Razor Blade 15 Periodical Black Screen | Razer Insider
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Hello.

I recently purchased a Razor Blade 15 RTX 2080 (*removed for security purposes). Now I have the problem that from time to time the screen gets black. Then I have to press the power button a few times so that I can log in again. Then I'm logged back into the system and can continue working from where the screen failed.

Do you have a suggestion for a solution to this problem?

Greetings, Manfred
Well, same thing. Better Performance worked all night last night. Then today coming home after work, BSOD every 30 seconds.

RAZER QUALITY CHECK YOUR PRODUCTS BEFORE SELLING TO THE PUBLIC!

Now I've got to return this hunk of crap. Fun times.
While I'm waiting for my replacement, run the Intel UHD Graphics Control Panel App. Under the refresh rate, switch from 240 to 60 Hz. I know it's not the cream of the crop but so far no black screens popping up.

Please let me know if anyone else has tried this with success. Then we can narrow the issue down.
I bought my Mercury White blade 15, full HD, RTX 2070 in July of this year. I expected to be using it for gaming but turns out it has more been a $3000 web browser for school. I was working in Chrome yesterday and the display just went black. I started a support ticket through the chat on my phone, I don't have an external monitor to use for testing. It's very unsettling to see so many people having an issue with this system having the display go black. I'm incredibly frustrated!! I need to continue my open case but it's looking like there isn't a resolution at this time. Has anyone been through a repair/replacement/refund process due to this issue? For a two month old laptop I should not having to be dealing with this.
siteinteractiveSand972
I bought my Mercury White blade 15, full HD, RTX 2070 in July of this year. I expected to be using it for gaming but turns out it has more been a $3000 web browser for school. I was working in Chrome yesterday and the display just went black. I started a support ticket through the chat on my phone, I don't have an external monitor to use for testing. It's very unsettling to see so many people having an issue with this system having the display go black. I'm incredibly frustrated!! I need to continue my open case but it's looking like there isn't a resolution at this time. Has anyone been through a repair/replacement/refund process due to this issue? For a two month old laptop I should not having to be dealing with this.

Pretty pissed there isn't a customer support number where I can actually talk to someone instead of having to do a chat support session or email.
siteinteractiveSand972
Pretty pissed there isn't a customer support number where I can actually talk to someone instead of having to do a chat support session or email.


Hey there! I replied to your PM. Let's continue from there.

Hi everyone! If you want to talk to our Support Team, please click this link and change the preferred country at the top-right corner of the page.
ThomasHedegaard
Thanks @Razer.Speedcr0ss - but can you please also give an overall update in this public conversation so that people know the current status of this issue? It would be nice to know whether Razer has any clue on what's going on, or whether they still don't know anything. Any kind of update would be nice. Thanks. Cc @_crashbandicoot @SJerc

@Razer.Speedcr0ss do you have any thoughts on this one?
bought advance blade 15 rtx 2070 with 240hrz monitor a week ago. i got to say I was excited to replace my old clevo laptop.

however i started getting issues.screen flickers sometimes and sometimes laptop display just turns off.
laptop seem to be still running (just no display on the built in monitor), i tried plugging in to an external monitor and there was an external display. also happened when i was watching a video and the audio would still run.

i've reached out to razer and already tired restoring and disabling windows update updating the graphics drivers turning off panel refresh and dispay power saving technology
Ive asked for options but the suggestion was to have it shipped to them for "Replacement" but ill have to pay for taxes and duties when it shipped back to me. customer service accused me of trying to get refund with out sending the items back

seeing how there are a lot more people experiencing the same issue I feel cheated and majorly inconvenience.

ps black screen issue happened to me twice while writing this thing
ThomasHedegaard
@Razer.Speedcr0ss do you have any thoughts on this one?


@Razer.Speedcr0ss do you have any thoughts on this one yet?
I have the same issue. screen goes black as soon as I start using battery multiple times. became worse after windows update!
Any solution???
Still having this issue and incredibly frustrated! I have updated my bios, updated graphics driver, changed power settings, used the troubleshooter to change power settings and more. Support is now wanting me to change when my laptop goes to sleep and hibernates as well as disable fast startup. I should NOT have to be making all of these configuration changes to a 3 month old laptop. I am furious that this starts happening shortly after I came out of the return period. In a 1/2 hour time period the display went black 7 times!!! I want to return this laptop and get a refund. I purchased Razer care elite when I bought this thing, I feel like it should cover my desire to return it after the return period. I can't see this going anywhere but worse than what it already is.
siteinteractiveSand972
Still having this issue and incredibly frustrated! I have updated my bios, updated graphics driver, changed power settings, used the troubleshooter to change power settings and more. Support is now wanting me to change when my laptop goes to sleep and hibernates as well as disable fast startup. I should NOT have to be making all of these configuration changes to a 3 month old laptop. I am furious that this starts happening shortly after I came out of the return period. In a 1/2 hour time period the display went black 7 times!!! I want to return this laptop and get a refund. I purchased Razer care elite when I bought this thing, I feel like it should cover my desire to return it after the return period. I can't see this going anywhere but worse than what it already is.


