Troubleshoot Zoom Black Screen Issue on Your PC

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This lockdown period saw a substantial rise in the use of video conferencing apps. Zoom is one of the primary screen-sharing apps. A lot of people use it for official and personal online meetups. Though it is an efficient application often people complain about experiencing blacks screen issues on Zoom. This happens while they are in the middle of a video call. Obviously, it is quite an undesirable situation that hampers your meeting.

In this guide, I have explained how to fix this black screen issue on Zoom. I have covered the troubleshooting method for both Windows and Linux users. The major reason for the issue can be the auto-switching of graphics settings. Likewise, on Linux, the screen sharing feature uses compositing. This requires a third-party compositor called xcompmgr which the user has to install manually. I have put up the steps to integrate this compositor on your Linux machine. Now, let’s get down to the guide.

How to Troubleshoot Zoom Black Screen Issue

First, let’s fix the issue for Windows users.

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Most of the PC today makes use of graphics card from Nvidia. Obviously, these are the staple GPUs for gaming and video editing.

Open Windows Control Panel
Go to Nvidia Control Panel
Click on Manage 3D Settings > then navigate to the tab I would like to use the following 3D settings
There click on Select a program to customize
Then browse to Zoom bin directory
Look for a file Cpthost.exe and then select it > Click on Add

To find the Cpthost.exe go to C: drive. Then follow the path I have mentioned below.

C:/Users/Pc_username/AppData/Roaming/Zoom/Bin

Then click on Add Selected Program
Go to Preferred Graphics Processor
Under that select Integrated graphics
To save the changes click on Apply

Now, relaunch Zoom and try to connect with someone through a video call. The black screen problem should now be fixed.

Fix Zoom Call Black Screen Problem on Linux

Earlier as I mentioned for Linux there is a third-party compositor that needs to be installed. So, we will see the command that you can issue and fix this problem.

Open the terminal on your Linux machine
give the below command if you use Ubuntu, Debian, or Linux Mint
```
sudo apt install xcompmgr
```
open SUSE users will give the following command
```
zyper install xcompmgr
```
And Fedora users will have to enter the command I have put up below
```
dnf install xcompmgr
```

Now, you know how to successfully install xcompmgr. Still, there is one more command left that you have to enter. It will work on any distro of Linux that you use.

xcompmgr -c -10 -t0 -r0 -o.00

So, that’s all you have to do to troubleshoot the black screen issue you often face on the Zoom conferencing app. I hope that this helps. Let me know if the above methods worked for you or not.