Share via

How do I turn the screen off?

Anonymous
2012-01-28T14:20:02+00:00

I have recently bought a Toshiba Regza PC partly to replace my TV/DVD player, so it's sitting in my living room. My laptop's sound quality is atrocious, so I'm also using the Regza to play music streamed from my laptop.

I had assumed that I could leave the monitor switched off while playing music, but since it's an all-in-one unit, it doesn't seem to have a separate switch for the monitor - the power switch shuts down the whole thing. There is a "Screen Off" button (on the remote control), but that turns the sound off, too. I don't want the monitor glaring at me while I'm listening to music, so I'm trying to find the option in Windows that lets me blank the monitor without muting the sound. Loads of features seem to get me ALMOST there, but I can't quite seem to go the last mile.

Method 1 - Eco Mode:

The Toshiba keyboard has an "eco mode" button next to the "mute" button, to switch to "low power" mode. This is basically what I want to do, but while the settings allow me to configure it to set the screen brightness to low levels, they don't allow me to set it to ZERO. So I can make the screen darker, but not black. (A shame because this button seems ideal, not least as "vision off" is the obvious complement to "mute"!)

Method 2 - Power Options:

I changed the power settings to turn off the display after one minute (the minimum - not ideal but would be acceptable). The screen is then normally off, but for some reason, as soon as I start streaming music from my laptop, the screen comes back on and stays on, even if Media Player is minimized. (Why?!!)

Method 3 - Screensaver:

I tried setting a blank screensaver to come on after one minute (the minimum), but this also disappears as soon as I start streaming music .

What am I missing? How turn the screen off in Windows 7, preferably immediately? (It was so easy when monitors had their own power switches...!)

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Accessibility

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments

Answer accepted by question author

  1. Anonymous
    2012-03-23T09:39:02+00:00

    Try*3: Thanks, this was the best native solution so far, however it would mean that I couldn't then have a normal screensaver. Also, having a black or blank-ish screen is less ideal than simply having the power to the monitor screen turned off like the eco-utility does.

    When it eventually became clear that Windows doesn't offer any access to that functionality, I found a third-party program called Wizmo which does the job fine.

    http://www.grc.com/wizmo/wizmo.htm

    With this I can make an icon which simply turns the screen off, without having to alter any other functions. I can't understand why this facility isn't included in Windows, but hey ho.

    0 comments

5 additional answers

Sort by: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2012-01-29T09:40:14+00:00

    Hi,

    Which media player are you using?

    If you are using Windows Media Player, then I would suggest you to enable Allow Screen saver while playback and check if it helps.

    Follow the steps to enable Screen saver while playback:

    a.       Open Windows Media Player.

    b.      Click Organize and click options.

    c.       Click the Player tab.

    d.      Check the option “Allow screen saver during playback”

    e.      Click Apply and Ok.

    If you are using any other media player, then it would be better to contact the manufacturer of the media player for further assistance.

    Hope the information is helpful.

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2012-02-04T13:44:26+00:00

    You could set & remove the checkbox suggested depending on whether you are playing videos or audio.

    You can also set up an instant screensaver.  I think that is what you want.  This is how I did the same thing.

    1  I found the screensavers in C:\Windows\System32 and made a shortcut to PhotoScreensaver.scr [which was automatically placed on my desktop]

    2 I found a blank-ish desktop background picture that was fairly black by going to Personalization, Desktop background & right-clicking one of them to see where they were located.  I copied the blank-ish black-ish background image file I wanted to a dummy folder so it was the only file in it.

    3 I then set the Control panel, Personalization to bring up the Photo screensaver every 600 hours [as I don't use it under normal condiitons] & told it to show every photo in the dummy folder.

    4 I now get the blank-ish screen image by double-clicking the shortcut [but it also blanks out any extended display on a connected external monitor as well if that is a consideration].

    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2012-02-04T12:19:09+00:00

    Hello Yariv_H,

    What happens if we remove the check from the box suggested by Basith?

    Also, if there are any other media players on the system, we should check for similar settings within them.

    Let us know.

    Best regards,

    Matthew_Ha

    0 comments
  4. Anonymous
    2012-01-29T13:04:37+00:00

    Darn... I thought this was the answer, but if I check that option, the screensaver will keep starting up when I'm watching videos. Nice try though!

    0 comments