What to do when your computer monitor goes blank or frozen?
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Recently, I put my laptop to sleep and when I opened it again, the screen got frozen. I restarted it around 5 times but still the screen was blank all the time. I thought maybe my hard drive crashed or something and I tried loading from my Vista DVD but still the laptop screen was blank.
After quick search and reading from the HP Laptop manual, I got it back to life after I took off the power cable and battery from the Laptop and put it again. I found that some of my friends also had the same problem when they put their laptop to sleep. So next time if your laptop screen goes pitch black when you are try to wake the computer after sleep mode, remove both the power cable and battery, wait for some time and then put it back!
If that’s the case for you, you may try these steps to make it work:
- First if the computer screen gets frozen, when you are working something, try ALT + CTRL + DEL or restart your computer.
- Make sure your computer is not in sleep mode or hibernate. You may wake it from hibernation by pressing the power button or by moving the mouse or pressing any button if it’s in sleep mode.
- Make sure the power cable to the monitor is working, in case if you are using a desktop.
- Make sure you have connected the monitor to the computer or to any other external display device (like a projector). If a laptop is connected to an external device, the image can be displayed in either the laptop screen or the external device or both. Use the keyboard shortcut, fn+f4 (Function + F4) repeatedly to switch between the options.
Useful tips there.
What has happened to you has happened to me as well once. I was messing around with things wondering what had happened but then some one comes me at the end of the day telling me to remove and plug in the power cord, it restarts again magically.
@Shankar Ganesh, I didn’t realize that many would be facing the same issue.
hey, very good tips buddy, gr8 post buddy enjoyed! my frnd has similar problem i will email hem this..
Thanks for the tips. Could come in handy anytime. BTW, I have never had such a problem.. Phew!
Very nice tip…I found this out the hard way one day too. I could not figure out what was going on for the life of me and I decided to take the battery out and put it back in. It worked perfectly fine after that.
I have also started having this problem and I was also having a problem with static build up when burning DVDs from dust that had built up in the cooling units and the computer would just shut down mid-burn. The solution was to unplug batteries and leads, drain the power, and then put it all back in.
I vaccumed it out, and it started working properly, but now the monitor is having hissy fits – so I think I need to send it for a good clean out as it seems that the static in the power is what is causing this as well?
hi there again.. i tried taking out and put the battery again but it still didn’t work.. the lights on the keys are on though.. and the microsoft logo is loading but after that it would turn blank again.. what could be the problem?
thank you very much.. i would really appreciate
@ janice, I believe your issue seems to be that vista booting may have got corrupted as you were saying that you got a message not to switch off as it was updating vista…
You can try to do a system restore from the booting…
On other note, right after the system update…you may get a blank screen after vista logo comes for a brief period of time….and this time may vary depeding on what kind of update it is…So first I would suggest you to leave the screen like that for about say 10 minutes (in the worst case scenario)…and see if its working…Hope it works for you…
My laptop was having the issue of the screen blacking out also and now I can’t get anything to come up on the screen. It used to be that I could remove the battery and power lead and everything would be fine, but that quit working. I plugged the laptop into an external monitor and still nothing. At first I thought hard drive failure, but now it seems to be a main board issue. Any suggestions?
Nice share, thnx alot!
I have a dell latitude, and when i start it up from hibernation i get the black screen. Sometimes pressing the buttons fixes it, sometimes it stays black for 5-10 minutes then it just comes back up. But 99% of the time it works right away.
Thank you soo much! My computer that I just got for Christmas went black and I thought that I had surely broken it. After I tried to restart it a few times, I had no doubt that it was broken. I found this site and it is truly a life saver! So thank you, thank you, thank you!
my lt monitor is blacking out too. if i give it a hard whack on the cover, it sometimes starts working again. it seems to me there might be a loose wire in there. anyone had this experience? i use windows xp.
@molly, Sometime even I face this when I keep my laptop monitor in a very obtuse angle. And if I adjust the angle, it works good.
Thanks for the tip about taking out the battery, it worked fine after that. I was frustrated for a moment because I just recieved this new computer after my old brand new one died and was not able to be fixed. It started acting up just like this one was doing.
So thanks again!!!
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I have an… interesting problem with my computer when it freezes. It has done it since day one, however it seems to be getting worse. I know it needs a HDD fan and so the hard drive Im using may be overheating, however I think this is caused by my graphics card not sitting quite right. Randomly, often when under stress the computer will freeze, the sound will jar and nothing can fix it. Power button held for 5-6 seconds does the trick. The problem however is that 3-4 mins after I turn it off, it switches itself back on! Could it be a heat/power related issue?
My monitor goes black after booting, I get my desktop screen, and as soon as I click on an icon or program on the desktop the screen goes blank. I brought it to Best Buy, they want $200.00 to fix it, they say it’s a software problem in the startup…I also cannot delete programs, that I have recently installed. I would like to remove them but it won’t let me. I’m thinking because i recently installed programs that may be the problem. But my System Restore won’t allow me to go back far enough to when I made the changes.uggg
I have a HP Pavilion DV6500 laptop running Vista. Bought it December 2007. I had the same problems of black screen after sleep mode or hibernation. Used to remove battery and replace. However this got old fast after having to do it more than once per day. Called HP support and after two months of fiddling around, HP finally released a BIOS update (In July I think) which seems to have cured the issue for me.
I have been experiencing the same problems with my HP laptop (from Best Buy). About two weeks after I got it, the screen went black. I restarted it about 5 times, and it was still black. Finally, thinking I had broken it, I unplugged it and took the long drive down to Best Buy where, to my surprise, it started working. Two months later, it “crashed” again. After shutting it down and waiting for a few hours, it finally started working again. Now, just as my sister is about to print out her major paper that’s due tomorrow, the screen goes black again (how convenient). So I looked on the Internet, found this page, followed the steps, and it actually worked! My sister was so happy. Thank you very much! You truly are a life saver.
