Many players are experiencing a black screen on startup in Helldivers 2. Alongside the black screen on launch, some are also getting a crash to desktop, which is preventing them from playing the game. There are several potential causes for these problems, and we have a few fixes below.
How to fix black screens in Helldivers 2 and crashes on launch
A few things might be causing black screens when launching Helldivers 2. Additionally, some players are getting just a black screen, while others are also having the game crash to desktop shortly after being started. Here are some of the causes and fixes we’ve seen work:
Corrupted or incompatible graphics settings
If your graphics settings in Helldivers 2 are corrupt or incompatible with your hardware, it can cause a black screen on launch. Unfortunately, this is a catch-22 since you need to get to the graphics settings to fix the issue.
However, you can delete your user-defined graphics settings by heading to “C:\Users(username)\AppData\Roaming\Arrowhead\Helldivers2” and deleting “user_settings.config.” Once this file is gone, the game will return to the default settings the next time you launch it.
Controller Issues
Surprisingly, some users are reporting that having a controller plugged in is causing black screens and crashes. In particular, using a PS4 or PS5 gamepad causes the game to hang. So, even if you launch and then plug in the controller, the game will become unresponsive and eventually crash.
Note that you may have to disable Steam Input as well to prevent black screens.
AMD GPUs
If you have an AMD Radeon 7000 series GPU, you may be facing issues with black screens and crashing in Helldivers 2. The developers are currently looking into the problem but assume that the game will be unstable (if it launches at all) until a fix is released.
NVIDIA GPUs
The devs have reported that some users with NVIDIA GPUs are experiencing black screens and crashing when using Image Scaling. If you’re having issues, open the NVIDIA Control Panel and ensure Image scaling is turned off.
