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!

Hi fellow black blinking screen enjoyers, Can confirm this is NOT a cable issue, this DID NOT happen when I booted onto another disk which still has Vista installed (lmao). It is NOT unique to Windows 11, I am running Windows 10. I am inclined to think this is a POWER related issue as I ONLY have this issue on starting my computer. I live in the UK and our electricity circuits are in parallel, meaning to my US based dangerous serial electric friends, unplugging the fridge in the next room should not be the issue either. Whats more, BEFORE I have even logged in, when the other screen is grey, I can still see it doing it, going from black to grey. The problem used to resolve itself, but then when it was going on for over a minute or two, I tried messing around with the refresh rate for the second monitor. This did seem to fix the issue, however it no longer fixes it, the monitor remaining on steady for about 8 seconds, before the blinking continues again. It is now happening for a very long time on startup and is getting seriously annoying. I am running an AMD card, with AMD adrenalin software, confirming it is not unique to nVidea either . My right monitor is a curved MSI (165hz) connected with DISPLAY PORT, my left monitor (with the issue) is a very old BENQ (60hz) monitor connected via HDMI. The refresh rates are different and changing them to the same value or the lowest they can got DOES NOT fix this problem. Indeed the only constant from this forum is that everyone is using Windows (either 10 or 11). From reading this whole thread I can only conclude that it is something to do with power usage and its settings in Windows. My PC is in need of upgrade and I will soon be replacing the motherboard and CPU, so I might just buy another hard drive and install windows 11 on it and hope the problem never resurfaces. Hope this helps someone come to a solution 🤞🏻 yes it's seem power usage, but i've changed power usage in windows parameters, same problem, change hdmi cable to 48Gb quality : after 5 mins same. my alimentation is 850w and it's a quality. but your "piste" for alimentation in windows thinks good, because black screen appears when comsuption grow (with my big processor or gpu is not very visible : 10% for cpu sometimes, 1core 100% /32 0%) example : youtube video, media player video, games no time for black screen, no black screen during days, sometime 20 per day, it's very strange supect too hdcp protection because since week, i've got gray noise from hdcp on screen (reason for i've buy another hdmi cable)

Hi fellow black blinking screen enjoyers, Can confirm this is NOT a cable issue, this DID NOT happen when I booted onto another disk which still has Vista installed (lmao). It is NOT unique to Windows 11, I am running Windows 10. I am inclined to think this is a POWER related issue as I ONLY have this issue on starting my computer. I live in the UK and our electricity circuits are in parallel, meaning to my US based dangerous serial electric friends, unplugging the fridge in the next room should not be the issue either. Whats more, BEFORE I have even logged in, when the other screen is grey, I can still see it doing it, going from black to grey. The problem used to resolve itself, but then when it was going on for over a minute or two, I tried messing around with the refresh rate for the second monitor. This did seem to fix the issue, however it no longer fixes it, the monitor remaining on steady for about 8 seconds, before the blinking continues again. It is now happening for a very long time on startup and is getting seriously annoying. I am running an AMD card, with AMD adrenalin software, confirming it is not unique to nVidea either . My right monitor is a curved MSI (165hz) connected with DISPLAY PORT, my left monitor (with the issue) is a very old BENQ (60hz) monitor connected via HDMI. The refresh rates are different and changing them to the same value or the lowest they can got DOES NOT fix this problem. Indeed the only constant from this forum is that everyone is using Windows (either 10 or 11). From reading this whole thread I can only conclude that it is something to do with power usage and its settings in Windows. My PC is in need of upgrade and I will soon be replacing the motherboard and CPU, so I might just buy another hard drive and install windows 11 on it and hope the problem never resurfaces. Hope this helps someone come to a solution 🤞🏻

I finally fixed it by setting up one of my monitors with HDMI and the second monitor with Display port. Even though I had the right kind of splitter, it was crashing the connection when I had both on HDMI.

That chimes with my experience, except the appliance which causes my monitor to turn off/on is a small desk fan - it draws a fraction of the current of a fridge. It also happens when the computer is idle, and when no appliances are being powered on/off.

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

2024-07-16T20:18:29+00:00

Hi fellow black blinking screen enjoyers,

Can confirm this is NOT a cable issue, this DID NOT happen when I booted onto another disk which still has Vista installed (lmao).

