Vista - Vista Ultimate x64: turn off display, will not turn back on

Running Windows Vista Ultimate.

Display turns off after about fifteen minutes regardless of whether I am actively using the computer or not. The only way to turn the display back on is to close and then open the lid. This disconnets me from AOL, so I have to sign back on again, and if I was emailing, I might lose my current email.

Under Power Options, I have 'Turn off the display' set to Never for both On Battery and Plugged in. Under 'Put the computer to sleep' I have both On battery and Plugged in set to never. Nonetheless, the display still shuts off while I am working.

What do I need to do to prevent the display from turning off at odd intervals?

sounds like your display drivers are crashing.

Do not rely on windows update drivers - go to graphics chipset manufacturer website and get latest drivers

Geezer is right, you should update your graphics drivers. But from the sound of it, I don't believe its a software issue. Your display might be dying and will need to be replaced.

I had this issue... or at least something very close to it.

It's a home built desktop with a nVidia 7900GS... everything was working perfectly and then about 2 weeks ago we found that the display would be simply be "off". We of course had all the power settings and screen saver all set to leave the monitor on always... the PC was still working... if we pushed the keyboard or mouse or even power button the PC would respond... just no picture. A restart was the only way to fix it.... but then it would only be "fixed" for a few hours or less.

We tried updated drivers (the first set of drivers were installed when we installed Vista fresh)... so we tried the latest set of drivers... worked for about 16 hours then the same problem started again.

We then swapped the output to the monitor from DVI #1 to DVI #2... that fixed the problem for a good week.... with no new issues.

2 days ago I reinstalled Vista (unrelated to the graphics card) and tried DVI #1 again.... it's been working perfectly since the reinstall.

So... I lean towards driver issues.... but getting updated drivers may not help. It sounds like your on a laptop though so putting your monitor cable onto another output probably wouldn't help you.


A reinstall of Vista may be the only way to fix this unless nVidia or ATI/AMD have found this to be a larger problem with Vista64 and their drivers and release a patch or update. I've never seen this issue before... and until your post I thought I was the only one that's had this happen. Of course it could be our hardware slowly going bad... but your problem sounds a lot like mine.


I just wanted to tell you my story and hope it helps in some way... good luck.

TK.

This could be hardware or software. If your screen is going black after 15 mins something could be overheating to cause the problem.

To find out if it is hardware boot into the bios and leave the laptop. If the screen goes dark you have a hardware problem.

Otherwise you will need to update, rollback drivers.

I have found through trial and error and searching forums on the web that there are issues with Vista and DVI connections, unfortunately for now the only quick fix seems to be to use a DVI to VGA adapter and hook the monitor up through a VGA cable. I had some of the same issues you are having along with only getting a max resolution of 1024 x 768 and everything was cleared up by running VGA. Hope this helps.

It's 8/09/08 & I've run into the same Black Blank Screen problem when the system seems to be working.

I'm comp-illiterate so bare with my story style.

Here's my story & I hope it helps you all figure out this out.

Yesterday My HP Pavilion dv2819nr laptop with AMD Turion 64 processor running vista ultimate x64 went bonkers. This is a 90 day old lap and it's been a pain from day 1. Runs too hot and explorer and programs have been locking up frequently from the first day. I plan on sending it back to HP with a demand to fix or give me my $grand$ back.

Well, enough of that.

Yesterday the instant messenger (which I always keep off & blocked) started opening up all on its own over & over again. I though it was a spammer or mal/virus or just more bad crap with this system & VistaU. So I ran Spybot SD, AVG scan and every cleaner I have and dumped 2 trojans I'd never seen before and had managed to slip in. (Sorry I didn't take notes; just dumped em) I Figured that cured it but was wrong. IM started up again and I closed it and started to un-install it for good. That's when it happened.

Screen went dead black except the cursor worked. CTRL ATL DEL brought up the selection screen just fine. Task manager, shutdown & all worked. Me, I'm scratching my head. So I rebooted, got the log-in screen and stroked the finger print log-in thingy and black screen of death appeared. Many time, many times of rebooting attempts failed to get anything else.

Finally I F8 at boot-up and tried all the different Safe Mode's with the same result. I thought I was fit to be stuck with a useless fried Laptop.

Until I tried this:

F8 at boot and I chose 'Repair Your Computer', logged in as admin, tried 'System Restore' and rolled it back a few days. And to my surprise (and I was to) it all can back with the screen working fine.

I've no idea if this is a perm fix or if I'm just lucky. But it's up and running.

Hope my long winded tail helps.