Used a projector, now my display no longer turns off

kelper · Mar 9, 2026

Well, post your specs! Click on your username at the top of this page and then 'System Specs'. Fill them in as completely as possible as it does help us to give you the best support.

fotyc · Mar 9, 2026

I posted as many of my specs as I could easily spot. While I was in the display speces I saw entries for the device I had used as a projector - they said "not connected" but I used the Forget device button anyway and got rid of them. I'm thinking of plugging something else into the USB port I used for the HDMI cable, to see if I can cause it to clear its brain. I found one person online somewhere who said to solve this he had to clear his CMOS and when I looked up how to do that, I said Oh ok no. I'm not afraid of the registry but that was a little more than I feel safe doing.

kelper · Mar 9, 2026

fotyc said:
I posted as many of my specs as I could easily spot. While I was in the display speces I saw entries for the device I had used as a projector - they said "not connected" but I used the Forget device button anyway and got rid of them. I'm thinking of plugging something else into the USB port I used for the HDMI cable, to see if I can cause it to clear its brain. I found one person online somewhere who said to solve this he had to clear his CMOS and when I looked up how to do that, I said Oh ok no. I'm not afraid of the registry but that was a little more than I feel safe doing.

Good job on the specs! Thanks. I would ignore clearing CMOS if I were you. Your problem will have a simpler solution. Do you have any backups? Even System Restore might help. Most of us on this forum do regular image backups. Restoring a backup takes a few minutes and can often 'fix' problems if they are discoverd fairly soon.

We mostly use Macrium Reflect but this is a 'paid' app. Hasleo has a perfectly good app which is free.

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fotyc · Mar 9, 2026

I used to use Macrum Reflect but it stopped working for me even with the free version. It would not make a backup. So I've resorted to just using file backups done manually. I don't think I have restore points turned on either, sadly.

fotyc · Mar 9, 2026

Oh I do have a restore point from last Thursday, the day before I tested the projector! It's from Windows Update, but if I do that, then I will just have to repeat whatever Windows Update was done that day. I can fall back to that and see if it's resolved.

kelper · Mar 9, 2026

fotyc said:
I used to use Macrum Reflect but it stopped working for me even with the free version. It would not make a backup. So I've resorted to just using file backups done manually. I don't think I have restore points turned on either, sadly.

Well, I heartily recommend Hasleo. It is Chinese, but I don't think there is any security risk. If there were, it would have been discovered by now. You could always disconnect from the internet when using it if you are paranoid at all.

kelper · Mar 9, 2026

fotyc said:
Oh I do have a restore point from last Thursday, the day before I tested the projector! It's from Windows Update, but if I do that, then I will just have to repeat whatever Windows Update was done that day. I can fall back to that and see if it's resolved.

Go ahead!

dacrone · Mar 9, 2026

fotyc said:
View attachment 165370

Go to View and show hidden devices

fotyc · Mar 9, 2026

System Restore back to the day before I first tested the projector, and my screen now goes dark as it used to! Thanks!

spapakons · Mar 9, 2026

This is what Google AI says about your issue:

Google Search

I would connect the adaptor, wait a few seconds and disconnect it.

fotyc · Mar 9, 2026

Yeah I saw that, I wasn't going to reinstall my graphics drivers unless I absolutely had to, and I wasn't sure what 'adapter' it referred to, and generally it wasn't helpful. I played with my screen timeout settings for half an hour and nothing changed. There was something stuck in presentation mode that couldn't be uncovered by all the normal stuff that humans and AI put forward, so the system restore did it.

spapakons · Mar 10, 2026

You said you used a USB type-C to HDMI adapter to connect the laptop to the video projector. That's the adapter. Connect it for a few seconds, then disconnect it. Windows should realize there is no external monitor and get out of projection mode. Next time make sure you disconnect the adapter and wait a few seconds before shutdown the laptop.

I don't know if it is related, but I have a similar bug. I have connected my HDMI output to a USB HDMI capture card. This is detected as a second monitor and I can capture whatever application or game I put on the second monitor (this was back when my graphics card wasn't powerful enough to capture the screen directly). If I want to capture from an external HDMI source and I simply swap the cables, I can see the image but I get no sound because of some bug or incompatibility the USB audio part stops working. I have to disconnect the USB HDMI capture card for a few seconds and then connect it again for the sound to work. Same if I disconnect the external HDMI source and connect my graphics card HDMI output again. I always disconnect the device for a few seconds to make both image and sound work when I swap HDMI sources.

fotyc · Mar 10, 2026

The cable was borrowed

Perhaps the mistake I made was either closing the computer before pulling the cable, or not trying to do the hardware ejection process properly (I don't think I had an icon for it in the system tray though). If I ever do another presentation with this computer I will set a system restore point the day before just in case! Good luck with your more complicated issue!
I did plug another device into the same USB port and use it (an external DVD drive) to see if it cleared the computer's brain, it doesn't appear to have done it, so I went on to the nuclear option.

spapakons · Mar 10, 2026

Many argue that System Restore is useless and obsolete. Yeah right. It is much faster and easier to do in such cases than doing a full disk restore, assuming you have a recent backup.

Scannerman · Mar 10, 2026

spapakons said:
Many argue that System Restore is useless and obsolete. Yeah right. It is much faster and easier to do in such cases than doing a full disk restore, assuming you have a recent backup.

It's bailed me out of some tight situations for sure. Great when it works!

spapakons · Mar 10, 2026

From my own experience, the last restore point doesn't always work. Use the previous point from last.

Winuser · Mar 10, 2026

spapakons said:
Many argue that System Restore is useless and obsolete. Yeah right. It is much faster and easier to do in such cases than doing a full disk restore, assuming you have a recent backup.

As one that has System Restore fail me way more times than it has worked I can say that it's not completely worthless but with over a 50% failure rate I won't use it. It may take time to do but I'll spend the time needed to use backup images.

Scannerman said:
It's bailed me out of some tight situations for sure. Great when it works!

That's the problem! When it works.

Winuser · Mar 10, 2026

@fotyc I'm glad you were able to solve your problem. If you hadn't I was going to suggest to check if Fast Start was turned on and if it was to turn it off and restart the computer. Another suggestion I was going to post was to hold the Shift key while hitting the Restart icon on the Start menu.

Used a projector, now my display no longer turns off

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