Why my laptop screen becomes black? It is a very common question. Now, I’d like to summarize the reasons of the black screen and how to deal with it:

First: It could just be a screen saver. In this case, wiggle the mouse or hit a key on the keyboard, your screen may come back. You can adjust the screen saver behavior in the Display portion of Control Panel.

Second: It could be your computer. The most common abnormal reason for a black screen is probably a computer crash. One simple way to determine if it’s just the monitor going out or the computer crashing is to play some audio on your computer. Perhaps load up a longish mp3 play list, for example. If the monitor goes black, but the music continues to play, you know that the computer is running, and that the problem is either the video card, video drivers, the monitor or the cables in between.

Third: It could be a virus, or your computer’s other software or drivers. Unfortunately bad drivers for any hardware on your system can cause the machine to crash or go to a black screen without warning. I’ve also heard of this as a symptom of a virus (though typically a poorly written one). It’s more common that you’ll actually get a message, or the dreaded “blue screen of death”, but nonetheless, it’s still possible that bad software, particularly hardware drivers, could cause it. As always, make sure your computer is up to date on Windows and of course anti-spyware and anti-virus software as well.

Forth: It could be your video drivers. Even though I’ve already mentioned drivers in general, the video drivers are worth a closer look. The software used to control the video card, which can often be quite complex, can also fail, have a bug, or crash in such a way that the screen goes black. Therefore, making sure you have the latest drivers always makes sense.

Next time, if your screen gets black, please have a try.