i have the same issue, Mine was still under the 14 days warranty in the middle of the process razer assured me that as long as i started the refund process before the 14 days warranty ends then it's ok. then they didnt reply to me until the end of the warranty (despite server follow ups) to let me know that i needed to return it physically so now time travel back a few days and then fly to hongkong to return it. talk about inconvenience.

all this was after one of their support team accused me of trying to get my money back without sending the laptop back.
tjchua
i have the same issue, Mine was still under the 14 days warranty in the middle of the process razer assured me that as long as i started the refund process before the 14 days warranty ends then it's ok. then they didnt reply to me until the end of the warranty (despite server follow ups) to let me know that i needed to return it physically so now time travel back a few days and then fly to hongkong to return it. talk about inconvenience.

all this was after one of their support team accused me of trying to get my money back without sending the laptop back.


Hey there! I replied to your PM. Let's continue from there.
ThomasHedegaard
@Razer.Speedcr0ss do you have any thoughts on this one yet?

@Razer.Speedcr0ss do you have any thoughts on this one yet yet?
ThomasHedegaard
@Razer.Speedcr0ss do you have any thoughts on this one yet yet?


Hey there! I can provide steps to isolate the laptop's concern. However, if the issue persists, I have to create a case ID and forward it to the support team. Please send me a PM anytime.
SJerc
Hah, we're all expecting it to blank at any moment because we've been conditioned like lab rats. If it doesn't reoccur for a long while then it strongly points to Nvidia's Optimus. What version on you on? I'm on 436.48 and I have noticed that Nvidia has been releasing recent updates for stability issues in a few game titles almost as bad as iOS 13 releases. The screen blanking didn't really occur much for me, but I was running 2 different laptops through the paces to decide on a winner to keep. That means, I was rebooting, shutting down, and restoring the factory image pretty often which would make any memory leak issues less likely to show up. When the issue did show up, it was during times of leaving things running long enough to use the laptop like an actual laptop versus a test subject. lol


I'm on 436.48 as well. It was occurring pretty often for me, usually right after I woke up my laptop from sleep. Restarting usually helped for a while, but after 15-30 minutes of use it would start blanking again. Occasionally it would just blank randomly while working on something, but that didn't happen too much. I'm just hoping this is finally the fix, I've been trying to fix it for a month or so now
the2parker
I'm on 436.48 as well. It was occurring pretty often for me, usually right after I woke up my laptop from sleep. Restarting usually helped for a while, but after 15-30 minutes of use it would start blanking again. Occasionally it would just blank randomly while working on something, but that didn't happen too much. I'm just hoping this is finally the fix, I've been trying to fix it for a month or so now


Was it happening while on 436.48? Also when you updated to 436.48, did you toggle it for a custom install so that you can check mark the option for a clean installation? My current setup on my laptop after I factory restored it, is pretty vanilla. Just have Gears of War 5, MSI Afterburner, HWiNFO64, Intel XTU (-130 mV), Termius SSH client, Avira Free Antivirus (add-on junk components like Avira VPN uninstalled), and Brave Browser (HW acceleration turned off) on top of the up to date Windows 10 and Razer stuff. I have all default settings for the Intel Graphics Control Panel. When on battery, my Windows power mode is set to Better Battery. When plugged in, it's on Best Performance. So far, it's been 2 days since the last power cycle with regular web browser usage and several 1-2 hr gaming sessions under both Synapse custom modes of either CPU/GPU all set to high and low. So far, the screen blanking hasn't occurred and I've kept Nvidia Optimus set for auto switching since the system restore. Be good to see other's settings and sw usage to figure a pattern. Will update this thread if it occurs for me, again and will continue to note my system changes.
the2parker
I think this fixed it for me, I went into Nvidia Control Panel -> Manage 3D Settings -> Preferred Graphics Processor and changed it from Auto-Select to High-Performance NVIDIA Processor and haven't had a black screen for the past couple of days. After dealing with this issue for so long and trying so many different fixes, I still find myself expecting the screen to turn black any second now. Hopefully this helps the rest of you who are having this issue as well, I'll update here if I start seeing the issue again

I am trying this today and will post back later if it seems to fix it.
pstallo
Update: I tried the2parker's suggestion to go into Nvidia Control Panel -> Manage 3D Settings -> Preferred Graphics Processor and changed it from Auto-Select to High-Performance NVIDIA Processor

My typical 'black screen' scenario would be watching full-screen Youtube videos when the charger is unplugged. Not sure if that's a cause, but that's when it most commonly happens.

Anyway, so far, so good. Playing full screen Youtube vids on battery without a black screen today. I'll post back if it occurs again or if I have more info on it.


You can set it to the integrated graphics to save on overall battery usage when watching YouTube vids. If it's also working for you, then again, it points to Nvidia's Optimus (auto-switching technology) most likely being the culprit unless someone else chimes in, who is still having the issue after manually selecting their GPU preference.
ThomasHedegaard
So 8 days ago(exactly 8 days as I've been logging this, but waiting to confirm anything until at least a week had passed), I went into Razer Synapse, and turned the refresh rate from 240 down to 60. Ever since, i.e. during a whole week of using this laptop extensively without an external monitor, I can confirm that the random-black-screen-issue DOES NOT HAPPEN. It truly sucks going down to 60 herz when one was getting used to 240, and it obviously sucks even more, when one of the main reasons for buying this machine, was the 240 refresh rate selling point, and then giving into this kind of price tag!

