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. Bought brand new chords (HDMI + Adapter) Bought a brand new second monitor (issues happening with both old and new monitor) Checked for updates on all drivers Reinstalled both graphics drivers Rolled back graphics drivers Checked basic settings (sleep/power/screen saver settings) Disabled all services in background apps in "System Configuration" 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!

Frankly the amount of variables involved and the apparently random nature of this issue make the odds of false positives for "solutions" super high. Since it happened to me for the first time (more than one year ago) it sometimes kept happening for some days in a row, then it stopped for a couple of months until it happens again with some weird and unexpected frequency. And meanwhile we try so many things to figure it out that when it stops for a longer period it's easy to attribute a wrong solution and share it here on the forums until it happens again couple of months later. Since the beginning I went through several Windows updates, went back to Win10 then back to 11 again, many Nvidia drivers, removed and installed many software etc... Eventually the issue always get back to haunt me. Given I also suffers (way more frequently) with the black checkerboard artifacts on chrome/edge which is a very well known issue with Windows/Nvidia compatibility (still not fixed), I strongly believe the blinking screen is just one more of those buried bugs that are not common enough for the developers to care about it.

Windows fix your ****! It's so f'ing annoying, both of my PCs this **** happens. disable/enable monitor... wait... a minute later second monitor is still bouncing on and off every 1 min. Have latest nvidia studio drivers. FIX YOUR **** and quit f'ing productivity.

Frankly the amount of variables involved and the apparently random nature of this issue make the odds of false positives for "solutions" super high. Since it happened to me for the first time (more than one year ago) it sometimes kept happening for some days in a row, then it stopped for a couple of months until it happens again with some weird and unexpected frequency. And meanwhile we try so many things to figure it out that when it stops for a longer period it's easy to attribute a wrong solution and share it here on the forums until it happens again couple of months later. Since the beginning I went through several Windows updates, went back to Win10 then back to 11 again, many Nvidia drivers, removed and installed many software etc... Eventually the issue always get back to haunt me. Given I also suffers (way more frequently) with the black checkerboard artifacts on chrome/edge which is a very well known issue with Windows/Nvidia compatibility (still not fixed), I strongly believe the blinking screen is just one more of those buried bugs that are not common enough for the developers to care about it. This sounds right. With the variables in software / hardware that we all have and experiencing very similar blinking external screens issue, focusing on what's common between us is the updates, so it's quite possibly a bug they've overlooked. Riding this out until this issue is common enough for them to provide a fix is likely what we'll have to do. Until then, the temp fix of removing HDMI cable seems to provide the longest relief for my external blinking screens, so will keep doing this until a more permanent solution is provided by big brother.

I've just upgraded to Windows 11, in the hope of seeing the back of this problem, but a day later...it's back. It's always the same monitor. There are 3 displays connected to my graphics card (ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER 6GB): AOC Q27B3MA QHD monitor - connected via Displayport (this is the one that goes blank) AOC Q27B3MA QHD monitor - connected via HDMI (this is the main display, and never goes blank) Hisense HD TV - connected via Displayport with an HDMI adapter (this never goes blank, and is turned off 99% of the time). I have the refresh rate set to the lowest value (59/60HzHz) on all displays, and have disabled G-Sync on all displays using the Nvidia Control Panel. I was really hoping that Windows 11 would have resolved this :0(

I agree i think its also a windows issue. I dont think its spasific to nvidia as im also experiencing it with my amd card (6800xt). My friend also seems to have the same issue and he has a rtx 3080. I noticed it happening after one of the recent windows 10 updates not sure witch one but within thr past 3 or 4 weeks when i updated

Second monitor keeps on temporarily going black at random

Anonymous

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.

Bought brand new chords (HDMI + Adapter)
Bought a brand new second monitor (issues happening with both old and new monitor)
Checked for updates on all drivers
Reinstalled both graphics drivers
Rolled back graphics drivers
Checked basic settings (sleep/power/screen saver settings)
Disabled all services in background apps in "System Configuration"
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!

