Black screen with a channel playing?
If the Fire TV menus look fine but one IPTV channel shows black with sound, the stick isn’t the problem: see black screen in IPTV. The steps below are for a black or blank screen on the Fire TV itself.
The fixes, in order
Check the TV input
Press the source or input button on the TV’s own remote and select the HDMI port the stick is plugged into. TVs can switch to a different input after a power cut or when another HDMI device turns on.
Restart the stick
Hold Select and Play/Pause for about five seconds, or unplug the power for 60 seconds and plug it back in.
Reseat the HDMI connection
Plug the stick directly into the TV rather than through an HDMI switch, soundbar or hub. Try it with and without the HDMI extender, and try a different HDMI port.
Cycle the resolution
Hold Up and Rewind together for five seconds. The Fire TV steps through the resolutions it supports; let it continue until the picture appears, then confirm the one that works. This fixes most “sound but no picture” cases.
Reset HDMI-CEC
If you can see the menu, open SettingsDisplay & SoundsHDMI-CEC Device Control, turn it off and then on again.
Check power and cables
Use the power adapter and cable that came with the stick, plugged into the wall. For 4K, use a high-speed HDMI cable and an HDMI port on the TV that supports 4K.
If it’s still black
- HDCP. Amazon suggests confirming your TV is HDCP-compliant (see the video-cable section of the TV manual). If the TV, or an HDMI switch in between, doesn’t support the copy protection a video uses, that video can show as black.
- Try another TV. If the stick works elsewhere, the problem is the original TV’s HDMI port or settings.
- Give it time. Amazon’s frozen-screen advice is to leave the device on for up to 25 minutes, or until the screen changes, before trying the next fix.
- Factory reset as a last resort: see restart and reset a Firestick.
For other symptoms, see Firestick not working.