Question What the heck is going on?!? Connecting to TV via HDMI Issue

[chuuse]

My moms laptop has been connected to the TV via (I'll give them numbers for ease) hdmi 1. Twice before the tv screen has turned black and after some finagling with no concrete reason the screen would light up again. This third time though I can't for the life of me figure out what is wrong. The laptop works with my secondary monitor with hdmi 1 and another hdmi 2. My own laptop connects to the tv with hdmi 1 and hdmi 2. I'v thrown in a third hdmi cable for the hell of it with nothing but the black tv screen to show for it. Normally, when the tv is connected to nothing, "no signal" shows up, in the case of my moms laptop being connected to it, "no signal" disappears and I just checked the sound which works through the tv speakers so something is happening. And yes, I've run through the external, duplicate, pc screen only...etc options. Sooooo....now the only thing I can think of is a weird driver issue with the laptop but that still doesn't explain why it works with my monitor?
Alright...well any help is appreciated!
The tv itself is old, over a decade old and normally I would call it and say its not worth the hassle but clearly its not as simple as the tv just being past its prime

 

[kerberos_20]

if you conect anything else to your TV with hdmi, does it show picture?
usualy black screen from pc to tv means signal quality is garbage due to long cable

 

[chuuse]

if you conect anything else to your TV with hdmi, does it show picture?
usualy black screen from pc to tv means signal quality is garbage due to long cable

Yes, I've connected my own laptop to it and the tv extends the display. Sound and picture work fine, so I don't think its an issue of the cable being too long unfortunately

 

[chuuse]

S

Yes, I've connected my own laptop to it and the tv extends the display. Sound and picture work fine, so I don't think its an issue of the cable being too long unfortunately

**for clarity. Sound and picture work fine with my own laptop using multiple hdmi cables

 

[cryoburner]

Yes, I've connected my own laptop to it and the tv extends the display. Sound and picture work fine, so I don't think its an issue of the cable being too long unfortunately

How long is the cable though? If the cables you are testing are very long, it's possible that it might potentially be an issue of something causing degradation of the signal on the laptop's end, or weakened reception on the television's end, that might not affect other devices. It could be worth testing with with a more standard-length cable if that were the case.

You might also try reducing the resolution to a lower supported resolution (like 1080p or 720p if you are currently using 4K) to test whether a signal can get through.

 

[chuuse]

How long is the cable though? If the cables you are testing are very long, it's possible that it might potentially be an issue of something causing degradation of the signal on the laptop's end, or weakened reception on the television's end, that might not affect other devices. It could be worth testing with with a more standard-length cable if that were the case.

You might also try reducing the resolution to a lower supported resolution (like 1080p or 720p if you are currently using 4K) to test whether a signal can get through.

 

[chuuse]

Hello to kerberos_20 and cryoburner, I admit my error in being too quick to assume it wasn't a cable length issue 😢 I have just returned from a long awaited best buy trip with a 3 ft cable and the problem has, in fact, been rectified much to my chagrin 😅 So thank you for your replies.
ps. I was using a 6ft cable btw and didn't think much of it... just in case anyone else finds themselves with a similar issue
👍