Media Center Quick Tip – Black Screen of Death Work-Around

Aug 5, 2011 by

The Problem :

If you don’t know what the Black Screen of Death (the other BSOD) then you are either incredibly lucky, or very smart. This is a problem that many people who have their Windows Media Center PCs directly connected to their televisions. What happens is if you stop the video that you’re watching, and then turn the TV off, when you turn the TV back on you may get a black display. You’ll be able to hear the sounds of Media Center, but the video won’t display. This problem seems to affect PCs which are equipped with AMD video cards more often than other manufacturers.

The Fix Work-Around

This work-around was provided to me by a fellow Windows Entertainment and Connected Home MVP, Pete Stagman. If you turn on your television, and see the BSOD, simply grab your remote control, and press the Live TV button! This seems to straighten everything out. Other options which work, but take significantly more time, involve rebooting the computer, or putting it to sleep and waking it back up. Of course there is another option: buy a different video card. Apparently NVidia video cards don’t seem to have this problem, or at least don’t have it as often as the AMD video cards. In AMD’s defense, as their drivers have gotten better this problem seems to happen less.

Update – A Permanent Solution

A Twitter friend, Maeglin73, suggested a more permanent solution to the problem. It will however cost you about $90. If you insert a Gefen HDmi Detective Plus in between your Windows Media Center PC and your television the device will prevent the Black Screen of Death from ever happening. It works by saving the EDID information even after you’ve turned off your television. Thanks Maeglin!

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    [...] either incredibly lucky, or very smart. This is a problem that many people who have their Windows Media Center Pcs directly connected to theirtelevisions. What happens is if you stop the video that you’re [...]

  • Steve Rohlf

    I have never had the black screen of death and use a ATI 5770 card using HDMI out.  However I run out to a receiver first (well actually to a hdmi splitter first then the receiver) then to the tv.  I always turn on the tv and receiver at the same time, as the receiver has to be on to work, there will often be a buzz sound until I launch any app (usually Media Center) but it always works with no black screen of death.