How To Fix Gears of War 4 Black Screen On PC Issue

Gears of War 4 is a popular third person shooter video game available for the Microsoft Windows and the Xbox One platform. It is the fifth installment of the Gears of War series which was released in 2016. Although this is a solid performing game there are instances when certain issues can occur. In this latest installment of our troubleshooting series we will tackle the Black Screen when playing Gears of War 4 on PC issue

What to do when your get a Black Screen when playing Gears of War 4

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.

You should also make sure that your computer meets the necessary requirements to run the game.

Minimum system requirements

  • CPU: Intel Core i5-3470 3.2 GHz or AMD FX-6300 3.5 GHz
  • CPU SPEED: Info
  • RAM: 8 GB
  • OS: windows 10 64-bit
  • VIDEO CARD: GeForce GTX 750 Ti or AMD Radeon R7 260X
  • PIXEL SHADER: 5.0
  • VERTEX SHADER: 5.0
  • FREE DISK SPACE: 80 GB
  • DEDICATED VIDEO RAM: 2 GB

Recommended system requirements

  • CPU: Intel Core i5-4690 3.5 GHz or AMD FX-8350 4.0 GHz
  • CPU SPEED: Info
  • RAM: 16 GB
  • OS: Windows 10 64-bit
  • VIDEO CARD: Radeon R9 290X / GeForce 970
  • PIXEL SHADER: 5.1
  • VERTEX SHADER: 5.1
  • FREE DISK SPACE: 80 GB
  • DEDICATED VIDEO RAM: 4 GB

There are several factors that can cause this particular problem ranging from an outdated graphic driver to a corrupted game file. Listed below are the troubleshooting steps you need to do to fix this problem.

Make sure your Windows PC is running on the latest software update

The first thing you will need to do in this case is to make sure that your operating system is running on the latest updates.

  • Press the Windows Key + I keys.
  • After the Settings app opens, head over to the Update & Security section.
  • In the right pane, click the Check for Updates button.
  • Windows will now check for available updates and download them in the background.
  • Once the updates have finished installing restart your PC

Check if the Gears of War 4 issue on your computer still occurs.

Update the Windows graphics driver

If your computer has outdated graphics drivers then it will likely face this problem. You should make sure to use the latest graphics drivers on your 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 black screen on PC issue still occurs.

Sign in as a different user

There are instances when the performance and stability of gameplay can be affected by corrupted profile data on your Windows 10 computer. To check if a corrupted profile data is causing the problem try playing the same game using a different account.

  • Press the Windows button, or select the Windows icon from the bottom-left corner of the main screen.
  • Select your account name from the top-left corner of the menu, and then select Switch account.
  • Sign in with a different account.
  • Restart the game

Check the monitor if the black screen issue when playing Gears of War 4 on PC still occurs.

Uninstall then reinstall the game

In case the above steps fails to fix the problem then you will need to reinstall the game.

  • Press the Windows button  on your device or keyboard, or select the Windows icon in the lower-left corner of the main screen.
  • Select All apps, and then find your game in the list.
  • Right-click the game tile, and then select Uninstall.
  • Follow the steps to uninstall the game.
  • To reinstall your game, open the Store app, and then select the profile button.
  • Select My Library.
  • Locate your game in the list of available downloads, and then select the download icon to the right.

Check if the black screen on your PC when playing Gears of War 4 still occurs.

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