Second monitor keeps on temporarily going black at random

Anonymous
2023-01-08T02:47:33+00:00

I am working off of a laptop and have a second monitor to extend my displays. I have been using this set up for two years now and have not had a problem until last night. It seems that my attached monitor only (main monitor on laptop is not affected) will go black for a few seconds before turning back on and showing my screen. It should be noted that my laptop does not reset the display to place the windows back onto the main screen when this happens but the extended monitor goes black at random. Note that I am running Windows 10 and unable to upgrade to Windows 11 as of now.

So far, I have tried the following solutions but still cannot figure this out.

  1. Bought brand new chords (HDMI + Adapter)
  2. Bought a brand new second monitor (issues happening with both old and new monitor)
  3. Checked for updates on all drivers
  4. Reinstalled both graphics drivers
  5. Rolled back graphics drivers
  6. Checked basic settings (sleep/power/screen saver settings)
  7. Disabled all services in background apps in "System Configuration"
  8. Restarted Windows explorer

This means I have spent time replacing and even buying new equipment to get around this issue but cannot seem to figure it out! This is very important since I work at home as well. Please let me know if there is anything else I can possibly do outside of hard resetting the computer (which I cannot do for a few reasons). Thank you!

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Devices and drivers

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  1. Anonymous
    2024-12-21T15:43:29+00:00

    Hey everyone, I had the same issue that started a while back. at first it just happend randomaly when ever plugged in an HDMI and stopped after a few minute. This last week though it totally went dark. I tried most of the reccomendations i saw here like using a powere stabilizer, decreasing my refresh rate and matching it to my additional screen. Nothing seem to work

    Today i just randomly connected my pc in night light mode and it seems to be working for the past couple of hours and when ever i try to turn night light off my extended screen blacks out. I hope this helps

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  2. Anonymous
    2024-09-18T17:37:02+00:00

    In case it is helpful to anyone, I found that when the display blinks off, any display which is being generated by the Smart TV(Acer) is still visible. For example, I was swapping the HDMI ports and had to turn the aspect ratio from 16:3 to "Auto" and was fiddling around with the TV remote for that. The strip at the bottom displaying the TV settings remained visible even though the PC display blinked off at that moment.

    Also. I have consistently observed that switching on or off anything in the home like electric lights causes the display to blink off and on. I strongly suspect that either a radio disturbance in the surroundings or slight electrical disturbance in the circuits causes this issue. It may also be triggered if a switch is operated in a nearby home if they are on the same electric phase supply.

    I would not be surprised if the HDMI format itself is susceptible this this power disturbance issue....

    Khalid.

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  3. Anonymous
    2024-09-17T16:00:55+00:00

    Just to throw my experience in here. I have not read all of the replies, but this seems to have worked for me. In the NVidia Control Panel, under Manage 3D settings, Global Settings tab, I changed Power management mode from Adpative to NVIDIA driver-controlled and the issue went away.

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  4. Anonymous
    2024-09-03T14:47:24+00:00

    Thanks for the post, Joanne. It is indeed a similarly frustrating but different issue. My laptop screen never blanks, only the external.

    I also checked threads on disabling Optimus but I think that is the opposite of what I need. Even though I have everything using the Intel Integrated Graphics wherever I can make that setting.

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  5. Anonymous
    2024-07-16T21:04:19+00:00

    I agree re. power issue.

    I also notice that only one of my two monitors is affected. The other monitor never goes blank.

    Even when I had two different monitors (with different cables), only one of them was ever affected.

    I have no idea what that means.

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