How to fix the Resident Evil 8 Black Screen at launch issue on PC

Ali Hashmi
Ali Hashmi
5 Min Read
Resident Evil Village

Resident Evil Village, or simply Resident Evil 8 is finally out now on PC. This is the latest entry in the long-running franchise, which recently celebrated its 25th year anniversary. This is a direct sequel to Resident Evil 7 and features the return of Ethan Winters. CAPCOM has been on a roll lately with their remakes, and recent Monster Hunter entries. The game runs fine for the most part and is actually very well optimized for a variety of systems, but there are some technical problems. If you are running into a Resident Evil 8 Black Screen at launch, here is how you can fix that.

The game has been met with positive critical reception, with a metacritic score of 84. The general consensus is that the game is a good mixture of both Resident Evil 4, with it’s open areas, and Resident Evil 7, with the different camera perspective. The title also features ray-tracing on PC, and consoles.

Fixing the Resident Evil 8 Black Screen at launch issue

Multiple users have reported that they are running into a black screen at launch, followed by a crash. There isn’t an error prompt, or anything explaining the reason for the crash. To fix this Resident Evil 8 black screen issue, you can try the following methods.

Usually, a black screen is an indicator that some important files are missing, or you don’t have the proper prerequisites to launch the game.

Update your GPU Drivers

The first, and most important thing you can do is update your graphic card drivers. These provide support for Resident Evil Village, and you will get better performance too. You can download the latest one’s for your respective GPUs, from the links below.

Verify Game Files

You can also verify your game files through Steam to ensure there aren’t any corrupted or missing game files. To do this, follow the steps below.

  • Open Steam, and then your library
  • Locate Resident Evil Village in your game library
Resident Evil Village in Steam library shows up with this artwork
  • Right-click on it, and select Properties
Every Steam game has this section, and you can adjust different settings by clicking on Properties
Properties
  • Now, click on the LOCAL FILES tab
  • Here, click on Verify integrity of game files
Verifying local games files can potentially fix the Resident Evil Village black screen at launch problem

This will check, download, and update your game if there were any issues during installation, or corruption.

Launch Steam in Offline Mode

Some users had issues with previous CAPCOM titles while running Steam in Online mode as well, especially ones using the RE Engine. If the methods above didn’t help you, try launching Steam in offline mode, and launch the game again. To do this, follow the steps below.

  • Open Steam, and click on Steam in the top-left
  • Now, select Go Offline in the drop-down
Steam allows you to launch the client in Offline mode potentially fixing the Resident Evil 8 black screen at launch issue
Go Offline Steam

This will restart Steam, and launch it in offline mode. Keep in mind, you can’t download anything in this mode, and you will have to relaunch Steam in online mode to do so. This method has worked for multiple users and fixes the Resident Evil 8 black screen problem.

Run the game as an administrator

You can also try running the game as an admin. To do this, follow the steps below.

  • Right-click on Resident Evil Village in Steam library
  • Click on Manage, and then Browse Local Files
You can browse the local files of any Steam game through the client using this option
Browse local files
  • This will take you to installation location
  • Here, locate the executable, and right-click on it
  • Select Properties, and then open the Compatability tab
  • Check “Run this program as an administrator”
Checking this option will make sure the game runs as admin every single time
Run as an admin

Try launching directly from the executable first, and then through Steam too.

We hope this guide helped fix your Resident Evil 8 Black screen issues. Let us know if you have any questions in the comments below.

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Gaming enthusiast, massive Soulsborne fan with hundreds of hours spread across different Soulslike titles, and a passionate writer. Always on the lookout for interesting games with unique mechanics and design especially in the indie space. He loves to write informative guides for newer and ongoing releases.
3 Comments
  • nothing from them helped in anyway, their just kinda basic rundown for steam games. But Its the game thats not working and nothing else, its poorly optomized and i guess not even tested.

    • These methods have worked for some Steam users, but there are still some players that can’t get the game to run. Hopefully, a future update can fix that. Are you using an AMD, or NVIDIA GPU?

  • I installed RE8 a week or two after it came out and it worked fine. Went to boot it up today and it goes to black screen makes a weird sound and then crashes. I was up half the night tring to find out what was wrong, nothing has changed.

    This fix it instantly. I will give detailed instructions on how I did it for windows 10.

    1. Know what drive you have it installed on.
    2. Go to your start menu and scroll down to till you see Windows System
    3. Click that and you will see something called Command Prompt
    4. Right click that and select more and finally click run as administrator
    5. You should now see a terminal window pop up.
    6. Type chkdsk with drive letter and colon of your RE8 install drive /F – the F means fix.
    7. Example my RE8 is on E: drive so I type — chkdsk E: /F
    8. It will now say this.
    9. Type Y to dismount the drive. It will fix bad sectors once it finishes boot RE8.
    10. No word of a lie I couldn’t believe when I got back in game.

    Chkdsk cannot run because the volume is in use by another
    process. Chkdsk may run if this volume is dismounted first.
    ALL OPENED HANDLES TO THIS VOLUME WOULD THEN BE INVALID.
    Would you like to force a dismount on this volume? (Y/N)

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