- Nvidia’s GPUs are facing another bug causing black screen crashes
- This affects RTX 5060 and 5060 Ti GPUs and won’t let you boot to the desktop
- Nvidia has a fix to hand, but applying it could be a somewhat tricky matter for some folks – though the impact of this bug isn’t widespread, apparently
Nvidia has released a fix for owners of RTX 5060 and RTX 5060 Ti graphics cards who are seeing their PC boot to a black screen.
This is a nasty problem, of course, leaving those affected unable to use their PC unless they have some way of getting around the black screen that’s presenting itself and bringing the boot process to a screeching halt, instead of allowing people to get to their desktop.
VideoCardz highlighted Nvidia’s confirmation of this problem in a support document which also provides a tool to cure the showstopping bug, namely the Nvidia GPU UEFI Firmware Update Tool v2.0.
Nvidia makes it very clear that this patch – which is an update for the motherboard BIOS – should only be installed by those who are encountering black screen woes. If you aren’t affected by this issue, don’t grab this tool.
Of course, there’s a slight problem in terms of downloading and using the tool on a PC with this bug, given that as mentioned, you seemingly can’t get to the desktop in the first place.
Not with a normal boot, anyway, which is why Nvidia provides a list of workarounds to get your PC booted in its support material. That includes heading into the BIOS (which you can do before your PC starts to boot, following the instructions provided with your computer or motherboard) and ensuring you are in UEFI boot mode and not Legacy/CSM mode.
That’s because the latter can cause the black screen problem, but do note that some (older) PCs may not have a UEFI option, in which case, Nvidia advises you to “contact customer service of your graphics card manufacturer for a legacy VBIOS update.” (Not meaning Nvidia itself, of course, but the maker of your board, such as Asus, Gigabyte, MSI and so forth).
The other main trick that should work to get to the desktop is if you have integrated graphics (on your processor), you could switch to use that (in the BIOS graphics settings) instead of your Nvidia GPU. Or if your CPU doesn’t have integrated graphics, you could use an another (old or borrowed) Nvidia GPU in your PC temporarily.
Analysis: A frustrating issue with limited impact
This is a knotty problem, then, or it could be in some scenarios, potentially requiring a bit of fiddling around to get to a place where you can install the patch to resolve it.
That’s far from ideal, but the good news is that there don’t seem to be many gamers affected by this bug, as VideoCardz points out. That’s comforting to hear in some ways – even if it may partially be a reflection of the lack of popularity of the RTX 5060 in particular for various reasons – but clearly some GPU owners will be hit by this snag, otherwise Nvidia wouldn’t be bothering with a patch to cure it.
Sadly, Nvidia graphics card owners have been facing black screen issues from boot, or black screen lock-ups during everyday use or gaming, ever since new GeForce drivers were released with support for Blackwell GPUs. And that doesn’t just extend to those RTX 5000 graphics cards, either, but RTX 4000 models have been affected too (or even the generation before that in a scattering of reported cases).
In short, there’s been a general wonkiness with Nvidia’s graphics drivers since the RTX 5000 series arrived, and this is the latest episode. All in all, it’s not a good look for Team Green.
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