It is NOT unique to Windows 11, I am running Windows 10.

I am inclined to think this is a POWER related issue as I ONLY have this issue on starting my computer.

I live in the UK and our electricity circuits are in parallel, meaning to my US based dangerous serial electric friends, unplugging the fridge in the next room should not be the issue either.

Whats more, BEFORE I have even logged in, when the other screen is grey, I can still see it doing it, going from black to grey.

The problem used to resolve itself, but then when it was going on for over a minute or two, I tried messing around with the refresh rate for the second monitor. This did seem to fix the issue, however it no longer fixes it, the monitor remaining on steady for about 8 seconds, before the blinking continues again. It is now happening for a very long time on startup and is getting seriously annoying.

I am running an AMD card, with AMD adrenalin software, confirming it is not unique to nVidea either.

My right monitor is a curved MSI (165hz) connected with DISPLAY PORT, my left monitor (with the issue) is a very old BENQ (60hz) monitor connected via HDMI. The refresh rates are different and changing them to the same value or the lowest they can got DOES NOT fix this problem.

Indeed the only constant from this forum is that everyone is using Windows (either 10 or 11). From reading this whole thread I can only conclude that it is something to do with power usage and its settings in Windows.

My PC is in need of upgrade and I will soon be replacing the motherboard and CPU, so I might just buy another hard drive and install windows 11 on it and hope the problem never resurfaces.

Hope this helps someone come to a solution 🤞🏻

yes it's seem power usage, but i've changed power usage in windows parameters, same problem, change hdmi cable to 48Gb quality : after 5 mins same.

my alimentation is 850w and it's a quality.

but your "piste" for alimentation in windows thinks good, because black screen appears when comsuption grow (with my big processor or gpu is not very visible : 10% for cpu sometimes, 1core 100% /32 0%) example : youtube video, media player video, games

no time for black screen, no black screen during days, sometime 20 per day, it's very strange

supect too hdcp protection because since week, i've got gray noise from hdcp on screen (reason for i've buy another hdmi cable)
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Anonymous

2024-07-16T18:17:18+00:00

Hi fellow black blinking screen enjoyers,

Can confirm this is NOT a cable issue, this DID NOT happen when I booted onto another disk which still has Vista installed (lmao).

It is NOT unique to Windows 11, I am running Windows 10.

I am inclined to think this is a POWER related issue as I ONLY have this issue on starting my computer.

I live in the UK and our electricity circuits are in parallel, meaning to my US based dangerous serial electric friends, unplugging the fridge in the next room should not be the issue either.

Whats more, BEFORE I have even logged in, when the other screen is grey, I can still see it doing it, going from black to grey.

The problem used to resolve itself, but then when it was going on for over a minute or two, I tried messing around with the refresh rate for the second monitor. This did seem to fix the issue, however it no longer fixes it, the monitor remaining on steady for about 8 seconds, before the blinking continues again. It is now happening for a very long time on startup and is getting seriously annoying.

I am running an AMD card, with AMD adrenalin software, confirming it is not unique to nVidea either.

My right monitor is a curved MSI (165hz) connected with DISPLAY PORT, my left monitor (with the issue) is a very old BENQ (60hz) monitor connected via HDMI. The refresh rates are different and changing them to the same value or the lowest they can got DOES NOT fix this problem.

Indeed the only constant from this forum is that everyone is using Windows (either 10 or 11). From reading this whole thread I can only conclude that it is something to do with power usage and its settings in Windows.

My PC is in need of upgrade and I will soon be replacing the motherboard and CPU, so I might just buy another hard drive and install windows 11 on it and hope the problem never resurfaces.

Hope this helps someone come to a solution 🤞🏻
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Anonymous

2024-07-13T22:33:10+00:00

How do iturn off the gsync?
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Anonymous

2024-07-10T12:42:23+00:00

I finally fixed it by setting up one of my monitors with HDMI and the second monitor with Display port. Even though I had the right kind of splitter, it was crashing the connection when I had both on HDMI.
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Anonymous

2024-07-10T11:26:37+00:00

That chimes with my experience, except the appliance which causes my monitor to turn off/on is a small desk fan - it draws a fraction of the current of a fridge. It also happens when the computer is idle, and when no appliances are being powered on/off.
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