"Not Responding" windows go black

This recently started after some Windows update, possibly including the Nvidia driver. Details are vague.

Whenever a program with an active window goes non-responsive, even for a moment, its window goes black. This affects any and all "not responding" programs identically. This is more annoying than anything, but sometimes more than that. For example, if I drop a huge file into my text editor, I cannot read a file I am working on in another pane. Entire program window area has gone black until the huge file is done loading.

Other programs not affected and can be operated normally. Any clues?

***This is different than the "monitor goes black" problem.***

Win 10 Pro 64-bit 21H2 19044.1949 Nvidia driver 30.0.15.1215 as reported by Device Mangler.

Hello @caseym54,

I have noticed that you have NOT had ANY replies, so I thought that I would try and help.

We do NOT know what you have and haven't tried, so, as a start, with the aim to reduce trouble-shooting, please perform the following.

• MemTest86+ [ RAM ] > MemTest86+ - Test RAM
• Hard Disk Sentinel [ DISK - Also OK for SSD's ] > Hard Disk Sentinel - Portable Trial Version Available

 Hard Disk Sentinel

You can run it directly from a USB, and in my opinion, this gives the best INSTANT report available compared to other software of the same type.

About Hard Disk Sentinel:

Hard Disk Sentinel is a computer Hard Disk Drive monitoring software for Windows, Linux and DOS operating systems.

Hard Disk Sentinel [ Sentinel ] is a multi-OS SSD and HDD monitoring and analysis software. Its goal is to find, test, diagnose and repair hard disk drive problems, report and display SSD and HDD health, performance degradations and failures. Hard Disk Sentinel gives complete textual description, tips and displays/reports the most comprehensive information about the hard disks and Solid State Disks inside the computer and in external enclosures [ USB hard disks / e-SATA hard disks ].

Hard Disk Sentinel monitors HDD status including health, temperature and all S.M.A.R.T. [ Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology ] values for all hard disks. It also measures the disk transfer speed in real-time which can be used as a benchmark or to detect possible hard disk failures and performance degradations.

If those report to be OK, then Copy & Paste the following commands into an Elevated CMD Prompt and press Enter.

Code:

chkdsk %SystemDrive% /scan
sfc /scannow

If you get an ERROR from sfc /scannow, then Copy & Paste the following commands into an Elevated CMD Prompt and press Enter.

Code:

Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
sfc /scannow

For information: . . .

> How to Repair System Files with SFC Command in Windows 10
> How to Repair Windows 10 Image using DISM

I hope this helps.