Second monitor keeps on temporarily going black at random

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.

1. Bought brand new chords (HDMI + Adapter)
2. Bought a brand new second monitor (issues happening with both old and new monitor)
3. Checked for updates on all drivers
4. Reinstalled both graphics drivers
5. Rolled back graphics drivers
6. Checked basic settings (sleep/power/screen saver settings)
7. Disabled all services in background apps in "System Configuration"
8. 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,

I had the exact same issue where my external monitor used to flash black for 2-3 seconds and then come back! I have the external monitor connected to my laptop using a VGA cable. But this fix should work for both VGA and HDMI cables and connectors. This started happening after I reinstalled windows 10 and had to reinstall all the graphics and other drivers manually as windows update was not able to do it as usual.

The way I fixed it was by going to Settings > System > Display, then select the 2nd monitor and click on "Advanced display settings", next click on "Display adapter properties for Display <display number>" select "Properties" and go to the "Driver" tab then select "Update driver", next "Search automatically for drivers". While updating both your screens will flash black and then return.

Even though I had the latest graphics drivers installed as mentioned by the Intel Driver and Support Assistant, for some reason the driver installation must've been broken or something but updating it as mentioned seemed to have fixed the issue. Hope this helps!

System Specs: -

Processor: Intel(R) Core (TM) i7-7500U CPU @ 2.70GHz 2.90 GHz

OS: Windows 10 Home 22H2

Memory: 12GB

Dedicated GPU: NVIDIA GeForce 940MX 2gb VRAM

Integrated GPU: Intel(R) HD Graphics 620 6gb shared VRAM

I experienced the same problem and found out it is my fridge in the next room that causes the screen to go black for a few seconds.

See potential solutions:

https://lifehacks.stackexchange.com/questions/6193/my-monitor-turns-off-when-fridge-starts-how-can-i-stop-this

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.

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.

How do iturn off the gsync?