A League of Legends black screen usually means the game is running but the display is not rendering correctly. You may hear sound, see the cursor, or notice the game active in Alt+Tab.
These steps apply to League of Legends on Windows PC.
Does this affect you?
Use this if League opens to a black screen instead of the client or match view, especially after a Windows or driver update.
Force windowed mode
- When the black screen appears, press Alt+Enter.
- Wait a moment and try Alt+Enter again if needed.
- Press Alt+Tab away from the game and back if the screen still does not redraw.
- If you can see the game, open Settings > Video.
- Change Window Mode from Fullscreen to Borderless or Windowed.
Borderless and Windowed modes avoid many fullscreen display conflicts.
Edit the config if you cannot see the game
- Close League from Task Manager with Ctrl+Shift+Esc.
- Open File Explorer.
- Go to C:Riot GamesLeague of LegendsConfig unless your install is elsewhere.
- Open game.cfg in Notepad.
- Find WindowMode= and change it to WindowMode=2.
- Save the file and relaunch League.
This starts League in windowed mode before the fullscreen black screen can happen.
Update drivers and repair the client
- Update the GPU driver through NVIDIA, AMD, or Intel tools.
- Check Settings > System > Display > Advanced display and set the correct monitor refresh rate.
- Open Riot Client settings, choose League of Legends, and run Repair.
- Disable Discord overlay, NVIDIA overlay, and Xbox Game Bar.
- On laptops, force League to use the dedicated GPU if available.
If driver updates and Riot repair do not help, uninstalling and reinstalling the League client can clear deeper file corruption.
Sources
- Riot Games Support – League of Legends Black Screen Troubleshooting (2025)
- Riot Games Support – Repair Your League of Legends Client (2025)
- NVIDIA Support – GeForce Driver Downloads and Updates (2025)
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