How to restart your display driver

Hi, I"m Adam, I"m known as Warwagon on the forum. For the past 19 years, I"ve been operating my own computer repair business. In doing so, I deal with the average computer user on a day-to-day basis.

Every bit of information I provide for people, I do so with the lowest common denominator in mind. It"s a common misconception that everyone who joins or browses a tech site is a techie. Some people are just looking for guidance. That is why for some, these tech tips may seem a bit too simplistic, but they are educational for others.


Sometimes your graphics card driver on Windows can misbehave, leaving you with one or more black screens, depending on how many monitors your computer has. Windows has a hotkey that might get you back to normal.

If you press WIN+CTRL+SHIFT+B it tells Windows to restart the display driver, hopefully fixing any black screen issues you may currently have.

If this hotkey did not fix your issue, then restarting is your next best option.

You may be unable to turn your computer off the correct way due to the black screen, in that case you may have to hold the power button down for 10 seconds until the computer turns off. Then press it one more time to turn it back on.

Happy Computing!


If you learned something today, great! If not, maybe share your own tech tip in the comments below!

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