Powering off display

[Ethre]

Is it possible to manually turn off a laptop display?

My laptop is running roughly 24/7 now (folding), which I am perfectly happy about. That's all and good, except that when I'd like to go to sleep, the display illuminates my dorm room. This happens even when I completely lower the brightness.
I have no desire to adjust my screensaver (it shows me pretty pictures ) or powerplan settings as they are just how I like them.

So what I'm wondering, is whether it is possible to set some sort of hotkey combination to power down the display? With my desktop I used to just turn off the monitors, but I can't do that hardwarewise with my laptop.

Many thanks.

 

[dbp_inSOMNiak]

Adjusting powerplan is probably the easiest way... unless there is some kind of batch command you can hit to trigger the monitor off powersave setting...

Hmm.... maybe if you close the lid and wake the computer with an external keyboard?

This might not work unless an external monitor is connected also... you could try plugging the computer into a cheap KVM switch or even just build dummy plugs (google) for the DVI/VGA out.


Maybe take a look at this: http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/nircmd.html
"nircmd.exe monitor off" turns off the monitor. (Warning: I have not tried this software myself.)

 

[Ethre]

Thank you very much for the reply.

-The Nircmd.exe was interesting, however I'm a bit worried about the combination of no display, entering commands, and having a locked system after my screensaver loads.

-The VGA dummy plug idea seems borderline brilliant. I'm going to test my laptop w/ my roommate's monitor just to verify that the display does turn off when I switch to external output (my old laptop left the screen glowing instead of turning it off). If so, it looks like time for a trip to radioshack.

 

[Ethre]

Yep, to the electronics store I go.

I'll update here when I've got the toys

 

[EmAn]

There should be a blue key that says FN or something of the sort like this

Then there should be a button that shows a small screen... near the top or right side of the keyboard. Just play with those until you find the one that is it.

 

[EchoTheDolphin]

There's also a simple setting in windows xp/vista that's in display properties that lets you set to turn the display off after X minutes.

Easiest way to do it.

Am I missing something or is it not that simple? Works on my thinkpad.

 

[Ethre]

I don't want to put it to sleep, I simply want the display off when I go to bed. If I adjust the display properties to turn the display off sooner, then I'm constantly waiting for the display to kick back on when I use it during the day.

The only fn combination key I have for display is the crt/lcd switch (unless you meant the sleep key).

 

[EmAn]

I don't want to put it to sleep, I simply want the display off when I go to bed. If I adjust the display properties to turn the display off sooner, then I'm constantly waiting for the display to kick back on when I use it during the day.

The only fn combination key I have for display is the crt/lcd switch (unless you meant the sleep key).

There should be one on there

My laptop that I had for a while it was fn+f6

like on here

(look at the f6 key)

courtesy laptopking.com

Is there any symbols like that?

 

[dbp_inSOMNiak]

Nono I think you misunderstood me. That was 2 different choices.

1. Nircmd.exe monitor off triggers like a powersave event and turns of the screen. When you move the mouse, it turns the screen back on, just like if you set powersave to turn it off after X minutes and then you move the mouse to turn it back on.

2. On my laptop, if I close the lid and connect an external monitor & keyboard/mouse, I can wake the laptop and keep the lid closed and laptop screen off. With a dummy plug, you fake an external monitor connection and the laptop screen should stay off. Or instead of closing the lid press Fn+F4 (or whatever the key combo is you use to switch between laptop screen and external monitor) to set it to external monitor only. Dummy plug = laptop screen off and laptop thinks it is outputting to external monitor.

 

[meionm]

Dell doesn't have fn key to turn off lcd. I remember my acer did but not dell.

Do a google search for freeware programs for turning off monitor.

 

[Ethre]

There isn't an fn key to turn off the lcd. There's nothing printed, but just in case I tried every combination and no go.

I understood your idea about using the dummy plug to fake an external display and letting me use fn/f8(crt/lcd) to turn the laptop display off.

However, as you mentioned, I misunderstood your reference to nircmd.exe
After rereading your post and the documentation, I went ahead and tried it - viola! it works. Thank you.

However I think I'm also going to give the dummy plug idea a go, albeit with less urgency now. For some reason (and this is probably just me imagining it) it seems that using nircmd.exe leaves the system more sensitive to mouse movement. and of course there's the fun of tinkering . . .

Anyway, my full thanks to all who have contributed.

Edit for Update: using nircmd.exe "monitor off" stops the system from locking, and using "lockws" stops the screensaver from displaying, but leaves the login screen up constantly. Is this because they bypass the normal windows processes?
Looks like dummy plug might be necessary

 

[aaaaaaaaaa]

In power options within Windows XP/Vista you can have the monitor turn off after X minutes. It will be off.... and the machine will be on.................

Isn't that what you want?

 

[Automata]

In power options within Windows XP/Vista you can have the monitor turn off after X minutes. It will be off.... and the machine will be on.................

Exactly

I'm confused why everyone is making this so much harder than it really is. My main monitors do this along with all my laptops. Never had an issue and the backlight is COMPLETELY off.

 

[Ethre]

I'm confused why everyone is making this so much harder than it really is

I know about the power settings, and have them adjusted to work great for most of the day. However, at night I'm looking to turn the monitor off before it would automatically turn off (based on my settings). Because I use my laptop on and off throughout the day, setting the power off or screensaver earlier becomes a major pain - constantly having to relogin (I keep the "on resume display login screen" option on for security/privacy reasons).

Basically, things are great except for once a night when I want to sleep but my computer doesn't get to.

 

[Automata]

I'm sure you have considered this and I missed it, but can you just close the laptop? That is also the other thing I do when I just want it to turn off

Besides that, I wonder if there is a script you can run that triggers the timer to turn off the screen.

 

[Ethre]

Is there a way to stop the laptop from going to sleep when I close the lid?
Or even better, to make it not do so specifically when its on AC power? (wishful thinking probably that)

Your comment about the script was what I had originally been thinking of when wrote the initial post. dbp_inSOMNiak's mention of nircmd.exe seem promising, however it seems to bypass the timer somehow because the system doesn't lock when you use it to turn off the screen.

 

[Automata]

Yes, with either XP or Vista, you can change what happens when you close the lid. It will be under the power options.

 

[Neuromancer]

Yes, with either XP or Vista, you can change what happens when you close the lid. It will be under the power options.

 

[Ethre]

Holy cow, I can't believe I missed that. I spent enough time looking at the power options.

Thank you to all who contributed. Thideras especially. The concept of a dark room is so . . . zzzzzzzzzzz

 

[Automata]

No problem, glad you figured it out