Forum Discussion

Greg Hejl's avatar
Greg Hejl
Copper Contributor
Sep 28, 2019

Edge Beta black out

On a new Surface 6 Pro. Edge Beta quite regularly goes black, the whole application. I can three finger swipe to see the desktop apps running, Edge Dev shows black, no other app exhibits this behavi...
thelinkin3000's avatar
thelinkin3000
Copper Contributor
Jan 09, 2020

I've been having these black screens for a while now.

I'm currently on the Dev branch, version 81.0.381.0, and I still am experiencing these.

 

Reading this thread helped me realize it's indeed a process using the GPU that hangs Edge.

I've noticed that there's a period in which the UI is not drawing (therefore the black window) but the app is still somewhat responsive. For example, I can switch the tabs by Ctrl + Tab and in my taskbar the title of the app changes accordingly. But after a few seconds Edge freezes and Windows asks me if I want to kill it.

 

I've been trying to bring Edge's Task Manager up (i.e. Shift + Esc), with varying success. Sometimes I can terminate the GPU process, sometimes it tries to show me the Task Manager window and promptly crashes, sometimes it shows me another black screen.

What has been working reliably for me since reading this is bringing up Task Manager (i.e. Ctrl + Shift + Esc) and killing the process labeled Microsoft Edge that is taking up GPU resources.

  • Andree-DelOrbe's avatar
    Andree-DelOrbe
    Copper Contributor
    Feb 12, 2020

    thelinkin3000 

    The way I found to fix it when it happens, is to open a new instance of edge without closing the previous one, as that seems to restart the GPU process and then the previous instance is visible again.

  • Wade Dorrell's avatar
    Wade Dorrell
    Brass Contributor
    Jan 29, 2020

    thelinkin3000 I have stayed on 79 (on the release channel now) and the issue persists.

     

    In all the occurrences I've seen I've not yet had to kill GPU Process to restore functionality. Merely bringing up Browser Task Manager, seeing GPU Process running there but without doing anything to it, is sufficient to get the main Edge window(s) to un-black, and after that they're OK. I believe GPU process start time is quite old, and continues to be after the window's restored, although I'll confirm this next time (so I think it's not a case of the process having died/respawned.) The other odd thing I've noted before is I've been unable to launch the Browser Task Manager using "Shift-Esc" even when the window appears to be in focus... I have to use the right-click menu near where the minimize/close windows would be.

     

    As such, wonder if my case of "black out" and your case of "black out" are actually the same. (My  symptoms I'd associate with something being wrong with how window messages are handled, not with some death of the GPU process.)

     

    If there is any information I can collect, Microsoft reps, please chime in, since it seems this problem has persisted to the first stable release.