Fortnite season 5 brought a number of updates, but also what appeared to be a number of problems.

While the game works well for a large number of people, there are a small number who may experience “black screen” crashes when the game loads.

There are several causes of this problem, from a faulty graphics driver (unlikely) to issues within Fortnite.

For the most part, the black screen crashing issue seems to be due to the way the new update has caused various files to get damaged or corrupted, preventing the operating system from loading the files it needs to run the game. .

Causes

As with many software applications, there are many * possible * causes of the problem (in the absence of a specific error code, it is generally the case that multiple problems may be at the root of the problem).

To this end, while BattlEye and bad movie files are the probable causes, the following represents the full list of problems:

• BattlEye defective

• Faulty Movie Files (Season 5 Only)

• Graphics driver problems

• Windows outdated / bugs

• Fortnite errors

• Registry problems with Windows

It is important to note that “black screen” crashes often indicate graphics problems. This is the same across the entire spectrum of modern computing.

If you can’t get Fortnite to work after applying the steps below, there may be more specific issues with Windows or with the game itself.

Solution

To resolve the underlying issues, there are a number of steps to take …

1. Uninstall BattlEye

The first step to take is to get rid of the BattlEye expansion for the Fortnite game.

BattlEye is a third-party “anti-cheat” package used with Fortnite, PUBG (and others) to provide additional support for the system. It is important, but we can repair the installation to make sure it doesn’t cause any more errors:

• Press the “Windows” + “E” keys on your keyboard

• Go to “C: / Program Files / Epic Games / Fortnite / FortniteGame / Binaries / Win64 / BattlEye”

• Select “Uninstall_battlEye.bat” and let the screen process the command

• Once completed, load the Epic Games Launcher

• Select the “gear” icon to the left of the green “Start” button

• In the drop-down menu, select “Verify”.

• Let the verification process run

• After it completes, reboot your system

Once it restarts, you should try loading Fortnite again.

If it works, you should consider the problem resolved.

Otherwise …

2.Remove faulty movie files

This was a newly discovered patch by someone on the Epic Games forums; It appears that several Fortnite “movie” files were actually damaged or corrupted.

To do this, you can follow the steps here:

• Press the “Windows” + “E” keys on your keyboard

• Go to “C: / Program Files / Epic Games / Fortnite / FortniteGame / Content / Movies / SRT”

• Delete everything in that folder

• Then go back to the “movies” folder.

• Find all 3 “FNBR” movie files and delete them all

• From here, reload the “Epic Games Launcher” and open the “Verify” process.

If it works, the problem can be considered resolved.

3. Reinstall the graphics driver

The next step (if the above two don’t work) is to reinstall the graphics driver.

This may seem extreme, but it is actually relatively straightforward and should solve most of the problems in regards to any game that causes problems.

Doing this takes a bit of time, but it’s worth it:

• First, navigate to your preferred search engine + search for “DDU”

• You should find a website called Guru3D with reference to the “Display Driver Uninstaller” you created.

• Scroll to the bottom of the page and download the application through one of the links.

• Save the file to your system (you will need it after reboot)

Once downloaded, you need to load Windows in “Safe Mode”.

This differs depending on the version of Windows you are running:

• On Windows 7, reboot the system and press F8 continuously before Windows loads. A black screen should appear: use the number keys on the keyboard to select “Safe Mode”

• On Windows 10, press the “Start” button, select the “Power” button (“charms” menu on the left) and then hold down the SHIFT key and press “Restart”

• This will load a “Windows Recovery Environment” blue screen, from which you need to click “Troubleshoot”> “Advanced Options”> “Startup Settings”> “Restart”.

• This will restart W10 in safe mode (yes, it is annoying, but it is)

Once in “Safe Mode” (on any system), you need to click on the DDU application you downloaded earlier …

• When loading the application, you simply have to press the top button, it will do its work and then restart your system.

• From here, you need to allow Windows to install the graphics driver again (or if you intend to use the full driver, you’ll want to go to the manufacturer’s website and download it)

• Let the driver install, restart your PC again and then try loading Fortnite again

4. Update Fortnite

Next (if the problem persists), you will need to update Fortnite.

This will guarantee a new set of files for the system, allowing you to get the most out of the game.

To make sure this works properly, you need to follow these steps:

• Load the “Epic Games Launcher”

• Select the “Settings” option at the top right.

• Click “Update”

• Let the app run its update process

• After the update is complete, reboot your system

5. Clean the registry

Lastly, you may want to clean the “registry” of your system.

This has become somewhat noticeable of late (mainly due to the over-promotion of “registry cleaning” tools), but it is still a relatively effective way to fix core Windows problems.

• Download an effective registry cleaning tool (the only one worth using in 2018 is CCleaner, which is free)

• Run the cleaner and let it scan all the files / settings on your system

• When it shows the files you want to clean, let them clean

• Restart your PC when done

This will give you the best chance of having a system that can actually run the Fortnite app smoothly and effectively. Other problems suggest a deeper problem.

If you are still having problems, it often means that you have some underlying problem with your system kernel. Without direct access to the various files / packages that can cause the error to persist, it’s hard to speculate what the problem might be.

To this end, if you want to solve the problem directly, it is best that you seek the support of various parties who have specific knowledge of your system.

Reddit is a good source of support, as are SuperUser and Microsoft Answers. If you really struggled, it may be worth talking to someone on Fiverr (who has a lot of “paid” support for this sort of thing), as well as looking for whatever support services (local or remote) you can to get to the heart of the problem.