[..[
already tried on samsung, and tried second hdmi port.
will show up list of starting services.
show splash screen.
show again list of starting services.
then blank screen.

Seems like when the resolution change or a busier GPU/system results in the black screen.

[...]
well, i feel it's firmware.

already tried batocera (2 different version), lakka, recalbox, retropie (3 different version & my backup 2 *.img from (2019)).
the symptoms are same.

Then the issue is not software - but a hardware one. It's strange because the hdmi_safe should boot with a very low resolution, which should help with wonky HDMI cables that fail on 1080p. Having the image shown on boot means the HDMI port is ok. Since you get the voltage drop icon, I'd say it's the power that's faulty.

pls don't try sudo rpi-update i don't want you guys get like me.

That's not recommended for regular updates and you shouldn't use it, especially since Buster based system may not getting the same testing by the RPT teams, with the latest kernel/firmware.

[...]
i'm curious with you guys, can help me with run uname -a, sudo vcgencmd version and run via ssh emulationstation --debug where it can run emulationstation. so i can compare and will try figure out

The EmulationStation log is the same, the firmware/kernel version are probably different on a system where rpi-update hasn't been run. The version will not help you much, but if you want to revert the rpi-update changes, you should reinstall the kernel/firmware by running

sudo apt-get install --reinstall raspberrypi-bootloader raspberrypi-kernel

Got the problem figured out. It was PEBCAK apparently. Not to be confused with ID10T errors. I had to pull the games out of the .7z archives then all worked well. My wife is so happy she gets to play vectrex!

If you have SSH enabled, can you check whether retroarch is still running after you issue the exit command (and the black screen shows up) ?
Did you add anything in the onstart/onend scripts that may run before the emulator stops ?
What's your screen resolution and what type of display are you using ?

@metalgamerfil said in Blank dark screen after boot:

if I plug a keyboard and press ALT+Tab and return to the emulationstation it shows the normal picture.

Are you using the desktop to start EmulationStation ? This is not supported on a Raspberry Pi, EmulationStation (and the emulators it starts) should run outside of the Desktop env.

I fixed it, but it is very weird. I connected it to another monitor, standard office FHD, 60Hz monitor and it now works (only on that monitor), it also works on out TV, which is 4K, 120Hz. I don't really understand, what's going on, that it doesn't work especially on my monitor (1440p, 165Hz).
Pls devs, fix it =)

@mitu ok so here is what i found to be my problem..
i thought i could just rename the file right click rename.
to fix i opened file in notepad and save as.. lair2.txt...
just so if there are others that dont get it like me
lol
thank you ever so much..
now i can move on to the rest of the fun

@mitu Here's the text that came out after the commands:

AP///////wBMLe4NAA4AAQEbAQOAeUR4CiOtpFRNmSYPR0q974BxT4HAgQCBgJUAqcCzAAEBBHQA MPJwWoCwWIoAUB10AAAeAjqAGHE4LUBYLEUAUB10AAAeAAAA/QAYSw9RHgAKICAgICAgAAAA/ABT QU1TVU5HCiAgICAgAToCA0/wU18QHwQTBRQgISJdXmJjZAcWAxIsCQcHFQdQPQTAVwcAgwEAAOIA D+MFAwFuAwwAQAC4PCAAgAECAwTjBg0B5Q5gYWVm5QGLhJABAR2A0HIcFiAQLCWAUB10AACeZiFW qlEAHjBGjzMAUB10AAAeAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAArQ==

Additionally, after hours of messing with this, when I plugged it in today it was magically working. I had just rebuilt the box after an issue with SSD corruption. I'm still willing to pull data/test to help anyone else who has come across this issue. I also plan on rebooting a few times to see if this is a fluke.

This doesn't look like a typical RetroPie installation - what version of RetroPie do you have installed ?
You may have ran out of disc space on the sdcard, you can check that by exiting EmulationStation and looking at the welcome message.

@mitu I added:

hdmi_ignore_edid=0xa5000080

to the config.txt in the boot partition, just above

#config_hdmi_boost=4

on line #35.

That seems to do the trick. Excellent, thank you.

@MegaTimX said in Rpi 4, No display on my 3440x1440 monitor, works perfectly on my 4k TV.:

Hopefully in a future update HDMI support for this monitor(resolution?aspect ratio?) for the Rpi4 will be added.

Unless someone reports it upstream, I don't think it will be magincally solved.
Someone reported something similar this last year and for them it has been solved with a firmware update, see https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=248037&start=25.

If the recommendations in that topic won't solve your issue, then I suggest replying to that topic and adding your own monitor EDID for the RPT engineers to check it.

Ah thanks. I was intending to use the Commander Genius loading screen to download the freeware games, but I'll try installing them myself.

@jpe230 Can you assist me in this case.. I am really hopeless about the screen issue..

for me happens the same. what did you made to solve it?

@mitu thank you for helping, the raspberry pi is a 3B+ made to look like a gameboy so it hasn’t a screen of its own connected to the raspberry pi inside a gameboy shell. The screen is black (but there is an indication that it is on since the blackness glows when in darkness) and when I turn on the console, the introduction plays without the screen - I can hear the PlayStation intro sound that it makes - and then it stops and the 4 blinks occur. I haven’t modified the console at all and it was working perfectly for the past 4 months. It did do this thing where it would start to glitch and freeze or the console would completely shut off, but I could always just turn it back on and it would start up again. However, I was playing it and what happened was the console just fell slightly onto a pillow then the screen went black but the sound still played. Now when I turn it on, the screen stays black, the intro plays, and then it stops running. Does retropi or emulation station stop running (does it shut off) if there is no hdmi output? I’m thinking maybe the screen got bumped out of place, but it doesn’t explain why the sd card stops running or that when I click a button, the games don’t start and make noise at least.

@LiveFreeDead
Okay, I understand that. Thank you for the replies.

right, so decided stuff it and start all over again.
redownloaded 4.4 and started afresh.
roms workeing fine, so following eta prime guide, i used steven selp scraper.
snes, megadrive etc all scraped fine, arcade is missing loads, but no issue playing roms after.
am i okay to now just use skyscraper for arcade only or do you have to delete the previous steven selp arcade scrape info first.

@paulnmiller1 Yes, changing video driver to sdl2 in RetroPie Setup as suggested by @mitu worked immediately.