# Screen goes black and can't recover

**URL:** <https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/t/screen-goes-black-and-cant-recover/5275>\
**Category:** Programming Help\
**Tags:** windows\
**Created:** [February 27, 2024, 1:21pm UTC](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/t/screen-goes-black-and-cant-recover/5275 "2024-02-27T13:21:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![s.lindsay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7cd45c/32.png) [@s.lindsay](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/u/s.lindsay)\
**Post date:** [February 27, 2024, 1:21pm UTC](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/t/screen-goes-black-and-cant-recover/5275/1 "2024-02-27T13:21:54Z")

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Hi  
So I have this script - it runs fine on my desktop in my office but when I run it on my lab computer it shows the calibration screen but then goes black - following the display command (which is the start of the main experiment body). I tried on another different computer in the lab (with different hardware) and it has the same issue.  
There is not a great deal of difference between the computers not identical but similar generic office far - intel hardware, dell machines, running windows 10, one of the computers not working has a 2021 version of matlab but another has a pretty recent version, same as the working computer.

I am struggling with debugging and fixing - any ideas?

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**Author:** ![dcnieho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@dcnieho](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/u/dcnieho)\
**Post date:** [February 27, 2024, 1:40pm UTC](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/t/screen-goes-black-and-cant-recover/5275/2 "2024-02-27T13:40:44Z")

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Add a call to PsychDebugWindowConfiguration before opening the screen, so that your window is transparent. Then you can see through it, and properly find what the error is that occurs (I’m guessing your script is blocked because some error occurs, but you can’t see it since there is a window blocking the matlab command line)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![s.lindsay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7cd45c/32.png) [@s.lindsay](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/u/s.lindsay)\
**Post date:** [February 29, 2024, 4:27pm UTC](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/t/screen-goes-black-and-cant-recover/5275/3 "2024-02-29T16:27:39Z")

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ok thanks have fixed it now.