Windows 7 Black Screen of Death

Tejs

Hey guys,

So I'm getting a little perturbed at this point. I just bought a new laptop with Windows 7 Installed, and it seems that if I close the lid, and wait 30 mins, regardless of whether the computer was 'sleeping' or 'hibernating', when I reopen it and login, I get nothing but a black screen. In order to do anything, I have to power cycle the computer, which is obviously not a long term work around. I've google searched this effect, and people report it being associated with certain updates, or having an outdated video card driver. I've downloaded the latest video card driver, and the updates don't seem to be installed on this machine.

Has anyone else experienced this problem? How do you fix it? It makes having a notebook that you can't close the lid on kinda worthless. For reference, my computer specs:

Intel Core i7 720QM
6GB Memory
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870
Windows 7 Home Premium

Let me know if additional information is needed. I'll be calling ASUS tomorrow, but if someone knows the quick fix before then, it would save me a phone call to their support line (and I hate waiting on hold).

Thegreatcow

Hrm have you tried checking the power settings in the Control Panel? I know many times for Windows 7, the power settings sometimes are defaulted, that if you idle the computer for a certain time, they pretty much shut down the computer (or at least the HD, and that can sometimes bork the compy to the point of needing a reboot)

Check to see what they're at and you can adjust them accordingly.

Rotting Meat

Do you hook up a secondary monitor often? I have this problem with my Vista laptop (Dell XPS M1330) if I close it with the monitor connected, and unhook the monitor before resuming the laptop. I haven't found a solution aside from being careful with what order I do things.

Tejs

Thegreatcow wrote: »

Hrm have you tried checking the power settings in the Control Panel? I know many times for Windows 7, the power settings sometimes are defaulted, that if you idle the computer for a certain time, they pretty much shut down the computer (or at least the HD, and that can sometimes bork the compy to the point of needing a reboot)

Check to see what they're at and you can adjust them accordingly.

Called ASUS technical support, and they seemed to come to same conclusion. Power settings are now set to Turn off Display = Never, and Turn off Hard Drive = Never. We'll see if that works.

Tejs

Didn't work.

Thegreatcow

Damn, hrm that's a head scratcher then, I guess ASIs tech support is the way to go if there's no easily googlable solution, I wish you the best of luck amigo, my windows 7 fu is sadly pretty lacking...

Tejs

So, it looks like I have found my solution / work around... it seems to be related to the lid close action.

Setting that to Do Nothing, and then putting the computer to sleep, hibernate manually does not cause an issue. It only happens if Windows puts the computer to sleep or hibernate, probably because the lid itself turns of the display when closed (even with the lid close action set to Do Nothing). Would that be a bios setting to turn that off?