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Situation:
When you connect to a host computer, you see a black screen with a blinking cursor, a black screen with random ASCII characters, or a toolbar with no host desktop icons.

Solution:
Sometimes, deleting temporary files and restarting the computer solves this problem, so this is the first thing to try. If that does not solve the problem, find the section below that describes the symptoms and follow the instructions. Click an icon to either expand ( ) or collapse ( ) each section. (If you cannot expand a section, then read the document Cannot expand or collapse a solution in a Symantec Knowledge Base document.)

Delete temporary files and restart the computer


Black screens are caused by two general categories of problems: connection problems and video driver problems. If you have tried deleting temporary files and that did not solve the problem, find the section below that describes the symptom, and follow the instructions:

Black screen with pcAnywhere toolbar
The toolbar only appears when using pcAnywhere as the remote. Once the pcAnywhere toolbar paints across the top of the terminal screen, any issues are probably due to either the host video driver or modem speed.

Windows XP Compatibility mode
This problem occurs if you installed pcAnywhere to Windows XP, and you have it set to run under a different version of Windows by using Compatibility mode. To resolve the problem, disable Compatibility mode for pcAnywhere.

For additional information on Compatibility mode settings, read the document Black screen with button bar appears when launching pcAnywhere while using Windows XP Compatibility mode.

Modem speed
Most 28,800 bps and higher modems are rated to handle 115,200 bps data throughput. However, this speed can impose a burden on even the fastest CPU, causing data loss, data corruption, and slowed or lost connections. With pcAnywhere, it can also manifest as the black screen. Dropping the maximum speed to 57,600 bps, or even 38,400 bps, will often eliminate this problem. You may have to make this change to the remote modem or to the host modem, or to both. To determine the appropriate speed setting for your modem, please see the document How to determine the optimal settings for your modem.

To change the maximum speed for the connection

1. Right-click the connection item you use for the connection (host or remote), and click Properties.
2. On the Connection Info tab, click Details.
3. In the Modem Properties window, from the Maximum speed drop-down list, click the next lower speed.
4. Click OK, and then click OK again.

Video driver issues
To transmit video information from the host to the remote, pcAnywhere captures changes to the display by monitoring information from the host's video driver. If pcAnywhere fails to correctly interpret the video display, a black screen may result. Many of these compatibility issues occur when the host computer is using a high-end video card and its accompanying video driver. There are four things you can do to correct this situation:

• Ensure you are using the most current video drivers at the host.
• Change the color depth at the host.
• Change the method pcAnywhere uses to update video changes at the host.
• Change the host video driver to a generic VGA driver.

Current video drivers
Verify that you are using the correct video driver for the operating system and video card. Also check with the manufacturer, or the manufacturer's web site, for the latest version of the video driver. If newer drivers are available, download and install them and then try your pcAnywhere connections again.

Color depth
The methods that some video adapters use to display different "color depths" (number of colors) can vary. With pcAnywhere, an adapter may produce a black screen at 16 million colors but not at 256 colors. There are two ways to approach this. The first, and easiest, is to set the pcAnywhere Color Scale function to a lower color depth. This is done at the remote computer. The second approach is to actually change the color depth used by the host display adapter. Choose one of these two approaches:

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Note: If you have an ATI video card (any model), try changing the color depth to "True Color (32 bit)" before attempting to lower the color depth.

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To change the color depth for pcANYWHERE32 7.x, 8.x, 9x, and 10.x

1. From the main pcAnywhere window, click File or Tools, and then click Options or Application Options.
2. On the Remote Operation tab, change the ColorScale field to 256 colors (or fewer, if necessary).
3. Click Apply, and then click OK.

To change the color depth used by the host display adapter

1. Click Start > Settings > Control Panel.
2. In the Control Panel, double-click Display.
3. In the Display properties window, on the Settings tab, change the colors to a lower depth.
   Lowering color depth may force a decrease in screen resolution.
4. Click Apply, and then click OK.
5. You will probably have to restart the computer to have the change take affect.

The pcAnywhere video mode
pcAnywhere has three methods for handling the host video. If the default is not working, you may need to try one of the other methods. If you are running Windows 9x, you can disable video acceleration on the host adapter while in session. The second choice is to change to Compatibility Mode--see "To change the video mode for pcAnywhere 7.x, 8.x, 9.x, and 10.x" below. Sometimes, the only way to correct (or find) the problem is to change the host adapter to the standard VGA adapter--see the section below titled "To change the host adapter to Standard VGA . . ." for your version of Windows.

To change the video mode for pcAnywhere 7.x, 8.x, 9.x, and 10.x

1. In pcAnywhere, click File or Tools, and then click Options or Application Options.
2. On the Host Operation tab, from the Video mode selection drop-down list, select another mode.
3. Click Apply, and then click OK.

Sometimes, the only way to correct (or determine) the problem is to change the host adapter to the standard VGA adapter. How you make this change depends on your operating system:

To change the host adapter to Standard VGA for Windows 95

To change the host adapter to Standard VGA for Windows 98/Me

To change the host adapter to Standard VGA for Windows NT

Recreate the host and/or remote items
A corrupt host or remote item can cause the pcAnywhere connection to fail. Delete the existing item and recreate a new host or remote item in pcAnywhere.

Black screen with blinking cursor

Black screen with ASCII characters

Black screen, then immediate disconnection

 

Document ID: 199753082441
Last Modified: 01/05/2007
Date Created: 05/30/1997
Operating System(s): Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 98SE, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows Me, Windows XP, Windows NT3.51
Product(s): pcAnywhere 10.0, pcAnywhere 10.5, pcAnywhere 9.0

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