Member Avatar for Ben_15

Hello, all. I'm presenting you with an issue that's persisted for about a month now (started December 10 2015). I have an Pavilion 15 Notebook PC that I purchased on April 1 2015 with Windows 8.1 installed (warranty is good until March 31 2016), and up until the mentioned December date my device had been working fine. But ever since then, my laptop has decided to have its screen go black at intermittent intervals. Not dimmed, flickering, or anything like that, but just black. Any playing sound will be cut off as well. The power button (and sometimes my mute button) on my keyboard will remain lit, and so will the indicator light next to my AC adapter. To sum it up, the device remains in power, but the screen displays nothing. The only way to (temporarily) solve this issue is to force a shutdown by pressing the power button and rebooting the machine. This however presents a secondary issue. Sometimes the screen will BOOT UP blank, but I can hear my fans working and etc. I repeat the forced shutdown until I am able to login again to my PC (if the screen doesn't blank out again in the process which it often does). I cannot seem to find anything that triggers this thing to happen (I've raised and lowered the lid multiple times, shifted the laptop's position, streamed content, gamed, etc.) I've ran virus checks, I've done factory restores, I've updated all my drivers, I've used canned air, and more. This PC is less than a year old and has never been mishandled/dropped or bumped. Can someone give me a spot of guidance? I am really going nuts over this.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by rubberman

Dani AI

Generated

Quick diagnostic summary: a laptop that goes fully black while power lights stay on and audio cuts usually means either the OS/GPU is crashing or the internal display/backlight or its cable is failing. The priority is to determine whether Windows is still running when the panel is black — that single check separates software/driver problems from a hardware-faulty panel or motherboard.

Try this focused checklist (do not open the case while under warranty):

  1. External-display test — attach an HDMI/VGA monitor or TV. If the external shows the desktop while the internal remains black, suspect the LCD panel, backlight/inverter or the display cable/hinge.
  2. Remote-access / responsiveness check — attempt to Ping, RDP, TeamViewer or play audio remotely when the screen is black. If the system responds, it’s a display-only problem; if it’s unresponsive, it’s a system crash or power/motherboard failure.
  3. BIOS/Live-USB boot — reboot into BIOS/UEFI or boot a Linux live USB. If BIOS appears but Windows doesn’t, focus on drivers/OS. If BIOS is also blank, focus on hardware.
  4. Logs and driver hints — review Windows Event Viewer for display-driver, kernel-power, or critical errors at the time of the blanking; if display-driver errors appear, test with a clean DDU uninstall and a fresh GPU driver.
  5. Non-invasive hardware checks — run vendor hardware diagnostics (boot-time diagnostics or memtest86 for RAM) and reseat user-serviceable parts only if out of warranty. Document timestamps and reproduce steps when possible.
  6. Backup and escalate — secure important data before any service; if diagnostics point to hardware, contact HP (as @rubberman and @rproffitt advised) and reference the test results. @Beingmahendra’s power-setting tip is low-risk to try but unlikely to explain total audio cutoffs; @Talukdarrr’s experience shows panel/cable replacement is a common outcome when the external display stays healthy.

These steps give a clear hardware vs software split and provide concrete evidence for warranty repair or a local technician if out of warranty.

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Member Avatar for rubberman

Contact HP tech support. They will probably have you send it in for repair.

Member Avatar for Beingmahendra

You can change the power setting.

Member Avatar for Ben_15

What power setting? I've already messed with that by changing my screen resolution.

Member Avatar for Ben_15

bump

Member Avatar for Talukdarrr

I have had the same problem. My monitor was going blank after every 2-3 minutes. When I contact with a service center they told me to change the screen.

Member Avatar for rproffitt

I think I see you posted in many places on the web. HP really lost me over my last HP. 3 months old and found an issue. Off to HP service and the last time the laptop worked for more than 5 minutes. 6 months of calls and surveys it was clear that HP was walking on the warranty.

That was my last HP.

Keep a notebook of every interaction and call to and from HP. You may have to go legal on their end.

Member Avatar for rubberman

My friend has an old HP desktop. Memory is going flakey (random bluescreens and memtest86 shows bad chips). Reconditioned HP memory (1 year warranty): $10. New Kingston (lifetime warranty): $16. Guess which ones we bought? So, 1 year vs lifetime warranty == $12 for 2 2GB SIMMS. :-)

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