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!

I do not want to jinx this, but been maybe 36 hours or more no blacking of the screen. I truly thought twice on posting this :) I went to displayport rather than HDMI. That alone seems to have fixed the loss of signal when checking for HDCP on videos with DRM, like switching to Hulu Live. Then I disabled the monitor speakers (there are none!!) in settings/sound. You "could" add a soundbar to this monitor, so Windows seems to think that constitutes speakers and adds it as a sound device Disable it if not being used and not your primary sound source. Then I made ALL apps that use graphics select "let windows decide" where I had the apps wiith the blacking issues set to "low power" to force the Integrated Graphics. This was Firefox, Edge, and Lightroom. Photoshop never had the issue. That's it. Cross fingers with me, would ya?

Today was displayport day. I might be imagining, but seems the picture quality is just slightly better than HDMI. BUT, still occasionally goes black for that one or two seconds. Always returns. Has not "lost signal" in several months as it once did the third or fourth time the monitor went blank. It would then report "no hdmi signal found" or similar. Would require reboot. Sometimes just switching inputs on the monitor for a minute then back. So, not DP vs HDMI. Not cable.. Likely not monitor on 2 different inputs. Leaves driver or dock. I am on the latest Intel driver as the later Lenovo drivers have issues (memory leak in DWM. Exe). I rarely use the NVIDIA GPU and have things set to let windows decide AND the intense apps like Lightroom and even browser set to power saving mode. I guess its possible the blanking is Optimus trying to switch drivers. Maybe next set of experiments.

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.

Thanks for sharing your experiences. My experience is different from yours. When the monitor freezes, not necessarily black, sometimes a different colour, it causes the laptop screen to freeze as well, and then reset, connected through HDMI or Displayport. I wondered about audio being a trigger, my monitor doesn't have audio either, but switching audio off hasn't made a difference. The frozen screen (lost communication) seems to happen with just a move of the mouse/touch pad. In particular, when I go to save a file, in, for example, inkscape, the screen will freeze as soon as I move the cursor into the window filename box on the 'save as' window. That is very specific and repeatable but it also happens at other times randomly. I am not able to use my monitor with my laptop and it is very frustrating.

I do believe this is happening less, but stil happening. Seems only browser and Lightroom if I have not said that previously. Likely I do not use any other programs as intensely though. So who knows what the trigger really is. Unsure if using Win+CTRL+SHIFT+B extends the amoung of usable time before I have to reboot or not. Today, if I find time, is to experiment around with TdrDelay times in the rigistry. One thing I have not been able to determine is if that setting affects both the Laptop Screen and External Monitor as the Laptop Screen never has this issue. Just the external. If it affects both then likely not the solution. Yet... This one driving me nuts!

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

2024-09-12T22:39:11+00:00

I do not want to jinx this, but been maybe 36 hours or more no blacking of the screen. I truly thought twice on posting this :)

I went to displayport rather than HDMI. That alone seems to have fixed the loss of signal when checking for HDCP on videos with DRM, like switching to Hulu Live.

Then I disabled the monitor speakers (there are none!!) in settings/sound. You "could" add a soundbar to this monitor, so Windows seems to think that constitutes speakers and adds it as a sound device Disable it if not being used and not your primary sound source.

Then I made ALL apps that use graphics select "let windows decide" where I had the apps wiith the blacking issues set to "low power" to force the Integrated Graphics. This was Firefox, Edge, and Lightroom. Photoshop never had the issue.

That's it.

Cross fingers with me, would ya?
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Anonymous

2024-09-11T19:33:07+00:00

Today was displayport day. I might be imagining, but seems the picture quality is just slightly better than HDMI. BUT, still occasionally goes black for that one or two seconds. Always returns. Has not "lost signal" in several months as it once did the third or fourth time the monitor went blank. It would then report "no hdmi signal found" or similar. Would require reboot. Sometimes just switching inputs on the monitor for a minute then back.

So, not DP vs HDMI. Not cable.. Likely not monitor on 2 different inputs. Leaves driver or dock. I am on the latest Intel driver as the later Lenovo drivers have issues (memory leak in DWM. Exe).

I rarely use the NVIDIA GPU and have things set to let windows decide AND the intense apps like Lightroom and even browser set to power saving mode. I guess its possible the blanking is Optimus trying to switch drivers. Maybe next set of experiments.
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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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Anonymous

2024-09-03T13:25:57+00:00

Thanks for sharing your experiences. My experience is different from yours. When the monitor freezes, not necessarily black, sometimes a different colour, it causes the laptop screen to freeze as well, and then reset, connected through HDMI or Displayport. I wondered about audio being a trigger, my monitor doesn't have audio either, but switching audio off hasn't made a difference. The frozen screen (lost communication) seems to happen with just a move of the mouse/touch pad. In particular, when I go to save a file, in, for example, inkscape, the screen will freeze as soon as I move the cursor into the window filename box on the 'save as' window. That is very specific and repeatable but it also happens at other times randomly. I am not able to use my monitor with my laptop and it is very frustrating.
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Anonymous

2024-09-03T09:08:19+00:00

I do believe this is happening less, but stil happening. Seems only browser and Lightroom if I have not said that previously. Likely I do not use any other programs as intensely though. So who knows what the trigger really is.

Unsure if using Win+CTRL+SHIFT+B extends the amoung of usable time before I have to reboot or not.

Today, if I find time, is to experiment around with TdrDelay times in the rigistry. One thing I have not been able to determine is if that setting affects both the Laptop Screen and External Monitor as the Laptop Screen never has this issue. Just the external. If it affects both then likely not the solution. Yet...

This one driving me nuts!
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