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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157 answers

Anonymous

2024-04-02T20:03:08+00:00

Frankly the amount of variables involved and the apparently random nature of this issue make the odds of false positives for "solutions" super high.
Since it happened to me for the first time (more than one year ago) it sometimes kept happening for some days in a row, then it stopped for a couple of months until it happens again with some weird and unexpected frequency. And meanwhile we try so many things to figure it out that when it stops for a longer period it's easy to attribute a wrong solution and share it here on the forums until it happens again couple of months later.

Since the beginning I went through several Windows updates, went back to Win10 then back to 11 again, many Nvidia drivers, removed and installed many software etc... Eventually the issue always get back to haunt me.

Given I also suffers (way more frequently) with the black checkerboard artifacts on chrome/edge which is a very well known issue with Windows/Nvidia compatibility (still not fixed), I strongly believe the blinking screen is just one more of those buried bugs that are not common enough for the developers to care about it.
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Anonymous

2024-04-11T16:33:32+00:00

Windows fix your ****! It's so f'ing annoying, both of my PCs this **** happens.

disable/enable monitor... wait... a minute later second monitor is still bouncing on and off every 1 min. Have latest nvidia studio drivers.

FIX YOUR **** and quit f'ing productivity.
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5 people found this answer helpful.

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Anonymous

2024-04-02T21:41:23+00:00

Frankly the amount of variables involved and the apparently random nature of this issue make the odds of false positives for "solutions" super high.
Since it happened to me for the first time (more than one year ago) it sometimes kept happening for some days in a row, then it stopped for a couple of months until it happens again with some weird and unexpected frequency. And meanwhile we try so many things to figure it out that when it stops for a longer period it's easy to attribute a wrong solution and share it here on the forums until it happens again couple of months later.

Since the beginning I went through several Windows updates, went back to Win10 then back to 11 again, many Nvidia drivers, removed and installed many software etc... Eventually the issue always get back to haunt me.

Given I also suffers (way more frequently) with the black checkerboard artifacts on chrome/edge which is a very well known issue with Windows/Nvidia compatibility (still not fixed), I strongly believe the blinking screen is just one more of those buried bugs that are not common enough for the developers to care about it.

This sounds right. With the variables in software / hardware that we all have and experiencing very similar blinking external screens issue, focusing on what's common between us is the updates, so it's quite possibly a bug they've overlooked.
Riding this out until this issue is common enough for them to provide a fix is likely what we'll have to do.

Until then, the temp fix of removing HDMI cable seems to provide the longest relief for my external blinking screens, so will keep doing this until a more permanent solution is provided by big brother.
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Anonymous

2024-01-25T18:54:39+00:00
I've just upgraded to Windows 11, in the hope of seeing the back of this problem, but a day later...it's back. It's always the same monitor. There are 3 displays connected to my graphics card (ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER 6GB):
- AOC Q27B3MA QHD monitor - connected via Displayport (this is the one that goes blank)
- AOC Q27B3MA QHD monitor - connected via HDMI (this is the main display, and never goes blank)
- Hisense HD TV - connected via Displayport with an HDMI adapter (this never goes blank, and is turned off 99% of the time).
I have the refresh rate set to the lowest value (59/60HzHz) on all displays, and have disabled G-Sync on all displays using the Nvidia Control Panel.

I was really hoping that Windows 11 would have resolved this :0(
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Anonymous

2023-10-29T22:44:08+00:00

I agree i think its also a windows issue. I dont think its spasific to nvidia as im also experiencing it with my amd card (6800xt). My friend also seems to have the same issue and he has a rtx 3080. I noticed it happening after one of the recent windows 10 updates not sure witch one but within thr past 3 or 4 weeks when i updated
Was this answer helpful?

4 people found this answer helpful.

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