I have an HP Victus gaming laptop running Windows 11 with 16GB of RAM and an AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS processor with Radeon 780M graphics. When I run demanding games such as Red Dead Redemption 2, the display goes black after a few minutes and the keyboard stops responding. Sometimes the audio cuts out and the lock screen briefly appears. Similar blackouts can happen during other demanding tasks, and occasionally they continue even after I close the game. Event Viewer reports that the system is entering Modern Standby with the reason listed as "Lid," so it seems Windows may be detecting a lid closure even though the lid remains open. Changing the lid-close action to "Do nothing" prevents the system from visibly going to sleep, but the display still turns off and the keyboard remains unresponsive during the blackouts. I have also experienced a few longer freezes where the screen and keyboard stayed dead while the charging light remained on, plus one or two possible crashes. What could cause this, and what should I safely check or update?
3 Answers
Back up your files now, then look for crash clues in Event Viewer around the exact timestamps. Display-driver resets, WHEA hardware errors, thermal shutdowns, or ACPI/power-management errors would help narrow this down. The Wi-Fi issue may be unrelated, so troubleshoot it separately instead of assuming every problem has the same cause. If the machine becomes completely unresponsive again, hold the power button only as a last resort, since repeated forced shutdowns can cause data loss.
Changing the lid-close action is mostly a workaround. It can stop Windows from entering sleep, but it will not fix the underlying event that is blanking the display and disabling input. Since the problem appears under load, update the laptop’s BIOS and chipset/GPU drivers from HP’s official support page for the exact Victus model. Also install any pending Windows updates. BIOS updates should be done with the charger connected and without interrupting the process, while drivers are generally straightforward to install. Before changing firmware, back up anything important.
The lid sensor itself could be faulty or being triggered by movement, heat, or a loose connection, but the fact that it happens during heavy workloads also points to overheating, a power-management fault, or a graphics driver crash. Check CPU and GPU temperatures while gaming, make sure the vents are clear, and use the laptop on a hard surface. Run the built-in HP hardware diagnostics and check Reliability Monitor for the times of the freezes. If the laptop is still under warranty, repeated black screens and lid-detection events are good reasons to have HP inspect it rather than repeatedly forcing shutdowns.
I tried setting the lid action to “Do nothing,” and that stopped the visible sleep behavior, but the screen and keyboard still cut out. I’m not familiar with BIOS or GPU updates, so I’ll make sure to back up my files and use the drivers for my exact model.