Acer Aspire E5-774G screen cuts to black and wont let me get back to my desktop

Spudzzy

I've had this laptop for a few years now and recently it has started cutting to black and only my cursor is visible. I can't get out of this at all unless I hold the power button and restart it. How can i fix this?

aphanic

Fading to black huh...

Is the cursor perfectly visible or kind of faded as well? Just in case it's the backlight of the panel that's going bad and not something worse. For example, when that happens if you shine a flashlight at the screen or you tilt it to try to see it at a steep angle, are you able to see anything else? Like windows, menus, etc.

I don't usually recommend keep going on something like this because whatever the problem continuing using the hardware doesn't surely help, but there's no other way of knowing.

If you can see it all or most of it, the problem could be the panel backlight that's about to die; the only (feasible) solution would be to replace the panel with another one. For that try to note down the panel model (name) using any info software (HWiNFO is free, the data you want would be in the monitor section). You'd need it to find out a couple of things for the replacement: what kind of connector it is, where it is located in the panel and if it comes with any holding mount or screw places for example.

I'm aware there are sites that can sell you the panel searching by the laptop model directly, but it's good to know what you're buying is the right thing anyway .

But... that would be the better outcome I'm afraid, it may also be a problem in the motherboard / video card itself; like a leaky or shorted capacitor. Diagnosing that would be way less trivial, and the solution probably replacing the component altogether (I'm referring to the motherboard or video card itself). Repairing the faulty or broken element within those components may end up costing you more I'm afraid.

If you're out of warranty and you don't feel adventurous enough to undergo repairs on your own it's probably best to contact Acer in your region (maybe they can quote you a repair price, or point you to a company that performs repairs for them) or take it to a repair shop.

Spudzzy

aphanic said:

Fading to black huh...

Is the cursor perfectly visible or kind of faded as well? Just in case it's the backlight of the panel that's going bad and not something worse. For example, when that happens if you shine a flashlight at the screen or you tilt it to try to see it at a steep angle, are you able to see anything else? Like windows, menus, etc.

The screen works fine it just randomly cuts to being black and stays like that until I restart the laptop.

aphanic

That rules out the dying backlight then, does it happen often? Do you hear any noise coming from the laptop or any funny smell?

I wonder, does it happen when you're doing anything graphics intensive like watching videos or playing games or it can happen randomly even at idle?

Not the same thing, but I've experienced something similar with an external monitor at my father's garage. They kept on using it until it died and then off to me to assess, it ended up being the power section of the monitor needing some components replaced. They didn't notice any odd smell because it was a garage, there certainly was when I opened the thing.

Spudzzy

it can happen when idle

aphanic

That's bad then, unless the problem is software related (e.g. a recent driver update, idle screen timeout, etc.), which I doubt, some hardware component needs replacement.

If I'm not mistaken some models of that series have a dedicated graphics card besides the integrated one, you could try running it all on the integrated one for a while and see if it occurs too if yours is one of them. Assuming you're running Windows, you'd need to go to the Device Manager (in Windows 10, Win+X pops up a menu, it's in there; or running devmgmt.msc otherwise), if you find more than 1 thing under "Display adapters" disable the non-Intel one (right click, disable device). You'd then reboot and that's it.

Unless a more experienced guy/gal drops by with more insight, all I can tell you is at least prepare for the worse and have your valuable data backed up somewhere