Probably each of us, users who have been online for a long time, have encountered such a problem as black screen on youtube… This problem arises, as a rule, quite suddenly, and most users do not know what to do in such a situation.
Agree that many of you spend your free time on YouTube. It doesn’t matter what exactly you watch there, this is everyone’s business, but it is rather difficult to imagine today’s Internet without such a resource as YouTube.
You can even learn different languages with this video hosting service, further highlighting its usefulness. However, back to the problem – black screen on youtube… Things with this problem are most likely something like this: you open a page, a pure black screen is displayed instead of a video, and an audio track from this video is played in the background. Well, or instead of video, you see a black screen and there is no sound either.
Well, there are several reasons for this problem, since it, and no other problem, could not arise from scratch.
Black screen on YouTube: reasons for the appearance
- Bad internet connection. The reason may seem like a joke, but sometimes there are times when we do not notice how the connection speed drops. It is possible that she has dropped to such a value that she can no longer cope with the video on YouTube.
- Problems with Adobe Flash Player. This reason is the most common for a problem such as black screen on YouTube.
- Your browser cache. Another most likely reason that causes black screen on YouTube. A huge amount of cache can cause quite a lot of problems, including this one.
- Problems from YouTube itself. Usually, rarely happens with YouTube servers, but still, from time to time, there are cases. It is possible that you were simply “lucky” to get into this time period. There is nothing you can do about this and, of course, there is no solution for this problem. Just wait another hour and everything will be decided.
- Problems with the drivers for the video card cannot be ruled out. Some users have faced a similar problem.
- Outdated browser version. Well, everything is simple here – everything around is constantly updated, and if you get stuck with an old version of the browser, it is not surprising that something will not function normally.
- Various ad blockers. Yes, even that is possible. A lot of people on various forums began to report that their AdBlock (or something similar) began to interfere with the normal display of some resources.
Here, in fact, are all the most basic reasons for the appearance of such a problem as black screen on YouTube. As you already understood, there are quite a few reasons that cause this problem. However, there is also a plus, since this “blackness” is solved quite quickly and easily.
YouTube Black Screen: Methods to Fix
As already mentioned, you don’t have to spend a huge amount of time to fix this problem. This is not some kind of bug with the Windows operating system, over which you will suffer for several days, but eventually reinstall it.
No, everything is decided in a matter of minutes. Now let’s look at methods to solve this problem.
Method # 1 Disable “Hardware Acceleration”
You can try disabling Hardware Acceleration. For most of the users, this method solves the problem. In order to disable you need:
- Right click on the video;
- And uncheck the “Hardware acceleration” option;
Method # 2 Checking Internet Connection
The most obvious tip. Just check your “Internet”. It is possible that the connection speed has dropped to catastrophic values, with which even a small YouTube video cannot download normally. Sometimes it’s easy to miss such an event. For example, you were sitting at the computer, working only with text information all day and did not realize that your speed had dropped.
Dig into your network connection settings, run a Troubleshooter, and see if anything has changed in the settings that might have affected it. As a last resort, you can contact your provider. It is possible that the problem is on his part.
Method # 3 Update Adobe Flash Player
It is highly likely that the problem with black video is in the Adobe Flash Player. There are a number of reasons what could have happened with this software. You need to uninstall your previous version of Adobe Flash Player and install the newest version in its place, straight from the official site. After this action, the video will most likely have to work.
You can uninstall Adobe Flash Player from Programs and Features in Control Panel.
Method # 4 Cleaning the cache
Many people deliberately ignore this option for solving various problems, but in vain. By clearing your browser of the accumulated cache, you can get rid of many problems, which can also include black screen on YouTube. Cache is a very useful feature that can speed up resource loading. But when there are too many accumulated temporary files, this leads to a number of problems. Therefore, it is very important to clear the cache from time to time.
Go to your browser settings and select the History tab. Find the item Clear history. Uncheck all items except for the item related to the cache and confirm the cleaning.
Restart your browser and check if the problem like black screen on Youtube. If not, then let’s move on to the next point.
Method # 5 Clean installation of video card drivers
If you are having video problems, the first thing that comes to mind is that something has happened to the drivers for the video card. Some users were able to fix black screen on youtube using a clean install of the video drivers.
Go to the official website of the graphics accelerator manufacturer, i.e. Intel, AMD or nVidia, and download the driver bundle from there. When installing, select the “Clean install” checkbox. Thus, the old drivers will be removed first, and new ones will be installed in their place. In general, it is better to perform a “Clean Install” of the drivers often.
Method # 6 Browser refresh
If you constantly refuse to update your browser, then the occurrence of various problems will not be something out of the ordinary and black screen on youtube instead of the usual video too. If you haven’t updated your browser for a long time, then maybe it’s time to do it?
You should not be guided by the principle “it works, which means there is nothing to update”. Updates come with improvements to many aspects of various applications, improving their performance, applying new technologies and fixing multiple bugs. Try to check for available browser updates and update. Maybe it was just that.
Method # 7 Ad Blocking
Let’s agree – almost all of us today use browser extensions such as, for example, AdBlock. Nobody likes banner ads, various ad units in videos, and other nonsense on websites. With the advent of these handy blocking extensions, we’ve forgotten what this mess looks like.
However, users have recently begun to note that some sites have become not fully functional when AdBlock is enabled. Sometimes, even when entering the site, it is strongly recommended to disable AdBlock, as it can interfere with the loading of the video on the page, and its general display.
We need to understand that most sites get their profit from advertising on them. Some of the resources even block the entrance if you go to them with the ad blocker extension enabled.
In general, try disabling this extension in your browser and try to go to YouTube again. If it helped fix black screen on youtube, then, as an option, you can add this video hosting to the list of exceptions for the blocker. Alternatively, change the browser extension itself, as you are unlikely to agree to return to commercial breaks during the video.
We hope that the suggested options will help you fix black screen on youtube… If you were able to get rid of this problem in some other way, then please share it in the comments and we will probably add it to the list.