YouTube: Screen black - how to get the player running again

YouTube videos provide fast entertainment for every taste. All the more annoying when a video loads slowly or, in the worst case, even remains completely black. Fortunately, you can fix this problem quite easily in most cases.

These are possible causes of black screen

It may happen that the screen stays black when you want to watch a YouTube video. Here's what you can do to make the video player work again:

• Do you have a second browser installed? Then copy the link of the video to the clipboard and paste it in the other browser. Also make sure that your browser is always up to date. To do this, perform an update if necessary.
• Maybe the cache is also the reason for the black screen. Use the key combination "Ctrl" + "Shift" + "Del" to clear cache and cookies.
• The screen also remains black if you have no or a poor Internet connection. Check whether other pages can be called. If this does not succeed, restart your router.

This is what you can do if it is due to hardware acceleration

Maybe the hardware acceleration of your browser is activated. The feature can be found in the settings in various browsers. If you use Firefox, deactivate the hardware acceleration as follows:

1. In the upper right corner of your browser window you will find three vertically arranged dots. Select them to open the menu.
2. In the new window, click on "Settings" and then on the "Advanced" option.
3. In the tab menu, under "General", you will find the "Browsing" section with the sub-item "Use hardware acceleration when available".
4. Uncheck the box in front of this option and reload the video.