Black screen not working (Windows 10)

There is no fix. I talked with the development team, sent them logs etc., and the conclusion was that it was a known issue with no scheduled fix. So, basically, the message was "We'll probably fix it sometime, but we cannot say anything about it. It might be in two weeks or two years. Or never."

Needless to say, I selected another software solution for my company.

@PaulB wrote:
Hey Frank
Try updating to the latest version - I think they have fixed it now. It worked for me anyway so I am happy.
Paul

Sadly, not for me with recent NVidia drivers.

All comments

@PaulB wrote:
Hey Frank
Try updating to the latest version - I think they have fixed it now. It worked for me anyway so I am happy.
Paul

Sadly, not for me with recent NVidia drivers.

I appreciate your sentiment.
While it is free for personal use, I am a paying user.
My issue is that it this has been a problem since April of 2017. So, for nearly 9 months now, the black screen has not worked with recent NVidia drivers (after 378.92 3-20-17). I get better performance with recent drivers. It is getting more than a little old.

Tomvalenz

@Natascha wrote:
Hi there,
Thanks for your posts. Please find additional information here: How to turn the remote screen black
Not all monitors, video cards, motherboards, or BIOS support the TeamViewer monitor driver solution, which is required to use the black screen.
For further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us again.
All the best
Natascha

@Natascha Have you read anything in this thread? Your reply is a slap in the face to all inquiring here. You point people to a KB article? Your driver/certificate expired a year ago, and people have been waiting +1 year for a fix/new driver? Do you even know? Have you done a fresh install?? What OS are you using that the driver installs on??? Can you please provide an update/solution?

Thank you.

tAp

There is a solution that required action by TeamViewer

The Monitor Driver needed for Black Screen the is this file - c:\windows\system32\drivers\TVMonitor.sys.

If you look at the properties of that file, then the Digitial Signature Details, then click View Certificate of the signer, and you will see that it is code signed by "TeamViewer GmbH" who's certificate expired 3/3/2018.

That is why in device manager, the device says "Windows cannot verify the digital signature for the drivers required for this device. A recent hardware or software change might have installed a file that is signed incorrectly or damaged, or that might be malicious software from an unknown source. (Code 52)"

This is just lazyness. Can be fixed by TV updating or issuing an new code signing certificate.

TeamViewer support has been good at working with me, but I did some testing on my own.
I decided to check my NVidia display driver. A new update was available - but it got me thinking. So after allot of testing... the later display drivers do not allow the black screen to work.
I have two DisplayPort monitors.
NVidia driver version and will black screen work...
368.69 - OK
375.70 - OK
376.09 - OK
378.92 - OK (3-20-17)
--------------------------------- Breaks here
381.65 - NO (4-06-17)
381.89 - NO
384.76 - NO
385.28 - NO

The TeamViewer guys are complete, utter *bleeps*. The monitor driver is unsigned, making it impossible to install on Windows 10 unless you "hack" the security down a notch. And no intelligent administrator will allow that on a coorporate computer.

Once again: **bleep** you, TeamViewer. *bleep bleepity bleep*

Show them that they're losing customers by chosing not to prioritize a serious bug like this. For my part, they've lost a customer with 120-130 users.

dstells

Not to be rude sir, but this isn't helping troubleshoot the issue.

My driver signing is still enabled and I have no trouble installing or using Teamviewer 12 or 13. Are you running the latest version?

I'm running a mix of 12 and 13 (upgrading them all to 13 now), all on Windows 10 (x64), builds 1703 (Creator's Update, upgrading as well) and 1709 (Fall Creator's Update, fully patched), and I have had 0 issues with installation and not seen the behavior you're describing. I have it installed on 9 computers (personal use, 6 Windows boxes, 2 Macs, 2 CentOS). I have not have not had to lower or adjust a single security setting on Windows; only one setting for SELinux on the CentOS boxes.

Lowering a security setting isn't "hacking"...it is changing a setting. Unsigned drivers aren't necessarily dangerous either (though I've not had to do this experience with TeamViewer, like you say), it depends on where the driver is coming from and why you're installing it. Reasonable admins should carefully weigh these factors before installing such drivers, but signed drivers aren't a guarantee of security either. They just guarantee that Windows doesn't complain.

