OBS Troubleshooting

Last updated: September 1, 2026

Most OBS problems fall into a handful of categories. Each article below covers one symptom, explains why it happens on Windows and lists the checks in the order that resolves it fastest.

Capture problems

• Black screen in display, window or game capture
• Recording will not start or stops immediately

Audio problems

• No desktop audio or microphone in the recording

Performance problems

• Dropped frames while streaming
• High CPU usage and encoding overloaded

Before you troubleshoot

Update the GPU driver, run the current OBS release, and check the statistics dock, which separates network drops from encoder drops. Many reports turn out to be a stale driver or an output resolution the hardware cannot encode in real time. Suggested baselines are on the settings page.

Related guides

• Recommended settings
• System requirements
• Help portal
• Community forums