# Laptop Screen doesn't come back on after sleep



## HotRodx10 (Aug 24, 2017)

My laptop screen sometimes stays black when I try to 'wake it up' from sleep mode or hibernation. The backlight on the keyboard comes on, but nothing else. Sometimes, it will come back on if I do what I think is called a hard reboot (hold the power button until the backlight goes off, and then press the power button to restart), but sometimes even that doesn't work, and I have to unplug it and pop the battery out for a minute, and then restart.

It's an Acer Aspire V5 running Windows 10.

Do I have a wrong setting somewhere, or is it maybe more serious? I'm fairly competent with the hardware, opening it it up, replacing components, etc. but out of my league with the settings and software.


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## XSleeper (Sep 23, 2007)

my folks laptop does that from time to time. Usually ctrl-alt-del will wake it up.


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## HotRodx10 (Aug 24, 2017)

XSleeper said:


> my folks laptop does that from time to time. Usually ctrl-alt-del will wake it up.


Thanks for the response. I've tried that,though, and a bunch of other key combinations.


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## chandler48 (Jun 5, 2017)

Mine does it, too. I hit Escape and it fires up if it doesn't react to the mouse movements.


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## huesmann (Aug 18, 2011)

Are you able to establish that it's just the screen that's not coming on? That is, do you have a way to have the laptop confirm that the OS is actually coming back online? The keyboard and fan aren't necessarily confirmation of that.

I'm thinking of something like a pattern of keypresses (something you can do without mouse or visuals) that will generate sound, like a media player. Another way might be to set up a network share on that machine, and check whether or not it can be accessed on another machine after the supposed wake. If you can't, that's an indication that the OS isn't really coming online and you have a sleep/hibernation issue. That machine is probably 8-10 years old at this point.



chandler48 said:


> Mine does it, too. I hit Escape and it fires up if it doesn't react to the mouse movements.


Just to be clear, Hotrod is talking about when the computer does a hardware sleep—turning off CPU, fans, hard drives—not just putting the screen to sleep. In a hardware sleep, moving the mouse won't do anything—typical wake actions are keypresses or mouse button presses, sometimes a Wake On LAN (but typical home users won't use this).


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## HotRodx10 (Aug 24, 2017)

huesmann said:


> I'm thinking of something like a pattern of keypresses (something you can do without mouse or visuals) that will generate sound, like a media player.


I haven't gotten any sound from any of the different key combinations I've tried, and I've tried alot, so it could be that I'm unable to 'wake' the machine, and it's not just the screen.



huesmann said:


> That machine is probably 8-10 years old at this point.


I think it's at least 10. I moved all the guts into a replacement housing last year, after breaking the keyboard and a corner of the housing. I bought a 'for parts' one off of Ebay for less than the new keyboard and keyboard faceplate insert.


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## Thom Paine (Nov 24, 2021)

I've had that problem, and found
a 3' 2x4 does wonders in rousing it from sleep. 

And I talk to it in very stern language. 

Then... remove all power sources for a few minutes...
put it back together... starts...

That's worked for 6 months to 1 year... giving me lotsa' time to set up the next rendition of "HAL"


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## huesmann (Aug 18, 2011)

HotRodx10 said:


> I haven't gotten any sound from any of the different key combinations I've tried, and I've tried alot, so it could be that I'm unable to 'wake' the machine, and it's not just the screen.
> 
> I think it's at least 10. I moved all the guts into a replacement housing last year, after breaking the keyboard and a corner of the housing. I bought a 'for parts' one off of Ebay for less than the new keyboard and keyboard faceplate insert.


I think you've gotten your money's worth out of it.  

Regarding wake, if you do a Win+X, U, U with the keyboard, that's the keyboard shortcut for shut down. If that works to turn off the machine shortly (i.e. KB backlight doesn't come on when you press keys) then it is probably waking and you have a display issue. If it _doesn't _actually shut down, i.e. the backlight keeps showing when you press a key, then you likely have a sleep issue.`


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## HotRodx10 (Aug 24, 2017)

huesmann said:


> Regarding wake, if you do a Win+X, U, U with the keyboard,


Thanks for the help. 

Just so that I'm clear, I'm understanding I press the Windows emblem key, hold it down, press the Shift key and hold it, and press the "x". Then I press Shift and "u" twice. Is that right?


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## huesmann (Aug 18, 2011)

I take it you've never used any of the Windows key shortcuts before.

