I was trying to check if my ACER ES 15 Laptop meets the requirements for Windows 11 and needed to enable TPM 2.0. I followed several steps to find and enable it in the BIOS/UEFI, but while searching, I think I accidentally disabled my GPU. Now, when I power on my laptop, the screen stays black, although the power light is on and it seems to be running. I tried resetting the graphics card with Windows + Ctrl + Shift + B, but that didn't work. I connected my laptop to an external TV via HDMI, which worked fine, but my laptop screen remains black. I also tried disabling and re-enabling the graphics card in the Device Manager, but that made things worse. I can't access the BIOS because neither my laptop screen nor the external monitor displays it anymore. What should I do? I'd prefer not to open up my laptop and reset the CMOS. Would reinstalling Windows help? I really need my laptop working as I have important paperwork to manage for court this week. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
2 Answers
Here are some troubleshooting steps that might help:
1. Try increasing the brightness on your laptop's internal screen (you might need to hold/toggle the Fn key).
2. When your external monitor is active, right-click on the desktop and click Display Settings. Do you see multiple monitors there?
3. You can also press Windows + P and select either Duplicate or Extend.
4. If you’ve messed up BIOS settings, you might need to reset them. Try spamming the key to enter BIOS (likely Delete or F2) on boot, even if the screen is blank; you might still get in.
For future reference, you can use Rufus to bypass TPM and other requirements for Windows 11, but that requires a fresh install.
If your onboard video is disabled in BIOS and you can't get any boot-time video on another display, you've got a couple of options. You could try to figure out the key presses needed to navigate your BIOS blindly and enable video output again, or you might have to pull the CMOS battery to reset everything. I know the second option is a pain, but sometimes it's the only way.
Damn, I was really hoping that I didn't have to do that. Any tips on where to find a good tutorial for that process?
Thanks for your suggestions! I'm open to doing a fresh install. Is TPM crucial? Do you think that reinstalling Windows 10 or 11 might solve this issue? I’ll check these steps right away and keep you posted.