When your Samsung TV goes black, some people refer to this as the “black screen of death”. Don’t worry, it’s not a death sentence, we’re going to help you get your TV working again – one way or another!
I’m going to start you off with the easiest and fastest fixes to try, and then we’ll work our way down the list. Ideally, in a perfect world, by the end of the article you’ll be all set. If not, at the very least, you’ll have some ideas of what to try next.
Before we dive in, note that there’s a difference between a Samsung screen that’s black because it’s not even getting power and turning on, versus a screen that’s black because the backlight is broken, or a screen that’s black because there’s an issue with the inputs or video source. In any case, we’ll be going over fixes for all of the above and helping you identify what’s wrong.
| TV Powers On? | Picture on Screen | No Picture on Screen |
|---|---|---|
| YES | Try some of the troubleshooting ideas on this page that involve settings and going through the TV’s menus. If your TV will display video, but it turns itself off or goes black after a while, we have plenty of suggestions for you to try. | If the TV powers on but you can only see a black screen, try standing behind the TV and pointing a flashlight through the vents. If you can see anything on the screen now, there’s likely a problem with your TV’s backlight. |
| NO | Impossible, if your TV doesn’t power on, there won’t be anything showing up on the screen. | This could be an issue with the power cables, the power outlet, or the actual electricity supply to your home. |
Troubleshooting Samsung TV Black Screen: What To Do When Your Screen Goes Black
As mentioned above, work your way down all of the troubleshooting suggestions on this page, and there’s a high chance that your Samsung TV will work again. Some of these are easier than others to do, so remember that we aim to have the easiest/fastest/most likely to work fixes at the top to save your time so you can get back to enjoying your leisure time.
Check Your Connections and Power Cables
Before we go any further, just make sure that your TV is plugged into a confirmed-working power outlet and that any connected cables are properly secured.
Make sure that the cables running to the back of your TV are secure where they plug into the TV, as well as where they connect to the device at the other end.
If you’re lucky and the TV just wasn’t plugged in properly, that’s great! Easy win!
If the cables are all connected snugly and your TV still isn’t working, keep troubleshooting…
(By the way, to check if your wall outlet is working correctly, simply try connecting something else to it and see if it works. If the problem with your TV is intermittent, it could be an issue with unreliable power that works sometimes, and cuts out other time. If that ends up being the case, you’ll want to call an electrician or your landlord to have them look a things).
Test With Different Cables
To follow-up on the previous thing, is it just one device that causes your TV to have a black screen, or does it happen regardless of what you’re doing with your TV? For instance, if everything works fine except when you’re using a gaming console, or watching a DVD/BluRay, or watching TV on your cable box/satelite, it could be that the cable that connects that specific device to your TV is plugged in correctly, but the cable is faulty.
If you suspect a faulty HDMI cable (Or another type of audio/video cable, whatever your device uses…) could be causing the issue based on the description above, simply take a cable that you know to work and test that with the device in question.
Test With Different Inputs On Your TV
If you’ve narrowed it down that your device still isn’t working (causing you to get a blank/black screen on your TV),
Power Cycle Your Samsung TV
A power cycle/soft-reset is when you unplug the power cable from your Samsung TV, and then hold the power button on the TV set for 10-15 seconds.
The process resets the TV by removing the power source, and then emptying any stored power that’s left in the TV’s capacitors. That’s an oversimplification, but basically even when your TV is off or unplugged, it can sometimes continue to store power for quite a while. By holding the power button, you’re acting to get rid of some of that stored power.
Sometimes, all your TV needs is a short break, and by turning it off and performing the power-cycle process, you’re giving it that reset that it might need.
In fact, this power-cycling process is used for tons of different electronics and it’s such a useful tip. It’s the first thing I try when any of my devices aren’t working properly, and it often fixes things. But not always, unfortunately, so if this doesn’t work for you, keep going, there’s plenty more to try.
Update Your TV’s Firmware
Nowadays, TV’s don’t just have software and apps that can be updated, but they also have firmware which is an essential type of software that’s basically embedded into the hardware of your device. Ensuring that you have the latest firmware can help resolve various issues, bugs, and compatibility issues. It’s not super common for a TV set to get a new firmware release, but it’s worth making sure that you’ve got the latest firmware for your Samsung TV.
The exact method to update your firmware will vary depending on the model of TV that you have. You’ll still be able to follow along and find the correct menu, but keep in midn that some of the menus might be labelled slightly differently than the instructions below:
Go to your TV’s SETTINGS menu, look for an option that says SUPPORT or something similar.
From there, look for an option called SOFTWARE UPDATE or something similar, and then check if there are any upadtes availiable.
You’ll need an internet connection for your TV to do step, and obviously if the screen is black all the time, you’re not going to be able to see the screen in order to naviage the menus, so you’ll want to skip this one..
If the problem with your TV only pops up every now and then, give this a try the next time it’s displaying video correctly.
Is Your Samsung TV Overheating?
If your Samsung TV seems to work fine most of the time, but only starts acting up after you’ve been using it for a while, then it’s possible that it’s overheating and turning itself off as a method of self-preservation.
Sometimes, when devices overheat, they’ll turn themselves off to avoid any damage that would be caused from prolonged heat.
How To Check For an Overheating Samsung TV:
If you suspect your TV might be overheating, here are a few environmental signs that could point to this.
Check the vents around your TV, are they covered in dust? In general, whever you can shine a light and get a glance into your television, is there a lot of dust and debris built-up? This could signal that your TV’s vents are clogged or blocked, which means that your TV might not be able to properly cool itself down.
Also, is your TV in a ventilated area? If it’s in an entertainment unit, is your TV a perfect-fit, without any “breathing room”, so to speak? If so, try taking your TV out of the enclosure and see if you still have these problems. If it works fine, the issue could be caused by a lack of airflow, causing heat to buildup and not dissipate properly.
Disable HDMI-CEC, then Enable HDMI-CEC
HDMI-CEC is a feature that allows devices plugged in via HDMI to turn your TV on and off and to control it in various other ways. It’s possible that there’s an issue where a device is causing your TV to turn off, so by disabling HDMI-CEC we can rule this out if the problem persists.
The instructions to disable HDMI-CEC will vary from one TV to another, but in general you’ll want to head over to the SETTINGS menu, look for something like GENERAL SETTINGS, then look for a menu/option that is labelled EXTERAL DEVICES or EXERNAL DEVICE MANAGER or somethjing similar. From there, you should see an option to disable HDMI-CEC.
Keep note of how you found this menu, since you’ll need to do it again to re-enable HDMI-CEC if this is a feature that you use, or if it’s not the cause of the issue.
To test if this helped or not, just use your TV normally with HDMI-CEC disabled and see how it goes.
Remove Any Recently-Installed Apps
If you have a smart TV, and you can pinpoint that this problem started shortly after installing any new apps, try deleting those apps and see if this helps. It’s not likely that an app is causing this problem, but it’s not impossible.
As we work our way down this list of suggestions, we want to try everything we can – you never know what might work – and you can’t say you’ve tried everything if you haven’t tried this!
What’s Next When Your Samsung TV Goes Black?
I’m working to update this article and add a handful of additional things that you can try, but hopefully you’re not even reading this final section because one of the ideas from the top worked for you and you’re enjoying your TV right now. If you did make it all the way to the bottom, and your TV still isn’t working right, it’s not a bad idea to try reaching out to Samsung support.
