Have you ever been too busy to play your Nintendo Switch for days, weeks, or even months? Then one day, you try to turn it on and charge it, only to find that it won’t power on. Instead, it gets stuck on a Black Charging Screen with a low battery indicator in the upper left corner. You might think it’s just a battery issue – maybe so depleted, and that it simply needs some charging. But what if that doesn’t fix it?
The Problem
You leave the Switch to charge for a few hours and then turn it on again. Unfortunately, it’s still stuck on that black charging screen. Now, you’re starting to worry that there might be a problem with your Nintendo Switch hardware.
The thing is, the Nintendo Switch needs some kind of substantial initial charge to boot up. Its powerful hardware components require a lot of energy, and if the battery has been depleted for an extended time, regular charging might face an issue.
The Good News
Your Switch is not broken “yet.” You just need to follow a few simple tricks to turn it on again and meet that substantial initial charge. Remember how you used to blow on a cartridge during the SNES era to make it work? The solution here is something like that.
How to Fix Stuck on Black Charging Screen
To fix it, follow our step-by-step guide below.
- Remove the Joycons: Disconnect the Joycons from your Nintendo Switch.
- Disconnect from Dock: If your Switch is connected to a dock, remove it, along with the adapter charger.
- Direct Charging: Charge your Switch directly with the adapter charger and wait for about 10 to 15 minutes. This ensures it has enough juice to boot up.
- Power Off: Turn off your Switch by holding the power button for 12 seconds until the screen turns off.
- Cool Down: Remove the charging cable from your Switch and wait for about 3 to 5 seconds.
- Turn It On: Press the power button to turn it on.
- Proceed to Home Screen: Once it’s on, your Switch should go to the Home Screen and show a reminder message that it needs to be charged.
- Charge Again: Charge your Switch right away to increase its charging capacity.
- Done!
Now, your Nintendo Switch should be good to go and won’t revert to the Black Charging Screen. Make sure not to deplete its battery completely again, and remember that once it is at least 15% charged, you can reattach the Joycons.
To summarize the workaround, the Switch Dock with Joycons attached may not charge your system when the battery is extremely depleted. Direct charging is needed to solve the problem.
That’s all there is to it! I hope this guide helps you revive your precious Nintendo Switch. If you still encounter problems, please let us know in the comment section.