I am typing away on my trusty Toshiba A110, running Windows XP, which has, until yesterday, been fairly predictable and reliable.
It has, whether by itself, or because I hit some key accidentally (or committed some other fault), developed an irritating quirk. The screen goes black. It doesn't do it when I am working - just when I leave it for some time.
Before yesterday, if I left the computer for a few minutes, the screen would go also black - but as soon as I wiggled the mouse the screen would come back to life. (If it was left long enough, it would go into standby.) However, now when the screen goes black, wiggling the mouse has no effect, and nor (as far as I can see) does anything else. I can faintly see the screen, with the various windows, though there appears to be no cursor. Rebooting seems to be the only way to get the machine back to work.
What am I doing wrong - or has the laptop developed a fault?
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You may have a fault but as a check, right mouse click on an empty area of the desktop and select Properties from drop down menu. Go to Screensaver tab. Then go to Power button. On Power Schemes tab under Turn off Monitor select Never or any amount of time that suits you and save changes or give the power scheme a custom name of your choice before saving back out to the desktop.
If this doesn't work you could try a System Restore to a date just before this happened. Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Restore.
Last edited by: Victorbox on Tue 3 Jan 12 at 12:35
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you prob had a screensaver running on disable it that way it wont go blank, that is on display properties
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Thanks for that, Sajid - but no, I didn't have a screensaver running - and "display properties" confirms that.
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Thanks for that, Victorbox.
The Power Scheme that the computer has always run on was "Toshiba Power Saver." I have set "Turn of Monitor" to "Never", and have also changed the Power Scheme to "Always On". I don't know what I will miss out on through not using the "Toshiba Power Saver" scheme.
This is, needless to say, an area of computer life that I know nothing about.
I might add that my hard drive is getting rather full, and I wonder whether that might be a contributory factor.
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Having set "Turn of Monitor" to "Never", and changed the Power Scheme to "Always On", the problem has not been solved. I'll now try System Restore.
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Do you know that the laptop is still on when the screen is black?
EDIT: sorry I can see from your first post that it is on
Last edited by: Focus on Tue 3 Jan 12 at 13:21
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FWIW my laptop doesn't always come out of hibernate cleanly - the disk light flickers intermittently but the screen remains black. All you can do is hold down the power button to force a power down.
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>> FWIW my laptop doesn't always come out of hibernate cleanly - . . . All you can do is hold down the power button to force a power down.
I suppose this is somewhat comforting. My problem is that this fault doesn't seem to be a once in a while problem, but a constant problem.
And as for System Restore, I tried to restore it to the 30th December, but was told this was not possible. So I tried for the 1st January, and got the same response. In fact, in the few times that I have attempted to use System Restore over the years, failure seems to have been the norm. I always seem to get the message that says "Restore incomplete - your computer cannot be restored . . ."
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My initial though was power management settings somewhere along the line, as that now looks less likely then maybe the power supply/inverter for the display may be on the way out.
If you use the machine for a fairly long time, say 30 minutes or so, is the display still OK? If so then it's probably not the inverter, and we're back to power management settings, somehow.
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There is, as far as I can see, no problem using the machine 30 minutes or so. Once it gets going, everything is fine. The problem is getting it going - and it is getting worse. I can't get it going even by rebooting now, though will try again. Hence I am now on an old desktop computer.
(I doubt that Devonite's Youtube video is relevant, since I'm using Windows XP rather than Windows 7.)
Last edited by: tyro on Tue 3 Jan 12 at 17:09
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I don't know if this is relevant, but yesterday morning, when I was working on the laptop, there were two power cuts - about 10 minutes apart - both of which were associated with lightning, and which put all the electricity in the house off for about 10 or 20 seconds. The laptop was attached to the mains at the time, but while the peripherals all went off, the laptop continued working normally on battery power until mains electricity returned.
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>> The laptop was attached to the mains at the time... >>
Aah....haa ! Eureka.
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Nah, not Eureka, sufficient voltage spike to cause a problem on the laptop would do in the power supply as well.
