Black or White bars at top or bottom of screen

Anonymous
2018-06-18T23:22:01+00:00

Hi all, 

I am technician at an IT company and we are pulling out our hair over an issue with one of our clients using Google Calendar.

They are 2 users, both using different computers, both running the latest version of Windows 10 and Chrome.

The symptoms happen at different times on both machines. The symptoms can vary but are generally a form of bar on the top or bottom of the browser. They have to restart the computer for the issue to disappear. They can work around it by reducing the screen size from full screen, to something slightly smaller.

We have tried Firefox, Edge and Chrome Canary with same symptoms, updating all drivers, BIOS, re installation of the OS and still issues are occurring. We originally thought the issues were graphics related, but they seem to only be happening when in Google Calendar. Seems like an OS bug? 

We have also turns hardware acceleration off in the browsers.

I have included some screenshots as well. The black bars at the top began in Firefox on Google Calendar and have penetrated other windows that have been placed on top (Acrobat in this example). 

We are using an Intel NUC and a Laptop.

Any advise would be most appreciated.

Regards, Sam

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Performance and system failures

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Anonymous
2019-03-26T15:04:26+00:00

Hello everyone,

You can use the shortcut CONTROL + SHIFT + WIN + B to reset the graphics adapter on affected machines. This will get rid of the white/black bars without navigating through menus. 

All the fixes I've seen (Intel graphics panel, reboot computer, change resolution, etc) just reset the graphics driver anyway. For example, when you change the resolution on a computer, the monitor(s) shuts off for a moment and then comes back up. This is because the graphics adapter reset.

I don't have a permanent fix unfortunately, but this is a quick band-aid fix that takes less than a second when you see this problem occurring. I've observed this problem over the last ~6 months and am disappointed that some of my organization's fully updated computers (Windows 10 1809 with all updates as of March 26th, 2019) still display this problem. 

Thanks.

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Anonymous
2021-11-30T00:53:12+00:00

Solved! After a few years of just accepting this problem, a tech guy at Best Buy found the answer. He worked on it for an hour or so and voila! In google chrome (chrome://extensions), he eliminated the extension on stock tracker program and the bar is now GONE! I had the same problem on my other computer so I made that change and it's gone! Hopefully, that or something similar will work for everyone else who has suffered with this problem. Good luck!

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  1. Anonymous
    2021-04-27T09:27:37+00:00

    To "fix" this I changed the display settings on the offending screen to a lower resolution, apply that, then change back to original resolution and apply.  This "fixes" the problem for a while.

    1. Windows and D buttons to minimise all apps.
    2. Right click on background and "Display Settings".
    3. Click Identify to change the correct monitor (if using multiple monitors of course)
    4. Highlight the monitor.
    5. Under Display resolution note the current resolution
    6. Change this screen to a lower resolution and accept changes
    7. Change back to original resolution and accept changes

    You should now be able to work normally until next time - or Microsoft actually release a fix.

    Thanks, i followed your steps and it works,

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  2. Anonymous
    2020-05-20T10:07:52+00:00

    I've been experiencing the same problem for the last couple of months! It's affecting three PCs (all with Win10+updates) with completely different hardware. They only have two things in common: 1. Multi-monitor setup (2 or 3 monitors), 2. nVidia GPU (970, 1070 or 1050ti - different drivers).

    The problem appears just randomly while I'm using Firefox and it's incredibly annoying!

    Today it started when I was looking at an online flyer for a store.

    It's affecting multiple applications but only if they are on the main screen and in "maximize" mode, e.g.

    • Firefox (dark theme - white bar at the top)
    • Android Studio (dark theme - black bar at the top)
    • File Explorer (white theme - white+grey bars at the top)
    • Internet Explorer (white theme - white bar at the top)
    • Edge (white theme - transparent bar at the top)

    A weird thing about it: You can click through this bar! If e.g. only Firefox is currently open, you can actually open shortcuts on your desktop by double-clicking "through" this bar!

    If you use F11 with Firefox (activates full screen mode without any menus) and then go back to "normal" mode with F11 again, it's fixed for Firefox but the other apps are still affected!

    You can "fix" it by restarting the PC or changing Windows' "Scale" setting to something else, then back (I use 100%) but it's only a matter of time until the problem is back.

    Firefox:

    Android Studio:

    The problem was first reported in 2018, so almost 2 years ago! When is this going to get fixed?

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  3. Anonymous
    2020-02-06T15:28:35+00:00

    Win+Ctrl+Shift+B to fix

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