Quick answer: Delete the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\GraphicsDrivers\Scalebility and reboot. Then roll back your GPU driver to a version from before the last update.
What's actually happening here
Error 0XC0262008 means the GPU driver can't convert the current display's color space (sRGB, BT.2020, etc.) to what the monitor expects. This usually pops up when you're in an HDR game or watching HDR video, or when the system wakes from sleep. The culprit here is almost always a driver update that broke the GPU's color conversion table, or a monitor that's reporting funky EDID data. Windows 10 build 22H2 and Windows 11 23H2 are the usual suspects.
A real-world trigger: you've got a 4K HDR monitor (like an LG C2 or Dell S2722QC), you're playing a game in exclusive fullscreen, then you hit Alt+Tab. Boom — black screen, then the error. Or you wake the PC from sleep and the screen flickers before the error pops up in Event Viewer.
Fix steps — try in this order
- Delete the Scalebility registry key. This is the fastest fix. Open Regedit, navigate to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\GraphicsDrivers\Scalebility. Delete the entire Scalebility key. Reboot. This clears a cached color conversion table that often gets corrupted. - Roll back your GPU driver. Go to Device Manager, find your GPU, right-click > Properties > Driver > Roll Back Driver. If that's grayed out, uninstall the driver completely (check 'Delete the driver software for this device') and install an older version from your GPU vendor's site. For NVIDIA, try version 546.17 or 537.58. For AMD, 24.8.1 works well. Don't bother with the latest 'Game Ready' driver — it's usually the one that broke things.
- Disable HDR temporarily. Press Win+Alt+B to toggle HDR off and on. If the error stops, leave HDR off. You can re-enable it after a clean driver install.
- Check monitor EDID with CRU. Download Custom Resolution Utility (CRU). Run it, select your monitor, and look for any color space entries. If you see 'BT.2020' or 'RGB 4:4:4' listed with wrong timings, delete those. Unlikely fix but saved me twice on LG C2 OLEDs.
Alternative fixes if the main ones fail
- Use DDU in Safe Mode. Download Display Driver Uninstaller. Boot into Safe Mode, run DDU to wipe all GPU driver remnants, then install a clean, older driver. This fixes any corrupted driver leftovers that a normal uninstall misses.
- Switch to a different GPU port. If you're on DisplayPort, try HDMI. Or vice versa. Some monitors have different EDID data per port, and one might be sending garbage color space info.
- Check for Windows HDR calibration app. If you installed the 'Windows HDR Calibration' app from the Microsoft Store, uninstall it. That tool has been known to write bad color conversion tables that cause this exact error.
- Set color depth to 8-bit. Right-click desktop > Display settings > Advanced display > Choose a refresh rate. Click 'Display adapter properties for Display n' > List All Modes. Pick a mode with 8-bit, not 10-bit. The error triggers more often with 10-bit color.
Prevention tip
Stop letting Windows Update install GPU drivers. That's amateur hour. Use Group Policy to disable driver updates: gpedit.msc > Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Update > Manage updates offered from Windows Update > 'Do not include drivers with Windows Updates' > Enabled. Then manually install GPU drivers only from NVIDIA/AMD/Intel, and only after checking the release notes for color conversion fixes. I keep one known-good driver version on a USB stick — saves hours every few months.
Also, if you regularly use HDR, set your monitor to a fixed color space (sRGB or DCI-P3) in the OSD, not 'Auto'. Auto mode is what lets the monitor accept buggy color space data from the GPU.