External monitor, occasional blink off, then back on

[dangillmor]

With 12.04, I'm running a Sansung external monitor (digital connection via DisplayPort) from Thinkpad x220, and periodically the screen goes black for a half-second or so. This is unpredictable but happens often enough to be annoying. Any thoughts on what may be happening?

[tobydeemer]

This is also happening for me, using 12.04 on ThinkPad T510, nvidia graphics using the nouveau driver. The proprietary driver was breaking my screen font rendering, so I removed it. The blinking issue started after that.

[schryer]

I have a samsung 530U3B where the external display occasionally blinks on and off. I have tried updating the kernel, changing the refresh rates, and searched for the solution and/or diagnosis for many hours.

If anyone has an idea how to diagnose this problem, please let us know.

[_sequoia]

A while ago this happened while I was giving a presentation: external monitor "disconnected" and reconnected every 30-60 seconds, causing both the external and integrated displays to turn off, as happens when one connects a monitor or changes screen resolution.

Thinkpad T530 with Nvidia, I was using Bumblebee to enable/disable it as needed but finally disabled the Nvidia graphics card completely from BIOS. This did not fix the issue. Effect is I cannot use an external monitor nor give presentations from my computer. Very sad.