Anyway... @Razer.Speedcr0ss thank you for the update earlier, that is exactly the kind of message I've been requesting as well, just to let people know what's happening from Razer's side(even if nothing new has happened yet) - please keep them coming. Also, please pass this information on the the escalation team members working on this case. It seems it's somewhat related to refresh rate. Again, ever since I changed settings to show 60 instead of 240hz(using Razer Synapse to change this setting), the issue stopped happening, while before when on 240, it used to happen anywhere between 10 - 40 times in a day...

Can more people please try this approach and let us know whether it changes the situation on your side?

NB: I have not tried the steps @SJerc suggests above, yet.


You're welcome! Feel free to send me a PM or post your feedback here.
ThomasHedegaard
So 8 days ago(exactly 8 days as I've been logging this, but waiting to confirm anything until at least a week had passed), I went into Razer Synapse, and turned the refresh rate from 240 down to 60. Ever since, i.e. during a whole week of using this laptop extensively without an external monitor, I can confirm that the random-black-screen-issue DOES NOT HAPPEN. It truly sucks going down to 60 herz when one was getting used to 240, and it obviously sucks even more, when one of the main reasons for buying this machine, was the 240 refresh rate selling point, and then giving into this kind of price tag!

Anyway... @Razer.Speedcr0ss thank you for the update earlier, that is exactly the kind of message I've been requesting as well, just to let people know what's happening from Razer's side(even if nothing new has happened yet) - please keep them coming. Also, please pass this information on the the escalation team members working on this case. It seems it's somewhat related to refresh rate. Again, ever since I changed settings to show 60 instead of 240hz(using Razer Synapse to change this setting), the issue stopped happening, while before when on 240, it used to happen anywhere between 10 - 40 times in a day...

Can more people please try this approach and let us know whether it changes the situation on your side?

NB: I have not tried the steps @SJerc suggests above, yet.


You should try it to see if it'll work in place of suffering with 60 Hz. lol
@SJerc sure, but trying to narrow down the issue I kinda had to go this 60hz for at least a week to be sure. Is your approach still working for you? I.e. have you had any black-screens yet after your suggested steps?
***FIXED (for me anyways)***

Right click on the battery icon in the system tray. Click on "Power Options". I am on the "Balanced (recommended)" plan. Click on "Change Plan Settings". When Plugged in, select Turn off the display: Never and Put the Computer to sleep: Never.

So far... this has worked for me. Not a single black screen. Fingers crossed. Still a stupid problem. But... it'll do for now.

Lemme know if this works for you guys...

JF
ThomasHedegaard
So 8 days ago(exactly 8 days as I've been logging this, but waiting to confirm anything until at least a week had passed), I went into Razer Synapse, and turned the refresh rate from 240 down to 60. Ever since, i.e. during a whole week of using this laptop extensively without an external monitor, I can confirm that the random-black-screen-issue DOES NOT HAPPEN. It truly sucks going down to 60 herz when one was getting used to 240, and it obviously sucks even more, when one of the main reasons for buying this machine, was the 240 refresh rate selling point, and then giving into this kind of price tag!

Anyway... @Razer.Speedcr0ss thank you for the update earlier, that is exactly the kind of message I've been requesting as well, just to let people know what's happening from Razer's side(even if nothing new has happened yet) - please keep them coming. Also, please pass this information on the the escalation team members working on this case. It seems it's somewhat related to refresh rate. Again, ever since I changed settings to show 60 instead of 240hz(using Razer Synapse to change this setting), the issue stopped happening, while before when on 240, it used to happen anywhere between 10 - 40 times in a day...

Can more people please try this approach and let us know whether it changes the situation on your side?

NB: I have not tried the steps @SJerc suggests above, yet.


--- I can confirm going down to 60 worked for me as well. Might as well buy a HP then... Try changing your power settings to never letting the computer sleep or letting the screen turn off while plugged in. Tried it and so far no issues. And I get to keep my 240 =P

JF

ThomasHedegaard
@jamesfox27 I tried the same, i.e. changing the power settings. I also tried the approach from @SJerc - I still experience black screens though. Still, for me the only thing to do is to bump it down to 60hz to avoid black screens... Sad times... Fyi @Razer.Speedcr0ss


I’d be looking for a refund. We didn’t pay $$$ to use a gaming computer at 25% of its refresh capacity.
You set your computer to never sleep and never turn the screen off?

If I have one more black screen Amazon is getting a refund request. Way too much money invested to be having these kinda problems. Razer should be pretty embarrassed as a company right now for releasing a faulty product. Just another result of corporate greed. Why QA a product when you can just push it on the public immediately for higher profits and let THEM deal with the problems??? Annoyed? Yep. This is my second $3500 lemon.