Hogwarts Legacy Black Screen Fix Guide

The Hogwarts Legacy black screen bug on PC tends to crop up for players when they start the game. It’s not unique to WB Games’ open-world RPG set in the Potter-verse, though it’s nonetheless frustrating for those trying to experience the Wizarding World themselves. If you’re here, you’re wondering how to fix the issue. 

How to Potentially Fix Hogwarts Legacy Black Screen

Let the Game Run

This is the easiest fix to try when encountering the Hogwarts Legacy black screen glitch. Some players have found that simply letting Hogwarts Legacy run during the black screen for a few minutes (some have said up to 20 minutes) “fixes” the issue. Undoubtedly, this cause for the glitch will be patched by WB fairly quickly. If you’re still running into the problem, try the following. 

Allocate Enough RAM to Hogwarts Legacy

Games and background processes take RAM to run. Having too extra programs running many while trying to launch Hogwarts Legacy can essentially overload your system and cause a black screen. Close unnecessary background processes via Task Manager. 

Restart Steam

The very first thing you should do if you’re running into the Hogwarts Legacy Black screen bug is to exit the game and restart Steam. If you had to close Steam, go ahead and make sure it’s not running in the background. End the process completely via Task Manager. 

With that done, restart Steam and relaunch Hogwarts Legacy. 

Update GPU Drivers

If that doesn’t work, the next thing you should try is also one of the easiest potential fixes for the Hogwarts Legacy black screen glitch. Update your GPU drivers.

Both Nvidia and AMD regularly release new driver updates, especially around big game releases like Hogwarts Legacy. Though drivers can automatically install, it’s always best to check via the associated programs on your PC, which will likely give you a notification that there’s a driver update.

You can check Nvidia drivers either by opening the GeForce Experience on your PC or here on Nvidia’s website. For example, Nvidia released driver version 528.9 on 2/8/23. You can go here to update AMD drivers. 

In many cases, this simple task will fix the Hogwarts Legacy Black Screen issue.

Restart Your Computer

It’s always a good idea to simply restart your computer when you’re experiencing issues like a black screen. It’s especially important after updating new drivers to make sure everything sticks and is working properly. 

This will also potentially fix any wonkiness with Steam before moving on to the next potential fix.

Update Steam

When you restart your computer or fully close Steam, the client should automatically check for updates. Most times, the app will tell you there’s an update, etc. To be safe, follow these steps:

Adjust Graphics Settings

Many games often autodetect your system specs and arbitrarily choose the highest graphics setting. While you may meet the minimum or required spec for Hogwarts Legacy, that doesn’t mean the game won’t auto-set the graphics to something that puts undue pressure on your GPU and CPU. 

If you can get into the game’s display and graphics settings, check that they’re set appropriately. However, it’s likely that the black screen bug bites you when you launch the game. While it won’t exactly crash, it will keep you from proceeding. 

In that case try…

Opening Hogwarts Legacy in Windowed Mode

Opening Hogwarts Legacy in Windowed mode will put less strain on your GPU and CPU, potentially allowing you to reach the game’s display and graphics settings menu. There, you should be able to adjust things, close the game, and relaunch in full-screen mode. 

If you can only fix the black screen bug by playing in windowed mode, however, you may simply have to wait for a developer patch to play in true full screen. 

Other Potential Fixes

• Run Hogwarts Legacy as an Administrator.
• Run the game from a desktop shortcut or .exe file.
• Disable Raytracing. 
• Disable HDR.
• Delete Steam caches.
• Double-check firewall and anti-virus settings.
• Make sure frames are capped with Vsync/Gsync/Freesync.
• Verify Hogwarts Legacy game files.

Submit a Bug Report

When all else fails, it’s important to submit a bug report to Warner Bros. Games. This lets the Hogwarts Legacy development and support teams gain as much information on the issue as possible. 

It’s becoming more and more evident that Hogwarts Legacy isn’t well-optimized on PC in these early days, so glitches and issues are bound to crop up. Hopefully, one of these tips helped you overcome the Hogwarts Legacy black screen bug. For more, head over to our guides hub.