A computer issue for any of you experts

Lounge
#1

My computer is set to go to sleep after a certain period of inactivity. I then have to log on again where I’m returned to where I was re apps that are open.

What I’ve found recently is that on doing so the screen flickers brighter then darker. Shutting down and restarting Firefox and Thunderbird seems to solve the problem . The funny thing is this is a new problem.

I wondered about refresh rates but my options are only 60 and 40. I’m reluctant to go to 40 in case that messes things up completely .

Any thoughts from the computer experts here are most welcome.

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#2

@velociraptor might be able to help.

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#3

I would clean the harddrive or defragment it. When that doesn’t help i factoryreset. I am not an expert.

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#4

Sounds like a problem with your monitor and not your computer. Do you have a second monitor or a TV you can try to test if it’s your monitor?

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#5

That’s hard to do as it’s a laptop.

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#6

If you have an hdmi output you can still do it. If it’s an old laptop it might have a dvi input instead. It’s also possible that you might be able to cast from your laptop to a TV, but I’d check for an hdmi or dvi output first.

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#7

If you post a picture of your inputs, I can tell you if it has one.

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#8

Unfortunately no means of posting such pictures. Thanks for the advice, but it’s way above my techno know how.

They’ve still not learnt how to make all this stuff simple for us techno simpletons .

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#9

Well if you know the name of your computer (its model) I can Google it for you. Then if it has an hdmi output, you just need to buy an hdmi to hdmi cable and connect it to a TV or monitor with an hdmi input. That’s really the simplest way to test this. But I’m pretty sure that it is your screen, and not your computer. And since it’s a laptop, the only way to fix that would be to send it to a computer repairs shop.

Before you do that, though, I would at least attempt to reinstall Firefox and Thunderbird.

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#10

Neither of these would affect the screen. Please don’t do a factory reset!

As @anon9798425 says, this sounds like it is the monitor. The easiest way to troubleshoot is to connect an external monitor using the VGA (older computer) or HDMI (new computer) video outputs to connect to a borrowed monitor. See if the problem repeats there.

image

That should help you identify the port. I would check and see if your daughter in law has an external monitor?

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#11

Thanks for the advice. Unfortunately my step daughter only has a laptop.

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#12

Newer TVs usually have hdmi inputs, and most newer laptops have hdmi outputs. So if you have a TV, you might just need a hdmi cable to do this yourself.

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#13

This is the case in North America – wasn’t sure if this is the case in the U.K. as they have some strange standards (e.g. PAL).

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#14

Yeah our pal transmissions are 25Hz. But 99% of tvs here support the 30Hz signal (likewise 50hz and 60hz)

Edit - sorry I mean fps

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#15

If it is a laptop your mentioning it’s it’s blacklit going bad.

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#16

It could be worth checking settings for screen brightness on and off battery?

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#17

What is PAL? It is the case where I live too, so I would expect that it is the same in the UK. The computer technology is basically identical here and in the US.

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#18

USA uses NTSC
UK USES P.A.L

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#19

My understanding is that PAL is 25 frames per second. NTSC is 30 frames per second.

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#20

Oh right. TV standards. Well I’m in the PAL region, too, and we use HDMI as much as in the US.

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