Thinkpads Forum

I have WinXP's Power Management configured to shut off monitor after 10 mins inactivity.

Under normal circumstances, this works fine. What I've noticed is that sometimes if I happen to put the laptop into sleep/standby mode and then I return from it... if I leave the laptop alone for 10 mins the screen shuts off. But when I try to get out of it, the screen remains black.

Windows does not hang. I can press on the keyboard / trackpad and I can hear things being clicked on -- it's just that the screen won't reinitialize. The only way I can get my screen back is to go into standby mode and then come out of it. Only then will the screen re-initialize.

But it seems that once the laptop is in this screwy state, the next time 10mins inactivity comes along, I get the same problem again. I would need to reboot the whole machine if I wanted this problem to stop.

Other things I have noticed... when my screen goes black, I tried to hook up an external monitor and pressed Fn-F7 for monitor out. I can get video on the external monitor but laptop screen still black. I noticed though that my laptop screen flashed briefly (flashed like brief powerup but it really didn't show anything) and goes back into black.

Anyone else run into this problem?

Oh this is for T61 with Nvidia video

It happens to my T60 sometimes. I would do a Fn+F4, close the lid after the standby LED comes on, then open the lid.

Must be a cost reduced power controller.

Apperently it's an nVidia driver issue. Seems to happen in XP and Vista both. I first learned of it after installing non-lenovo nVidia drivers on my T61p, and finding that after a chkdsk/reboot there was no display whilst chkdsk was running.

Removed the nVidia drivers and the issue could not be reproduced.

Researching, I found descriptions of additional issues similar to yours. I've had the black screen after sleep a couple of times, but it's rare. I can't make it happen and it hasn't happened in a month now.

If it's possible to reproduce, try to reproduce the issue with just the Microsoft video driver installed. Doesn't matter if it uses Standard VGA or a XP native (Microsoft provided) nVidia driver. Whatever is left after the nVidia drivers are uninstalled.

Definitely one of the weirder issues I've come across over the years !

I've got this problem and I can reproduce it often. Laptop goes to sleep and comes out of sleep with a blank screen. Only option is to turn it off by holding the power button down.

Not sure if its the same issue.

I also occasionally find black screens after waking up, but usually it comes on when i move the mouse.

It also happened sometimes that it stayed black, but after logging in via fingerprint, my desktop came on without problems..

I think I finally resolved it last night after searching for hours. I removed the Active Protection System (APS) that protects the hard drive when you move the laptop around and in case of a drop. Sometimes called Airbag.

Since I replaced my Seagate hard drive with a Hitachi it's been acting weird on startup and resuming from sleep. Now that I removed the APS its came out of standby 10 times without a hitch!

Interesting, thanks for the info!

Sorry for bringing up a topic this old but..

My T61's display wont light up when returning from standby. After lid open, it flickers a couple of times and then goes completely black with everything working behind it.

I have the delayed lid action -thing on so closing and reopening the lid resolves that issue.

But WinXP with SP3 is the only OS I can make this happen, it doesn't happen in Vista or in any linux-distro I've tried. So any tips on that?