Question:
Black screen of death? XPS M140
Help! My new XPS M140 has crashed about 4 times in the last couple of days...
For no reason, the screen suddenly goes black, and the only way I can get the computer working again is to turn it off (have to hold down the power button for a good 5-10 secs) and then back on again. This seems to happen randomly.
No errors come up on the screen, the computer isn't hot, and the only programs I have installed are McAffee, OpenOffice, WinSCP, and putty. (I re-formatted a couple of weeks ago). I also have Linux (on a separate partition, of course), but it isn't working at this point.
Any ideas? I know that I should call Dell, but I really do not have the time this week...
Edit: something new - this morning my computer re-started itself twice...
Answer:
Re: Black screen of death? XPS M140
are you sure it's a "crash" and not the system simply going into hibernate or standby according to the settings in the power options?
Answer:
Re: Black screen of death? XPS M140
yup, it's a crash...
i have to actually turn the computer off, and then turn it back on. (after which it boots up normally)
Answer:
Re: Black screen of death? XPS M140
yeah, but that isn't an indication that it's crashed. there's plenty of posts about people having problems coming out of stanby.
what makes you say it's crashed?
Answer:
Re: Black screen of death? XPS M140
what makes you say it's crashed?
i'm a newbie, so if my computer is nonresponsive i say "crashed" :o
i changed the settings to presentation mode, so that the computer shouldn't go into standby or hibernate, and it *still* did it!
screensaver came on, then a few minutes later the screen went black...
Answer:
Re: Black screen of death? XPS M140
and you have hibernation turned off?
Answer:
Re: Black screen of death? XPS M140
i think so... i changed the power settings so that the computer would never enter hibernate.
(shouldn't standby either, since i have it on presentation mode)
thanks for helping!
Answer:
Re: Black screen of death? XPS M140
ok, then we can assume that is it not standby or hibernate doing it.
lemme ask you these questions...
1. how old is the notebook?
2. have you reformated?
3. have you uninstalled bloatware?
4. have you made any software changes (add or remove programs)?
5. have you made any hardware changes?
6. how long has the problem been going on?
7. have you made any changes to your computing habits (new room, new power strip, etc.)?
Answer:
Re: Black screen of death? XPS M140
This happens to my E1505 every once in a while, all you gotta do is close the screen and open it back up again - and it should turn right back on ;)
Answer:
Re: Black screen of death? XPS M140
Same thing with the e1705. Turn off. Turn on. Problem goes away. This happens very rarely as well (if that means anything).