Booth frozen or screen blank

The most basic problem: the kiosk isn't doing anything. The screen is blank, frozen on the welcome screen, ignoring touch, or BoothIQ never launched. This article walks through the cheapest fixes first.

Symptom: Customer walked up, the booth doesn't respond. Or you arrived in the morning and the screen is dark.

Step 1: Power cycle the kiosk

The single most effective fix for a frozen booth.

  1. Find the kiosk's power button. (Usually behind a small access panel. Your installer will have shown you where.)
  2. Hold it down for 5-10 seconds to force shutdown.
  3. Wait 10 seconds.
  4. Press the power button again to boot.
  5. Watch the screen.

After 30-60 seconds you should see BoothIQ start and the welcome screen appear. If yes, you're done.

If the screen stays black after the power button, see Step 2.

Step 2: Check the power

If the screen is completely black even after pressing the power button:

  1. Confirm the kiosk's power cable is plugged in firmly at both ends (wall and kiosk).
  2. Confirm the wall outlet is live. Plug something else into it, or check the breaker.
  3. If the kiosk has an internal power LED visible from the outside, check that it's on.
  4. If you have a UPS, check that the UPS itself has power and that the kiosk is connected to a UPS outlet (not just the surge passthrough).

If the kiosk has zero power and you've ruled out the wall outlet, contact support.

Step 3: Black screen but the PC is running

If the kiosk's PC seems to have power (you can hear fans, see LEDs) but the screen is black:

  1. Power-cycle the kiosk (Step 1).
  2. If the screen stays black after a clean boot, the touchscreen / display has lost video signal. There's an internal video cable that may have come loose in shipping or after rough handling.
  3. Contact support. This is an internal hardware issue.

Step 4: Screen is on but BoothIQ isn't running

If the screen is on but you see something that isn't the BoothIQ welcome screen:

  • Windows desktop visible → BoothIQ failed to auto-launch. Power-cycle once. If the desktop is still visible after boot, contact support. Auto-launch is misconfigured or BoothIQ crashed during launch
  • A Windows error message → Read the message. Power-cycle and try again. If it persists, contact support
  • A blank black screen with a cursor → Booting up. Wait another minute
  • The BoothIQ logo / splash screen → Booting up. Wait another 30 seconds

Step 5: BoothIQ is running but unresponsive to touch

The booth is showing a BoothIQ screen but tapping doesn't do anything:

  1. Check if the touch is completely dead, or just slow. Wait 10 seconds and tap again. Sometimes the screen is just busy.
  2. Power-cycle the kiosk. Touch issues almost always clear after a reboot.
  3. If touch is still dead after a reboot, the touchscreen connection is the problem. Contact support.

Step 6: BoothIQ is responsive but stuck on one screen

A specific screen is frozen. The buttons don't advance, or animations have stopped:

  1. Wait 10 seconds. Some screens have intentional delays (e.g. the welcome screen plays a video that loops).
  2. Tap somewhere obvious like the START button or a navigation button.
  3. Wait for the idle timeout to kick in (60-180 seconds depending on the screen). The booth should auto-return to the welcome screen.
  4. If the timeout doesn't fire, the booth has truly frozen. Power-cycle.
  5. If freezing happens repeatedly on the same screen, that's a bug. Note which screen, and contact support with the screen name and what triggered it.

Step 7: Hardware error overlay won't go away

A hardware error screen is showing on top of the welcome screen and persists across power cycles.

  1. Read the error message for clues about which component is failing.
  2. Open admin and check the hardware status pills in the header bar.
  3. Match the error message to a more specific troubleshooting article:

If the watchdog is showing a generic out-of-order screen, see Out-of-order screen won't go away.

When to call support

After you've tried all the steps above and the booth is still:

  • Completely unresponsive
  • Stuck on a Windows error screen
  • Freezing repeatedly
  • Showing hardware errors that don't match a specific troubleshooting article

Contact BoothIQ support with:

  • The Booth ID (from the Cloud Sync tab if you can get into admin)
  • A description of what you see on screen
  • (If you can take it) a photo of the screen
  • The time the problem started

If the booth is registered and online, support can pull logs from the cloud. That often resolves issues faster than back-and-forth troubleshooting.

Verify it worked

The booth is recovered when:

  • The welcome screen is showing
  • You can sign in to admin
  • All three hardware pills are green
  • A test session completes successfully

Common patterns

Booth frozen first thing in the morning.

Long-running BoothIQ instance has accumulated state. Power cycle every morning as part of opening (or once a week).

Booth freezes during a busy event.

Resource pressure, edge case in a specific session. Power cycle, monitor closely. Get logs to support if it repeats.

Booth boots into Windows desktop after a power cycle.

Auto-start was disabled or BoothIQ crashed at launch. Contact support. This isn't recoverable from the operator side.

Touch works in some areas but not others.

Screen calibration drifted, or a screen overlay is blocking touches. Power cycle. If it persists, contact support.

Next steps