Toshiba P55 screen flickering to black only when unplugged

Casper01

Estimable
May 29, 2014
5
0
4,520
I have a Toshiba Satellite P55 with an odd issue. When its unplugged, the screen will go black. As soon as you touch the mouse, it comes back up. Stop moving the mouse, goes black instantly. If you play a movie or something, video stays on.
If I plug in the VGA cable to an external monitor, it stops going to black. If I plug in the power cord, it stops going to black.
I've updated all the drivers, updated the bios. I'm frankly a little stumped on this one. Any ideas?
 
Solution
Found the solution. The Toshiba has an intel video card, and the driver software has an option called self-refresh in the power settings, when running on battery. Once disabled, the flickering black screen disappeared. That was painful to figure out.

Heads_

Commendable
Mar 31, 2016
2
0
1,510
There might be something screwy in the power saving settings. What operating system are you running? Check to see how long of an inactive delay the screen saver is set to when running from battery.
 

Casper01

Estimable
May 29, 2014
5
0
4,520


This is running Windows 8.1. I've tried resetting to defaults the power settings. The Toshiba "eco" software is disabled.
One thing I will add, the screen was recently replaced.
Other thing, is it doesn't appear to be a power setting as its not actually turning the screen "off" as I can tell the lamp is still on, just no video.
I'd say the screen was installed improperly, if it was constantly flickering to black, but the fact that it I touch a key, or the touchpad even very lightly, it comes right back up. And the fact that if a video is playing, or even just the cursor blinking at the log in screen, the video stays on. Plus the fact it works fine with the power connected or VGA cable connected.
 

Casper01

Estimable
May 29, 2014
5
0
4,520
Found the solution. The Toshiba has an intel video card, and the driver software has an option called self-refresh in the power settings, when running on battery. Once disabled, the flickering black screen disappeared. That was painful to figure out.
 
Solution