No shift involved. Press and hold the Windows key, then press X and release both keys (simultaneously, or sequentially—order doesn't matter). Should bring up this menu:








See the underline under one of the letters in some of the words? That indicates that you can use a keyboard shortcut to run those commands without the mouse. In this case, you'll press and release U to pop up the Shut down or sign out menu:








Same deal, pressing and releasing U here will cause a shutdown. (Alternately, you could press the R key to reboot, which would pretty much function the same for testing purposes.)

I'm suggesting this keypress method of shutdown/reboot because you don't need to use the mouse pointer, because you can't _see _the mouse pointer.

Note, you can actually practice the keypresses when the OS is working correctly.


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## HotRodx10 (Aug 24, 2017)

huesmann said:


> I take it you've never used any of the Windows key shortcuts before.


No, haven't. I was apparently confused by your use of capital letters in the instructions you gave. I'll give your method a try, once I turn the sleep and hibernation settings back on; I haven't had any problems the last few days, since I switched both to "never".


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## FM3 (Aug 12, 2019)

Go through all of the sleep settings in Windows, the entire "additional" menus with the little plusses to show submenus. There shouldn't be any odd settings in there, but take a look if you haven't. edit: actually, there's not much in there other than I was thinking about wake timers and suspend usb settings.

More likely the problem is the bios battery needs replacing. Look at the bios when the laptop boots up. If you're lucky, it will outright say something about the CMOS or battery or a time/date error.

Another way to tell is in the bios should be some settings for "wake with mouse" and "wake with keyboard" and similar things. If those settings in bios are turned off, that would explain why you can't wake with the mouse or keyboard. And the reason they have been turned off is probably a bad bios battery.


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## HotRodx10 (Aug 24, 2017)

Thanks, FM3! 

After discussion with my wife, we determined the laptop is about 11 years old, so it wouldn't surprise me a bit that the bios battery is dead. I've already replaced the main power battery; it was only $20.


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## huesmann (Aug 18, 2011)

HotRodx10 said:


> No, haven't. I was apparently confused by your use of capital letters in the instructions you gave. I'll give your method a try, once I turn the sleep and hibernation settings back on; I haven't had any problems the last few days, since I switched both to "never".


Convention is to use capital letters for keystrokes when describing keyboard shortcuts to make them pop. Writing *win+u* makes the command disappear more into the text than *Win+U*. If you need to describe a command that involves a shift key, it's typically *Shift+U *or *Ctrl+Shift+U*. Not that those actually do anything, just using them for sake of discussion.


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## HotRodx10 (Aug 24, 2017)

huesmann said:


> Convention is to use capital letters for keystrokes when describing keyboard shortcuts to make them pop. Writing *win+u* makes the command disappear more into the text than *Win+U*. If you need to describe a command that involves a shift key, it's typically *Shift+U *or *Ctrl+Shift+U*. Not that those actually do anything, just using them for sake of discussion.


I was unfamiliar with that convention. Now I know. Thanks.


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## huesmann (Aug 18, 2011)

I love me some keyboard shortcuts—so much less time wasted finding the mouse and moving the pointer.


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## HotRodx10 (Aug 24, 2017)

Well, even with the sleep and hibernate settings that I could find turned off, the screen didn't come back on one time after I left the computer alone for a few hours.



huesmann said:


> Regarding wake, if you do a Win+X, U, U with the keyboard, that's the keyboard shortcut for shut down. If that works to turn off the machine shortly (i.e. KB backlight doesn't come on when you press keys) then it is probably waking and you have a display issue. If it _doesn't _actually shut down, i.e. the backlight keeps showing when you press a key, then you likely have a sleep issue.`


I tried this and nothing changed. 

I think I'll try looking at the BIOS, or maybe just open it up and change the battery; I've got a long weekend, so I should be able to find a few minutes for that.


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## diyorpay (Sep 21, 2010)

If the CMOS battery (size of a quarter?) is truly dead, date should not be accurate.









if cmos battery is dead what happens - Welcome to Viettinads.com


If the CMOS battery dies, settings will be lost when the computer is powered down. You will probably be asked to reset the time and date when you start the




viettinads.com


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## huesmann (Aug 18, 2011)

HotRodx10 said:


> I tried this and nothing changed.
> 
> I think I'll try looking at the BIOS, or maybe just open it up and change the battery; I've got a long weekend, so I should be able to find a few minutes for that.


