The screen went black, or it is lit but ignores your finger, and the car is either still rolling or sitting in the driveway refusing to explain itself. The fix that works in almost every case is the one Tesla prints in its own do-it-yourself pages: shift into Park, “Hold down both scroll buttons on the steering wheel until the touchscreen turns black,” then “Wait approximately 30 seconds for the touchscreen to restart.” If the screen is still dead a few minutes later, the second step is a full power cycle: Controls, Safety, Power Off, then “Wait for at least two minutes without interacting with the vehicle.”
Two facts make the wait less alarming. The scroll-button restart “does not restart any other vehicle component and does not power Model 3 off and on,” so it is a screen reboot, not a car reboot. And even when the failure is the hardware itself, Tesla told owners of the recalled cars that “There is no risk to vehicle drivability if the eMMC malfunctions, including no effect on acceleration, braking or steering.” What you lose while the screen is dark is information: “The car status display, safety warnings, backup camera, etc. will not be visible during the restart.”
The rest of this page is the ladder in order, the branch where a black screen means a dead 12-volt battery rather than a screen problem, and the two federal recalls that decide whether a screen that will not come back is fixed for free.
Every black-screen symptom, and the step that matches it
| What you see | Most likely cause | The documented step | What to expect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Screen black or frozen, car otherwise normal | The touchscreen software has hung | Park, hold both scroll buttons “until the touchscreen turns black” | About 30 seconds until the display returns |
| Still black or “demonstrating unusual behavior after a few minutes” | Deeper software hang | “try power cycling the vehicle (if possible)” | Two untouched minutes, then press the brake or open a door |
| Screen black, doors will not open, app cannot reach the car | Low-voltage (12 V) battery is flat | Jump-start procedure, not a screen reset | Touch the screen once external power is on; “It may take several minutes for the touchscreen to wake up” |
| Black on every first entry of the day, car otherwise fine | Owner reports point at a USB drive or a firmware build | Reboot, then pull the USB drive and update | In a July 2023 thread one owner’s stopped after an update and a reformat; others went to service |
| Black or laggy before or during fast charging, 2021 to 2022 car | Processor overheating, NHTSA recall 22V-296 | Check the software version; the remedy is an over-the-air update | Fixed on 2022.11.101.1, 2022.12.3.3 or later |
| “Persistent blank center display that does not recover after restarting,” Model S or X built before March 2018 | Worn 8 GB memory chip, NHTSA recall 21V-035 | Book service; the swap to a 64 GB chip is free under the recall | “approximately 75 minutes for Model S vehicles and approximately 90 minutes for Model X vehicles” |
| Black after a software update with no “Software Update Complete” notice for three hours | Update stalled | “try rebooting the touchscreen” | Tesla’s own advice for a stalled update |
Every quoted phrase in the table is from a Tesla or NHTSA document cited in the section that expands it below.
Is it safe to drive a Tesla with a black screen?
The car drives. Tesla’s recall FAQ is the clearest statement of what a dead display does and does not do: “There is no risk to vehicle drivability if the eMMC malfunctions, including no effect on acceleration, braking or steering.” The same document then lists what an unpatched car could lose on the next drive: “you may lose access to the rearview backup camera display, exterior turn signal lighting on subsequent drives after eMMC malfunction, and access to windshield defogging and defrosting controls.”
That is the whole safety picture in one sentence: the drivetrain does not care about the screen, but on a Model 3 or Model Y the screen is where the speed, the gear, the camera and every warning live. Tesla’s page for the 2012 to 2020 Model S carries a separate reset for the instrument panel behind the wheel; the Model 3 and Model Y pages have no such step because those cars have no such panel. Which is why Tesla is firm about when to reset: “Only restart the touchscreen while the vehicle is stopped and in Park.” Third-party guides say the scroll-button reboot works while driving. Mechanically it may. Tesla’s older Model S page states the reason for Park outright, “To ensure the safety of occupants as well as other road users,” and the Model 3 page pairs its Park warning with the list of what disappears for those 30 seconds.
How to reset a Tesla screen: the scroll-button restart
Tesla’s procedure has three lines and no hidden ones. “Shift into Park.” “Hold down both scroll buttons on the steering wheel until the touchscreen turns black.” “Wait approximately 30 seconds for the touchscreen to restart.” There is no brake-pedal step, no door-open step and no count to ten in Tesla’s version; forum recipes that add them are adding folklore.
