There are two main causes for a DVD movie stopping or the picture going black mid-play.

Power Management enabled

Verify that power management is disabled. Because there is no activity on the computer as you watch, the computer may switch to power saving mode, causing the movie to stop, go black, or cause an error.

  • How to adjust power, standby, and sleep settings.

Screen saver

Verify that all screen savers are temporarily disabled because the computer may think it’s inactive during the movie. The screen saver may start running during the movie and cause errors, the movie to stop, or the screen to go black.

  • How to disable or enable screen savers.
  • See our DVD definition for further information and related links.
  • DVD help and support.