I’ve been in your shoes. When your Acer laptop powers on, the lights glow, and the fans spin, but the screen stays pitch black. That’s frustrating, especially when you need to accomplish tasks.
Is it a hardware fault, a rogue driver, or something else?
In this article, I’ll walk you through real-world fixes like power resets, external monitor testing, Safe Mode, BIOS updates, and malware scans. You’ll learn what works, what doesn’t, and how to recover fast.
Part 1. Power Reset: Your complete
A complete power reset can often clear the glitches causing you to boot without a display.
Step-by-step guide:
Shut down completely by holding the power button for 10–15 seconds
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Unplug the AC adapter and all connected devices.
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If possible, remove the battery.
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Press and hold the power button for 20–30 seconds to drain residual charge.
Reinstall the battery (if removed) and reconnect the adapter.
Power it on normally.
Why this works: Residual charge can lock hardware states or drivers. Draining it resets the system.
Part 2. Use Function Keys to Refresh Display
Toggling BIOS display settings can solve a backlight or GPU mode issue.
How to do it:
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Start the laptop.
When the Acer logo appears, press the keys F2, F9, F10, then Enter.
When prompted, select Exit → Yes to restart.
Why it helps: It resets BIOS or display configurations, often fixing a non-responsive screen after sleep or software updates.
Part 3. Test with an External Monitor
Isolate whether the issue is with your screen or the laptop’s system.
Connect an external display (monitor or TV) via HDMI/VGA.
Power the laptop and the external screen.
If nothing shows, press F4 repeatedly to switch display modes.
If the external display works, your laptop screen, backlight, cable, or driver might be at fault.
If it stays black: The problem likely lies in the motherboard, GPU, or BIOS.
Part 4. Boot into Safe Mode
Safe Mode loads minimal drivers and helps isolate software causes.
Force-shut down thrice during boot to trigger the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE)
In WinRE:
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Go to Troubleshoot → Advanced options → Startup Settings → Restart.
Press F5 for Safe Mode with Networking.
Once in Safe Mode:
Open Device Manager, expand Display Adapters, select your GPU, and uninstall it if you suspect.
Restart; Windows will auto-install a basic driver.
Why this matters: In many cases, the black screen after login is caused by a corrupted or incompatible graphics driver.
Part 5. Update the BIOS
A BIOS update can resolve hardware initialization issues, including backlight or display detection problems.
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From Safe Mode or Windows, visit Acer’s official support page for your laptop.
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Download the latest BIOS update (firmware).
Close all apps, run the BIOS installer, and follow on-screen instructions.
Reboot and check if your screen returns.
Why this helps: BIOS controls the very basics of display initialization. Updates can fix regression bugs.
Part 6. Scan for Viruses and Malware
Sometimes a virus can corrupt display drivers or system files, causing black screens.
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Reboot into Safe Mode with Networking.
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Download and install a lightweight antivirus (e.g., Malwarebytes, Avast).
Run a full scan and clean or quarantine any threats.
Reboot in normal mode and test.
Why this matters: Malware often injects or breaks crucial driver files or Windows components.
WPS Office – Keep Working Even When the Screen Fails
During repair, you might be using another device or an external monitor. WPS Office ensures your productivity isn’t lost:
Writer, Spreadsheet, Presentation, PDF tools, all for free.
Lightweight and cloud-ready, it works smoothly on backup devices.
Scan, convert, annotate, and encrypt everything you need to stay productive during interruptions.
My experience: When my Acer’s display failed mid-project, I switched to WPS Office on a borrowed device. It loaded instantly, flawlessly opened all my Word and PPT files, and I didn’t lose a beat.
Trends in WPS 2025: Accelerating Productivity with AI-Powered Tools
In 2025, WPS Office transformed into an AI-centric productivity platform to boost efficiency across writing, presentations, PDFs, spreadsheets, and more. Here are the key trends to watch.
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WPS AI has become the hub of intelligent office workflows. It features an AI Toolbox for generating documents, refining writing, translating text, summarizing PDFs, and automating spreadsheet insights.
Behind the scenes, WPS uses Amazon Bedrock’s foundation models to power advanced slide creation, grammar correction, and content rewriting, rolled out globally across 220 regions.
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With AI Slides, creating presentations is faster than ever. You simply provide a topic or document, and WPS delivers a ready-to-use slide deck with layouts and visuals in seconds, saving hours on formatting.
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WPS supports real-time translation in over 100 languages, preserving your document’s original formatting. Parallel translation in PPT, DOC, XLS, PDF, and TXT lets you view source and translation side by side—ideal for cross-language collaboration.
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Thanks to enhanced OCR capabilities, PDF editing is more powerful. You can extract text and images, fill interactive forms, digitally sign documents, and even converse with PDF content via AI Document Reader and Snap Reader. These updates streamline workflows and improve document handling. Check academy.wps.com for reference.
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WPS AI is gearing up to revolutionize spreadsheet work. Future tools like Data Insights will instantly analyze tables, generate charts, write formulas, and summarize complex datasets—perfect for finance, research, and business reporting.
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The integrated WPS Photos app now includes AI-powered background removal, object erasing, template designs, and high-quality printing tools, eliminating the need for separate image-editing software.
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WPS supports a suite of add-ons to enhance your work: PDF-to-Word conversion, macro automation, advanced data visualizations, e-signatures, cloud integration, and grammar checking. These deliver innovative enhancements for any task.
FAQs
Why is my Acer laptop screen black, but the power light remains on?
That typically means a corrupted display driver, a BIOS glitch, or a hardware fault, such as a faulty cable or backlight.
Can I use an external monitor to test the issue?
Yes, connect via HDMI/VGA and press F4 to toggle. If the external display works, your laptop's built-in screen is likely at fault.
Is this software or hardware related?
Often it's software, drivers, BIOS, or malware. But if there's no output on external monitors or BIOS screens, hardware like the panel or GPU may be damaged.
