Weird turned off screen issue lately with an old laptop

mibaup · 25 Sep 2020

My laptop is 6 years old. Lately it started to have an issue: I've been connecting this laptop to a second monitor for years via HDMI. Now when I unplug the HDMI and I want to take to another place, the screen stays off, but the PC is still on (so it seems).
I have to shut it off and turn it on in order to make the screen work again. Luckily I have a good SSD so it's not that of an issue, but still it's annoying.

Is it a software problem, or the laptop is starting to die?

AndreTen · 25 Sep 2020

How do you have your external moniter set up? Is it set as primary, or extended?

Did you try to press Fn+F4 (usual combination for selecting an active monitor)

Berton · 25 Sep 2020

I use that key combination to toggle display panel, external monitor/projector or both at the same time, mostly when needing to repair but also good for showing a client while I'm working on it.

mibaup · 27 Sep 2020

AndreTen said:

How do you have your external moniter set up? Is it set as primary, or extended?

Did you try to press Fn+F4 (usual combination for selecting an active monitor)

Berton said:

I use that key combination to toggle display panel, external monitor/projector or both at the same time, mostly when needing to repair but also good for showing a client while I'm working on it.

I connect it as primary (so that the laptop LCD is turned off and only the TV is on)
I will try this combination and tell you if it worked

Try3 · 27 Sep 2020

If you do end up having to work blind on a laptop then use one of these procedures to set the screen to appear on one of the monitors

To display on the computer only

WinKey+P
{pause for two seconds}
Home key
{pause for two seconds}
Enter key

To display on the external monitor only

WinKey+P
{pause for two seconds}
End key
{pause for two seconds}
Enter key

What you are doing is moving around & selecting in this dialog

Weird turned off screen issue lately with an old laptop-winkey-p.png

Denis