screen goes black

ricman

I Iinstalled linux mint, on an aspire 5920g laptop.
iI find the screen goes black after 20 mins, unless i,m playing a video file, a mp3 file playing makes no difference .IS there a simple way of fixing this.I setup up 1 screensaver,and knocked off power manager,ie theres no sleep mode , i set screen to go blank after 99 mins.is there a media player that i can install that play a video file on repeat mode,that i can just leave on.

pickarooney

Turn off the screensaver?

ricman

the screensaver is ramdom snowflakes,the screen goes black, i have to poweroff to see anything at all.I,M not a unix expert ,i,m just trying out linux.THE screensaver does not appear,just a black screen.

ricman

I had,nt got any problems when i used vista on this laptop ,re black screen.

pickarooney

Turn it off anyway, for starters. Then try to locate the power setting you're missing which is disabling the screen after 20 minutes. Be sure to check everything is disabled both on the mains and on battery.

ricman

it has no battery, power management set to power on all the time,no sleep mode.

ronkmonster

Is it a 3d screensaver? Can you preview it ok?

Bob k

ricman wrote: »

I Iinstalled linux mint, on an aspire 5920g laptop.
iI find the screen goes black after 20 mins, unless i,m playing a video file, a mp3 file playing makes no difference .IS there a simple way of fixing this.I setup up 1 screensaver,and knocked off power manager,ie theres no sleep mode , i set screen to go blank after 99 mins.is there a media player that i can install that play a video file on repeat mode,that i can just leave on.

Check the power settings in the bios to see if it is set to power down the screen. Usually called the inactivity timer.

ricman

its a standard screensaver,2d ,comes as part of the mint iso package, i dont even know how to install a tar , file, i just use software manager,go to web,click,install,download,ok.
I,M Using the suggested mint websites ,i just installed two mp3 player program, the screensaver preview works,shows loads of falling snow flakes..i see no sleep mode, in the power ,bios options.

Bob k

Sorry! thought it maybe the solution! I know nothing about linux operating systems. If you were using windows I'd say reinstall or/and update the video driver but as you are not I am unable to make further suggestions.

woop

ricman wrote: »

I Iinstalled linux mint, on an aspire 5920g laptop.
iI find the screen goes black after 20 mins, unless i,m playing a video file, a mp3 file playing makes no difference .IS there a simple way of fixing this.I setup up 1 screensaver,and knocked off power manager,ie theres no sleep mode , i set screen to go blank after 99 mins.is there a media player that i can install that play a video file on repeat mode,that i can just leave on.

that would be a massively complicated way of fixing what is probably a simple problem. All Im going to say is double check everything. The one thing about linux is that things just dont randomnly not work. Are all updates done etc?

can you elaborate a bit more on the problem? has this been a problem from first install? does it always happen plugged in or not?

3d video drivers installed? this is what I think is most likely at the moment should be under additional drivers unless its mint debian. Funny things can happen when 3d graphics arent enabled for your graphics card

ricman

i installed mint on 5 pcs, i presume everything is installed,installe4d from iso, its not like xp, how do i check the 3d drivers install ,i just leave it to install from mint iso,boot cd, uising install icon,click install,.
i know my way round the guts of windows,whereas in mint ,im a newbie.
i usually install mint, when fixing pcs, to recover data,eg the win os is screwed up, i install mint.recover,backup,the data, to usb drive, the format the drive.
mint iks handy,as it can see any drive,or disk format, and copy to any device,when the win os, is screwedup, or not loading.
ie its a good data recovery,quick fix, easy to install os.

ill install window on the laptop,next week, and see if theres any screen, issues.
theres no device manager in mint,as far as i know. is there a sudo ,command that lists all drivers installed.i can use terminal,commands ,if you know a quick and easy driver command.
i set screen to blank never,eg always on.in preferences.

Stuxnet

have you actually installed the graphic driver, the propriety drivers aren't always enabled by default... you might be using an open source one that came with mint ?
presuming your on the latest Mint, open the mint menu and type/search "additional drivers"...be sure to be connected to net, this will search and list what drivers you need to install

ricman

i just installed default, ie insert cd ,boot to livecd, click, install mint, the graphics card is ati radeon,mobility, i have 1 gig ram.

i find it very fast, the main difference,is flash doesnt crash, in windows flash crashes in chrome after 15 mins usually.
i didnt install any specific driver for any device.
i installed a dock app,and a comic reader.
the screensaver came on today ,when i left a podcast playing.so the screensaver works ok.
where do i do a search from exactly,software centre,?run?
i just leave vlc on playing a movie, that stops the black screen appearing.
the only drawback i see ,is its a bit harder to install programs, i had to install comix app ,using terminal sudo apt- get ,i could find a cbr reader,in software manager,so i just downloaded a tar file.

is there any linux media player ,with loop ,auto replay function in it?
this is a secondhand laptop, so it may have a hardware problem ,causing the black screen.

Stuxnet

ricman wrote: »

i just installed default, ie insert cd ,boot to livecd, click, install mint, the graphics card is ati radeon,mobility, i have 1 gig ram.

ok so you haven't enabled the graphic driver, presuming you have all latest system updates via mint update, which should be first you do after a mint install, then go to "additional drivers" like i first said, (be sure you connected to net) run it, it'll show you the ati driver that needs to be enabled, and or wireless card if needs be, enable and restart...hopefully this should sort you

also, its not that its harder to install programs, but presuming your coming from a M$ trained way to install programs, its different, and its different for a reason, the best way for a n00b to mint, to install software if its not in the software center repo, is to add the program authors PPA repo to your software sources, refresh your repos, and it should be there then to install, ie if you added the official VLC repo, you will always have the latest version of vlc, it'll update via your update manager, wheres as the version of vlc in the ubuntu repo, could be a few versions behind for a long time..

ricman

i downloaded the 86 version ati driver ,for linux,now i,m trying to figure out how to install it.ATI Catalyst™ Proprietary Display Driver - Linux x86 & Linux x86_64
i presume thats ok for mint linux.
where in the menu,do i find additional drivers?

Stuxnet

you dont need to dl anything, its all automatic, it'll download & install the correct driver for you

if your running the latest Mint (10) just open the mint menu and start typing "additional drivers", if your on an older version type "hardware drivers"

ricman

I installed mint ten ,i was using mint 9, so the black screen is gone ,everything works perfect.