Windows 10 Remote Desktop Connects with Black Screen then Disconnects

Question

I've been having this issue since I updated (fresh install) to Windows 10 Professional. I used to connect to my computer via RDP through WAN and LAN with no issues.

After installing W10 and setting up everything correctly (ports, static IP etc) I still can connect, but during the day it randomly kicks me out and I can't successfully log in afterwards. It makes a secure connection and connects, but I get a black screen without a cursor and disconnects a few seconds after that without any errors.

It's an Intel i7 desktop with nVidia GPU with the latest drivers.

Things that I know/tried:

1. When issue occurs, I can replicate it on Windows, Mac, or iPads/iPhones over LAN or WAN.

2. Rebooting temporarily fixes the problem, until it starts happening again.

3. Disabling bitmap caching or changing resolution on RDP client doesn't fix it.

4. Pressing CTRL + ALT + END doesn't do anything.

5. Created a new account and tried logging on to that to test if it is account related, still didn't log in.

6. Did a sfc /scannow to do a system scan and fix corrupt files, it came out with no errors.

7. I checked the event log and apparently WINLOGON keeps crashing. It only says "the windows logon process has unexpectedly terminated"

I ran out of options to fix this, any help will be appreciated.

Answer 1

Remote Desktop – Black Screen Of Death

The Issue

Using Remote Desktop the remote screen turns black right after login and you have no control. The issue appears to be caused by Screen Caching and accessing a system with different display resolution or RDP window sizes.

The Solution(s)

• While logged in and stuck on the black screen of death
  1. Press CTRL+ALT+END, or CTRL+ALT+FN+END on laptops. This calls Task Manager and in most cases you’ll immediately see the Desktop.
  2. If only Task Manager but no Desktop appears try running Explorer from Task Manager: File > New Task > Explorer.exe
• Try connecting at a different resolution.
• Access the remote computers Computer Management or Services MMC and cycle the Remote Desktop Services service.
• Update display drivers, both on the connecting machine and on the machine you are connecting too.
  1. Some users are experiencing this with Nvidia GPUs. The Geforce Experience program has a "Share" feature aka "shadow play"; when enabled some people experience the problem. Try to disable it, restart and see if it helps.
  2. Check the display settings at the remote host and see if there is a phantom monitor present. Might need to change which monitor is the primary one
• Start a new RDP client on your desktop but BEFORE you click CONNECT, click the SHOW OPTIONS link, click the DISPLAY tab and set the DISPLAY CONFIGURATION to a low resolution like 640×480.
• Try turning off Fast Startup
  • This feature only works when you do a SHUTDOWN and then Boot. It doesn't effect a RESTART.
  • Go to Control panel, Power Options and select Choose What the Power Buttons Do on the left.
  • Then select Change Settings That are Currently Unavailable near the top center of screen...
  • Lower down on the window, uncheck Fast Startup.

Prevention

• Disable bitmap caching for your RDP connections
• Confirm RDP account has full administrative rights on remote system
• Access the remote computer using consistent resolution – Full screen may help
• Confirm both systems' video drivers are up to date

Resources

(Google it at Microsoft support sites; I have too low a reputation to post links)

• Disable Bitmap Caching 2012
• Hotfix for “Black screen during a Remote Assistance session in Windows Vista, in Windows Server 2008, in Windows 7, or in Windows Server 2008 R2”
• The lock screen is black or blank and does not respond to keyboard or swipe actions in Windows 10 Technical Preview

Answer 2

I tried all of the above suggestions but none of them worked for me. I just wanted to restart the remote machine to see whether it will fix the issue. It indeed worked.

I did the following to restart the remote machine via command line (with admin privilege) as I could not find a way to restart the remote machine via RDP.

Step 1: Login to the remote machine

net use \\<remote machine IP>\IPC$ <password> /USER:<username>
Ex: net use \\192.168.0.1\IPC$ password1 /USER:user1

Step 2: Restart remote machine

shutdown /r /m \\<remote machine IP>
Ex: shutdown /r /m \\192.168.0.1

Answer 3

None of the other answers worked for me, I finally found something that did, after a lot of digging. Use the Group Policy Editor (or download the superior "Policy Plus"), and disable UDP. You can find this in policy rds/client or rds/host/connection/select protocols, or in the registry at SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\Terminal Services\Client

There are a lot of settings to fiddle with in there, you could also try disabling RemoteFX graphics.

