Laptop gets a black screen in video games

[Eddie Song]

I have an Acer Aspire 5820TG laptop, the processor is i5-480M, and the graphics card is AMD Radeon HD 6550M. I'm running Windows 7 Home 64 Bit.

Recently I've started getting a problem where my screen suddenly goes black in some video games, namely League of Legends and the Mighty Quest for Epic Loot. If I look closely I can still see some outlines and bright parts, so it looks like the back light is shutting down for some reason. It sometimes recovers in a few seconds if I keep switching windows.

However, I can play some other games just fine (namely Tomb Raider 2013 and DMC: Devil May Cry), and other activities such as word processing and browsing the web do not trigger the issue.

I'm having trouble narrowing down the issue, as I don't know what's causing it. As a last resort, I hit my laptop really hard with the palm of my hand and that didn't seem to do anything either, so I would love to hear what you guys think.

Also, I have updated my graphics drivers as well as DirectX, none of those helped. I have not made any recent modifications to my system.

 

[Tom Tancredi]

Just because one game works flawlessly doesn't mean all games are coded the same exact way. Infact all programs are programmed by NOT the same team of programmers, they don't use the same 'software' to develop the code, nor do they all use the same 'engine' that lies inside to make it the parts work in the programs. So please do not compare Word to LoL or LoL to DMC, different programmers, different code, different engines, different different different.

If the game is playing still but your backlight is giving out, are you running on battery when this is happening? This would then be the power saving kicking in to decrease the 'brightness', slow the processor and other parts to 'stretch battery life'. Otherwise I think your over heating the game at that level of the screen display, try dropping one notch in graphic details and see if still does it. Install MSI Afterburner, what sort of temps is it doing?

FYI if this is still under warranty then you need to contact ACER for support, that is why you paid that price.

 

[Eddie Song]

Just because one game works flawlessly doesn't mean all games are coded the same exact way. Infact all programs are programmed by NOT the same team of programmers, they don't use the same 'software' to develop the code, nor do they all use the same 'engine' that lies inside to make it the parts work in the programs. So please do not compare Word to LoL or LoL to DMC, different programmers, different code, different engines, different different different.

If the game is playing still but your backlight is giving out, are you running on battery when this is happening? This would then be the power saving kicking in to decrease the 'brightness', slow the processor and other parts to 'stretch battery life'. Otherwise I think your over heating the game at that level of the screen display, try dropping one notch in graphic details and see if still does it. Install MSI Afterburner, what sort of temps is it doing?

FYI if this is still under warranty then you need to contact ACER for support, that is why you paid that price.

Actually I included the games in an attempt to isolate the problem. Anyway, it's not overheating because I've had the laptop for three years and I can tell it's normal temperature just by touching it (I can monitor the temperature but I wanted to reply ASAP). The laptop was plugged in, and the problem persists even on the lowest settings. I'm suspecting that it has something to do with the game itself too, I just don't know what.

 

[Tom Tancredi]

Please listen, just because three years ago the laptop acted one way, then two years ago it was still the same way doesn't mean today it will be with the demands / way things are today. Millions more viruses have come out do you antivirus works on a HUGE more database then it did two or three years ago, the patches that are in the computer weren't there doing what they do 'differently' two or three years ago and so on.

Additional to that touching isn't the reliable method to resolve a technical issue, we would need hard numbers to compare and validate the status of things. As I said, please install and reply back with information, that will help resolve things then "wanted to reply ASAP".

Have you checked with ACER for updates? Tried Slim Drivers to make sure your Drivers ARE really up to date? The games you listed as having issues are MultiPlayer games (MP), do you have other MP games you can test and see if it repeats? TR/DMC are SinglePlayer (SP) and if all SP modes for games all work but just MP mode doesn't then could be something akin to the network slowed down on you and cause your computer to freak out what to 'display'.