Why does screen black out while watching online video?

I like to go to the different abc, cbs, fox & greatstufftv websites to catch up on my favorite shows - usually a marathon catch up session of a few hours.

My screen blacks out after 1 - 1.5 hours of playtime - almost like it goes into hibernation/sleep mode when one doesn't use the system for a set time. I should mention that I can still hear the show playing. The black screen disappears & the show reappears once i hit the touchpad or a button. Once the show is back on, the screen will black out about every 20 to 30 minutes afterwards. To sum up, when playing online shows, the screen will black out in about 1.5 hours and then about every 20 - 30 minutes after. This does not happen when I'm just doing regular online surfing.

The AC cord is plugged in and connected to the computer. My computer is a Dell Vostro 1500 with 128 NVidea 8400 video card.

Why is this happening? Is this indicative of something more serious? If not, how can i get it to stop?

Thanks!

 

Check your power settings. There may be one that automatically turns your screen off after an hour, even if the laptop is plugged in.

 

Agree with Chelet here. Most notebooks come with a default set to turn the monitor off after a certain amount of time.

I don't have a clue why OS designers haven't yet figured out that watching a video doesn't equal inactivity.

 

Uh, maybe it's because it's up to the software designers that make the app ?

Most Media Players all come with an option to "disable screen-saver/power down" option, and so does the Web DivX player. Flash video players don't support this, as far as I know (e.g: Youtube).

Or just set "Turn off Monitor while plugged into an electrical outlet" power settings to "Never".

 

I am experiencing the same problem on my Vostro 1500. I have changed the Power settings to never turn off monitor, but yet still no luck. This problem seems to occur for me weather I am playing video or not. If anyone has figured out a fix I would really appreciate some help, thanks.


Sean S.

Dell Vostro 1500
T5470 1.6Ghz, 800Mhz FSB | 3GB, DDR2, 667MHz 2 DIMM RAM |
2Mb L2 Cache | 120GB 5400RPM HDD |
nVidia GeForce 8600M GT DDR2|
15.4" WXGA W/ TrueLife |
Windows XP Home SP2 |

 

since the time isn't steady...it probably isn't automatic screen turn-off.... (actually, i know of an app that uses a blacklist of processes, that when running, disable the monitor turn off, although the app is for linux).

seans.svs -- will touching the keys or mouse make the screen come back on? (i'm starting to think that hte inverter is overheating)

 

Could be a power save feature of your display.

 

I'm having the same issues. I bought my Toshiba Satellite a week ago and it has blacked out on me at least 10-15 times, around twice a day. It will not come back on by pressing fingerpad or keyboard. It doesn't matter if i'm watching video or playing freecell. I've adjusted all power/screen settings to Never and turned off the screen saver. I will say that the power inverter gets very hot, but it'll even blackout right after windows has just loaded so I'm not fully convinced its a power issue.


I will also say that Best Buy and the so called geek squad aren't very helpful and in my experience caused more harm than good. But anyway this blackout thing is very frustrating, I'd really appreciate any experiences/explanations you guys may have.

Thanks

 

Happens to me too, i cry a lot because of that :'(
I have a dell vostro 1500 with 8600 GT. Are there anyone out there that have found a solution (Except doing all that above ) ?

Thanks

 

If you are watching a DIVX movie, the divix software actually has a black-out feature which will dark out everything but the movie for better viewing. Is this what is happening in your situation?

 

Yes i have watched a divx movie, dvd, played games,used programs like flash and premier but it still goes into sleep\hibernate mode every now and then.