Perhaps you'll recall when Adobe dumped their private key onto the internet in September 2017? (https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/09/22/oh_dear_adobe_security_blog_leaks_private_key_info/) Windows (regardless of version) would have never complained about malicious software signed with that key, but it still would have been a malware-related security event.

The developers at TeamViewer (none of whom I've ever had any contact with) work very hard on a complex software; they offer it free for personal use, and they have created it to be cross platform compatible. Good software is tough to architect and implement to begin with; and even harder to get right across every box every time. Microsoft has been in this game how long? And they break stuff all the time. Apple too. It is a fact of life, especially as tech becomes more complex (and hopefully more useful). Admins should use intelligence and reason, not insults or disparagements to choose which software they use, and why.

Lowering the security is very often not possible in a coorporate environment. In my experience it's allmost never possible. These things are controlled by securicy policies. So no - unsigned drivers are not very compatible with a coorporate setting.

As to the argument about it being free for personal use, it's invalid in every way. Whether the software is free or not is no excuse for not making it work properly. If you're not able to get a feature to work, then remove it. Or fix it. It's as simple as that.

Also, many of us are paying customers, which makes the argument about "free for personal use" double useless.

I agree with MichaelG here.This is getting more than old. They have clearly not even attempted to fix this issue; If they had, things would've happened in the last year or so. It's not a priority for them, which means that they'll lose at least some paying users.

tAp

Natascha,

The problem has nothing to do with all monitors, video cards, motherboards, or BIOS support

The solution requires action by TeamViewer.

The Monitor Driver needed for Black Screen the is this file - c:\windows\system32\drivers\TVMonitor.sys.

If you look at the properties of that file, then the Digital Signature Details, then click View Certificate of the signer, and you will see that it is code signed by "TeamViewer GmbH" whose certificate expired on 3/3/2018.

That is why in device manager, the device properties says "Windows cannot verify the digital signature for the drivers required for this device. A recent hardware or software change might have installed a file that is signed incorrectly or damaged, or that might be malicious software from an unknown source. (Code 52)"

This can only be fixed by TeamViewer updating or issuing a new a new signed driver signed by a valid code signer.

Sharuru

Really feel shame on TeamViewer.

I am just a normal home user. After they put this feature to a business subscription. I bought it without any hesitation.

But after such a long long long long time, they still didn't fix this bug.

Shame.

bartlanz

I have seen this option but never actually used it before today. It appears to work for me from my Dell Laptop to a Samsun All In One that I am setting up. I did need to install the driver you mentioned.

Have you tried it with any other computers in your enviroment yet? I wonder if it is something unique to that machine or that video card model/chipset?

Ugenx

This is definitely related to displayport/external monitors. I am having the same issue blanking a remote screen connected to a laptop via displayport. This same blanking on the same system and monitor works fine over an HDMI connection.

I see the problem too. dual monitors - display port.
I only found out because I was told that I could be seen working. So, I set up my camera to face the screen. Problem verified.

Kimber

Has anyone found a fix for this?

I got the prompt to install the driver, but I didn't restart my computer at the time.

My computer popped up that it stopped the download of the driver. Now I cannot get the computer to download the driver again. Each time I select to black the screen, it prompts to download the driver, but it never actually downloads. Even in the advanced setting, the install monitor driver is grayed out.

PaulB

Not good enough - come on Teamviewer - you can (and do) do better than this!

dstells

The issue seems to be primarily with PCs running nVidia drivers. I've noticed it on my MacBook Pro as well (Late 2013, using nVidia 740M 2GB).

There could be some AMD instances, but I see many compliants about nVidia drivers, with specific mentions. I haven't noticed AMD complaints, I suppose because the nVidia compliants have stood out. I wonder how many people on this thread are running nVidia drivers?

I've also noticed on my PCs, my Intel Graphics and AMD graphics don't have this issue. I have a limited testbed, but it does seem to stand out. Doing some looking around it looks like TeamViewer and nVidia have had some trouble playing nicely together at least since TeamViewer 9.

