Steam Link black screen, Radeon HD 7970M (Sager NP9150M)

[cantide]

I've seen a few other people have similar black screen problems, but I wanted to share my specs/problem as well:

I linked my Steam Controller to my Steam Link with no problems. When I connect to my Steam client (wifi, strong connection), Big Picture opens opens on my laptop but the screen stays black on the TV. With streaming diagnostics on, I can see that ~60fps is being streamed over.

If I start a game from Big Picture mode, the TV also remains black-screened. I can hear sound, though.

If I alt-tab to the desktop, chrome, etc., that all mirrors on the TV.

I was able to briefly play Legend of Grimrock 2 on the TV; I believe I started the game on the PC, then connected through the Steam Link, then alt-tabbed back to Legend of Grimlock, and it correctly streamed. Subsequent attempts have failed, and other games (Ducktales, etc.) have also failed.

I have a Sager NP9150M (running a Radeon HD 7970M) currently running the latest drivers - 15.200.1062.1004. Technically, I also have an onboard Intel HD Graphics 4000 but my Switchable Graphics Application Monitor is showing me that I'm using High Performance (as does the System Information readout from Steam).

At this point, I'm a bit disappointed and a loss for how to further troubleshoot it. I've done a factory reset (no dice), power cycled the Link (no dice), tried various combinations of starting the game (not-repeatable dice).

Any suggestions for a workaround, or an ETA for a patch?

Thanks, your assistance is appreciated.

[DashT]

I have an AMD Radeon 7400m with Intel HD 3000 and have discovered that if I set steam to run on power saving--foring it to use the Intel card, it solves the black screen issue when in big picture mode.

I've only had one game give me a black screen (Timeshock, running via a shortcut). Setting that game to power saving so it runs on the Intel also fixes the issue, though it flashes black occasionally.

Other games (Portal 2 and Batman Arkham City) have streamed without issue on the AMD, but Carmageddon Reincarnation and Shadows or Mordor both give me flashing, scrambled pictures. (I suspect this is a settings issue.)

Turning hardware encoding on/off on the host/client makes no difference to the black screen problem for me, but hopefully the power saving option will give you a work around to get it working for now.

[cantide]

That worked for me (for at least a few games). Thank you so much, DashT! I had a little stuttering with Ducktales (which might be due to WiFi), but I'm so glad that it worked on the first try.

Thanks again!

[cantide]

It looks like with last night's patch, everything is working now without having to put Steam on power saving. Thanks to DashT for the workaround and Steam for the quick fix.