Stickshaker. I am of the strong view that this is a FSX bug and there is no permanent fix that I am aware of, except a completely different flight simulator program.
You can generate this problem when you switch in and out windows and hence it is both a problem with the way Windows works, the way it draws windows and displays graphics and switching between threads running and it is a problem related to the diverse and simultaneous processing of the different program scripts and coding used in FSX; xml, Visual Basic, windows OS, and various drivers and your hard drive operation (slow or fast etc), so data gets lost so to speak and goes into what is called a NULL, hence the black screen and the only cure is to switch between programs and commands using Windows task manager. I gathered this was the case when I had this occur and listened to my hard drive hunting for data that was now out of sequence or lost.
I would suggest you get rid of the automation dll file, delete the FSX.cfg file and copy the logbook.bin then delete the original. These will all be rebuilt on start so it is not an issue but it does get rid of unknown data corruptions or loss in these files which seem to me to be the sorce of many of FSX's problems. There is no cure because it is the limitations of FSX and the various hardware and changed software platforms around since it was first put together and its genesis goes back to the mid nineteen eighties, so its cute but a bit like DOS, times up I am afraid. The programs menu interface is seriously flawed as well and is very clunky hence it the menu file system of FSX contributes as well in my view.
If it is any consolation, FSX is still a great program when it runs right and dont forget this is a seriously complicated piece of computing your enjoying via the screen as one sims into any type of aviation activity you like. The above are the only way I have found to get you running with minimum work in my humble experience.
