Although Movie Maker is quite an old program that hasn’t had any updates in years, many people are still using it for their quick video editing needs, even running it on newer editions of the Windows OS. For this reason, along with a few others, Movie Maker could present a number of uncomfortable and irritating issues, one of which is a sudden black screen appearing when using this editor.
If a dark, blank screen is the problem you’re currently facing as well, here are some explanations, as well as a few solutions to this common issue:
Table of Contents
Restarting Windows Movie Maker
Your Movie Maker might present some bugs, glitches, and other issues if it is overwhelmed by tasks it needs to perform. In that case, simply turning the program off by pressing the X button, and then opening it once again after a couple of minutes can help to resolve your issue.
When you close down the Movie Maker app, you could also decide to right-click on its icon, and then choose to scan the application with an antivirus that’s installed on your device. This will allow you to find out whether a virus has been causing your black screen issue.
Either way, keep in mind that your progress might be lost if you force-close the Movie Maker program.
Adjusting the sound levels
Deciding to mute the audio in Movie Maker is another way you might be able to solve the issue of the blank screen appearing. Here’s how you could do it:
- From the menu at the top, press Timeline.
- Expand this section to include the audio and the video.
- Now, right-click on this section, and press Mute to turn off audio.
- Alternatively, you could also adjust the sound levels of your video clips to zero by pressing the Set Audio Level icon (audio mix picture) and then dragging the provided slider to the far left.
Shutting down unnecessary tasks
In case there are too many tasks currently running in the background on your computer, this could also be a big reason why your Movie Maker program is not functioning properly.
However, this problem can easily be solved by pressing the CTRL + ALT + DEL keys on your keyboard, and then opening the Task Manager, where you could shut down any unnecessary tasks that are running in the background.
Updating the system drivers
Considering the fact that Movie Maker might sometimes need the newest drivers to be able to function optimally, updating your device’s drivers could be another way to resolve the blank screen error. Here’s how you could do that:
- Load the Start menu, and then search for Control Panel.
- Here, press Device Manager or Hardware and Sound>Device Manager (depending on your OS version) and then open the Display Adapters section.
- Then, right-click the name of your driver, and press the Update Driver Software option.
- Finally, click to automatically search for updates, and wait until Windows finishes the installation process.
- You might need to restart your device in order to apply the new changes as well.
And there you have it; the best solutions for the most common causes of the blank dark screen error in the Movie Maker app. Hopefully, some of the methods mentioned above will allow you to solve this common yet irritating problem.