The page shows two wheel diagrams, labelled “Vehicles manufactured prior to approximately January 2024” and “Vehicles manufactured as of approximately January 2024,” one for each steering wheel. The Model Y page splits the same way at “approximately February 2025.” On either wheel the two buttons you hold are the scroll wheels themselves, pressed in.
What the restart does not do is the useful part. “Pressing the scroll buttons only restarts the touchscreen. It does not restart any other vehicle component and does not power Model 3 off and on.” That is why it is safe to try first and why it cannot fix anything outside the display computer. Owners of the older Model S and X have one extra move: “To reset the instrument panel, shift into Park and press the top two buttons on the steering wheel (Voice Commands and Next) for 15-30 seconds, or until the screen turns black.”
Reboot, power cycle or hard reset: which one is which
Tesla’s own ladder has exactly two rungs. The first is the touchscreen restart above. The second, which its page calls power cycling, is the closest thing to a hard reset an owner can do without tools: “Shift into Park. On the touchscreen, touch Controls > Safety > Power Off. Wait for at least two minutes without interacting with the vehicle. Do not open the doors, touch the brake pedal, touch the touchscreen, etc. After two minutes, press the brake pedal or open the door to wake the vehicle.”
The ordering is explicit. The restart page ends with “If the touchscreen is still unresponsive or demonstrating unusual behavior after a few minutes, try power cycling the vehicle (if possible),” and the power-cycle page opens by sending you back the other way: “If the touchscreen is unresponsive or demonstrates unusual behavior, try Restarting the Touchscreen before you power cycle the vehicle.” The catch in “if possible” is real: Power Off is a button on the screen, so a screen that is fully black cannot be used to reach it, and Tesla’s page offers no other route to it. If the restart fails and the menu is unreachable, the documented next step is a service request. Anything beyond that, such as disconnecting the low-voltage battery, is not in Tesla’s owner-facing procedure.
Tesla screen black when getting in the car
A screen that is dark on the first entry of the day, then fine after a reset, is a recurring version of this complaint in owner threads, and it is not the recall failure. In a July 2023 Tesla Motors Club thread, a new Model 3 owner reported the screen “completely black” on entry five times in two weeks; other owners in the thread reported three and five occurrences on cars under a month old, and “about 7” on one “just over a month” old. One reply described the harmless version: “After a short while, the Tesla logo appeared and the screen came back on. It was re booting itself for some reason.”
Two suggestions recur in that thread, with mixed results. The first is to unplug the USB drive, including “the memory key in the glovebox,” and see whether the black screens stop; one member suggested that “those drives sometimes get corrupted if left in the heat.” The second was a firmware update. One owner wrote that “after updating my car and formatting my drive the issue hasn’t occured to me anymore”; the original poster reported “Tried to reformat / wipe the USB, no luck” and raised a service request; a third had two black screens “before I even put a memory card in.” These are owner reports, not Tesla statements, so treat them as the order to try things in: reboot, pull the drive, install any pending update, and open a service request if it continues.
Tesla screen black after an update
Tesla’s software-updates page has one line for this: “If you do not see a ‘Software Update Complete’ notification on the Tesla app and it’s been over three hours since the update was started, try rebooting the touchscreen.” Two other lines explain the waiting. The owner letter Tesla mailed for its 2022 recall says updates “typically take between 20 to 60 minutes to complete,” while the support page warns that “Some software updates can take several hours to complete” and that “Your vehicle will not charge while installing an over-the-air update.” A screen that is dark ten minutes into an install is installing. A screen that is dark three hours later gets the scroll-button reset.
Screen black, doors locked, app offline: that is the 12-volt battery
If the screen is black and the car is also ignoring the key, the app and the brake pedal, stop resetting the screen. Every Tesla runs its computers, locks and screen from a small low-voltage battery, and when that battery is flat the screen is only the most visible thing that goes dark. Tesla’s no-power procedure describes that state: “In the unlikely event that Model 3 has no low voltage power, you will be unable to open the front trunk using the touchscreen, key fob, or mobile app.” The jump-start page describes what happens once external power is connected: “Touch the touchscreen to wake it up,” with the note that “It may take several minutes for the touchscreen to wake up.”