Sounds to me like you have a sleep issue then, not a display issue. Maybe the BIOS sleep setting got changed due to the CMOS battery issue?


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## gkreamer (May 8, 2020)

Just out of curiosity, when you turn all sleep and or hibernate options off can you check the root of C: for any files created by windows that may need to be deleted? Hiberfile.sys is one. I believe the file should delete when the option is turned off but maybe there's an issue with it?


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## HotRodx10 (Aug 24, 2017)

Well, last night I shut down the computer, and today when I tried to start it up, the screen stayed black again. I tried the Win + X, U, U keystrokes and nothing changed. I tried holding the power button until the keyboard backlight went off and then pressed the power button again to restart; screen still black. I turned it off again, unplugged it, popped the battery out for a few seconds, and tried again, and it came on just fine.

Also, the time and date are correct, and I haven't had to reset them, although I have it set to "Set time automatically", so I'm not sure if it's reading the time from the CMOS or updating from an external source (?) at startup.


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## huesmann (Aug 18, 2011)

Could be Windows pulling the internet time. Maybe try disabling the WiFi so it can't communicate with time serves, and see if battery removal still results in correct time?


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## FM3 (Aug 12, 2019)

HotRodx10 said:


> Also, the time and date are correct, and I haven't had to reset them, although I have it set to "Set time automatically", so I'm not sure if it's reading the time from the CMOS or updating from an external source (?) at startup.


One of my desktops had this problem recently. I couldn't wake it from sleep. The bios at boot said CMOS something problem as it booted up. The bios was no longer saving settings, such what had been the wake up from sleep with mouse and keyboard settings. 

The time/date was correct. I replaced the CMOS battery, turned the wake up settings back on in bios, now it works like it's supposed to.


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## fuzzmanks (Oct 24, 2010)

I don't have a fix for you, but with my Dell laptop it will sometimes do as you described in your original post. No screen activity, but the led's on the keyboard and HDD light up. I have my power button programmed to put my laptop into hybernation (not sleep). About once or twice a month the screen will not show any activity. I push the power button and put the PC back into hybernation. I wait until it completes that procedure, then press the power button to wake it up. That is what works for me without doing the forced power off.


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## huesmann (Aug 18, 2011)

Note, sleep is a different state than hibernate.


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## HotRodx10 (Aug 24, 2017)

Well, a few days ago I finally got around to taking my laptop apart and replacing the CMOS battery (with the help of my son). It seems to have solved the problem. Thank you to all who contributed.


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## HotRodx10 (Aug 24, 2017)

Another update: Apparently, replacing the CMOS didn't completely solve the problem. It started recurring a week of so after the battery replacement. However, I believe I have identified the issue, or at least the condition that causes the the screen to not come on. It only happens when I open the screen to a particular angle, which happened to be the typical position that I would open it to, or leave it open to. For the last couple of weeks, I've been rotating the screen farther back when I open the laptop, and I haven't had a problem with the screen not coming on. Maybe it's a bad contact in part of the sensor that tells it that the screen is up. 

I guess it's not surprising, given how old my laptop is (we narrowed it down to 12-13 years). I know I should just get a new one, but I've hated switching smartphones, and I fear switching over to a new laptop will be similar. My 'fear of the unknown' is most likely overblown, but that's my excuse. Maybe I'll just have my son do the switchover, with all the transferring programs, licenses, etc.


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## slipparee (Jun 12, 2017)

Since you have found the problem you may be able to get around it.

There should be but may not be a setting to disable the lid sensor.
It will be in the bios if it is there.

If successful then you can set the laptop to sleep through windows after x number of inactivity.
When you close the lid it will still be active and not asleep but not using it after say 30 mins(or whatever setting you pick) will cause it to sleep.

Put a screen saver on it if you do this.


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## huesmann (Aug 18, 2011)

Power & Sleep Settings > Additional power settings > Choose what closing the lid does (Windows 10).


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## HotRodx10 (Aug 24, 2017)

huesmann said:


> Power & Sleep Settings > Additional power settings > Choose what closing the lid does (Windows 10).


Thanks! I'll check into that. Not sure I want the screen to stay on when the lid is closed, though.


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## huesmann (Aug 18, 2011)

Yeah, it depends on your use case. If you drive an external monitor with it, you may want it closed. My work laptop I use with the lid closed because I have a couple of monitors connected. I could use the laptop screen as another monitor, but transitioning to the smaller relative size of the icons and text is hard on my eyes.


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