My Dell Inspiron 1521 started acting up last week. The monitor shut off totally on it's own, and now it continues to do this every time I try to use it. It is actually shutting off. It's not just going to a blank screen. It behaves the same way it would if I were folding the laptop closed. in fact, that's the only way I can get it to come back on. I close the laptop for a few seconds, and then open it back up. The monitor will always come on, but it will stay on for a few seconds to a couple minutes and then shut off again. It started totally out of the blue. My laptop was already on, and the monitor was on, but I wasn't actively using it (just monitoring my email) as it was sitting on a table beside me. The screen went blank, which I thought was normal because I don't use a moving screen saver...just a blank screen. But when I hit a button to make the screen come back, it wouldn't. I had to shut it off with the power button, and restarted it. When it restarted, the screen was up until about 5 seconds after the desktop loaded everything in. Then it went blank again, and wouldn't come back. I restarted it in safe mode, but it was the same result. Soon after the desktop was fully loaded, it went blank again and wouldn't come back. After messing with it a bit more, I decided that the monitor was actually shutting off, and that's when I discovered that I could close the laptop and reopen it to get the monitor to come back on. Any ideas?? Thanks
On any laptop above the keyboard there should be a little tiny somewhat hidden button, feel around for it. When you close your lid the screen actually presses that button which is why it shuts off. As for your problem, I dunno but it could possibly be that the tiny button is somewhat pressed already. When it happens again, try pressing that button instead of closing your lid, if this works press the button a few times and wiggle it around, could just be lose or something.
I will give that a shot, but I don't think that would be the case. I almost never close it down. It was open (and had been open for a couple weeks) when it shut off the first time.
try a system restore to before this happened as maybe an update is causing this problem. does this happen also when on battery power too?
I would boot into the bios setup menu as a test; if it keeps happening there, you know it is not a software or power management issue.
OK, here are my findings this morning: I did not see or feel a button that would turn off the monitor. I think the switch is probably in the housing where the hinges are. Sytem Restore did not help. I logged into Bios, and it still shut off. However... I was wrong about the power supply... it is only doing it when the power cable is connected. As soon as I plug in the cable, it shuts off. I can close the laptop and open it, but after it gets about 1/2 inch open, it shuts off again. This was not happening before. I could open it all the way and use it for a while before it would shut off. So far after about 20 mins of use without the power cable connected, it has not shut off. This was not the case before. It would shut off on battery power as well. I'm totally dumbfounded. Hoping you guys have a clue. Thanks for your interest and ideas so far. What's next??
New development... I went into the Power Options settings. Under "Turn off the Display: Plugged in", I originally had it set to turn off after 1 hour. I changed it to "Never", in case that was gumming up the works somehow. I plugged in the power cord, and the screen went almost completly black. There was a faint image, almost like what you would see if an image had been burned onto the screen. I pressed the Enter key, and the screen changed after the "mouse click" sound. Obviously, I could still use the computer, but the screen went black so I couldn't see what I was actually doing. It didn't shut completely off like it had before. As a test, I set the Display Brightness all the way down, as dark as it would go, and it didn't get anywhere near as dark as it did when I plugged it in. I set the "Turn off the Display" option back to 1 hour, and plugged it in, and it went to the black screen again, but did not shut off completely, as it had before. There is also a faint hissing coming from the monitor that I just noticed today.
Well, I guess your backlight is on the way out. Too bad, although they are easy to replace. Good luck with your problem.
back up your data sounds an interesting problem but could be your motherboard dying so data first then plug it into a monitor and see if the monitor goes off also
OK, so this morning it is doing it on battery power and on A/C power. I cant use it at all. And it is shutting off all the way...not just going dark. I also noticed, but forgot to mention, that when it shuts off, it is making the "disconnect" sound, like when you unplug a usb drive. Does that fire up any ideas??
