Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain — How to Fix "Black screen and white screen on launch"
What causes the Black screen and white screen on launch error in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, and the fixes in the order that works.
Last updated 2026-09-25 · evergreen reference
The "Black screen and white screen on launch" failure in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain has a specific cause, and knowing it saves you from working through a dozen unrelated fixes. This page covers what the error actually looks like, why it happens, and the fixes ranked by how often they work.
What the error looks like
Confirm you are dealing with the same failure.
Recognising "Black screen and white screen on launch"
The game boots to a black screen and freezes, or shows a white screen immediately after starting.
Why it happens
The cause determines the fix.
Cause 1
Screen overlays. NVIDIA ShadowPlay and GeForce Experience are the named culprits for Fox Engine on PC, and this is the first thing to rule out.
Cause 2
A damaged TPP_GRAPHICS_CONFIG file, which produces the white-screen case.
Cause 3
Missing Media Feature Pack on Windows N and KN editions, which surfaces as an MFPlat.dll error rather than a black screen.
Fixes, in the order that works
Cheapest and most reversible first.
Disable ShadowPlay and the GeForce Experience overlay
Turn both off completely and relaunch. Community reports consistently name these as the cause of the black-screen freeze in this game.
Delete TPP_GRAPHICS_CONFIG
Go to the configuration folder, delete TPP_GRAPHICS_CONFIG and relaunch so the game regenerates it. This is the fix for the white-screen case.
Install the Media Feature Pack
If you see an MFPlat.dll error, you are on a Windows N or KN edition. Install the Media Feature Pack matching your Windows version — it is a system component, not a game file.
Test with launch options
Try -windowed, -noborder and -w 1280 -h 720 one at a time in Steam launch options. Do not stack them, or you will not know which one helped.
Remove ReShade and custom DLL files
Move dxgi.dll, d3d11.dll, ReShade.ini and the reshade-shaders folder out of steamapps\common\MGS_TPP, then test unmodded.
How to confirm it is fixed
One successful launch is not proof.
Retest properly
Launch twice with overlays still disabled. If it only starts with overlays off, keep a game-specific profile that prevents them from injecting.
If none of this works
What to do after the list is exhausted.
Gather evidence before asking
Collect your crash log, a DxDiag and the list of fixes you already tried. For Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, support will ask for all three, and a report with evidence gets a far better response than "it crashes".
Reinstall last, not first
A reinstall is the most time-consuming fix and repairs the same files that verification and cache repair handle in minutes. Try it only after the targeted fixes above have failed.
Related pages
This is an independent player reference and is not official documentation for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. GameRulePro does not host or link to copyrighted assets. Modding guidance is for single-player use only — never use mods in online multiplayer. Verify current requirements, prices and policies with the publisher before acting.
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