Terminal screen is black, frozen, or not responding

Modified on Fri, Mar 6 at 12:31 PM

Terminal screen is black, frozen, or not responding

If the terminal screen will not turn on, is completely frozen, or does not respond to touch, follow these steps to perform a hard reboot. Payments cannot be processed until the terminal is responsive again.

Terminal is on but showing Offline?

That is a different problem. Go to Terminal Offline: Relaunch DealerPOS instead. These steps are for terminals with an unresponsive or black screen.

Signs this applies to you

The screen is completely black and will not turn on.
The screen is frozen — taps and button presses do not respond.
DealerPOS did not relaunch after a previous restart attempt.

Steps — Hard reboot

1
Unplug the power cable from the left side of the terminal.
2
Press and hold the power button on the left side of the terminal.
3
Keep holding until a white icon appears on the screen. This can take 60 seconds or more — do not let go early.
4
The moment the white icon appears, plug the power cable back in.
5
Release the power button and allow the terminal to boot up on its own. DealerPOS will relaunch automatically.

What the white icon looks like

A small white graphic appears centered on the screen. Do not plug the cable in before the icon appears — the timing of this step matters for the reboot to complete correctly.

What you'll see

The terminal boots up and DealerPOS launches automatically. Allow 2–3 minutes for the full boot. Once running, confirm the terminal shows Online in the DealerWorks portal — refresh your browser if needed.

Tips

This restart does not affect any transaction data or reporting.
Do not send a new payment request until the terminal session has fully cleared — to avoid duplicate charges.

Need more help?

Contact DealerWorks Support with the terminal name/ID (on the sticker at the bottom of the device), what the screen currently shows, and the steps you have already tried.