diff --git a/hw/display/vga.c b/hw/display/vga.c
index 0cb26a791b..8e2d44bea3 100644
--- a/hw/display/vga.c
+++ b/hw/display/vga.c
@@ -1746,6 +1746,13 @@ static void vga_draw_blank(VGACommonState *s, int full_update)
     if (s->last_scr_width <= 0 || s->last_scr_height <= 0)
         return;
 
+    if (is_buffer_shared(surface)) {
+        /* unshare buffer, otherwise the blanking corrupts vga vram */
+        surface = qemu_create_displaysurface(s->last_scr_width,
+                                             s->last_scr_height);
+        dpy_gfx_replace_surface(s->con, surface);
+    }
+
     w = s->last_scr_width * surface_bytes_per_pixel(surface);
     d = surface_data(surface);
     for(i = 0; i < s->last_scr_height; i++) {