Screen going blank every five seconds ?

Hi Folks,

Ive had my Acer5685 notebook for about a year and a half. After having a duff memory card at first I got it replaced and it has been excellent....until now !

Last night while my girlfriend was on the internet the screen started blanking out. It just seems normal then goes blank every 5 seconds or so. Programs still run in the background. I tried turning it on and off again and this seemed to work...until I turned it on this morning and after a half hour I got the same problem

Ive not changed any settings lately and the only programs ive installed are call of duty 4 (pretty graphics intensive so could this have done something ?) and I think I clicked on a java update last week. The only patern I can see is that Ive been on the internet both time its happened.

Any help would be great !

Ewan

 

Umm i'm guessing it's something with the screen itself. Like the bulbs in it or something. It happens with my laptop when i move the screen sometimes.

 

Thanks for the reply,

Thats what I kind of guessed but would that not happen all the time rather than "fix" itself after a reboot ?

Is there anything I can do about it, or just send it for repair ?

 

if it is under warranty... i'd LEAVE IT RUNNING... and try to duplicate the problem... try to see if it is HEAT RELATED.... WEB RELATED... or just RANDOM..

the every 5 seconds part seems kinda strange to me... your inverter in back of the LCD may be going bad... and if it's the LAMPS... that will have to be fixed by ACER. (they'll just replace the entire SCREEN assembly)

but i'd try to be armed w/ info on how to cause the problem that way you can make sure ACER can duplicate the issue.... otherwise they may just reload your HDD w/ a factory restore.. and seeing no problem,,, they might just ship it back (not repaired and w/o your data)

so back up important data before sending it in... and try to figure out how to cause the failure to occur... that way ACER techs can't say "it worked fine for us"

 

Ill have a go with it tonight to try and figure when its blanking out. Im not sure it is still under warranty but surely if its only lasted a year and a half they have to fix it free except for shipping ?!!

Any other suggestions welcome

 

good luck w/ warranty...

unless you purchased extended warranty (the typical warranty is 1 yr) ACER will most likely refuse to replace the LCD for free... i've heard of a $400 flat rate fee for repairs on out of warranty laptops.

makes that $100 3 year warranty seem like a good idea after the fact.. but i'll never buy an extended warranty on my laptop... it only cost $348 new (special black friday sale @ wal-mart)

maybe you will get lucky

 

yea i had only good experience with acer warranty, yea it maybe the bulb problem, but also the cable attaching to the lcd and the mobo. I had problems before due to the cable being damaged/loose and caused blank screens and other display fluctuations.