Screen blanking out and not coming back

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kwsmithphoto · #1 Post by **kwsmithphoto** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 12:52 am

Hi. My first post here, how's everyone doing?

I've got a new T60, model 2623 D6U, with the user installed 1GB memory upgrade. It's replacing a T43 I bought in January ago that was stolen.

BTW, if your laptop ever gets ripped off by a common criminal, there's a lot to be said for the fingerprint reader! My guess is that it was tossed into a dumpster when they first turned it on and lives in a landfill, since none of my accounts etc. have been tampered with.

Anyway, the screen tends to blank out even when plugged in by default. But on my system it won't re-appear by swiping the touchpad, moving the mouse, pressing a key, etc. I sorted out the problem when plugged in by running a screen saver, but there are times off the grid when it goes blank before entering standby.

I set a screensaver to come on 1 minute before the standby time so I've mostly worked around the problem, but I'd still like to figure this out if anyone knows.

In either case, when the screen goes blank the machine is still working, I just can't get the display up. I have to put it into and out of standby to get a screen back. That's the part that worries me.

Anybody know why this might be going on and how to fix it without my screensaver workarounds? BIOS is the latest and there aren't any display driver updates yet. Most everything else is set as it was out of box, other than removing Symantec and Google Desktop.

Kevin

curiouscosy · #2 Post by **curiouscosy** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 2:18 am

I have the same problem with my T60 too, albeit not very often. I think it may because of this windows bug: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/917332/en-us.

Turbo Audi · #3 Post by **Turbo Audi** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 8:58 am

This happened to me about a half hour ago. I have my cpu set so when I close the lid nothing happens. I had it closed while listening to MP3s, then opened it as usual and the screen was off. I tried everything I could think of. Finally I held down the power button for 5 seconds and restarted it.

[edit]

That MSFT page does not contain a DL link. It says to contact them. Can they email a file that large? Every other update has been downloadable...whats the deal? Anyone know of another site do get it?

testthings · #4 Post by **testthings** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 10:16 am

This happened to me a couple of days ago, too. I pressed Fn-F4(Standby) twice to bring it back.

c_tanner · #5 Post by **c_tanner** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 10:25 am

Turbo Audi wrote:
That MSFT page does not contain a DL link. It says to contact them. Can they email a file that large? Every other update has been downloadable...whats the deal? Anyone know of another site do get it?

Does anyone have the hotfix number? If I press the power button it comes back consistently, but this should be resolved.

kwsmithphoto · #6 Post by **kwsmithphoto** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 10:26 am

Ya, that sounds like the problem. Good detective work, curiouscosy!

From reading the article, it sounds like they want us to wait for SP3 since they haven't fully tested the patch, but will make it available if you call them. Personally, so far anyway, my screensaver workaround solves the problem so I'll probably wait.

But if anyone does get the patch from MS, please let us know if it works and causes any new problems.

At least I know it isn't a hardware problem with my particular machine and seems to be Windows issue related to Core Duo processors. SP3 can't be far away at this point so I'm gonna sit tight.

Thanks again.

joad · #7 Post by **joad** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 11:00 am

Hi, I think you can find the hotfix here.
http://hf.xable.net/

I use Swedish language of XP so the fix won’t install.

/j

Scratch · #8 Post by **Scratch** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 11:05 am

but there has been no fix formally "issued" as yet.

Fn + F4 is one way though it requires that you standby and resume the machine...time consuming. an alternate that has worked for me and others is Fn + Spcbar. This wil bring it back in a zoomed state. Hit it again and it resumes the original magnification. this is somewhat more convenient as it doesn't disconnect you from your wireless networks nor interrupt your apps the way a suspend does.

Hope it helps until the patch is formalized.

ramian · #9 Post by **ramian** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 12:11 pm

If this is the screen blanking issue that I think it is (and which also has been affecting me), you can also close your lid almost all the way and open it to restore your display.

Another option was to press Fn+F7, the up arrow key and Enter to enable "My Normal Display Settings" in the Presentation Director.

cheers!

curiouscosy · #10 Post by **curiouscosy** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 12:14 pm

This trick was mentioned sometime ago by someone else here (can't remember the name): press fn+F7 to bring up presentation director, and then press up/dn arrow as needed to bring the pointer to the scheme that you want (of course you need to configure and remember the ordering beforehand.)

The last time this happened to me was early last week, I think, and now I configure so that nothing happened when I close the lid (except for turning the screen off), and I'm hoping that this could force the event to turn on the backlight to be fired when I reopen the lid, but as Turbo Audi mentioned that didn't quite work either.

EDIT:
Ramian's a faster typist than I am :p. Oh btw, the close lid halfway didn't work for me, because at the angle that the screen would turn off, my computer would also go to sleep (when it was configured to sleep when lid is closed)

BorisKV · #11 Post by **BorisKV** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 12:42 pm

Just to warn people with custom arrangment of desktop icons. Problem with Fn+Space solution is that screwes icons layout out on the screen. If auto arange enabled there is no problem. But I for example like recycle bin in the right bottom corner of desktop and hitting Fn+Space to zoom and then back rearanges icons and suddenly recycle bin is in the middle of the screen.

Scratch · #12 Post by **Scratch** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 3:19 pm

Boris is right. Fn+Spcbar only works well with auto arrange. It plays hell with my CAD windows as well, but it's still better than having to suspend in the middle of a session and chance losing work.

I can't believe that it's taken this long to fix it and that it"s still only available as a dicey "patch it if you feel you have to".

ramian · #13 Post by **ramian** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 7:35 pm

Here's something to solve your desktop icon woes.
http://www.shelltoysxp.com/desktopicons.asp

There are many of these types of programs available. Over the years, after numerous reformats and reinstallations of Windows, I've ended up using a different version almost every single time.

KawaiDon · #14 Post by **KawaiDon** » Sat Aug 19, 2006 4:27 pm

This has happened to me a few times. fn-F7 has always worked for me to get the display back.

Kamika007z · #15 Post by **Kamika007z** » Sun Aug 20, 2006 12:59 am

Hey All,

A bunch of us run the laptopvideo2go.com site and we have posted the hotfix for this issue here. Check it out

Screen blanking out and not coming back

Screen blanking out and not coming back

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