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How To Manually Turn Off Notebook or Laptop LCD Screen

Posted By Raymond In Category: Computer

Jul
20
2008
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Whenever I stop using my laptop but I decide to leave it turned on, I’ll make sure that I turn off the LCD screen. Reason I do that is I think that maybe it will save a little electricity and also leave my laptop slightly cooler. The Power Options in Windows has a setting to turn off the monitor after X amount of minutes when your computer is idle. Setting it too fast can be annoying because I don’t want the screen to go off when I’m reading something. The best is to manually turn off my laptop’s LCD screen when I want to.

I have an Acer laptop which I can use the shortcut key FN + F6 to turn the LCD screen off and then by pressing any key will turn it back on. Unfortunately not every laptop as such Dell or HP has a basic button or combination key that can be used to manually turn off the LCD screen. It is also possible that the Fn key is not working and there is no way to replicate that key other than changing the whole keyboard which cost around $100.

Here is a simple and easy tool that you can use to manually turn off your laptop’s LCD screen.


There are times when you just want to listen to some music on your notebook/laptop and want the display(LCD) of your notebook to remain off while the lid is still open, while there are small amount of notebook manufacturer’s who provide this simple option of turning off the notebook’s LCD when not in use but many don’t.

Taimur Asad, developer of Turn Off LCD owns a HP DV2799 Special Edition notebook, while its a great notebook in almost every way it still lacks a basic button to switch off the display(LCD) whenever he wants to and not only this notebook but also many new & expensive notebooks lacks this option.

This has led the author developing his very own small application which turns off his notebook LCD just with one click. He wrote this application in C# using Microsoft Visual Studio 2008. It is basically a simple console based application that makes use of a DLL (User32.dll) file from Windows using System.Runtime.InteropServices namespace and then calls the required function.

Turn off laptop LCD screen

This tool is very small, only 85KB is size and no installation required. All you need to do is just run executable file “Turn Off LCD.exe” whenever you want to turn off your LCD screen. To turn on the screen, simply hit any key on your keyboard or move your mouse.

[ Download Turn Off LCD ]


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    • John

      With ati tray tool you can simple add various hotkeys, eg turn monitor off…

    • http://www.mayurjango.blogspot.com/ mayur

      very nice find Raymond ….. Thanks

    • http://www.raymond.cc/ Raymond

      @John: Didn’t know that the ATI tray tool can do that. I remove it from startup after installing the driver.

    • Ahmad Maher

      thanks … will be nice when i have a laptop :P

    • B@zSh

      Not working with Dell Vostro 1400

      Error message:
      The application failed to initialize properly (0xc0000135)

    • http://www.fully-faltoo.com Pratyush

      Niche, I usually leave some download work going on in the background when I go off to sleep, however it is the dim light from the laptop LCD is annoying. Using it will solve that one.

      Thanks for sharing a cool trick.

    • http://www.raymond.cc/ Raymond

      B@zSh, are you using Vista? or XP?

    • ammaro

      you are great Raymond i was just wondering how to do that because yesterday i connected my HP laptop to BenQ external LCD 19 inch which is biger than laptop’s monitor and i wanted to turn off my laptop LCD but i could not..

    • Amirz

      Thx Raymond. it looks very useful especially for my laptop. i will give it a try. btw I have Toshiba Satellite A-105 S4384 LCD Wide Screen 15″, with (dual booting) OS Xp MCE 2005 Sp3 and/or Vista Ultimate SP1. Hopefully it works/supports also

    • Borv

      Just a tip:

      When you extract the .exe file; right-click on it and create a shortcut. Then right-click on the new shortcut file and click properties. Then under the shortcut tab find “Shortcut Key” – there you can create a keyboard shortcut starting with CTRL+ALT.

      Now you can use your keyboard to turn off the LCD!!! For me, i just press CTRL+ALT+5 and my LCD will turn off!!!!

      (See: http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/help/52f853fe-de4d-4924-bfc0-0373fcf862391033.mspx)

      ——————————————-

      Thanks for this great catch Raymond!!!!

    • Heidern

      Thanks! I have put a shortcut in my tray for easy access.

      I also find this one pretty useful:

      http://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Skrommel/index.html#MonitorOffSaver

      If you dont need eyecandy as screensaver (like me) you can use this to turn your monitor off after a certain time. ;)

    • Eugene

      Thanks a lot. it works like a charm.

    • Ohidul

      Thanks works excellent.

    • http://www.planetmy.com Planet Malaysia

      I did that by using Microsoft Power Management tools.

    • B@zSh

      @ Raymond

      I use Dell Vostro 1400…Windows XP Pro

    • Michael

      Thanks

    • Simon

      Thanks, this is an awesome tool – I’ve been looking for something like this for a while and it’s just what I needed!

    • bovine

      I imagine u have heard of the great steve gibson ray?

      check out the tiny wizmo app for this

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

    • http://earncent.com/blog titan

      honestly, i never know about this one. I think i need to give a try. :D

      Thanks for sharing with us.

