Installed Windows 7 and now my screen randomly blacks out

Patricide

Hey all,

Annoyed with Vista, I recently Installed windows 7 on my girlfriends laptop(Toshiba satellite A210)

Anyway at first glance everything was super smooth and running slick. However then at random intervals the screen would just go black. First thing I did was install the latest display drivers for the GFX card but even after a successful install the same problem persists.

Im stumped as to what could be causing the problem. Im thinking at this stage I may have to go down the reinstall windows route but I said id throw it up here first to see if this had happened to anyone else, or if anyone knows a possible solution.

5uspect

Have you tried turning off Aero and switching to the "classic" mode?

coylemj

Is it just blanking out as a power saver feature? Does the display come back when you move the mouse?

Sorry if this is a stupid question but you haven't said that you need a reboot to get the display back so just trying all options......

Patricide

Its going black as in, dead. Cant get the screen back on unless you turn off the computer and turn it back on again. The problem is shes writing her masters paper at the moment and of course this isnt very welcome haha.

Tried the aero thing. Someone else said to me I should try taking out the ram and putting it back in which did nothing.

This morning I updated the Bios and so far there has been no further crashes. Early days yet though.

Einstein

Just be sure that you've dloaded all the windows 7 drivers for the hardware. Windows can install generic drivers to get you by, but won't actually always work correctly. I'd be searching for the win 7 driver for motherboard / onboard graphics card.

M5

Patricide wrote: »

Its going black as in, dead. Cant get the screen back on unless you turn off the computer and turn it back on again. The problem is shes writing her masters paper at the moment and of course this isnt very welcome haha.

Tried the aero thing. Someone else said to me I should try taking out the ram and putting it back in which did nothing.

This morning I updated the Bios and so far there has been no further crashes. Early days yet though.

Hi m8, try disabling sleep mode in the power settings. My pc did the same... After the specified time the pc went to "sleep" but the fans all went on at full speed and i could not do anything except power down

Patricide

Ok so turns out im in a bit of a good news bad news situation now.

Good news, since updating the bios im getting no more screen blackouts.

Bad news, Now the computer is running CRAZY slow, its only detecting 512 ram(theres 1 gig there) and im pretty sure it must be getting bottle necked somewhere else too.

Just did a windows score test there. Got a 2.0 as my ram was so low, but everything else seems to be alright.

Anyone know if the ram situation is a bios related thing or what?

ScumLord

Patricide wrote: »

Ok so turns out im in a bit of a good news bad news situation now.

Good news, since updating the bios im getting no more screen blackouts.

Bad news, Now the computer is running CRAZY slow, its only detecting 512 ram(theres 1 gig there) and im pretty sure it must be getting bottle necked somewhere else too.

Just did a windows score test there. Got a 2.0 as my ram was so low, but everything else seems to be alright.

Anyone know if the ram situation is a bios related thing or what?

Maybe the new bios shared the ram out for graphics?? You said you removed a stick of ram, maybe it's not seated back correctly? Id there only one stick of ram or two??

Patricide

I yeah, one stick of the ram wasnt put back properly. Now everything is flying it. Apart from for some reason I cant seam to find the gfx card in the device manager. As im running 64 bit windows I cant find the stock driver on the toshiba europe website either.

Going to give a go at running the 32 bit driver and see where that leads me.

JG009

Cant help about the RAM but windows 7 will load default drivers that will make the computer function - or appear to function but things like intel graphics media accelerator, synaptics touch pad and pointing drivers need to be installed manually.

Usually easy enough to go to site of said laptop and search for them. Or the manufacturer of the graphics card etc. Don't mind them driver doctors etc.

Patricide

Everything is now running tip top and better than ever. Thanks guys!