The difference is scope. A screen problem leaves the doors, the app and the drive working. A 12-volt problem takes all of them. The warning signs, the replacement cost and which battery your car has are on the 12 V battery page.
When it is the chip: the two recalls, and which cars they cover
Two federal recalls cover a Tesla screen that goes blank on its own. They affect different cars, for different reasons, with different fixes, and the build date or model year of your car sorts you into one, the other, or neither.
Recall 21V-035: the worn memory chip in older Model S and X
Model S built from “MAY 31, 2012 - MAR 03, 2018” and Model X built from “SEP 15, 2015 - MAR 03, 2018” used “a NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor with an integrated Hynix 8GB eMMC NAND flash memory device,” and the recall population “does not include vehicles that have upgraded to the Intel Atom® processor.” That chip is the car’s storage, and storage of this type wears out with use. Tesla’s report to NHTSA puts it plainly: “The eMMC flash memory device is rated for an industry-standard 3,000 Program/Erase (‘P/E’) cycles,” and when the cells reach that limit “the eMMC controller will no longer be able to maintain the integrity of the filesystem.”
The symptom is the one this page is about. In Tesla’s own words to owners, a worn chip “might result in a persistent blank center display that does not recover after restarting the touchscreen, loss of certain functionalities, and/or a vehicle alert signaling memory storage device degradation.” That is the line that separates a reboot problem from a hardware problem: a blank display that the scroll-button restart does not bring back.
The numbers behind the recall are in NHTSA’s file, and so is Tesla’s objection to it. Tesla’s own filing records its view that the wear condition “neither constitutes a defect nor presents an unreasonable risk to safety,” and that it recalled anyway “In the interest of bringing administrative closure to the investigation and to ensure the best ownership experience for our customers.” NHTSA’s investigation record states that Tesla’s data “show failure rates over 30 percent in certain build months and accelerating failure trends after 3 to 4 years-in-service,” across a population of 158,716 cars, and that Tesla “provided ODI with 2,399 complaints and field reports, 7,777 warranty claims, and 4,746 non-warranty claims related to MCU replacements.” The closing record adds the lifetime the agency objected to: “At a daily cycle usage rate of 1.4 per block, accumulation of 3,000 P/E cycles would take only 5-6 years,” and “Tesla provided confirmation that all units will inevitably fail given the memory device’s finite storage capacity.” Tesla’s own model, as NHTSA summarised it, expected replacements to “peak in early 2022 and gradually decline until (near) full part turnover has been accomplished in 2028.”
The remedy has two parts and the first is already on most cars. On software release 2020.48.12 or newer, Tesla’s FAQ says, “the rearview backup camera display will remain available, the exterior turn signal lighting will remain functional, and the windshield defogging and defrosting controls will automatically default to auto,” and Tesla’s report says the alert appears “anywhere from one to six months before the eMMC reaches accumulated lifetime wear.” The hardware part is a free swap: “we will replace the 8GB eMMC free of charge with an enhanced 64GB eMMC,” a job Tesla says takes “approximately 75 minutes for Model S vehicles and approximately 90 minutes for Model X vehicles.” The recall filing lists 134,951 cars, and Tesla’s FAQ notes that it “supersedes the 8GB eMMC Warranty Adjustment Program,” so a car repaired under the earlier program is not subject to the recall.
Recall 22V-296: the overheating processor in 2021 to 2022 cars
The second recall is newer, broader across models, and fixed by software. It covers “certain 2021-2022 Model S, Model X, and 2022 Model 3 and Model Y vehicles operating certain firmware releases,” 129,960 cars in all, in which “The infotainment central processing unit (CPU) may overheat during the preparation or process of fast-charging, causing the CPU to lag or restart.” Tesla’s letter to owners describes the symptom in the terms a driver would notice: “Slow processing or restarted processing could cause the center screen display to lag or appear blank,” with the “rearview camera display, windshield visibility control settings, drive modes (i.e., Drive, Neutral, or Reverse), and telltales being unavailable.”
