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 Welcome to Microsoft community. I'm glad to help you. From your description, it seems that your second monitor resolution and other parameters appear to be abnormal resulting in. To more accurately determine your problem, does your computer have two different graphics cards, such as an intel and an Nvidia? You can first lower the resolution of the extended screen, then re-insert the hdmi connection and check if the problem disappears. You can also go into the intel or nvidia control panel to reduce the resolution size of the extended screen. If anything is unclear, please do not hesitate to let me know. Best regards Derrick Qian | Microsoft Community Support Specialist

I have the same problem and it's unique to Windows 10 and Windows 11, but not unique to any specific item of hardware. That is to say, it's not a single bad video cable or a single bad video card. On the same hardware with the same monitor, computer, cables and video card, but without windows (using linux) the problem is gone. The factors at play seem to be: It's not the monitor (I have tried four different ones). It's not the cables (I keep buying new ones just in case, up to 10 cables now, no difference). It's not the video card. It's not the computer. It's either windows 11 and the video card maker's drivers or management software hating each other and fighting each other or it's a bug in video card drivers or a bug in windows 11. There may be a configuration solution but it probably comes down to nVidia engineers and Microsoft engineers getting together to make their stuff work together. Windows 11 has a new multi-monitor auto-desktop-re-arrangement system (I don't know the official name of the feature) and it is triggered off the DPMI signals coming in from monitors when video cards are plugged into HDMI and DP equipped ports. If you are having this problem on Windows 10, my best advise is to change your refresh rate down as low as you can live with, perhaps 30 hz.

I have the same issue, when the computer goes into sleep mode. After resume, the laptop screen works but the secondary don't. If I press win + P and then Extend or Duplicate, the secondary screen is turned on and then it returns to black again.

[Updated Below] I have an MSI laptop running Win 11 and I have the same or at least a very similar issue. I've tried multiple extended monitors and different cables. I have updated all drivers. I've reinstalled the drivers. The only thing I noticed is that today I started getting a pop-up about already having a hidden taskbar. In fact, I can usually go several minutes before my screen resets but today it was doing it every 15 seconds or so. I finally removed the hide feature on my taskbar and it got better but did not go away. Now I'm back to every few minutes. Update - I use 50" 4k TV as my main displays with my laptop acting as the secondary. I have one at home (Samsung), shop (Amazon firetv), and in my RV (TCL). All had the same issue to one degree or another. Changing the refresh on my laptop for all displays, including on the laptop, to 60Hz resolved all issues. Not a great solution but it works.

Ditto to all the above, including switching out docks; the only 'solution' of lowering refresh rates seems less than ideal...

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

2023-01-08T13:54:51+00:00

Hi

Welcome to Microsoft community.

I'm glad to help you.

From your description, it seems that your second monitor resolution and other parameters appear to be abnormal resulting in.

To more accurately determine your problem, does your computer have two different graphics cards, such as an intel and an Nvidia?

You can first lower the resolution of the extended screen, then re-insert the hdmi connection and check if the problem disappears. You can also go into the intel or nvidia control panel to reduce the resolution size of the extended screen.

If anything is unclear, please do not hesitate to let me know.

Best regards

Derrick Qian | Microsoft Community Support Specialist
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Anonymous

2023-03-14T15:47:53+00:00
I have the same problem and it's unique to Windows 10 and Windows 11, but not unique to any specific item of hardware. That is to say, it's not a single bad video cable or a single bad video card. On the same hardware with the same monitor, computer, cables and video card, but without windows (using linux) the problem is gone.

The factors at play seem to be:
1. It's not the monitor (I have tried four different ones).
2. It's not the cables (I keep buying new ones just in case, up to 10 cables now, no difference).
3. It's not the video card.
4. It's not the computer.
5. It's either windows 11 and the video card maker's drivers or management software hating each other and fighting each other or it's a bug in video card drivers or a bug in windows 11.
There may be a configuration solution but it probably comes down to nVidia engineers and Microsoft engineers getting together to make their stuff work together.

Windows 11 has a new multi-monitor auto-desktop-re-arrangement system (I don't know the official name of the feature) and it is triggered off the DPMI signals coming in from monitors when video cards are plugged into HDMI and DP equipped ports.

If you are having this problem on Windows 10, my best advise is to change your refresh rate down as low as you can live with, perhaps 30 hz.
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Anonymous

2023-04-25T00:29:27+00:00

I have the same issue, when the computer goes into sleep mode. After resume, the laptop screen works but the secondary don't. If I press win + P and then Extend or Duplicate, the secondary screen is turned on and then it returns to black again.
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Anonymous

2023-05-05T01:54:20+00:00

[Updated Below] I have an MSI laptop running Win 11 and I have the same or at least a very similar issue.

I've tried multiple extended monitors and different cables. I have updated all drivers. I've reinstalled the drivers. The only thing I noticed is that today I started getting a pop-up about already having a hidden taskbar. In fact, I can usually go several minutes before my screen resets but today it was doing it every 15 seconds or so. I finally removed the hide feature on my taskbar and it got better but did not go away. Now I'm back to every few minutes.

Update - I use 50" 4k TV as my main displays with my laptop acting as the secondary. I have one at home (Samsung), shop (Amazon firetv), and in my RV (TCL). All had the same issue to one degree or another. Changing the refresh on my laptop for all displays, including on the laptop, to 60Hz resolved all issues. Not a great solution but it works.
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Anonymous

2023-05-29T15:01:26+00:00

Ditto to all the above, including switching out docks; the only 'solution' of lowering refresh rates seems less than ideal...
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20+ people found this answer helpful.

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