All windows turn black, or else they freeze

[Kappaa]

This usually happens when I'm watching videos.

The computer freezes for a moment and then all windows turn black, even my entire desktop becomes black. I can only see the title and borders of windows.

There are some windows that don't turn black, they visually freeze. The window still works correctly but they look static, like a screenshot of the window.

This only happened a few times, but now it's happening a lot. Note that I also had this issue in Windows 7

 

[viveknayyar007]

Hello Kappaa

Can you please confirm if you have latest graphics driver installed on your PC and that the driver is from the trusted source and is genuine?

Also, if your PC is old, disabling the Aero theme (Transparency Effects) in your Windows might resolve the issue. To do so, go to Start > Settings > Personalization > Colors, and from the right pane, turn off the Make Start, taskbar, and action center transparent button.

Save the changes and restart the computer if needed.

Check if the issue is resolved.

Cheers!!

 

[Kappaa]

I turned off the Make Start, taskbar, and action center transparent option, and according to Device Manager I have the latest graphics driver.

I also found a faster way to temporarily fix the issue other than rebooting the computer: logout and login back to the computer.

I'll wait a few days to see if the issue is fixed.

EDIT: Nevermind, it didn't work :/

 

[Colif]

Try making a new user and see if same behaviour happens to it as well.

 

[Kappaa]

Same thing happens for a new user. I found an even faster fix: Ctrl+Alt+Del, Switch users, and login back

 

[Colif]

when everything turns black, can you see your cursor?

If you upgraded from win 7 and never did a fresh install, it could fix your problem. especially if it happened on win 7 as well. You can download win 10 from Here. Use that tool to make a win 10 installer on USB
change boot order in bios so USB is first and follow this: http://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/1950-windows-10-clean-install.html

note: if you clean install it would want to wipe entire drive c is on, so copy anything you want to keep off that hard drive before you do it

 

[Kappaa]

I won't do a fresh install. I have around 400-350gb of files I want to keep, and I don't have anything I can store all that, plus it would be a pain to reinstall everything.