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After a recent upgrade to Windows 8.1 Pro from W8, my laptop's (an ASUS X54H) screen turns off as soon as you remove the power cord.

It turns back on with no issues when you plug the power back in. Keyboard and mouse input is processed while the screen is off. My settings tell the screen to go off after 2 minutes of inactivity on battery. I was having a battery issue from before where my laptop would should down after 5 minutes of running on battery (despite showing 60% left), but I think that's unrelated.

Any other info will be provided on request. Can anyone help me figure out what's going on? How can I stop this behaviour?

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4
  • Just the display or the entire laptop is turned off?
    – Ramhound
    Commented Oct 28, 2013 at 15:37
  • What's the laptop model?
    – gronostaj
    Commented Oct 31, 2013 at 18:03
  • @Ramhound Just the display. Interactions are still processed.
    – Yatharth Agarwal
    Commented Nov 4, 2013 at 18:00
  • @gronostaj ASUS X54H...
    – Yatharth Agarwal
    Commented Nov 4, 2013 at 18:01

7 Answers 7

Reset to default
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The screen turns off when the Display Brightness is set too low and some correct driver is not installed.

To fix this issue, go into Power Options, Edit Plan Settings of the active plan, set Change plan brightness to the maximum for both battery and plugged in. You can access the same setting under Change advanced power settings, Display, Display Brightness.

You can still control the brightness using the keyboard. The control panel setting seems decoupled from the keyboard setting (I am guessing it is a driver issue that is at the root of the problem).

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6

I had the same problem (screen turning off when unplugging my laptop from the power). It started two days after I upgraded to Windows 8.1.

I resolved this by using the Power Options control panel. I noticed that this problem only occurred for me when using the "balanced" power profile. If I switched to either the "power saver" or "high performance" profile, the problem went away.

I fixed this for the "balanced" profile by selecting "change plan settings..." and clicking "restore default power settings for this plan." I can now use the "balanced" profile without the problem reoccurring. There must be some specific setting that is causing this behavior, but I'm not sure what it is.

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  • I tried different plans, modified and reset to default. Didn't work... :/
    – Yatharth Agarwal
    Commented Nov 3, 2013 at 13:31
  • Correction: on the "High Performance" plan, the screen doesn't turn off like that anymore! Any hints as to what in the plan resolved the issues? Now I just have another brightness issue and the battery to fix... :/
    – Yatharth Agarwal
    Commented Nov 4, 2013 at 6:56
  • Sorry, no idea! If high performance works for you, you could try changing the settings to make it less "high performance" (and more like a "balanced" profile) to save battery life. You might also find out what's causing the issue through through the process of elimination by fiddling with settings under "high performance."
    – RobJacobson
    Commented Nov 4, 2013 at 7:16
  • 1
    This was happening for me on a brand new HP Envy - the issue for me was when using the "HP Recommended" power plan. I switched to "High Performance" plan and all is well. I suspect I could have also used the "Power Saver" plan, but either way, this post saved my bacon. Thank you sir!
    – hardba11
    Commented Sep 9, 2016 at 15:12
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    This worked for me. I did "restore default power settings for this plan." and problem get solved on window 10. Many thanks @RobJacobson...
    – Vishal Singh
    Commented Aug 9, 2021 at 13:17
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Windows 8.1 might use up slightly more battery, but this probably is an issue with your battery. Try going into a BIOS setup screen or something separate from Windows, then try unplugging your power cord and see what happens.

If your screen shuts off your battery won't hold any charge at all. Otherwise, it might be detecting the battery is below the 5% automatic hibernate mark, which could be a sign of an inaccurate battery reading. Try this: Go to Control Panel > Power Options > Click "Change plan settings" next to your preferred power plan > Click "Change advanced power settings" > Scroll to bottom and hit "Battery" > Click "Critical battery action" > Change it to "Sleep."

When your computer hits the 5% mark, it should go to sleep instead of hibernation. When it shuts off the screen and goes to sleep completely, power it back on and observe the battery levels. See how long it lasts before it completely shuts off at 0%.

When your computer is going into hibernation the screen shuts off immediately but sometimes mouse and keyboard input is still accepted for about 15-30 seconds before it powers off completely.

Either way, you should try replacing your battery. It shouldn't have anything to do with your upgrade to 8.1. This should just be coincidental. It is possible, but in order to test it you would have to restore to 8.0.

