How to Fix Black Screen Issues in The Last of Us Part II

A black screen in The Last of Us Part II typically occurs when the game fails to properly display its visuals. This issue often arises when your system struggles to handle the selected graphics settings. For instance, enabling ultra textures, high shadow quality, or ray tracing on a GPU with limited power or memory can easily trigger it.

In other situations, an outdated or faulty graphics driver can interrupt how the GPU communicates with the game, leading to crashes or a blank screen. Similarly, corrupted or missing game files can prevent key visual components from loading often resulting in the same black screen problem during startup or gameplay.

Now that we’ve identified the main causes, let’s move on to the solutions below.

1. Lower Volumetric Effects Quality

Volumetric effects control how light rays, fog, smoke, and other 3D particles appear. These effects make scenes look stunningly realistic, but they are also very demanding on the GPU.

When your graphics card runs out of memory or processing power, it can’t render these effects properly often leading to black screens or freezes. Lowering this setting reduces GPU load, allowing smoother and more stable visuals.

1. Launch the game and open Settings.
2. Under the Display tab, find Volumetric Effects Quality and set it to Low or Medium.
   
3. Save the settings and restart the game.

2. Switch to Windowed Mode

Fullscreen mode can sometimes cause black screens when your display’s resolution or refresh rate doesn’t match the monitor’s settings. It may also trigger driver conflicts when switching between the game and desktop.

Running the game in Windowed or Borderless Windowed Mode helps avoid these conflicts, ensuring more consistent rendering.

1. Launch the game and go to Settings.
2. Open the Display tab, then set Window Mode to Windowed or Borderless Windowed.
   
3. Save your settings and restart the game.

3. Update Graphics Drivers

Your graphics driver acts as the communication bridge between the game and your GPU. If it’s outdated or corrupted, it may fail to process the game’s visual instructions correctly resulting in black screens, crashes, or severe stuttering.

Since modern games like The Last of Us Part II rely on advanced rendering technologies, updating your GPU driver ensures full compatibility and better performance.

1. Right-click the Start menu and choose Device Manager.
   
2. Expand Display Adapters.
3. Right-click your GPU and select Update driver.
   
4. Click Search automatically for drivers.
   
5. If Windows reports that “The best drivers are already installed,” visit your GPU manufacturer’s site (NVIDIA, AMD, or Intel) and download the latest version manually. Follow this guide for detailed steps.
6. Once updated, restart your PC and relaunch the game.

4. Adjust Virtual Memory

Virtual memory allows Windows to use part of your storage drive as extra RAM when physical memory runs low. This helps stabilize demanding games, especially on systems with less than 16 GB of RAM.

When memory runs short, the game may fail to load critical textures or assets, leading to black screens, freezing, or sudden crashes. Increasing virtual memory gives Windows more space to handle data overflow and improves stability.

1. Press Win + S, type Advanced system settings, and press Enter.
   
2. In the Advanced tab, click Settings under Performance.
   
3. Open the Advanced tab again and click Change under Virtual Memory.
   
4. Uncheck Automatically manage paging file size for all drives.
5. Select your main drive (usually C:) and choose Custom size.
6. Set the paging file size based on your installed RAM:

 Initial size: 1.5 × your RAM (e.g., for 16 GB RAM → 24576 MB) Maximum size: 3 × your RAM (e.g., for 16 GB RAM → 49152 MB)

7. Click Set, then OK to save changes.
   
8. Restart your computer and test the game.

5. Verify the Game Files

If none of the above solutions work, corrupted or missing game files could be the culprit. Even one damaged file can disrupt essential assets like shaders or textures, keeping the screen black while the game runs in the background.

Using Steam’s Verify Integrity of Game Files feature ensures all files are intact and automatically replaces any that are missing or damaged.

1. Open Steam and go to your Library.
2. Right-click The Last of Us Part II and select Properties.
   
3. Navigate to the Installed Files tab and click Verify integrity of game files.
   
4. Wait for the process to complete. Steam will automatically fix any corrupted or missing files.
5. Once done, relaunch the game to check if the black screen issue is resolved.

If verification doesn’t help, a clean reinstallation may be necessary. This ensures every file is freshly downloaded and eliminates any hidden data corruption, often fixing persistent startup or black screen issues that verification alone cannot resolve.