Screen Goes Black

[theringmaster55]

This doesn't happen that often, but sometimes my PC screen will just go black and comes back on 1 second later. It's a real mystery to me, as I have no idea the cause of the problem.

If anyone has any ideas on why this happens and how to fix, then that would be great.

Thank you

[emoticorpse]

Sometimes another display being activated/turning on/off or whatever can explain this.

[theringmaster55]

Originally posted by emoticorpse:

Sometimes another display being activated/turning on/off or whatever can explain this.

I don't think I have another display active, I only have 1 PC screen. If you meant something else, please can you explain how to turn off this other display? Thanks

[emoticorpse]

Originally posted by the.ringmaster55:

Originally posted by emoticorpse:

Sometimes another display being activated/turning on/off or whatever can explain this.

I don't think I have another display active, I only have 1 PC screen. If you meant something else, please can you explain how to turn off this other display? Thanks

Is this only when a game is full screen? or like even when you're sitting at the desktop or browsing the web?

It's important to distinguish.

[Illusion of Progress]

My first guess would be the display cable is intermittently losing picture/picking up interference.

Another guess would the GPU itself momentarily stops sending a signal, but I imagine you'd probably see other issues if it was this one (like device disconnect/reconnect sound, games crashing, hardware accelerated stuff acting funny, etc.). If none of that is going on, the PC is probably fine and the issue is outside the PC.

My final guess would be the display itself.

So you could try another display cables, another output on the GPU, another input on the display, or even playing with the position of the cable. Maybe try zip tying a portion to keep it in another position. I did this and it helped with my first cable (had the issue on a DP cable and an HDMI one, the latter was better with a zip tie on half and it's been almost totally eliminated with a third cable with EMI protection). Does this happen when, say, moving in a chair with a gas lift, or adjusting clothing? If so, it might be the EMI.

[theringmaster55]

Originally posted by Illusion of Progress:

My first guess would be the display cable is intermittently losing picture/picking up interference.

Another guess would the GPU itself momentarily stops sending a signal, but I imagine you'd probably see other issues if it was this one (like device disconnect/reconnect sound, games crashing, hardware accelerated stuff acting funny, etc.). If none of that is going on, the PC is probably fine and the issue is outside the PC.

My final guess would be the display itself.

So you could try another display cables, another output on the GPU, another input on the display, or even playing with the position of the cable. Maybe try zip tying a portion to keep it in another position. I did this and it helped with my first cable (had the issue on a DP cable and an HDMI one, the latter was better with a zip tie on half and it's been almost totally eliminated with a third cable with EMI protection). Does this happen when, say, moving in a chair with a gas lift, or adjusting clothing? If so, it might be the EMI.

Thank you for this detailed and helpful guide.

[Pocahawtness]

Originally posted by the.ringmaster55:

This doesn't happen that often, but sometimes my PC screen will just go black and comes back on 1 second later. It's a real mystery to me, as I have no idea the cause of the problem.

If anyone has any ideas on why this happens and how to fix, then that would be great.

Thank you

It's your cable. Digital cables do that if you exceed their bandwidth. Buy a higher quality cable.

[theringmaster55]

Originally posted by emoticorpse:

Originally posted by the.ringmaster55:

I don't think I have another display active, I only have 1 PC screen. If you meant something else, please can you explain how to turn off this other display? Thanks

Is this only when a game is full screen? or like even when you're sitting at the desktop or browsing the web?

It's important to distinguish.

Sometimes it happens in games, specifically when I open the game Fallout 4 and click the left mouse button when the game opens. It also happened when I closed Microsoft Edge , it went black for a second, and then turned back on.

[theringmaster55]

Originally posted by Pirate☠️Pocah:

Originally posted by the.ringmaster55:

This doesn't happen that often, but sometimes my PC screen will just go black and comes back on 1 second later. It's a real mystery to me, as I have no idea the cause of the problem.

If anyone has any ideas on why this happens and how to fix, then that would be great.

Thank you

It's your cable. Digital cables do that if you exceed their bandwidth. Buy a higher quality cable.

Thank you, i'll look into buying a new cable soon.

[Fajita Jim]

I get this on certain websites. Like when I first visit Netflix. I always assumed it was something with Silverlight or whatever.

Some sites with embedded videos do it, too, but not all.

[_I_]

whats the brand/model of the display?

does it show the monitor brand logo when turning back on?
does the power light change?

if not, then its probably a bad led in the backlight
use the monitors osd menu and turn brightness/backlight down to 75% and see if it happens less often

[theringmaster55]

Originally posted by _I_:

whats the brand/model of the display?

does it show the monitor brand logo when turning back on?
does the power light change?

if not, then its probably a bad led in the backlight
use the monitors osd menu and turn brightness/backlight down to 75% and see if it happens less often

The brand/ model is a acer pc screen monitor. I've had it for so long, since I first bought a Acer computer, I still use it for my new gaming pc.

I'll consider turning the brightness down to a lower level.

No monitor brand when coming back on.

[_I_]

do you get the osd display for input change or res info?

another clue that its just bad backlighting

whats the acer model# for the display?
replacement backlight strips are often cheap, and not difficult to replace

[R3dAlert93]

Think I'm getting this problem aswell after i brought a new DP cable.

[_I_]

bad backlight leds do happen and is common since most display do not have good enough cooling for them, and they are often overdriven, higher voltage than the leds are designed for, for brighter brightness

bad leds will turn off periodically when backlight is at 100%
led heats up and goes out, since all are in series, one opens and the entire line is open
when it cools and connects again, the entire line turns back on

led backlight strips are cheap, and fairly easy to replace
the main board will not show any osd info or have any idea since its only sending the pwm brightness signal to the power board to control the led brightness, with no feedback

that is a common cause, bad cable should display the osd info when the image comes back

[_I_]

thats why i also said to test with a bright flashlight directly to the panel
if you can see a partial image around the light, then the panel is given an image without any backlight