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5
  • My laptop now just turn off cold at within a minute of removing my power cord. WTH is happening here?
    – Yatharth Agarwal
    Commented Nov 3, 2013 at 19:02
  • You probably have an issue with your battery. You'll need to replace it. I had a similar issue with my Toshiba laptop - it usually lasts 3 hours but it started to lower to like 15 minutes. I got a new battery for $15 on Amazon.
    – Phoenix Logan
    Commented Nov 4, 2013 at 20:10
  • So is the reason for the battery deterioration that ASUS laptops suck, or that their batteries suck? Batteries, probably, right? Does that mean if I get non-ASUS batteries, that the battery life will remain constant and improve the 2 hours the old ones gave me at most? Might as well get a new laptop as my current one is getting old if the battery life of my ASUS laptop is unsavable...
    – Yatharth Agarwal
    Commented Nov 5, 2013 at 10:07
  • My laptop is from 2011 and had a Nickel-Cadmium (NiCad) battery. If your battery is NiCad it loses battery life quicker because of an issue called memory effect. When you start charging your battery after a partial discharge (when the battery is 20%-80% full instead of 0%) it starts to lose battery life a little. Lithium Ion doesn't have this issue. This doesn't necessarily mean Asus laptops suck, but you probably have a NiCad battery if your laptop was made before 2012, and you should avoid doing this if you get a new battery. Getting a new laptop would fix this, but is more expensive.
    – Phoenix Logan
    Commented Nov 6, 2013 at 12:37
  • The laptop is barely one year old. And it has a Litium-Ion battery...
    – Yatharth Agarwal
    Commented Nov 6, 2013 at 17:38
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Just a follow-up - I contacted ASUS customer service and informed them of my issue - during a online chat with their customer service representative I was told repeatedly that my model was not designed for Windows 8/8.1 and that ASUS does not recommend installing unsupported operating systems on their hardware. So in other words, don't expect any help from ASUS.

So I restored Windows 8 to the laptop from a disk image I made BEFORE I upgraded to Windows 8.1 and I'm up and running without the battery issue. I hoped that ASUS would be more supportive of their hardware, but since a laptop bought in 2011 can't get support in 2013, I will certainly consider this in making future hardware purchases or recommendations on their hardware...

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  • Last time I'm getting a laptop from ASUS...
    – Yatharth Agarwal
    Commented Nov 22, 2013 at 6:25
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For ASUS N61 I had the same problem upgrading to Windows 8.1 (black screen/blank screen upon login and after restart during installation)

A. To complete installation I attached different additional screen (that computer did not had saved settings), so I could see last steps of installation

B. 1. To use computer after installation - find power state using Fn+Space (hot keys) that displays screen on main laptop display (removing power cable also can change state

  1. When you have working power plan that does not produce black screen. Go into power plan settings and delete all PowerGear type power plans (leave only default microsoft power plan settings - High, Normal, Batery saver modes)

  2. Uninstall ATK asus hotkeys from programs to avoid accidentally switching to invalid power states

Apparently ASUS power modes are not compatible with Windows 8.1 causing blank screen on laptop (although they worked for me on Windows 8)

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0

Go to Power Options > Select Power Saver mode > Processor power management (turn them all off). Problem solved.

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-1

This is potentially a problem with your power settings for your battery. Here are some instructions to check out your settings for on battery power use:

  1. Right click your desktop and click on "Personalize"
  2. On the bottom right of the Personalize window click the link to "Screen Saver"
  3. In the Screen Saver Settings window click on "Change power settings"
  4. The Power Options window will show up
  5. On the left hand side click "Choose when to turn off the display"
  6. Now the Edit Plan Settings window should appear
  7. Click on "Change advanced power setting"
  8. There are a few options in this Power Options window that you should check on which can all be seen under the Battery option. Reserve battery level would probably be my first guess for what needs to be changed. My battery level is set for 7% for reserve yours may be much higher. Your Laptop also might have its "Low battery level" set very high which would make a lot of these battery saving settings happen much faster. There are a lot of scenarios with different combinations of settings for the battery that might cause the shutdown in this window.
  9. If playing around with these settings does not fix the issue I would recommend doing a battery test. Your Laptop manufacturer should have a battery test program on their site to see if your battery is faulty. There are sometimes even repairs with the firmware updates for batteries and your model may need the update for Windows 8.1
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  • 10x for your answer, but none of teh above worked :/
    – Yatharth Agarwal
    Commented Nov 3, 2013 at 19:03
  • You could potentially try a system restore and then try to upgrade again.
    – jakden
    Commented Nov 3, 2013 at 23:00
  • After having to reinstall 2 times? No way. I think @Robert's answer resolved this particular issue, but if not I'll just make Ubuntu my main OS...
    – Yatharth Agarwal
    Commented Nov 4, 2013 at 7:25

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