One wrinkle in the paperwork: Tesla’s letter to owners describes the defect as existing in “certain model year 2021-2022 Model S, Model X, Model Y and model year 2022 Model 3 vehicles,” while NHTSA’s acknowledgement lists the Model Y for 2022 only, so a 2021 Model Y owner should check the VIN rather than the model year. The fix arrived over the air. “Please check that your vehicle is running software version 2022.11.101.1, 2022.12.3.3 or a later release, all of which contain the remedy,” the letter says, and the version is under Controls, then Software. A 2022 car that goes blank around a Supercharger session on 2026 software is therefore not showing the recall defect, and the ladder above applies.
Which recall is yours, by car and build date
| Your car | Screen recall | What that means for a blank screen |
|---|---|---|
| Model S built May 31, 2012 to March 3, 2018, still on the Tegra 3 computer | 21V-035 | A blank screen that survives the reset is likely the worn chip; the 64 GB swap is free |
| Model X built September 15, 2015 to March 3, 2018, still on the Tegra 3 computer | 21V-035 | Same as above |
| Model S or X already upgraded to the Intel Atom computer | Neither | Not in the eMMC recall population; the reset ladder, then service |
| Model S or X built after March 3, 2018, on the original computer | Neither | Tesla’s FAQ: cars built “on or after March 2018” “are not equipped with the 8GB eMMC and are not affected by this recall” |
| Certain 2021 to 2022 Model S and X, 2022 Model 3 and Model Y, on affected firmware (Tesla’s letter also names the 2021 Model Y) | 22V-296 | Fixed by 2022.11.101.1, 2022.12.3.3 or later; check Controls, Software, and the VIN lookup |
| Model 3 from 2017 to 2021 and 2023 on, Model Y 2020 and 2023 on, Model S and X from 2023 on, Cybertruck | Neither | Reset ladder; a screen that will not come back is a service visit |
The build dates and processor exclusion are from Tesla’s Part 573 report; the “on or after March 2018” line is from Tesla’s recall FAQ; the 2021 to 2022 population is from NHTSA’s acknowledgement letter. Read as a worked example, a 2019 Model 3 sits in the last row: too new for the memory-chip recall, which never covered the Model 3 at all, and too old for the overheating one. A blank screen on that car is a reset first and a service ticket second, with no recall to lean on. Any owner can check a specific VIN; Tesla’s FAQ points to “either the Tesla VIN Recall Search or the NHTSA VIN Recall Search.”
What a Tesla screen replacement costs
Three dated price anchors cover the realistic cases; Tesla changes all of them without notice.
Free, under recall. For a Model S or X in the 21V-035 population, the chip swap costs nothing, and Tesla’s FAQ says an owner who “previously paid for a repair for the specific part and condition covered under this recall” may be eligible for a refund. The recall does not cover other faults: “Diagnosis or repair for conditions other than the part and condition described above are not covered under this recall remedy.”
The optional upgrade for old Model S and X. Instead of the like-for-like chip, owners of the older cars can buy Tesla’s Infotainment Upgrade, which replaces the whole media computer. On September 13, 2026, Tesla’s shop listed it at $1,500 for “All Other Model S and X Vehicles” and $2,000 for cars with “Autopilot Computer 2.0 or 2.5,” with “Shipping to your preferred Tesla Service Center and installation” included, for Model S “produced in 2012-2018” and Model X “produced in 2015-2018.” Tesla’s FAQ is explicit that this is a different job from the recall: the recall “retains the vehicle’s NVIDIA® Tegra® infotainment processor,” while “The Infotainment Upgrade converts the infotainment processor to Intel Atom® and involves the replacement of other components.”
A Model 3 or Model Y screen out of warranty. Neither Tesla’s support pages nor its recall FAQ lists a screen price; the number comes from the estimate in a service request. One dated owner invoice sits in a May 2021 Tesla Motors Club thread opened about a cracked 2020 Model 3 screen, where a member with a cracked screen was quoted “over $1,500” and reported the final bill as “$1,506.89,” of which “A whopping $59 of that was labor,” after being told Tesla “would have to replace the whole display unit” rather than just the glass. That is one invoice from five years ago, not a price list; the number to trust is the estimate in your own service request. A screen that fails on its own inside the new-car warranty is a different case: “The Basic Vehicle Limited Warranty covers your vehicle for 4 years or 50,000 miles, whichever comes first.” Cracks from impact are damage rather than defect; for what is excluded, the same page sends owners to “the Exclusions and Limitations section of the limited warranty provided with your vehicle.”