    • http://djpianz.blogspot.com djpianz

      Usually, I just use Vista power management setting to “do nothing” when I close the laptop lid. Then I just close the lid and my laptop will function normally without going to stanby or whatsoever mode, and of course the LCD will turn off when you close the lid..

    • Sumatra

      Dell Latitude D830 w/ XP Pro

      Error message:
      The application failed to initialize properly (0xc0000135)

    • Marcus

      Nice tool – Good to have.

      For the error “The application failed to initialize properly (0xc0000135)”, is something due to .net framework, by installing version 3, will solve.

    • Matthew Maltby

      Works also with CRT monitors to save power! Nice one!

    • soumya mandi

      thanx for this wonderful program..

    • http://VostroMan Vostro Man

      Works great on my Vostro 1500 (Vista)! Thanks a lot; it’s just what I was looking for!

    • Paul

      It works sometimes but sometimes the display comes back on immediately afterwards. I am sure I am not disturbing it after I activate the program. I am using Vista.

    • http://www.plencovich.com Diego Plencovich
    • ja

      Thanks, works great ! (Toshiba Satellite A200)

    • Nick

      Great app, very useful!!!

    • http://ThanksMan Luke K.

      Thanks man, Ive been looking around all day how to do this. I download a lot of stuff that takes a lot of time. I wanted to figure out how to turn off my screen so it wouldn’t burn out because I heard laptop LCD Screens aren’t as durable as Desktop LCD Monitors. They are pretty frail from what I here.

      Big Thanks.

    • http://cano.romandre.com MacCano

      What a speech only for a small app…XDDD

      Bravo!

    • Arraval

      Cool tool but it does not work for more than aprox. 5 seconds when having an audio chat by messenger.

    • jp

      thanks!!!!

    • Megan Butler

      Thanks so much for this, it works great! (Dell XPS 1530)

    • Gaurav Sachan

      Hi All,

      Without any disrespect to Raymond\’s tool, I would like to tell the users that Windows too have this feature even though the different laptops might not have an exclusive key for it. Go to Display Properties –>Screensaver –>Power–>Turn Off Monitor and then select after how much time you want your monitor to be turned off (min. is 1 min)

      Regards
      Gaurav

    • juju

      Thanks a lot!.

    • Nano

      Works great. Thanks! (HP 530 – Windows Server 2008)

    • Zenvidia

      No disrespect to the author Raymond and his nice program. It serves its intended purpose but the program does not allow to lock the screen and then switch off the monitor.

      However, the method suggested by djpianz (July 24th, 2008 at 9:00 pm) is easy, flexible and of course it works on all notebooks.

      In Windows Vista, right click on the desktop->Personalize->Screen Saver->Change power settings->Choose what closing the lid does. Select “Do nothing” for both the ‘On battery’ and ‘Plugged in’ modes. Then click on Save changes. Simple isn’t it…

      When we close the laptop lid the LCD simply powers off. It does not goto standby or hybernate. We can even lock the sytem and then close the lid. When we open the lid, it simply goes back to the login screen. If you just closed it without locking then it just goes back to the desktop. If you are downloading or listening to the music, it continues to work fine. Make sure you have not set any screensaver with a lock option. Else it will prompt you to login.

      FYI, tested this simple method on Lenovo Thinkpad T400, HP 6530b, Compaq 6510b and HP Pavillion DV9704tv all running on various flavors of Vista and works just fine. I think this is OS feature and not specific to any brand or model.

      People, please understand that even the most complex prolems have simple solutions. Not just programs… everything including life.

      Peace!

    • kotpierdzibonk

      Dear Zenvidia, If I had to close the lid every time I want to turn off my screen the hinges would’ve come off already. So go and spread your wisdom elsewhere. Yes, there are simple solutions to some problems, and one can be downloaded from here. Thanx Raymond for this find!

    • JeezyPeachy

      Works a treat on Dell 1545

    • http://ukanth.in Umakanthan

      You can use MonitorES ( http://code.google.com/p/monitores )

    • laptopusertom

      This man is a complete legend for creating this :P

    • Robert

      Doesnt work well. Sometimes, screen only turns off for like 2 sec, and comes back on. not very reliable to work with

    • Rob

      I also get “The application failed to initialize properly (0xc0000135). Click OK to terminate the application.” I’m running Windows XP on an oldish Dell 9300.

    • http://- Dario

      hi guy’s …

      I have one question … did maybe exist tool for switch off monitor but when you want turn it on again you must press some hotkey … for example “Ctrl+Alt+O”

      you know what I mean?

      I don’t want turn it on with mouse or with any key on keyboard, I want make this with “hotkey” … can I find somethin similar somewhere, or can somebody make this tool ;-)?

    • aibo78

      Another tool is TurnOffScreen http://sites.google.com/site/turnoffscreen/ you can use it as a screensaver that turns off the monitor, or you can manually turn it off using a button it installs into the quick launch bar.

    • bajerk

      great tool,thought after i run it screen goes black and then gets active again ..but if run as admininstrator this is solved too

    • Trevor

      I’ve always hated how laptop screens glare even with black screensavers etc. I love this, thanks Raymond

    • Ryan

      This program is really useful, working on Windows 7 100%

    • Hugo

      Hi, I’m using a lenovo laptop, and I can’t turn the monitor back on after running the programme!!! Somebody help me!