Answer 4

I've had the same problem - switch from 32bit to 24bit colours and it will let you connect as normal. All other settings can be left on their defaults.

Answer 5

The remote desktop that I was connecting to had a max resolution of 1600x900, while the home desktop I was connecting from was operating at 1920x1080.

On the black-screen RDP, I did the following to resolve it:

1. Closed the black-screen RDP using the "x" on the blue bar on top.

2. Explicitly set the display to 1600x900 in the RDP client, then connected.

3. While that session was still open, started another RDP client to the same machine, this time with display set to 'Large'.

4. The first RDP session automatically ended, the second one started at my current monitor's full resolution of 1920x1080.

Answer 6

In my case it was python miniconda, which has known issue spoiling PATH on linux in .bashrc, some details are in my answer

Answer 7

Repeating a workaround documented by @johnny Keeton above, proposing as answer because it worked for me when the other solutions above did not...

tasklist /svc | findstr /C:TermService to identify the Process ID, and
taskkill /F /PID [process_id] to end the process
net start TermService to restart (though it will restart on its own in my experience)

– Johnny Keeton Aug 24 '16 at 2:03

Answer 8

One part of SNag's answer is enough to work for me to workaround the issue: connect with another instance of Remote Desktop while the one with the black screen is still active.

Answer 9

This might not help but I solved it by turning down the resolution. The problem occured as the monitor I was connecting from was 2560x1440, and the remote computer wouldn't allow that. Turning it down to 1920x1080 worked fine and I am now connected with everything showing.

Answer 10

I had this issue since I was having different DPI. On my laptop I had DPI set to 125% while a computer I was connecting had 100%. Setting DPI to 100% on laptop solved the problem.

Answer 11

When I have this issue I move the RDP screen to my default screen and maximize the screen. The RDP screen should no longer be black. I then move the RDP to my secondary screen. Not the best work around, but it works.

Answer 12

Had the same issue. The following worked out for me:

1. Right-click the current Graphics item in Device manager, and select "Update driver".
2. Choose "Browse my computer for driver software"
3. Choose "Let me pick from a list of device drivers"
4. Select "Microsoft Basic Display Adapter"

Answer 13

I had this issue after I installed Oracle VM and a Lubuntu image. Right after the Oracle installation everything was fine and I also managed to install Lubuntu. I've done everything through RDC. Suddenly, the screen went black. I haven't restarted the computer or done anything worth mentioning at all, it just happened. This all happened in one single session.

I then tried restarting the computer manually, I tried all of the above settings which helped other people and I also uninstalled Oracle VM. Nothing helped.

In the end, I restored my computer to the state before I installed Oracle VM with a restore point that was generated automatically by my computer. Now RDC works again and I'm able to see the screen.

tl;dr: use a restore point if RDC used to work but doesn't work anymore

Answer 14

On the remote system remove the Hidden - Microsoft Remote desktop Display Adapter - from the Device Manager Display Adapters listing, restart the remote system.

Answer 15

None of the other answers worked for me, but I did eventually find a solution. For reasons that are unclear what make the difference was disabling sharing of printers and smart cards in the RDP settings.

Answer 16

In my case, the host computer had a group policy setting to "Prevent installation of removable devices" (Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Device Installation > Device Installation Restrictions).

Apparently, the Microsoft Remote Display Adapter, which is used by RDP, is a "removable device". Whenever I tried connecting, the host would try and install the driver for the adapter but failed because of the above setting.

The solution is to disable that setting temporarily, remote into the device so that the display adapter driver is installed, and then you can re-enable that setting.

I assume there is a way of manually installing it without disabling that setting, but I came up empty googling how to do this.

Answer 17

In my case black screen was caused by some installer - looks it was waiting for the input and blocking log on session.

Used answer from @dadde to run Task Manager and look at the list of the processes which are not looks like regular list I used to see, after terminating the first candidate (one with installersomething in the name) I was able to get my Remote Desktop

Answer 18

For me, this solved it. The explorer was lost somehow and needed to be started again:

1. Press "Ctrl + Shift + Esc" to bring up the task manager.
2. In the task manager app, click File -> Run new task
3. Type "explorer" and press enter

This solved a black screen persistent and unrelated to resolutions troubles.