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!

Bob, I've been updating display drivers using the download from Nvidia. There seems to be a new one the middle of each month... jim

Prompted me as well. Because I usually get 2 or 3 of these a day and last 2 days maybe 2 an hour or more! 90% of the time when I am using a browser. 10% other apps. When people are updating video drivers, using card manuafacturuer (Nvidia, Intel) or comouter manufactuer (Lenovo, Dell)?

The set of Dell monitors at home had this setting and I turned it off but still get black monitors randomly. The set of Dell monitors at work do not have this setting...

All, The feedback from Chris prompted me to provide an update. What I thought was a fix by updating the Nividia drivers was not a permanent fix. The problem continues to occur even after regularly updating my laptop with the latest drivers. I am at a loss for why this happens and what to do about it. Someone mentioned they were able to look at the Event Monitor and see something that was failing at the same time a monitor went black. I've been unable to figure out what to look at to see if something similar is happening that I could try to shut off... jim

Came on here to say I've been getting the same issue with regular occurence, for a few years now. In the intervening time I've upgraded (almost) every bit of hardware - from the motherboard up - and still getting it happening to me. The only thing that's not changed is the power supply, which is a very good one (hence why I've kept it) and I'm doubtful that's the source of the problem. I'd be more than willing to try a new one but don't really want to stump up several hundred quid on the off chance. For reference, I've done absolutely everything mentioned in this thread. Lowering the refresh rate, switching off G-sync, putting the monitors on their own separate power sockets, changing out every cable several times, checking all the internal connections. What's strange is that I can apparently trigger this loss of signal by just moving near my pc. Sometimes I'll pull back my chair, without even touching anything else, and it'll just go. Or, for example, if I lightly tap the top of my KVM switch, monitor 2 will go blank (no, it's not the switch, this problem pre-dates the KVM). Unplugging and plugging the monitor cable back in will usually restore it, but sometimes it takes several tries to get the signal stable again, and usually it'll happen again eventually after a while. What I have noticed in the last few days is that it's been happening near-constantly, to the point where I've just had to unplug my second monitor. It's been very hot the last few days and I'm wondering if that might be something to do with it. Thinking about getting some new fans to see if that helps. Otherwise, I've no clue and this is an incredibly frustrating and stubborn problem that I would dearly love to have a proper fix for.

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!

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157 answers

Anonymous

2025-07-02T14:30:29+00:00

Bob,

I've been updating display drivers using the download from Nvidia.

There seems to be a new one the middle of each month...

jim
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Anonymous

2025-07-02T14:13:16+00:00

Prompted me as well. Because I usually get 2 or 3 of these a day and last 2 days maybe 2 an hour or more! 90% of the time when I am using a browser. 10% other apps.

When people are updating video drivers, using card manuafacturuer (Nvidia, Intel) or comouter manufactuer (Lenovo, Dell)?
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Anonymous

2025-07-02T14:01:30+00:00

The set of Dell monitors at home had this setting and I turned it off but still get black monitors randomly.

The set of Dell monitors at work do not have this setting...
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Anonymous

2025-07-02T13:59:15+00:00

All,

The feedback from Chris prompted me to provide an update.

What I thought was a fix by updating the Nividia drivers was not a permanent fix.

The problem continues to occur even after regularly updating my laptop with the latest drivers.

I am at a loss for why this happens and what to do about it.

Someone mentioned they were able to look at the Event Monitor and see something that was failing at the same time a monitor went black.

I've been unable to figure out what to look at to see if something similar is happening that I could try to shut off...

jim
Was this answer helpful?

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Anonymous

2025-07-02T13:44:42+00:00

Came on here to say I've been getting the same issue with regular occurence, for a few years now. In the intervening time I've upgraded (almost) every bit of hardware - from the motherboard up - and still getting it happening to me. The only thing that's not changed is the power supply, which is a very good one (hence why I've kept it) and I'm doubtful that's the source of the problem. I'd be more than willing to try a new one but don't really want to stump up several hundred quid on the off chance.

For reference, I've done absolutely everything mentioned in this thread. Lowering the refresh rate, switching off G-sync, putting the monitors on their own separate power sockets, changing out every cable several times, checking all the internal connections.

What's strange is that I can apparently trigger this loss of signal by just moving near my pc. Sometimes I'll pull back my chair, without even touching anything else, and it'll just go. Or, for example, if I lightly tap the top of my KVM switch, monitor 2 will go blank (no, it's not the switch, this problem pre-dates the KVM). Unplugging and plugging the monitor cable back in will usually restore it, but sometimes it takes several tries to get the signal stable again, and usually it'll happen again eventually after a while.

What I have noticed in the last few days is that it's been happening near-constantly, to the point where I've just had to unplug my second monitor. It's been very hot the last few days and I'm wondering if that might be something to do with it. Thinking about getting some new fans to see if that helps.

Otherwise, I've no clue and this is an incredibly frustrating and stubborn problem that I would dearly love to have a proper fix for.
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