One of the most affordable laptop brands out there is Lenovo. Although it is known for its durability and compatibility with various software, Lenovo laptops reportedly had a serious flaw. Some users have experienced their Lenovo laptop screen turn black.
In this guide, we’ll go over the reasons why your Lenovo laptop has a black screen on startup in Windows 10 and how you can fix it. The solutions in this article can also be applied to Lenovo ThinkPads with a black screen, as well as the two-in-one laptop, Lenovo Yoga. Note, this issue is slightly different than when your Lenovo laptop won’t turn on.
Read this guide to know more.
Table of Contents
Why Is My Lenovo Laptop Screen Black?
Black screens are a common problem that occurs on most laptops and computers, this includes Lenovo devices. It can be due to several factors that are mostly hardware-related. Though it can be overwhelming to fix when your brand new Lenovo Yoga’s screen turns black all of a sudden, it is still recoverable and more often than not, your laptop’s data is still intact.
Here are some of the common reasons why your Lenovo laptop screen turns black:
- Faulty Hardware – In most cases, your Lenovo laptop’s screen can turn black due to hardware issues. From a faulty graphics card to the damaged internal wiring, your laptop’s display can instantly turn black and be impossible to use.
- Damaged Laptop Battery – Your Lenovo laptop’s power supply is one of the most critical parts that keep everything running. The most common symptom of a damaged battery is a faulty display, where it suddenly turns black. Check if your Lenovo battery is not charging while plugged in.
- Software Glitch – Whether it’s due to hard disk or memory problems, or corrupted files and programs, these damaged files can negatively impact your laptop. If some important system files are altered, deleted, or lost, it can affect various parts of your laptop, including its display.
- Overheating – Your laptop needs to be at its optimal temperature to be usable. If your Lenovo laptop heats up due to a memory-heavy program or software, or it has cooling problems, your laptop can start heating up quickly, thus, causing some features to shut down. Long-term overheating can sometimes affect a laptop’s display in a bad way.
How to Fix Lenovo Laptop Black Screen of Death
Before going to the fixes directly, try unplugging all your laptop’s accessories first. Some damaged accessories can be a factor in your Lenovo laptop’s screen turning black. After they’re unplugged, restart your device and see if the screen is working normally.
If the screen is still dark, you can try the following fixes. Try going through them individually to see which one worked for you the best.
Fix #1: Reset Screen Mode or Display Mode
One trick that you can do on Windows OS is to refresh the display connection of your laptop or computer. For some unknown reason, your laptop screen can turn black and lose its connection to the OS. To reset the screen or display mode of your Lenovo laptop, follow these steps:
- Turn your laptop on by pressing its Power button.
- With your laptop on, press the Win + Ctrl + Shift + B keys on the keyboard. This will refresh your laptop’s display connection.
- If done properly, your laptop will soon gain its display back and the laptop screen can now work normally.
Fix #2: Hard Reset your Lenovo Laptop
A hard reset will revert your laptop’s components to their normal state. This includes the laptop’s graphics card, which is responsible for keeping the laptop’s display on point. To do a hard reset or power cycle on your Lenovo laptop, follow the steps below:
- Turn off your Lenovo laptop and unplug its power adapter from any power source.
- Also, unplug the laptop battery if it is removable.
- Let the laptop rest for thirty minutes to re-initialize all internal components.
- When enough time has elapsed, press and hold the Power button for sixty seconds. This will ensure that all remaining laptop power is fully drained.
- After sixty seconds, release the Power button and attach the laptop battery.
- Connect your device to a power source and turn it on. See if the display will now work properly.
Fix #3: Boot Laptop in Safe Mode
When turning on your laptop in Safe Mode, it boots the system up in a safe environment. Here, you can do tasks to troubleshoot your display; updating the display adapter driver or rolling it back to a more stable state can bring your laptop’s black screen back to normal.
However, you’ll need to boot up to the Windows Recovery Environment (winRE) before entering Safe Mode. To do this, follow these steps:
- With your laptop turned on, hold the Power button for ten seconds to turn it off.
- Press the Power button once again to turn your laptop on.
- Once the Windows logo begins to show, hold the Power button for ten seconds to turn it off.
- Repeat the process once more. Once it shuts down for the third time, press the Power button—your laptop will now boot to winRE.
- To go to Safe Mode, navigate to Troubleshoot > Advanced Options > Startup Settings.
- Next, select the Restart button. Once your laptop restarts, you’ll see a list of options. Press the F5 key to boot in Safe Mode with networking.
Once in Safe Mode, you can now temporarily see your device’s screen. To roll back your display adapter driver or graphics driver to a more stable state, follow the steps below:
- Use the Search Menu and type in device manager. Click it to open.
- Find and select Display Adapters. Click the arrow to expand and select the first driver under it.
- Right-click and choose Properties.
- Under the Driver tab, click Roll Back Driver and select Yes.
- Turn your laptop off and reboot to see if the display works properly.
If it does not solve the black screen issue, try booting up once more to Safe Mode and follow the steps up until Step 3; once under the Driver tab, select Uninstall Driver and try rebooting your device. Check the display if it now works normally.
Fix #4: Use an External Monitor
Once your laptop’s display cannot show anything, the last thing to do is to temporarily connect an external monitor. To do this you’ll need a working monitor and a VGA or HDMI DVI cable that’s compatible with your laptop.
Follow these steps to connect your Lenovo laptop to an external monitor:
- Connect the monitor to your laptop via an HDMI cable.
- Turn your Lenovo laptop on as well as your external monitor.
- On the keyboard, press the Fn + “CRT/LCD” keys (either F5 or F8) simultaneously. Hold onto the keys until content from your laptop is shown to the external display.
Once you have access, save all your important files via an external hard drive or an encrypted cloud drive. After saving them, you can now get your Lenovo laptop fixed at the nearest Lenovo Service Center near your area.
Final Thoughts
Your laptop’s display is one of the most important parts of your Lenovo laptop. It keeps it interactive and usable since all tasks and commands are only possible to see if your laptop has a working screen. Therefore, this guide will hopefully help you when your Lenovo laptop’s display suddenly turns black.