Having black screen issues when Alt + Tabbing out of games. .

Question

I recently upgraded my computer using new everything except for GPU and Storage and upon updating it I played for a few days with windows 10 and had no problems. After updating to windows 11 I started encountering the issue with my whole screen going black when using ALT+TAB to get out of games. The other monitor does not encounter this issue. I have tried updating drivers, turning off game mode, turning off G-SYNC and booting in safe mode. This problem does not happen with games that are windowed but both full screen options it persists. Current graphics driver is 576.66 also tried on previous version 576.52. My mouse isn't visible when the screen goes black. Every time the screen does go black it also only lasts for around 2.5 seconds.

Answer 1

That's fantastic news! I'm really glad to hear that your issue was resolved.

Now, regarding your plan to upgrade to an RTX 5080, that's a significant leap in performance.

Is it a bad idea to upgrade your graphics card with a new one, given your recent driver issues?

In short: No, it's generally not a bad idea. However, it's worth being prepared and understanding a few points.

Research Power Supply (PSU): Before buying the 5080, thoroughly research its power requirements. RTX 50-series cards are expected to be power-hungry. Ensure your current PSU has enough wattage and the necessary PCIe power connectors. This is crucial to avoid stability issues (crashes, reboots) completely unrelated to drivers.

Monitor for Launch Drivers: When the RTX 5080 launches, keep an eye on initial user reports regarding its stability and driver performance. Sometimes it's wise to wait for the first "Game Ready" driver after launch.

Be Patient with Initial Drivers: New hardware often means new drivers that are still maturing. If you encounter any minor issues with the 5080 initially, give NVIDIA a little time to release updates.

Stay Updated : Once you have the 5080, you'll want to keep its drivers updated to benefit from performance improvements and bug fixes. However, if a new driver causes issues, you now know the power of DDU and rolling back to a previously stable version.

Wishing you best of luck!

Answer 2

Alright so far so good after following:

"Clean Driver Installation (with DDU and Older Driver):

You mentioned trying current and previous versions. Let's be extremely thorough.

Download: Download a known stable WHQL driver from NVIDIA that's a few versions older than what you've tried (e.g., something from late 2023 or early 2024, not a hotfix).

Download DDU: Get the latest Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU) from Guru3D.

Disconnect Internet: Crucial step to prevent Windows Update from automatically installing a driver.

Boot into Safe Mode: Run DDU in Safe Mode. Select "Clean and restart" for NVIDIA drivers.

Install Older Driver: Once back in Windows (still offline), install the older, stable NVIDIA driver you downloaded.

Restart: After installation, restart your PC."

I installed the 561.09 drivers for my card which has seemed to have fixed the issue I can now screen share and play games without the black screening issue. With that being said is it a bad idea to upgrade my graphics card with a new one? I currently have a 12GB 3060 and planned on getting a 5080 here soon. Also thank you so much for the help!

Answer 3

This is a very perplexing issue, especially since it's happening even with borderless windowed mode and extends to Discord screen sharing. The fact that it worked on Windows 10 and started after Windows 11 points strongly to a software/OS level conflict or a very specific interaction with your Alienware AW2521HF monitor and Windows 11's display handling.

Let's break down the new information and delve into more advanced troubleshooting:

Borderless Windowed Mode Issue: This is critical. In borderless windowed, the game isn't taking "exclusive" control of the display. This means the black screen isn't a typical FSE mode switch. It suggests a deeper issue with how Windows 11 or your GPU driver is handling rapid display changes or overlays on your primary monitor.

Discord Screen Share Issue: This strongly supports the idea of an overlay or display composition problem. When you screen share, Discord is essentially creating a capture or overlay on your display. If any interaction within the shared application causes a black screen, it give hints at a conflict in how the GPU handles multiple display layers or active applications. The fact that movement keys don't trigger it, but keybinds that bring up different screens do, is particularly telling.

AW2521HF and High Refresh Rates: Your monitor is 240Hz. While you've tried lowering refresh rates, the very high refresh rate and potential for Display Stream Compression (DSC) with your NVIDIA GPU could be a factor, even if it worked on Windows 10. Some users with high refresh rate monitors and NVIDIA GPUs report issues with DSC and Alt+Tabbing.

Let's do a more advanced Troubleshooting Steps:

Clean Driver Installation (with DDU and Older Driver):

You mentioned trying current and previous versions. Let's be extremely thorough.

Download: Download a known stable WHQL driver from NVIDIA that's a few versions older than what you've tried (e.g., something from late 2023 or early 2024, not a hotfix).

Download DDU: Get the latest Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU) from Guru3D.

Disconnect Internet: Crucial step to prevent Windows Update from automatically installing a driver.

Boot into Safe Mode: Run DDU in Safe Mode. Select "Clean and restart" for NVIDIA drivers.

Install Older Driver: Once back in Windows (still offline), install the older, stable NVIDIA driver you downloaded.

Restart: After installation, restart your PC.

Reconnect Internet: Once fully booted, you can reconnect.

Test: See if the issue persists in games and Discord.

Verify/Disable Hardware-Accelerated GPU Scheduling:

Go to Settings > System > Display > Graphics > Change default graphics settings.

Toggle "Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling" Off.

Restart your PC and test. This feature can sometimes cause conflicts with certain games or monitor setups, especially if drivers aren't perfectly optimized for it.

Check for "Game Bar" Interference (Even if Game Mode is Off):

Press Windows Key + G to open the Xbox Game Bar.

Go to its Settings (gear icon).

Look for anything related to "Captures" or "Broadcasting" and disable automatic recording or background recording.

Also, ensure that "Open Xbox Game Bar using this button on a controller" is unchecked if you don't use it.

