Built-in display issues caused by movement

Question

Our organization has purchased close to 500 Latitude 5500, 5510, and 5520 laptops over the past 2 years. All 3 models have a very common issue that Dell support has never been able to diagnose, and I can't find any discussions of this issue online anywhere.

The issue is that the built-in display will often just turn off while the computer is in use. We usually see this when the laptop is first booted, but since I work at a help desk, we often see this issue when a user carries their laptop to our area for assistance with a different issue.

When we lift the laptop off the desk, the display will usually come back on immediately, but sometimes, we need to tilt the laptop back and forth before the display comes back on. Often, when we set the laptop back down on the desk, the display will go off again. It usually takes multiple cycles of lifting the laptop from the desk and setting it back down before the display will stay on. Sometimes, we have better luck if we set the laptop where the back end rests on a pencil where the keyboard tray stays slightly tilted toward the user.

Usually, there is no detectible movement in the hinge when we are lifting and tilting the laptop, but we're still unsure whether the display going on and off is due to a sensor within the hinge or if there is some type of accelerometer in the laptop that is triggering this behavior.

Another inconsistency is that this behavior sometimes will cause Windows to return to the lock screen as if the computer has resumed from sleep and requires a sign in. Other times, the display will come back on with whatever the user was looking at before the screen shut off.

TNich7115 · Accepted Answer

It appears that our issue was caused by stacking the laptops. I forgot about this thread until the reply this morning, but I had found another forum and confirmed through support that this was the likely cause of the issue.

It was explained to me that there are magnetic sensors in the top and bottom halves of the laptop that detect when the laptop lid is closed. When stacked, the sensor in the lid of the bottom laptop could trigger the sensor in the base of the top laptop and shut the laptop display off as if the lid were closed.

We still occasionally stack laptops for convenience and desk space, but we make sure to offset the back hinges. This has greatly reduced the number of times where we've seen the displays shut off while using the laptops.

JOcean · Answer

I find it hard to believe that all 500 may have the same problem but if I had to guess my first thought would be lid switch problems. I guess it may be possible if a batch of problem switches found their way into systems around the same time. I have also read about problems caused by users that had a piece of jewelry, etc. with a magnetic clasp that triggered the switches. Again a bit off the wall but possible. Another thought could be a problem with the Free Fall sensor.

TNich7115 · Answer

I didn't mean that all of the computer had this issue, but we've probably seen it on over 100 of the laptops across all 3 models.

We just received our first batch of 5520's. Out of the first two that we opened to start configuring, one of them is having the display issue described in my original post. At one point while I was working on the computer with an external monitor and the laptop being completely stationary on the desk, both screens went blank. The external monitor quickly came back on, but it took several minutes of tilting the laptop in multiple directions before the internal display came on again.

DELL-Chris M · Answer

We request you to use the systems without placing one on top of other system and test for some time and let us know the outcome.DELL-Cares

K-Man3 · Answer

I find it very interesting that you suggest not placing the systems on top of one another because I have a stack of Latitude 5520's on my desk and I am setting them up while they are stacked and every once in awhile, the screens go black and if I tilt the screen it will come back on.  I then have to lift the laptop totally up into the air away from the other laptop and put it back down and it seems fine then.  I will try setting these up without them being stacked to see if that is what is causing the issue.

K-Man3 · Answer

Wow, I never thought the issue was going to be because I had the laptops stacked on one another but I'm so glad that is the issue and not my image being corrupted!  So I guess the issue is the laptop sitting on top of another laptop is maybe reading the lid of the laptop below it being closed so it shuts off the screen?  Glad the fix was easy!  Now I can get back to deploying these laptops instead of having to call up Dell Support about this weird issue!

George ATU · Answer

I have the same issue with my 5540 laptop. need to flip and shake to get back the display to the proper version

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Built-in display issues caused by movement

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