Was trying to figure out why people keep on getting this problem. It's probably bad drivers in most cases but I tried to revert to "average" user mode and see what they might do........

So I right-clicked on the DosBox executable and chose "Run in 256 colors", most users would probably just choose "Run in Compatibility mode" 🙄 but it's possible they might also choose "Run in 256 colors" by accident or click happiness.

So I chose "Run in 256 colors" and executed DosBox and TADA! Black Screen!

This also happens if you set the desktop to 256 colors.

Testing with 256 colors

Surface=Crash to Desktop
Ddraw=Crash to Desktop
Overlay=Black Screen
Opengl=Crash to Desktop

So....is there any way to get DosBox to support 256 colors or throw up an error message stating, upgrade your drivers, or get a better video card, etc etc?