I have bee running EW 6 on a Dell laptop with I5 chip ad Windows 11 for about two years. About three weeks ago, the extended screen and the laptop screen both started going black for 2 or 3 seconds before coming back on. I have updated OS on laptop, checked all cable connections and even swapped the laptop out with another one which I use for EW6 So far, problem has not been fixed. I checked all video settings on laptop, swapped out a HDMI cable and also took the Kramer switcher/scaler out of the system. If the black screen lasts long enough I get a "no signal" error message on the extended screen, which is a 86-inch LG TV.  No luck.

Has anyone had this problem or figured out what to do.

It sounds like a hardware failure or overheating issue. You can try cleaning it out to see if that helps. Also you might try re-pasting the CPU and the GPU chip inside the laptop. What GPU does it have and what i5 does it have. There are 14 generations of i5 cpus, and not all of them are capable of running EW.

I suspected overheating as well. However, the problem occurs soon after start-up. It doesn't have time to get up much heat. I swapped out laptops and the replacement also had the issue, but not as much.

The laptop I am trying to use has Windows 11 home, I5 chip 1135G7 running at 2.42 GHz. Graphics card is Intel Iris X3 graphics.

I know this is a lightweight machine for this application, but it has worked successfully for last 18 months.

I swapped out the laptop I used at home and it also had the issue, just not as much. It is a Dell G15 gaming computer. System says graphics card is Intel R UHD graphics but sticker on the keyboard says Nvidia Geforce GTX. CPU is I5-10500 running at 2.5 GHz. Windows 11 Home.

Both of these machines have been used at our church to run EW 6 in the past.

Thanks for your timely reply.

Billy Ray McKelvy

If it's happening with multiple computers then it's either an issue with the HDMI port on the TV or the HDMI cable itself. Remember that HDMI has a lmit of 25 to 30 FEET with a standard HDMI cable. To run further than that you need either an Active HDMI Cable (2nd choice, but only up to about 50 feet) or HDMI over Ethernet cable using Booster Amps (there will be a transmitter by the computer and another one at the TV, You would be using short HDMI cables between the boxes and the devices (TV and computer) and ethernet between the two boxes. 

Basically that is a hardware issue, not a software issue. And before you state that it worked before so why isn't it now, that is one of the symptoms of running longer HDMI cables. They may work for a while, but then start acting as you describe. The laptop's screen will also go out for a bit when the HDMI to the TV goes out, but it should come back on.  

Thanks.  We are using the HDMI to Ethernet converter to cover the distance.. HDMI cables are short. I have replaced one but will keep swapping out the rest. The TV is large and high on the wall, not easy to get to but I plan to try a different HDMI port. I agree that it’s a network issue and I will keep after it. Thanks for the help..

BRM