Alienware Area-51 LCD Goes Black or is Distorted After Plugging and Unplugging Monitor

Summary: The internal LCD panel of an Alienware Area-51 may go black or experience distortion when an external monitor is repeatedly plugged in and then unplugged.

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Symptoms

The LCD panel of an Alienware 16 Area-51 AA16250 or Alienware 18 Area-51 AA18250 may intermittently go black or experience distortion. This can only occur when the computer has Discrete graphics mode set after disabling Hybrid mode from the BIOS. The issue is seen when an external monitor is repeatedly plugged in and then unplugged from the HDMI or USB Type-C port.

Affected Platforms:

  • Alienware 16 Area-51 AA16250
  • Alienware 18 Area-51 AA18250

Cause

The brightness settings of the monitor do not activate when it is hot plugged into the computer.

Resolution

Updating to NVIDIA graphics driver version 32.0.15.7290, A01 or later on the computer resolves the issue. To download and install the driver, refer to How to Download and Install Dell Drivers and Firmware.

Affected Products

Alienware 16 Area-51 AA16250, Alienware 18 Area-51 AA18250
Article Properties
Article Number: 000305461
Article Type: Solution
Last Modified: 02 Sep 2025
Version:  3
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