Why Is My Roku Showing a Black Screen?
The reason for a black screen on a Roku could be the device itself or your TV. Identifying which one to address will make all the difference in your troubleshooting. If the TV is working fine otherwise, and only the Roku has a black screen, then it’s the Roku in need of troubleshooting, and most of the tips below will be helpful. If you find the black screen while using the streaming device, but the issue lies with the TV, we also have some help for that.
What Do You Do When Your Roku Screen Goes Black?
Follow these troubleshooting steps in order, even if you don’t think one or two of them are necessary. The easier-to-complete tips are first in this list and might get your Roku back in working order much quicker than some more detailed steps. For TVs with Roku on the inside, turn off the TV itself and turn it back on. Press the device firmly into the video port, and ensure the power cable is properly in place. For troubleshooting purposes, it’s best to connect the power cable to a wall outlet with the power adapter included with the Roku (i.e., don’t use your TV’s USB port). Most TVs have a few input options (e.g., HDMI 1 and 2). If necessary, cycle through them, waiting several seconds after choosing each one until the Roku displays on the screen. Alternatively, you can press the Home button on the remote, then go to Settings > System > Advanced system settings > Factory reset. Resetting will restore the software to its factory defaults, which could fix the black screen issue. However, since there’s no picture, your only option is to perform a hard reset; (see reset link above).
Try a different HDMI port. If there are other available ports on the back of your TV, attach the Roku to one of them, and then repeat step 3. The physical connector on the TV could be bad, but the one next to it might be working fine.Try a different HDMI cable. If there’s no picture and no sound, the cable could be what’s bad.
Reinstall the non-working channel. For example, if Roku won’t play YouTube videos, but all other aspects are working fine, delete and then reinstall the YouTube app. Troubleshoot for slow internet. A working Roku that won’t stream video (or won’t do it very well) is most likely due to an overcrowded network. Stopping network activity from your other devices is the most viable solution.
If it works on the other TV, you need to address this as a TV problem; continue with these steps. Try changing one of the image settings on your TV (using the TV remote), like turning the overscan on/off or adjusting the zoom level. Some users have had luck reversing the Roku black screen this way. If there’s a picture after doing so, change the resolution on the Roku to anything else. For example, first, try Auto detect if that’s not already chosen. If that doesn’t work, try 720p TV (play around with these options until one of them works).