Unless he was connected to the net by an Ethernet cable
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"Unless he was connected to the net by an Ethernet cable"
Which he wasn't.
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>> Nah, not Eureka, sufficient voltage spike to cause a problem on the laptop would do
>> in the power supply as well.
>>
Probably, but I'd say there's a small chance then that the supply problems have knackered the display inverter - assuming it has one.
Is there a separate monitor available that can be temporarily connected to the machine, to see if that works fine?
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>>I doubt that Devonite's Youtube video is relevant, since I'm using Windows XP rather than Windows 7.)
looking into this a bit further, it appears to happen quite a lot on notebook/laptops, and across the various o/s`s.
Most of the (numerous) "cures/fixes" seem to involve reflashing the bios with the latest version.
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"Is there a separate monitor available that can be temporarily connected to the machine, to see if that works fine?"
Well, I tried this. Having attached the laptop to the external monitor, I turned it on. To my amazement, I saw the Windows screen appear on the external monitor, and then as I watched the picture disappeared from the external monitor and appeared on the laptop screen. (I doubt that this is significant, but I actually booted the laptop when it wasn't attached to the mains, but then attached it to the mains later). It has worked fine for three hours continuous work - mostly back-up!
Regarding Devonite's post, I've downloaded the Prevx fix the video refers to - described as the Prevx Shell Correction Utility. I'm a bit hesitant about running it. I note that Wikipedia reports: "Prevx stirred up controversy amongst the internet communities when they announced on November 27, 2009 that a recent Windows update was causing a "Black Screen of Death", affecting users of Windows XP, Vista and 7. They claimed this bug rendered the machine unusable. It was later discovered that the black screen was caused by a malware infection, unrelated to the Windows update. Prevx has been criticized for their strong accusation towards Microsoft and for not backing up their claims with any kind of technical data."
So do I have a hardware problem, a software problem, or a malware problem?
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Hello Tyro - I know nothing useful about computers but I did just want to say "Hi" We've not heard from you in a while. Hope you stick around for a bit more chat. I've missed your reports from the Highlands !
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Thanks for your kind words, Humph. Yes, I've not been here since the end of April. I've disappeared from this site and its predecessor site on previous occasions for months at a time. Eventually I have a car problem - or more likely, a computer problem - which brings me back! I've spent some time a new Berlingo Forum, but I do seem to have been less interested in things motoring in recent months.
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Update:
I tried the trick I tried yesterday evening - i.e. turning on the laptop on battery power, while connected to an external monitor. Again, it worked. The Windows screen was visible on the external monitor, but as soon as it disappeared, the Welcome screen, and then the desktop, was on the laptop. Before the desktop was fully loaded, I connected the laptop to the mains. The screen went black, and stayed black. I think that might be a clue.
I have rebooted it successfully and am running on battery power.
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My initial thoughts were exactly the same as Victorbox, this sounds like a power management configuration issue somehow. I'm wondering if there's some 3rd party, or laptop manufacturer's, software overriding the Windows power management settings. Is there an icon in the system tray (bottom right hand part of the display, near the time display) which could be a power management setting? Hover the cursor over the icons and it should tell you what they are.
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Is there an icon in the system tray (bottom right hand part of the display, near the time display) which could be a power management setting? Hover the cursor over the icons and it should tell you what they are.
I've hovered, and there doesn't seem to be. However, as per my post of Tue 3 Jan 12 12:47, there when the Power Scheme that the computer was running on was "Toshiba Power Saver," there was, I believe, an icon in the system tray to that effect. Since the laptop is no longer on "Toshiba Power Saver" but on "Always on", there is no icon.
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Update:
I started the laptop this morning on battery, but not attached to the external monitor. It booted normally. It was left for a while after starting and the screen went black, but when I moved the mouse around, the screen came back to life as it did before the problem occurred. In other words, there does not appear to be a problem except when the laptop is connected to the mains.
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Bit of harmless guesswork here.
I wonder if the battery is failing and somehow confusing the laptop when it's being charged.
Try the laptop on the mains with the battery unplugged.
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Alternatively... I had problems with my laptop a month or 2 ago because of a faulty power supply.
