Black screen when using remote control on RDP connection to Windows Server 2016

[diggio]

Our end users log into terminal servers via RDP. When we use LogMeIn Rescue, the remote control will typically start with a black screen (not always but it happens almost every time). I can see their cursor moving around but the screen is black. We can get the black screen to stop by ending remote control and launching remote control over and over again until it finally works. This only happens when we are remote controlling an RDP session, other Windows hosts work 100% of the time. We've tried changing the color quality but it doesn't appear to solve the issue.

Mouse moving on customer session:

Relaunching remote control to fix it:

[MrHappy4]

I have a client that just started doing the same.  No fix yet. 

If I use LMI and start the RDP, the RDP is blank. If I RDP into the client and use the RDP on their machine to get to the server, then it's fine.

[AshC]

Hello,  @MrHappy4  @diggio

In case there is a user rights conflict there, are you able to test a possible solution by restarting the applet as a Windows System Service? 

[MrHappy4 · Accepted solution]

Come to find out, it seems to be a problem with the computer itself, somehow. The problem fixes itself when we open the lid of the laptop.

When the lid is closed and we use LMI and RDP, the screen is blank for anything, no Run command or Control Panel, or anything. When we open the laptop, everything works just fine and the screen shows up just fine, even if the RDP was blank a second ago. As soon as we close the lid again, everything in the RDP stops again and I can’t click any icons or do any commands.

Never had the problem on any other computers. We leave the computers in the office and the users LMI into them to run the programs, so we never needed to have the lids open. This one will have to be though.

[CARLOSROSAS]

Have the same problem,  I have to keep on closing and re-opning the session in order for it to work/display. Solution below, opening laptop... etc., is not an actual solution when it's happening with PC users, both, host and client.

[kbar]

It appears that some recent LMI update now requires a monitor to be attached and turned on. We've gotten around it by using the "fake display dongles" so LMI thinks there is a monitor attached. But for remote diagnostics and  help it kind of is a big missed. 

LMI update? Crickets.

[GlennD]

Hi @kbar, that is incorrect. 

Headless computers requiring a dongle or a display cable to be connected is nothing new or specific to LMI Rescue. The dongle/display cable shorts 2 pins which tells the computer a display is connected, this results in the OS initializing the graphics card and allocating memory as if a real monitor were present. Applications can then render as normal, despite having no actual visible output. 

If you have a computer that was working headless without a dongle but then stopped, I would first check if the driver had recently updated. If it is a laptop check the settings around how it behaves when the lid is closed.

[kbar]

Not our experience.

The requirements for dongles seem to be new to us. Headless machines used to work reliably. We routinely apply the Microsoft updates and use the the Intel display drivers. We really don't want using LMI to restrict applying updates.

It's annoying, even having a monitor plugged in (USB C cable), but turned off sometimes gives up the black screen with no way of fixing it without a physical presence.