I've been dealing with a troublesome black screen on my laptop for a day now, but interestingly, I can still view everything on my graphics tablet that I use for art. This odd situation started after I accidentally hit the keyboard, which caused the laptop screen to go off, and I noticed the font changed on my tablet along with a distortion in resolution. Now, I see a message saying "Display 1 isn't active now." I've attempted a reboot, holding the power button for about 20 seconds, but I'm at a loss for what to do next. Could I have accidentally pressed a wrong button when I bumped the keyboard?
3 Answers
How hard did you hit the keyboard? If you slammed it down, you might have accidentally triggered a display output change. Typically, you can revert that in display settings. If it was just a light tap, then it's a different story. Did you hit it hard enough to damage anything?
You might want to try pressing Win + Ctrl + Shift + B, which can restart the GPU driver. It's possible your display connector came loose when you hit the keyboard, especially with the font change you mentioned. If that doesn't work, let me know how it goes!
I tried restarting the GPU, but only heard a beep and saw a quick grey flash before going back to black. No luck yet!
This is often known as the "Black Screen of Death." It usually means the laptop is running, but Windows hasn't loaded correctly. You can try some quick fixes: restart the graphics driver with Win + Ctrl + Shift + B, or if that doesn't work, try restarting Windows Explorer. Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open Task Manager, click "File" > "Run new task", type explorer.exe, and hit Enter. You can also cycle display modes with Win + P and then use the Down arrow to see if the laptop is trying to connect to an external monitor by mistake. Let me know if any of that helps!
Yeah, I'm sure the OP can find answers online, but that sounds like solid advice!
It was more like a knock on the door since my shift key was stuck! The screen went dim and then black after that bump. I'm confused if it's a software glitch or a hardware issue, but I initially thought it could be a loose connector!