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External monitor goes black when laptop is closed


Q. I have a Dell laptop computer attached to my big screen TV in the living room and when you close the top, the the big screen TV will go black. Any ideas?

A. What is likely happening is that the laptop power settings are configured to put the computer into standby mode when you close the lid. This is pretty common and is designed to save battery power when the computer is not in use.

Go into the power options under the Control Panel and click on the Advanced tab. Here you can configure what the laptop will do when you close the lid. Set it to do nothing and apply the settings and close the window.

That should do it. If not, there is one other thing to try.

You’ll notice that when you hold the FN key down and hit the F8 key it toggles the display between three modes. Laptop monitor only, laptop monitor and external monitor and external monitor only.

Use the FN + F8 key combination to send the display to the external monitor only and then close the lid and see if your big screen keeps displaying.

Categories: Display