    • Hugo

      Wait, now when I run the programme,the monitor turns on by itself without touching. I tried to unplug the mouse, but still the same.

    • NTKANIT

      HP Pavilion dv2000, works great.!! THANKS

    • http://Hi... Ravi pottella

      Its a great application.simple to use.Thanks a lot.

      Turn off screen by closing lid is not a better option as suggested by many because it is heating up touch pad area and more over we cant hear to songs when lid is closed as speaker is inside. yours application is very useful.

      Ravi

    • bobbafet

      thanx, good app! marcus thanks for the net frame-advice! :) only the shortcut keys are not working, if I try to use them, the monitor turns off and after that turns on immediately :(

    • bobbafet

      dell vostro 1015, win xp pro sp3

    • kusumataruwana

      so great…. thanks…. 100 usefull!!

    • LeoneJalbert

      bajerk
      October 5th, 2009 at 5:57 am 47
      great tool,thought after i run it screen goes black and then gets active again ..but if run as admininstrator this is solved too

      replied: Thanks alot!!!!

    • Dad2Js

      Thanks man, good job.
      App runs fine on my Dell Studio 1555/Windows 7.
      Put the exe in a folder and right click it, send to desktop as a shortcut which you drag to the task bar. Delete the desktop shortcut and the little icon looks like part of the OS.
      Nice!

    • Thomas

      Thank you so much for pointing out this app.

      It works perfectly with my LG CRT monitor.

    • Haris Ahmed

      Thanks buddy….
      It works perfectly with my hp laptop…

    • andy

      thanks so much, i can now listen to my audio books on wmp at night, without the bright screen waking up the wife. 5*

    • Mayuresh

      thanks alot!

    • dc

      If the lcd screen keeps coming back on, try unplugging your wireless mouse; it worked for me. thanks!

    • Hartley

      Brilliant Redmond! I recently built a desktop with an ASUS M4A89GTD Pro/USB3 Motherboard. The Windows 7 Ultimate Power settings worked at first then stopped working to shut the monitor off after a set time. I was searching your Blog Site for a remedy. Came across your tiny TurnOffLCD program. After placing a shortcut from Program Files in the Win7 taskbar it works better and is more useful that the Power Timer in Windows7. It is important to conserve energy and this applies to not just Laptops.

      I have been a subscriber to RaymondCC for years and am constantly learning from your wealth of knowledge. Thank you for your efforts and the valuable information you provide. This is my first post here after all these years.

      Again Sir Thanks you are absolutely BRILLIANT :-)

    • hari

      Great! Work on my Dell Latitude D620. Thx a lot.

    • AJ

      Awesome. Just what I was looking for. Thanks.

    • pp

      works well on dell inspiron 14. thanks a lot

    • Henry

      This app is awesome!

    • http://air-war.org CHOPPERGIRL

      No help at all if you run… linux

    • Vlad

      Thank you mate, I am looking for a long time for such an app. I am using HP6820s, and it works great.
      Regards

    • Hp-user

      Thanks. Been searching for this for a long time now. Works great with HP 6735b

    • Eugene

      SO COOL! Just what I was looking for!
      Thank!
      Now how to assign keyboard shortcut for it to instant use it on my HP nc2400?

    • Zee

      Thanks it works wonderfully and so easy :) Vista 32, Sony Vaio

    • http://productivelylazy.wordpress.com Sriram

      Thanks a lot.. Works perfectly.. Dell Studio 1558..

    • Mukesh

      Thanks buddy. Was looking for such a shortcut for long. Thanks a lot.

    • Marshall

      Great idea just what I was looking for. Unfortunately I am running a batch file, every time it runs the monitor turns back on.

    • http://nimmala.net Nimmala

      I’ve pinned this to my taskbar (drag n drop) on windows 7. Just 1 click on the taskbar icon… easy!!!
      Thanks for this.. <3 from Vostro V13.

    • Glen

      Awesome! Worked like a charm on my HP laptop. Very easy to install and easy to operate…just double click the icon.

      I have my laptop on my coffee table right in front of the TV and the screen is a huge distraction. When I play video games I like to have some light music on and the screen will distract every time…until now! I can’t believe the makers of these machines don’t include an easier way to do this. Mr. Asad thank you for this very essential piece of programing. I hope to see more of your talent in the future.

      Thank you again,

      Glen

    • xee

      just what i needed, works perfectly, thank you!

    • arch

      thank you!

    • hunk

      still if it doesn’t work in XP follow these steps

      right click on the file go to compatibility in that check the “disable visual themes” box. works fine…..!!!
      enjoy!!!

    • Ryan

      It works on my Toshiba Satelite, but the problem is that for quite a while after I wake the screen back up, it has lots of lines flashing across the screen. I thought it was stuck that way the first time as it does this for between 10 and 20 minutes.

    • Ankit M

      Working well, thanks

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_LMZU4YVOW36VXKV4BDW6PIXTAE Sasha

      it doesn’t work on hp 630.after 1 second the screen back up :( help please

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