Member Avatar for cathal.kennedy.3

When using my Toshiba laptop the screen went black for a few seconds, came back, the went black again permanently. I turned it off but when I turn it back on the Toshiba loud up screen comes on but the screen again goes black afterwards.

The solution of, 'turn it off, plug it out, take the battery out and hold the power button for a minutes', DOES NOT WORK!

I can start the laptop up in safe mode but I don't know how to troubleshoot the problem.

Using an external monitor doesn't work.

I have no problem in restoring the laptop but I can't afford to lose Microsoft Office.

The laptop operates on Windows 8.1 and I was using Chrome, Excel and Drivermax when it crashed. I thought Drivermax was the problem so I deleted the latest driver download from it and uninstalled Drivermax altogether but it didn't work.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by Hiroshe

Dani AI

Generated

The pattern reported by — Toshiba splash/firmware visible, Safe Mode works, normal boot goes black and an external monitor also shows nothing — narrows the fault set. As suggested, drivers are a prime suspect, but the symptoms are also consistent with a failing discrete GPU (common on switchable-graphics laptops) or a hardware routing problem that only appears once the OS loads the full graphics stack.

Practical checklist (perform from Safe Mode first):

  • From Safe Mode open Device Manager → Display adapters. If two adapters appear (Intel + AMD/NVIDIA), disable or uninstall the discrete GPU driver (right-click → Disable / Uninstall) and reboot to see if integrated graphics restores the screen.
  • If only one adapter is shown, uninstall its driver so Windows uses the basic Microsoft display driver on reboot, or boot using the Startup/Recovery option for low-resolution video.
  • Run "sfc /scannow" from an elevated command prompt to check for corrupted system files and inspect Event Viewer for display-driver errors timed to the black-screen event. Remove any leftover DriverMax components and temporary driver packages.

Hardware checks and quick tests:

  • Confirm whether the BIOS/Toshiba splash is visible on the external monitor. If external stays black even for firmware screens, the discrete GPU or motherboard is likely at fault; if external shows BIOS but Windows does not, that points back to drivers.
  • Look for a very faint desktop image with a bright flashlight (backlight failure) and reseat RAM modules or test with a single stick.

Office preservation before any restore:

  • Create a full disk image (Windows System Image or a third‑party image) while booted into Safe Mode or from recovery media so Office and installed programs are recoverable. Verify whether Office is linked to a Microsoft account (retail/365) or save any product key/installation media before attempting a refresh/reset.

If disabling/uninstalling the discrete GPU or reverting to the basic driver restores output, reinstall only the Toshiba-supplied graphics/chipset drivers (not generic driver-updaters). If none of the software steps restore normal boot output, the fault is increasingly likely hardware and professional repair will be needed.

Member Avatar for Hiroshe

Let me get this straight. The screen goes black when booting up normally, but it's find in safe mode, correct?

In safe mode, make sure all of the driers that were installed are removed. Next, go to the manufacturers website, and look up your laptop. Download the drivers listed there and reinstall them (the manufacturer sometimes has their drivers modified). You might as well make sure there all installed, but in particular, make sure you download the grahpics driver(s) and the chipset drivers, as well as power management drivers.

If that doesn't work, well, you ruled out a lot of possibilities, so come back here.

Yeah, I would stay away from those automatic driver installers.

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