I just purchased an HP Pavilion Media Center m8530f at Best Buy. After one month, the issues with a frozen login screen occured. I called HP and they refered me and refered me and refered me to various techs. I spent hours on the phone with each of them explaining how the PC after shutting down, could not start up again….there was just no way to get logged on due to a frozed mouse and keyboard–all techs told me in conclusion to restore it to it’s original factory settings..(what a pain in the @$$—in which I lost hours of my previous downloaded programs= Trend Micro Security, and Microsoft office,…this happened several more times at least three more times…repeat, repeat!!! And the repeat process/solution from all of them —the long term functioning wouldn’t ever last. Finally, the HP people told me they wanted me to ship it to them to fix, but I thought to myself…here I spent over $1,700 and I have to go without a PC I need for business. I told them I wouldn’t put myself out for their problem. Sorry. I’ll return it and get a new one. I ended up argueing with Best Buy to make the exchange as they were reluctant(I purchased a plan with the so called “Geek Squad” who wanted to fix it (again, I paid for a brand new PC that I have to go without so they can fix it)Sorry,I lost my faith in the whole system. Finally, after they realized it was a problem they had no solution for, I was offered the exchange for another HP Pavilion Media Center m8530f PC. Today, I’ve just experienced the same frozen login problem with my NEWLY EXCHANGED HP Pavilion Media Center m8530f of only three days old!BEWARE to you out there who want to purchase this model from HP! Can you believe this? Twice!!! Now, I’m forced to go back to Best Buy and return but this time I will insist on some other PC model. I was wondering if there is an HP Desktop PC that someone is having good experiences with (2008). Thanks… signed Totally tired and disgusted. I am an experienced PC operator and do not want anyone to have to go through all the hassles I’ve has to go through with Salinas,CA Best Buy or 1800HPINVENT. BEWARE. Sometimes you have to get nasty to get what you PAID FOR!
No more lemons and no more runaround…need your prayers : ) and sending out a warning
I have an hp entertainment pc laptop. after a few minutes my screen goes wonky and a bunch of colours get displayed (depending on what you are viewing) and you cant do anything about it. any suggestions?
Hi I have been having the same issue for quite some time and unplugging and removing the battery has always worked. But yesterday that stopped solving the problem. It seems I am having the same issue as Amy. Unplugging and restarting does nothing. I can hear the CD drive working and the lights above the buttons light up, but the screen stays blank. Not even turned on and black. Any ideas?
Hi,
Suddenly one nite my laptop got frozen and I cud see nothing but the black screeen. I was so worried, restarted it 10 times but no use…then I found this and tried the way u said…it worked !!!! thx a ton….thq so much…..
Thanks for info!!! Worked great!
My middle-aged monitor started blacking out on me a few weeks ago. Today it helped to disconnect it from the CPU. Sometimes it helps to just wait a while, and it lights back up again. It’s hard to tell whether these so-called solutions are random associations or actual fixes. I’m not sure if the cable is on the way out, or if the LCD is starting to die, or what. I’ve started saving everything onto a flash drive so that I can work on my (new) laptop when the screen blacks out. (Bought the laptop in part for this reason; I’m a big fan of redundancy.) This is not really a long-term solution. Do you think this is hardware, cables, software, or what? It seems different from the problems others are having, since the monitor has worked perfectly for maybe 5 years.
I have a hp pavillion dv 6500 and the screen is just blank , i took it to a local man i know and he said it looks like the graphics has gone and it would cost to much to repair the mother board i bought it for my daughter for Christmas 2008 .any idea what i can do
It also happend to my laptop. i tried to do the system restore using the safemode and command prompt. After restarting, it still went blank. The only thing that could be seen is me wallpaper, nothing else. No icons and no start menu. I don’t know what to do. If worse comes to worse, I’ll just reformat it.
I’ve had the same problem with my computer. The screen went blank, sound stopped with the program I was running. Can’t seem to find a problem. Video card? Mother Board?
My laptop screen is partial black when run a disk, and the opther part of the screen is gray. I cannot safe mode because my cursur will not allow me to stroll down.
i have my hp pavilion dv6500 entereainment pc,i down graded to windows xp, when ever am working the screen got freez but the computer still working, if am watching movie the screen freez but i had the sound of the movie playing. except i hold the power putton for sum time before it went off. plz help me as soon as possible
Since everyone has an issue with this line of Laptops I thought I would post this for kicks and giggles…I had a DV6700 model and the same things were happening with that laptop….The last time right before this vid was shot the laptop was not turned on for several days and then I turned it on and the screen magically worked for about 20 minutes then thats when this started happening….
I had to hurry up and grab my camera before it stopped….
http://www.youtube.com/user/cfandm
I no longer have my Help and Support enabled for Microsoft Office. It suggests that enable this feature but does not tell me how to do this. Does anyone know the steps I need to follow to do this? Thank you.
I has a Toshiba Laptop(A200)2 years old, I facing screen blank out problem during boot up, wake up from safe mode and during window operating…….getting worst.
Sent to computer shop for formating C drive and reload back factory setting, but the problem still existed.
i tried unplugging my cord and taking the battery out plus i turned my computer off several times. i only had my hppaviloin g6 for only 2 months and my screen has been black 2weeks after i brought it in dec 2011. im deployed now and i cant get it to work unless i plug my computer up to my pc.. is there any advise for me