Sometimes even with Game Mode off, Game Bar processes can cause issues.

Investigate Alienware AW2521HF Monitor Settings:

Access your monitor's OSD (On-Screen Display) menu.

Response Time/Overdrive:

Experiment with the "Response Time" or "Overdrive" setting. The AW2521HF has "Fast", "Super Fast", and "Extreme". While "Extreme" gives 1ms GtG, it can introduce inverse ghosting or other artifacts and might be less stable for rapid display changes. Try setting it to "Super Fast" or even "Fast" and see if it helps.

FreeSync/Adaptive Sync: Even if G-Sync is off, check if FreeSync is enabled on the monitor itself. Sometimes there's a setting on the monitor that needs to be explicitly disabled if you're not using G-Sync/FreeSync on the GPU side.

Dell Display Manager (DDM): If you have Dell Display Manager installed, try uninstalling it temporarily. Sometimes monitor control software can interfere.

Test with Only the Problematic Monitor Connected:

Physically disconnect your second monitor.

Boot your PC with only the AW2521HF connected.

Test games and Discord. This helps rule out any multi-monitor specific bugs in Windows 11 or the NVIDIA driver.

Windows 11 Updates (Check for Specific Bug Fixes):

Ensure your Windows 11 is fully up to date. Microsoft sometimes releases specific hotfixes for display-related issues.

Look at the "Optional updates" section in Windows Update; sometimes display-related fixes appear there.

Check for Other Background Applications/Overlays:

Besides Discord, do you have any other applications running in the background that overlay on games or modify display settings? Examples include:

NVIDIA GeForce Experience overlay (try disabling this from GeForce Experience settings).

MSI Afterburner/RivaTuner Statistics Server (RTSS) - try closing these.

Steam overlay, Origin/EA App overlay, Epic Games overlay - try disabling them one by one in their respective client settings.

Antivirus software (some have gaming modes that can cause issues).

Any other screen recording/streaming software.

Perform a Clean Boot:

Search for msconfig and open System Configuration.

Go to the Services tab. Check Hide all Microsoft services.

Click Disable all.

Go to the Startup tab and click Open Task Manager.

Disable all startup items in Task Manager.

Restart your PC. This will boot Windows with minimal background processes. If the issue goes away, you can then re-enable services and startup items incrementally to find the culprit.

Reinstall Discord:

Completely uninstall Discord, including deleting any leftover app data (%appdata%/Discord and %localappdata%/Discord).

Download a fresh installer and reinstall. This can clear up any corrupted Discord files that might be causing screen share issues.

The fact that borderless windowed mode is also affected and Discord screen sharing causes similar issues strongly points to a deep interaction problem between your NVIDIA GPU, the Alienware AW2521HF, and Windows 11's display management. Let's hope one of these more targeted steps helps pinpoint the exact cause.

Answer 4

I have tried every step that has been given for troubleshooting and so far nothing has changed. I tried switching from display port to hdmi to see if that would change anything and it did not. Borderless windowed mode the same even when in borderless tabbing out causes the monitor to go black. The "fullscreen optimizations" had no affect on the issue either. I tried changing refresh rates but both in game and in the windows settings they're almost identical as my main monitor according to the windows display maxes out at 239.76 and in games it maxes out at 240. Lowering the refresh rate also had no impact I tried both 144hz 120hz and 60hz. for reference I have an alienware "AW2521HF" monitor. I have also found another issue persisting with using discords "screen share" feature in which whenever I screen share it blacks out my monitor but it also does it anytime I use keys that interact with something while screen sharing in the game with the only exception being movement keys anytime a keybind brings up a different screen it goes black.

Answer 5

Hello Sandy,

I'm Riza an Independent Advisor. Thank you for reaching out to the Microsoft Community. Let's work on resolving your issue together.

This issue you outlined strongly suggests it is tied to the specific display or the way your primary gaming monitor is configured and interacts with your GPU and Windows. The secondary monitor might be using a different connection or lower resolution/refresh rate or simply be less sensitive to these transitions.

Given that it is a new system build, it's worth going through a system check. Start with the "Borderless Windowed" mode.

You mentioned the problem doesn't happen with windowed games. This is a strong indicator. Fullscreen Exclusive (FSE) mode gives the game direct control of the display which can lead to black screen transitions. Borderless Windowed mode keeps the game running within the Windows desktop environment making Alt+Tab transitions much smoother.

Now what we can do is let's try setting your games to "Borderless Windowed" or "Windowed Fullscreen" mode in their in-game graphics settings. While it might slightly impact performance in some competitive scenarios it often resolves this black screen issue.

Windows 11 has a feature called "Fullscreen Optimizations" that can sometimes interfere with games.

Please locate the executable file (.exe) of the problematic game.

Right-click on it and select "Properties."

Go to the "Compatibility" tab.

Check the box that says "Disable fullscreen optimizations"

Click "Apply" and then "OK"

Test for any game causing the issue.

If same, let's check next the Refresh Rate Mismatch. If your game is running at a different refresh rate than your desktop, the monitor has to switch modes, causing the black screen.

Please check your monitor's refresh rate in Windows by Right clicking on your desktop > Display settings > Advanced display settings. Note the refresh rate of your affected monitor.

Match in-game refresh rate: In your game's graphics settings, ensure the refresh rate is set to match your desktop's refresh rate.

Experiment with lower refresh rates: Temporarily try lowering your monitor's refresh rate in Windows (e.g., from 144Hz to 120Hz or 60Hz) to see if the issue persists. If it resolves it, you might have a bandwidth or timing issue at higher refresh rates.

If issue persists, please reply to this thread so we can move forward to the next isolation and troubleshooting steps.

Best Regards,

RizaP