We are a paying customer of Teamviewer.
We mainly use the host module so we can support our customers PCs.
In the last years TV lost several of the features that made us chose it in the first place: The ability to use our own logo is gone (now it requires the download directly from TV, which is not allowed for many of our customers), and most important the lost of the ability to black and lock our customer screen.
Yesterday we installed 6 new PCS at one of our customers. It absolutelly requires that for certain operations the screen should be not visible to the user - since we can not support this anymore, we are banned to use TV with this customer - so we have a remote support solution that force us to go physically to our customer to do some operations!!!

A few days ago we received an email from TV asking for our feedback how TV has made us "greener" by reducing travels - We'll be glad to share our experience on how TV has made our face "greener" from rage and despair from the need to GO to the customer.

The ONLY reason that make us still use TV is our base instaled - we have a few customers whose laptops are away, and the change of remote solution we'll have a cost in time and money for us - but we're closer to that decision.

vasssek

Please fix the black screen functionality in WIn 10...

Thank you

Vasssek

Hi,

Today I open another case about this issue with TV support - more than 1 year after my first case about the same issue!
Current version is 13.2.14327H and this issue is not yet solved.
Worst technical support ever!

Carlos

novuscanus

On Windows 10 machines that were upgraded from Windows 7, which already had TV running on them, the black screen still works. Currently running version 15.3.2682.

For newer machines which were built with Windows 10 and had TV installed from scratch, black screen doesn't work. Currently running version 15.3.2682.

C:\Windows\System32\drivers\TVMonitor.sys file on both machines is the exact same file. For those who have said that the issue is with digital signing, could it be that when a machine is upgraded from Windows 7 there isn't a need to check existing signatures, but for a new install there is, so that's why it doesn't work on the native install Windows 10 machines?

It's really important to our company to have the remote black screen functionality on all machines, not just the ones upgraded to Windows 10. @Natascha , please could you request that one of TV's developers look into the digital signing of the driver and perhaps just update the signature anyway since it has expired. To my naive mind, that seems like a five minute exercise on TV's part that could have a huge impact for lots of people.

Sorry, but no.

Black screen still does not work on version 15.2.2756H - tested a few minutes ago.
It works on older systems (last friday i did a full reinstall of Windows 10 1909 in a 5 year PC and was able to install the display driver and activate black screen), but not on newer PCs (and by newer I mean PCs since aprox.2016).
By example: HP 400 i7-700C, intel HD630 - blackscreen does not work (install of display driver fails).

I start to believe that TV will never fix this issue - they are focused in adding more and more "features" that are not core for Remote Control, and only create new issues, instead of fix the problems.

Our customers are requesting that we use black screen: we work with ERP and payroll systems, so we had to sign NDAs and assure our customers that we comply with EU's Data Protection rules - but when we need to access confidential data (like the wage and fiscal information of an Employee) we can't use back screen, so we don't really know who can be looking at the screen on the customer side - as a result we have more and more situations where we need to go physically at the customer to solve an issue.

BlackScreen

still not working....bah

And this is also causing a issue with some laptops:

After installing TV (and not be able to install the TV screen driver) the user is not able to use the FN+Fx keys combination to increase/decrease the brightness, volume, etc.

The "workaround" requires:
1. removing the (not working) screen driver in device manager;
2. search for update drivers for monitor - with luck windows update will find and install updated drivers and the use will be alble to use FN+TX keys.

TV is completelly missing the point on this: adding more "features" on their product and completelly forget to fix all this issues.

I've now tried what I should've tried right away: Connected from A to B and B to A.

When connecting from ComputerA (Dell Lattitude) to ComputerB (HP ZBook), it doesn't work. Neither Actions->Disable remote input/enable black screen on ComputerA nor Advanced Settings->Enable black screen.

When connecting from ComputerB (HP ZBook) to ComputerA (Dell Lattitude), it DOES work. The moment I select Actions->Disable remote input on ComputerB (HP ZBook), the host monitor (Dell Lattitude) goes blank.

ComputerB (HP ZBook) has two external monitors in addition to the laptop monitor. I'm guessing this might have something to do with the problems? I didn't think about this at first, because I cannot remember the last time I saw a workplace laptop that didn't have at least ONE external monitor.

TW DOES detect the multiple monitors though, and when connecte I can switch between all three.