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January 28

Windows 10: Screen stays displayed all night

This is about Windows 10 on a desktop computer. The screen has stayed displayed all night for the last two nights. That is, if I leave the system alone, the display is still on eight hours later. I have the Power and Sleep options set for when plugged in, turn screen off after 5 minutes, and, when plugged in, PC goes to sleep after 2 hours. But it isn't turning the screen off and it isn't going to sleep. (Well, I am going to sleep, and I could theorize that it does turn the screen off when I am asleep, and then turns it back on when it sees me. But we won't engage in that speculation right now.) Until a few days ago it was behaving as expected. This behavior, staying on all night, is new. What might have happened to cause this? Robert McClenon (talk) 15:00, 28 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

It depends a lot on the species of screen and also on the cable you use. Check that the screen itself is set to auto-sleep. You should have a menu option to set a specific delay and also to turn the overall function on/off — GhostInTheMachine ^{talk to me} 15:14, 28 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Do you have any tasks running that might tend to inhibit sleep? A video player, for example? Updates or a dialog box displayed? Elizium23 (talk) 16:50, 28 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Since this is new behaviour, my recommendation is to force it to restart once and see if that corrects the behaviour going forward. Matt Deres (talk) 14:51, 29 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I didn't do anything to change things, but it went to sleep last night, and the screen is switching off after 5 minutes. So whatever it was seems to have cleared up or resolved itself. Thank you. Robert McClenon (talk) 19:21, 29 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Do softwares cause screen flickering?

Lambiam RunningToMars Hohum I Uninstalled cracked IDM software in my laptop few days back. From then laptop runs smoothly without screen flickering. I thought screen flickering related to hardware problem.

Do softwares make screen flickering? Rizosome (talk) 15:59, 28 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

While running, apps can make your screen do about anything. Since IDM runs in the background, it is theoretically possible. In particular, without mucking with the screen, it might interfere with the smooth display of streamed video if background downloads consume too much capacity of a strained Internet connection, leading to local congestion. Or it interposes itself between the receipt and the displaying of the media. Whether there is indeed a causal connection or the problem vanishing together with the uninstalling is merely a coincidence, is impossible to tell, but I saw a possibly related complaint here. --Lambiam 16:54, 28 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]