Unsolved
This post is more than 5 years old
1 Message
0
22938
Laptop screen randomly goes black with charger plugged in.
I have a Dell precision M6500 laptop. I've had this problem for a few months now. When the charger is plugged in to the laptop while it is on the screen will randomly go black. However the laptop appears to still be running as audio is still played through my headset and can still be in a conversation on Skype however i have not tested how long this will last for. There is no way to get the screen back and this happens with both the laptop screen and a monitor/tv. Although if the laptop is ran in safe mode the screen does not go black with the charger in. Also to be clear this never happens while the laptop is unplugged. Would appreciate any thoughts or if more information is needed feel free to ask. Thank you in advance.
WendieSiverts
1 Message
0
April 21st, 2015 12:00
We have been having the same problem with our computer, also a M6500. As you describe, the computer is still live (we can access files and licence servers through the network) but video, as well as keyboard and mouse inputs are gone. For us, the problem seemed to start after adding a second dock for home use a little over a year ago. (Before that, the computer had been regularly plugged into a dock purchased with it in 2011.)
Sometimes it would be a constant issue - going black any time an internet browser or Thunderbird was launched. Other days, it would just happen a few times a day or less. I upgraded the BIOS, and altered the performance settings for maximum performance, but this helped only a little. Two months ago, I upgraded the hard drive to an SSD, upgraded the RAM from 4 to 8GB and did a clean install of Windows 7.
Those changes helped a little but it didn't solve it. At this point, however, we were able to replicate a consistent crash - Thunderbird would crash it every time while loading EXCEPT when we unplugged the power cable.
I uninstalled Thunderbird and changed the power management and performance settings to match what the computer defaults to in battery mode for both battery and A/C. Now the problem is rare but does still comes up (maybe 1-2 times per week). Oddly enough, it is now the most unstable when the computer is idle with no programs open.
I know this isn't a "fix" but at least these are some things I tried with varying levels of success. I am curious to know if you learn of a more complete solution.