Black Screen Issues

Black Screen Issues

in Account & Technical Support

Posted by: Gaile Gray

Gaile Gray

ArenaNet Communications Manager

Certain router models have been known to cause black screen issues. If you are experiencing this problem you may want to consider bypassing your router and connecting directly to your modem. If you have a router/modem combo and are unable to bypass your router, you can try disabling the SPI Firewall or disable Port Scan and DoS Protection.

Black screens sometimes are caused by certain in-game resolution settings that could be conflicting with the resolution of your system. You can try launching Guild Wars 2 in Windowed Mode, as that should resolve the issue. Launch Windowed Mode by doing the following:

  1. Navigate to your Guild Wars 2 folder. By default, this will be C:\Program Files(x86)\Guild Wars 2.
  2. Right-click on “GW2.exe” and select “Create Shortcut.”
  3. Rename this shortcut to “Guild Wars 2 Windowed.”
  4. Right-click on this shortcut and select “Properties.”
  5. Edit the “Target” line to include -windowed at the end. Note: Please make sure -windowed is outside of the quotation mark at the end of the string. For example:
    1. Correctly Formatted Example: " C:\Program Files (x86)\Guild Wars 2\GW2.exe" –windowed
    2. Incorrectly Formatted Example: " C:\Program Files (x86)\Guild Wars 2\GW2.exe -windowed "

Once you have completed the steps above, click “Ok” to save your changes.

If you get an error trying to save, your target line may not have the correct format. Please try Step 5 again.

Once completed, try starting Guild Wars 2 by using the new shortcut.

Lastly, security software and other background applications have been known to cause black screen issues. Please follow the steps in the KB article below to disable background applications: https://help.guildwars2.com/entries/27698133-Connectivity

Gaile Gray
Communications Manager
Guild & Fansite Relations; In-Game Events
ArenaNet