Solved Occasional Black Screen

[Mortive]

I have a hp pavillion dv9000 where at times the screen goes black, and stays like that for minutes, sometimes hours. On occasion, I am able to close the screen to where it latches and when i reopen it, it sometimes recovers from "the black screen". i've upgraded my video card drivers which is a Nvidia Geforce 7150M which did not help any. Any help would be great.

 

[Plexx]

Heya Mortive, Welcome to the forums.

That seems to be the graphics card itself.
When these symptoms started to happen?

 

[Mortive]

Heya Mortive, Welcome to the forums.

That seems to be the graphics card itself.
When these symptoms started to happen?

It all started to happen about a week ago. It happened for the first day. Stopped happening for almost 3 days straight, and the last few days it's been off and on.

 

[Plexx]

Does your HP still have warranty? If so, I strongly recommend to get it checked

 

[Mortive]

I've had it for about 3 years. So it's no longer under warranty.

 

[MrXidus]

Hmm, It helps to tell us which OS you are using and if it's 32 or 64 bit.

If you are on Windows Vista or 7. Check the Power options from Control Control and check the settings.

Picture related:

Some OEM software the laptop manufactures pre-bundle such as Acer E-Power and Asus Power Management can cause this to happen. Check your taskbar to see if there is any Dell programs running that do the same.

If the information above is not the cause. Then it is more than likely an issue with your graphics card.

Try a repair install (re-install) with the video card driver and then restart your PC.

Make sure you downloaded the driver software from the official NVIDIA website.

 

[bogdan]

Do you see something "through" the black screen if you look closely? If so it could be the backlight is switched off for some reason.

On occasion, I am able to close the screen to where it latches and when i reopen it, it sometimes recovers from "the black screen".

It could be that the wired connection to your screen is loose or more likely one of the latches is getting stuck in the closed position. There are some switches usually very tiny and located near the laptop hinges that switch off the backlight on your laptop when the lid is closed. For some reason (loose contact, debris, etc.) the ones on your laptop might not function properly.

Does this also happens when your laptop is plugged in (not working on battery)?

 

[Mortive]

Thank you for the troubleshooting so far. My power settings seem to be fine. Nothing in those settings or programs running would be causing this. The latches seem fine, i can see the hinges/switches, and they dont seem to be stuck. Loose wire might be the cause as i seem to get video from an external monitor. Gonna open it up in a little bit and check the wires and see if that helps anything.

 

[pcjunklist]

1. Software
- Try Fn + F5

2. Electrical
- Remove battery, unplug power, hold power button for 60 seconds, turn on computer with power plug only, then shutdown, add battery and restart

3. Magnetic On/Off Switch to detect of Close/Open Lid
- Your magnet switch is not functioning. Open up the speaker cover and see if your lid actuator switch that come in contact with the magnet on your lid cover is stuck or not (find where the magnet is in the back of the front lid cover, trace where the magnet area actually touches the base of the computer and you will find the switch)
- Workaround, start windows with lid at 30 degree angle

4. Hardware
- You need to replace either Inverter, Backlight.

 

[Mortive]

From the research i did, apparently there was a known issue with the nvidia chipset overheating for the dv2000 to dv9000, lawsuit and everything.

 

[bogdan]

So cleaning the fan and around it actually fixes the problem?