Monitor start blinking black screen after ~15mins of playing games

K

Kasin

New Member
Hello,

I've recently bought a new 23" HP Compaq LA2306x monitor for my Lenovo Y50-70 laptop. Connected it via HDMI (from laptop) to DVI (monitor) cable and at first it seemed to worked flawlessly from the very beginning. And still works, until I run a game. I've tried playing Dishonored, which works flawlessly at highest resolution and medium/high graphic quality settings on my laptop, but after about 15 minutes the screen went completely black for about a second or two, and then turned back to normal. As if the power cable was plugged out for a second. After that it happens more and more often until the game is practically unplayable. In Portal 2 it doesn't seem to happen so often, but still does. When I browse the web, watch movies etc. everything works perfectly.

My laptop is getting warm after playing, but since I have a cooling pad under him, and it never caused any screen freezes or framerate drops, while using my laptop's screen it was never a problem to me. I play at the exact same graphic settings as before. Is it because of the overheating? The graphic card is too weak? Problem with a cable?

My specs:

nVidia GeForce GTX 860M
Intel Core i7-4710HQ @ 2.50 GHz
Monitor's refresh rate: 60 Hz
 
Do you have the image showing on the laptop screen and the monitor screen when doing this, or just the monitor? What happens to the screen on the laptop when it goes black? Does it sound like it's turning off or anything or give any indication that it's lost the connection to the monitor (usually plays a sound).
 
I've had the output on monitor only, but now I've checked using both screens. Only the monitor goes black, the laptop's screen works with no problems, as before. There's no sound.
 
I'd start with a new cable.

Is this a cable that's DVI on one end and HDMI on the other?
 
Yes, HDMI (from laptop) to DVI (on monitor's side). Since my laptop has only HDMI output and monitor has a Display Port, DVI and VGA I thought this is the best option. Poor quality? Bought it from the Internet, the description said:

DVI/HDMI GOLD
2m long
DEEP-COLOR function
FULL HD compatible, 1080p standard
v1.3b standard
99,98% oxygen-free copper
shielded cable
ferrite bead filter

Should I buy a higher quality HDMI-DVI, or another kind?

EDIT: I've lowered the resolution from 1920x1080 to 1600x900 and it seems to happen less often (maybe because the laptop is cooler), if that changes anything...
 
Last edited:
There's no real difference in cables in terms of quality as far as the signal is concerned. Physically speaking more expensive cables will be higher quality due to better construction/durability but the signal itself will be the same. It might just be a bad cable, but that specific kind of cable is fine just from the sounds of it. Might have a loose connection or something or you've got another problem entirely.

So if you have the game being duplicated on both the laptop screen and monitor at the same time, only the monitor will go black and the laptop screen still shows the game functioning? Does the laptop flash or anything or give any indication of a change in signal? Have you tried setting it to extend the display so the game is on the monitor and the laptop just shows your desktop or another window? I'm kind of just tossing suggestions at this point as it doesn't make a lot of sense to only kill your monitor picture without the laptop too.

Also, use HWMonitor and see what your temperatures are getting to. It shouldn't be any different if you're going to an external video, but worth checking. Also do a clean install of your graphics card drivers if you haven't.
 
The laptop seems to be working perfectly fine, without any change whatsoever, while the monitor turns black. I've never had any problems with the laptop's screen, and it seems to be working exactly the same way with the monitor plugged in. It's just the monitor.

I've lowered the resolution from 1920x1080 to 1600x900 and it seems to happen less often (maybe because the laptop is cooler), if that changes anything... I've also reinstalled the latest drivers for my GPU, but it's still the same.
 
I'd check temperatures, because I'm a bit lost on what else to suggest. Hopefully somebody else chimes in.
 
Thanks for your time and input anyway. Myself, I know little about computers and I've spent the whole day looking for an answer on my own. But now I ask the forums for help since I'm exhausted watching another YouTube tutorial where a guy writes everything in a notepad at a 5 words per minute speed :( I've reinstalled the drivers, installed the monitor control centre (or however it's called) and restored it's factory settings. Nothing just seems to work.

It just doesn't make sense to me. My laptop was always a bit warm when playing, but it never caused any problems with display nor has it lagged. I've only used it for half a year now. But it's like the monitor somehow can't stand this heat, while the laptop doesn't mind it at all :(
 
Did you try extending the displays across both monitors?

Still might be worth trying a different cable.
 
Make sure you independently set the refresh rate to match what each monitor can achieve. Your external monitor should be set to 60Hz at 1080p and the internal monitor at 3840 x 2160 at 48Hz. Setting these incorrectly will cause your issues.

Also worth updating DirectX.
 
It seems that I've accidentaly fixed the problem. Yesterday, when I went to my mate's room with my laptop and the monitor it started to blink straight away, even in the system. It was plugged in using two extensions, while I use one in my room. We followed that logic and plugged it straight into the socket, not using extensions. Works perfectly fine now.

Thank you all for your help ;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top