PC Drivers & Software

[Raymundo]

I'm having an issue with my laptop for quite some time now where the screen goes black and everything freezes when I connect an external monitor with an HDMI cable. Disconnecting the HDMI cable doesn't clear the black screen after it appears and most of the time I have to turn off my laptop by holding the power button, but sometimes if I wait long enough the system restarts by itself. This issue started occassional at first when booting Windows 10 (it freezes right after the Lenovo logo disappears, the Windows login screen doesn't appear) but after rebooting again it would start normal. This only happens when I have my external monitor connected when booting, the normal laptop screen boots without issues. After a while the issue got worse though and now I can't boot with my external monitor connected. I have a very specific way to circumvent the issue.

- Before shutting off my laptop for the day I use Windows + P to set the display settings to only my laptop screen (I leave the HDMI connected).

- The next day I boot my laptop and give it some time to load Windows and then I restart into safe mode.

- I uninstall the AMD display drivers with DDU

- After the system reboots I install the display drivers through device management (update drivers and select the location of the drivers on my computer)

- When the message appears that the drivers have been installed I use Windows + P to switch to only my external monitor and then it connects without issues.

- But if I close the message that the drivers have been installed first and then I use Windows + P to switch to my external monitor 9 out of 10 times the screen goes black and the whole system freezes

- If I try to start a game while I use the external monitor and the game setting is "full screen" 9 out of 10 times the screen goes black and the whole system freezes. "Windowed", "borderless", "full screen window" works without issues ever.

- If I put my laptop into sleep mode while using the external monitor and then wake it, the screen goes black and the whole system freezes.

Every time I shut off my laptop I have to go through the same ritual to connect my external monitor (this happens with any external monitor, TV, etc I connect to, tried different HMDI cables as well). After completing my ritual and connecting the external monitor I also have to restart Windows Explorer. If I don't do this then after some time explorer has a memory leak and starts using up all my RAM. On some occassions after using the laptop for a while, there are also two explorers in task management, one uses like 6 MB and doesn't do anything and the other one uses a normal 30-50 MB. They both point to the same location and file in the Windows folder so I don't think it's related to a virus and complete scans don't find anything either (I don't have the setting enabled to show multiple explorer tasks). The problem with Explorer using up RAM and the two explorers is something relatively new though, the problem with the black screen happened already before that. The RAM problem does only seems to happen though if I connect the external monitor and not without it (but I haven't done enough research to confirm this 100%).

I've already tried a fresh install of Windows 10 to see if the black screen would go away but that isn't the case. I've cleaned the inside of my laptop (wasn't very dirty) but the only thing I haven't checked is the RAM (it's covered and I don't feel confident enough to remove any parts without possibly damaging something as I need my laptop for my work and don't have a replacement). The external monitor has a different default refresh rate but I have set it to the same one as the laptop screen to see it that would fix the issue (which it didn't). As the problem got worse by time I suspect this has something to do with hardware, but I'm hoping it's software related due to me being able to connect to the external monitor with my very specific ritual and my laptop not having any issues when not using an external monitor. I've probably gone through a lot of different forums with posts about black screens but none of the solutions (if there is any) seems to work. Older or newer driver versions don't make a difference and I've already blocked Windows from installing it's prefered display drivers (the Windows drivers didn't fix the issue either). I'm looking forward to any possible solutions.

[FunkZ]

I have had similar issues with my work laptop and HDMI to my personal monitor. Things that have worked for me:

Unplug the AC adapter. For some reason having the AC adapter plugged in while booting causes issues with the HDMI. Once the laptop boots, the AC can be plugged in.

Keep the laptop display open while booting. Closing the lid early sometimes leads to corrupted display. Once the Windows desktop is displayed the lid can be closed.

Use a docking station. If you have the option to plug in a USB-C dock that will provide charging and video out in the same connector that can alleviate these issues.

[Raymundo]

Thank you for sharing your solutions FunkZ. The AC and laptop display don't make a difference unfortunately. I don't think I have a USB-C connection, would a USB 3.0 docking station with DisplayLink drivers also work or does it have to be a USB-C one?

[FunkZ]

Yes there are also USB 3 to HDMI adapters.

Before you go and purchase one though, just curious if you have tried another external monitor or connecting the laptop HDMI to a TV for example, and if the same behavior occurs?

[Raymundo]

Yes, I did connect with various other monitors and a smart TV and the same thing happens. Last week I installed the latest official drivers and I'm now able to open games in normal full screen mode (no more problem with black screen and freeze). I can also restart the laptop with the external monitor connected and it won't cause a black screen. Shutting down the laptop and then starting the laptop still causes a black screen with complete freeze though (I don't use fastboot). I also still have to uninstall the drivers with DDU and install them again after every shutdown. Before I would only be able to do this through device management though and now I can also do it with the AMD installation program. The AMD installation program causes a problem with OpenCL not being registered correctly though (my APU doesn't support OpenCL) and shows an error when booting Windows, so installing through device management is the only way to install everything correctly.

The fact that some things changed with the new drivers, I'm more and more thinking that this is a software problem (Windows and/or AMD) and not hardware.

[FunkZ]

I understand your thinking this is a driver or software issue as you've tried reinstalling Windows and also tried other displays but have the same issue.

The fact that it's been happening for quite a while now and has gotten progressively worse would seem to point to a hardware issue though. One way to know for sure would be to do a factory reset, which should return the laptop to its original software configuration. If the issue is still happening at that point it's almost assuredly hardware related. Of course this is a pretty drastic step as you will need to back up all your data and reinstall all your applications after the restore, but as much hassle as you've had to go through it may be worth it if that corrects the problem.

Have you tried searching Lenovo support to see if any other users report a similar problem?

[Raymundo]

"The fact that it's been happening for quite a while now and has gotten progressively worse would seem to point to a hardware issue though."

Yes, I thought the same, but the fact that the issue is a little bit better now makes me think that it possibly might be otherwise. I've been thinking about installing Windows 7 for a while now to see if the issue persists, but I use my laptop pretty much daily and I don't have a good replacement to use in the mean time.

I've also thought about buying a better HDMI cable, but a friend of mine with an Nvidia GPU connects without issues and the Intel iGPU from my previous laptop also doesn't have any issues.

It's just so weird that the issues only arise when connecting an external monitor and that the laptop without it has no issues at all. I haven't gone specifically to Lenovo but I did various Google searches and all the solutions mentioned didn't have any effect unfortunately. Will check if there is anyone over at Lenovo support with the same issue.