninstall the drivers.
- Restart your computer. Once your computer boots up, it should automatically reinstall the same version of the graphics drivers.
Check if the Bluestacks black screen issue still occurs.
Turn off threaded optimization
There are instances when the graphics card settings can interfere with the ay Bluestacks works. If this is the culprit then you should try to disable threaded optimization in your graphics card control panel software.
- Open Nvidia Control Panel.
- Select Manage 3D Settings from the left pane. Click the Program Settings tab and select Bluestacks from the list. If it’s not there, click the Add button and select Bluestacks Frontend.
- Locate Threaded optimization on the list and set it to OFF Click Apply to save changes.
Check if the Bluestacks black screen issue still occurs.
Uninstall the app from Bluestacks
If the problem occurs when running a particular Android app on Bluestacks then you should try uninstalling this app.
- On the BlueStacks window, click on the Blue colored “Home” button.
- Once you click on the “Home” button, you will be able to see the option “Installed apps” on the Home screen. Hover the mouse near “Installed apps” and it will then show further options “Install apk” and “Delete apps” . Left click on “Delete apps” once.
- All the installed apps will have a small Red “X” marked on the top left. Left click once on the small Red “X” associated with the icon of the app you are intending to uninstall or delete.
- Click on Yes to Uninstall/Delete the app.
Check if the Bluestacks black screen issue still occurs.
Reinstall Bluestacks
In case the above steps fails to fix the problem then you should try to reinstall the software.
- Click on the Start button then click on Settings
- In Settings find Apps and click on it.
- Locate and right-click on BlueStacks App Player, click on Uninstall, confirm the action in the resulting popup and go through the uninstallation wizard all the way to the end to uninstall the application.
- Navigate to X:\ProgramData (X being the drive letter corresponding to the partition of your computer’s hard drive that Windows is installed on), locate and click on the BlueStacksSetup folder to select it, press Delete and confirm the action in the resulting popup. The ProgramData folder is almost always hidden, so you are going to have to have File Explorer show all hidden files and folders to see it.
- Press the Windows Logo key + R to open a Run dialog
- Type %temp% into the Run dialog and press Enter
- Press Ctrl + A to select everything in the folder, press Delete and confirm the action in the resulting popup.
- Press the Windows Logo key + R to open a Run dialog
- Type regedit into the Run dialog and press Enter to launch the Registry Editor
- Navigate to the following directory in the left pane of the Registry Editor: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SOFTWARE > BlueStacks
- In the left pane of the Registry Editor, click on the BlueStacks sub-key under the SOFTWARE key to have its contents displayed in the right pane.
- Select everything you see in the right pane of the Registry Editor, press Delete and confirm the action in the resulting popup.
Install
- Go to https://www.bluestacks.com/download.html.
- You can either select the installer you want (32/64 bit versions of Android and Windows/Mac) from the options on the right side, or let BlueStacks auto-detect the right installer for you according to the OS you are using.
- Once the download has finished, open the downloaded file to begin the installation process.
- Click on the Install Now button to kickstart the installation process. You can also pick a desired location for the Install by Clicking on the Customize Installation option.
- The Micro Installer will now download all the necessary files.
- BlueStacks will now be automatically downloaded, extracted, and installed.
- The BlueStacks Engine will automatically open and you will now be prompted to complete a one-time initial Setup process.
- When prompted, Sign in to your existing Google account or create a new one to get started.
Check if the Bluestacks black screen issue still occurs.