For what other parts of the car cost over the years, the maintenance cost guide has the dated figures.
Frequently asked questions
How do I reset a Tesla screen that is black?
Put the car in Park, hold both steering-wheel scroll buttons until the screen goes black, and wait about 30 seconds. If it is still blank after a few minutes, power cycle: Controls, Safety, Power Off, then leave the car untouched for at least two minutes before pressing the brake.
Can I drive a Tesla with the screen off?
The car drives, brakes and steers with the screen dark; Tesla’s recall FAQ says the chip failure has “no effect on acceleration, braking or steering.” What you lose is the display itself, including the camera and warnings, which is why Tesla says to reset only in Park.
Does the scroll-button reset restart the whole car?
No. “Pressing the scroll buttons only restarts the touchscreen. It does not restart any other vehicle component and does not power Model 3 off and on.”
Why does the Tesla screen go black when getting in?
A screen that is dark on entry and fine after a reset is a software hang, not the recall failure. Owners in a 2023 thread pointed at a USB drive or a firmware build; one reported the problem stopped after an update and a reformat, others went to service.
Is there a recall for Tesla screens going black?
Two. Recall 21V-035 covers Model S and X built before March 2018 with the 8 GB memory chip, fixed with a free 64 GB chip, and recall 22V-296 covers certain 2021 to 2022 Model S and X and 2022 Model 3 and Model Y, fixed by software 2022.11.101.1, 2022.12.3.3 or later.
How much does it cost to replace a Tesla screen?
Free under recall 21V-035; $1,500 or $2,000 for the optional Infotainment Upgrade on 2012 to 2018 Model S and 2015 to 2018 Model X as listed by Tesla on September 13, 2026; and around $1,500 on the one dated owner invoice in a 2021 Model 3 thread, before any warranty.
What to do, in order
Park and hold both scroll buttons for the 30-second restart. If the screen is still blank after a few minutes, power the car off and leave it alone for two. If the doors and the app are dead too, it is the 12-volt battery, not the screen. If the screen keeps going black on entry, pull the USB drive and install any pending update. If it stays blank after all of that, check the build date against the table above: a pre-March-2018 Model S or X gets a free chip, a 2021 to 2022 car should already have its software fix, and everything else is a service request with a quote attached.
This article quotes Tesla’s do-it-yourself procedures, Tesla’s recall FAQ, NHTSA’s recall and investigation documents, and Tesla’s shop pricing as they read in mid-September 2026. Tesla revises its procedures, pricing and software without notice, and recall status is specific to each VIN. Check your own car in the Tesla app and on Tesla’s and NHTSA’s VIN recall lookups, and rely on the estimate in your service request rather than any figure quoted here.
Sources (17)
- service.tesla.com Tesla DIY: Restarting the Touchscreen (Model 3)
- service.tesla.com Tesla DIY: Restarting the Touchscreen (Model Y)
- service.tesla.com Tesla DIY: Restarting the Touchscreen or Instrument Panel (2012-2020 Model S)
- service.tesla.com Tesla DIY: Power Cycling the Vehicle (Model 3)
- service.tesla.com Tesla DIY: Jump Starting (Model 3)
- service.tesla.com Tesla DIY: Opening the Hood with No Power (Model 3)
- tesla.com Tesla Support: 8GB eMMC Recall Frequently Asked Questions
- static.nhtsa.gov NHTSA Part 573 Safety Recall Report 21V-035 (Tesla, submitted January 29, 2021)
- static.nhtsa.gov NHTSA ODI Resume EA20-003, opened November 12, 2020
- static.nhtsa.gov NHTSA ODI Closing Resume EA20-003, closed May 2, 2024
- static.nhtsa.gov NHTSA Recall Acknowledgement Letter 22V-296 (May 9, 2022)
- static.nhtsa.gov Tesla Owner Notification Letter, NHTSA Recall 22V-296
- shop.tesla.com Tesla Shop: 2012-2020 Model S/X Infotainment Upgrade
- tesla.com Tesla Support: Software Updates
- tesla.com Tesla Support: Vehicle Warranty
- teslamotorsclub.com Tesla Motors Club thread (May 2021): What is the cost of replacing a cracked touchscreen model 3 (2020)
- teslamotorsclub.com Tesla Motors Club thread (July 2023): Black Screen on Car Entry
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