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You say you changed the power saving profile. You did do it for both on battery and mains?
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rjt70 - my apologies for not responding.
The settings I now have are:
Plugged in:
Turn off monitor - Never
Turn off hard discs - Never
System standby - Never
System hibernates - Never
Running on batteries -
Turn of monitor - After 15 minutes
Turn off hard discs - After 30 minutes
System standby - Never
System hibernates - Never
I might add that for the past few days, I boot the laptop on battery, and then attach to mains a little later. A few days ago, it did go black when attached to mains, but other than that, has functioned normally. I have not tried Iffy's suggestion, but I plan to. After that, I guess I start thinking about getting a new power supply.
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A couple more bits of information for the detectives among you.
1) I tried booting the machine on battery when the battery was not fully charged. It didn't work. I got the black screen problem.
2) I tried iffy's suggestion
(I wonder if the battery is failing and somehow confusing the laptop when it's being charged.
Try the laptop on the mains with the battery unplugged.)
I took out the battery, and tried booting on mains. The Toshiba screen came up OK, but then it all went black.
It seems to me (in my ignorance) that it is unlikely to be software or malware. So is it more likely to be a problem in the power supply or in the laptop itself?
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It sounds like you are suffering two problems that has confused the isuue
In the past you may well have been the victim of power management settings blanking the screen.
However there is a know problem with laptops where the backlighting fails for a number of reasons (the reasons and causes vary but the result is the same),
This sounds like the problem you have.
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there is a know problem with laptops where the backlighting fails for a number of reasons
The curious thing about my laptop is that the backlighting doesn't fail under certain conditions.
At least not yet!
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" I can faintly see the screen, with the various windows, though there appears to be no cursor. Rebooting seems to be the only way to get the machine back to work. "
Sounds to me like failing backilight, but hey you know better so you should be able to fix it.
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Sounds to me like failing backilight, but hey you know better . . .
No, I don't know better. I'm sure you are right.
But, as you said, it seems to fail for a number of reasons. So the peculiarities of the ailment on my computer might well point to which of the reasons it was, and thus give a clue to what kind of repair might be necessary. Unless, of course, all failing backlights are simply repaired in exactly the same way.
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>> The settings I now have are:
>> Running on batteries -
>> Turn of monitor - After 15 minutes
>> Turn off hard discs - After 30 minutes
>> System standby - Never
>> System hibernates - Never
Why not change Turn of monitor - After 15 minutes to Never ... even extend turn off hard disks to 60 minutes and see what these changes do?
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"Why not change Turn of monitor - After 15 minutes to Never ... even extend turn off hard disks to 60 minutes and see what these changes do?"
OK, I've changed them. I'll see if there is anything to report.
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>> OK, I've changed them. I'll see if there is anything to report.
It's worth a try - your battery life will suffer but I assume you use it plugged in most of the time anyway? If so, change the Turn Off Hard Disks to Never as well if you wish to experiment.
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Update:
I still find this odd. I am using the laptop less, but still use it occasionally. What I find curious is that if it starts off OK - and it is most likely to start off OK if a) I start it on battery and b) I start it connected to an external monitor, then the screen of the laptop seems to remain fine - even if left on all day. (If I run the laptop on the battery until about 10 or 15% power remains, and then attach it to the mains, it will run all day. Plug it into the mains too early and the screen will go blank.)
However, the first few minutes are the crucial thing. If the screen is going to go blank, it will do so within a few minutes (or less) of turning the laptop on.
And by the way, how do I find a decent laptop repair place - say, in Inverness?
Last edited by: tyro on Wed 25 Jan 12 at 13:17
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>>(And by the way, how do I find a decent laptop repair place - say, in Inverness?)
Actually, this really deserves a new thread.
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well typing in laptop repairs inverness brought up a raft of them
like
www.nigelgowencomputers.co.uk/
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Update.
I took the machine to a repairer, and as RF said it would be, it was a failing backlight.
The repairer replaced the screen, and I now have it back, and all seems fine.
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Laptop screen keeps going black - Victorbox
