Laptop screen stays black after sleep

philnolan3d · 16 May 2020

I have an HP Envy x360 2-in-1 laptop that's about 2 years old now. Over the past few weeks I've had an odd problem where frequently after it goes to sleep I'll wake it up and it seems to come awake but the screen stays black. I can see the power light comes on, the fan spins up as usual, and the button to turn my keyboard lights on works fine. The only way to get my screen on is to hold the power button and manually restart, which of course means I lose whatever work I don't have saved.

I have tried updating my BIOS and other updates in the HP Support Assistant, I regularly keep my Intel graphics drivers updated as well as Windows Update. After the last BIOS update there was a Graphics driver update and I noticed it said "this may overwrite drivers provided by your PC maker" so I decided to NOT update it. The problem still happens. I also tried some power settings I saw on a YouTube video about the problem. No luck.

Any suggestions?

Windows version: 1909

Lance1 · 16 May 2020

Just press and release the power button ("Don't hold it down") should wake it up.

philnolan3d · 17 May 2020

That's the first thing I tried. Just to be sure, after reading your suggestion I waited a few hours until it happened again and tried just pressing power. Nothing. I did notice something though. The power light was already on before I pressed it. I'm not sure if that's normal for sleeping or not. I never paid that much attention before.

Lance1 · 17 May 2020

Have you tried a power reset? Shut down the laptop. If you have any peripherals unplug them. Unplug the AC and remove the battery. Hold the power button down for 20 to 30 seconds. This drains all residual electrical charges from the main board. Insert the battery and plug the AC in and power the laptop. Once your in Windows click Start \ Power and Sleep. Now try and wake it up. If that doesn't work look into the Advanced power options. Here's a quick video on what settings to look for and change if need be.

EdTittel · 17 May 2020

Sometimes the magic key-combo for graphics card reset will bring the display back. I have an older Lenovo T520 (vintage 2013 or thereabouts) that does "black screen after sleep" thing pretty regularly. About half the time, the reset sequence works. The other half, I have to power off/power on to get the display back. Never been able to figure out what's causing this, nor why graphics reset works some of the time, but not all of the time.

What is that key sequence, you ask? It's WinKey+Ctrl+Shift+B (4 keys, which you must depress together. I can do it left-hand only, but I've had lots of practice.

).

HTH,
--Ed--

philnolan3d · 17 May 2020

Well that video is the one I mentioned following above. I don't have a removable battery (do any laptops now?) so I guess I would have to unplug and use the laptop for a few hours until it completely dies to try the other option.

- - - Updated - - -

EdTittel said:

What is that key sequence, you ask? It's WinKey+Ctrl+Shift+B (4 keys, which you must depress together. I can do it left-hand

Interesting. So you do the graphics reset while the screen is black? I'll have to try it.

EdTittel · 17 May 2020

Yes @philnolan3d: you do it while the PC is running and the screen is black. As I said before, it may help and it may not. But it's surely worth a try!
--Ed--