Monitors "blank" after closing

Crashing eM Client
1

When I close eMClient my monitors blank out, simulating power off/energy save… After they complete their “blank”, moving the mouse “wakes” the monitors back up. (Just like Control Panel/Power Plan/Turn Off Display after X Minutes…)

I have run a diagnostic on my Memory and there are no problems. The RAM usage does not appear to be abnormal (no apparent memory leak). The size of my database is around 1GB.

I have reinstalled eMClient to no avail. Running version 10.3.1738. Problem started somewhere around last update or the update before. Didn’t note it at the time…

This only occurs after the program has been running for at least approx. 2 to 3 hours…

I have updated/re-installed latest Graphics drivers.

This does not happen with any other program.

Windows 10 Pro, Dual Monitors, AMD Ryzen 9 9900x, GTX 1660 Super.

Can anyone help?

2

I’ve been noticing the same thing. I didn’t realize it was related to the amount of time that eM Client was open. After reading your post, I closed eM Client (had just opened it a few minutes before) and my screen did not go blank. So I can confirm the behavior you reported.

It’s been happening for a few days now, I think since the most recent update to the program. The first time it happened, I thought that the PC had crashed or that the monitor had died, but was relieved when the display came back.

I’m using eM Client 10.3.1738 on a Windows 10 Home system.

3

Thanks for confirming. In a way, I’m glad to see I’m not the only one.

Before I posted here, I looked all over to find a solution. I even looked for similar occurrences with other programs besides eMClient and found nothing… So far it appears as though you and I are the only one’s experiencing, or at least documenting, this behavior. Maybe others haven’t noticed because they don’t leave the client open for long enough.

I’m hopeful that others will confirm this behavior, too. If so, maybe someone at eMClient will pick this up and look at it.

FWIW, I do have a paid license, but I don’t subscribe to their yearly “VIP Support”, so the support I did get with that older “Pro” license has long since expired…

4

Update:

Have been updated to latest eMClient version 10.3.2040 for about a week. However, Instead of the 2-3 hour timeframe, the blanking problem now happens after about 40 minutes…

Since my first post, I have also performed a Windows In-Place Upgrade. I most likely won’t be doing a fresh install, though.

Also, I have eMClient installed on 2 other PCs. Out of the 3 total installations, 2 of them exhibit this behavior (1 is the PC I first wrote about with a licensed copy, the other is a 11 year old Intel laptop with the free version of the client installed), the other doesn’t (12th Gen Intel Desktop).

I guess on a positive note, I don’t have to physically turn my monitors off anymore. I can just close eMClient and walk away… I didn’t see it outlined in any of the recent changelogs, but maybe this is an intentional feature…

Will update if there are any further developments.

5

Thanks for the update.

Reading your original post more closely, I realized that your problem was actually worse than mine. My issue was that the screen would go dark but then come back up on its own after a few seconds.

That may be changing, though. Last night when I closed eM Client, the screen went dark again, but this time the monitor didn’t wake back up until I jiggled the mouse. (I’m still on version 10.3.1738.)

Will keep you posted. Let’s hope that the developers are monitoring the forum.

6

Well, I hope this update finds your emClient in better shape than mine. Instead of worsening!

As for me, I have just discovered a new “feature” of the bug that may help someone, someday diagnose the problem.

As long as emClient has been open the requisite amount of time, switching to a new theme causes the screen blackout blanking issue. I discovered this by switching from the pre-loaded Dark theme to a community theme. I’ll try some other pre-loaded and community themes, too, and update if there are any developments.

For the record, the requisite time the program needs to be open before the blackout happens now seems to be back to happening only after approximately 2 hours.

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@Michael_Premo

When I close eMClient my monitors blank out, simulating power off/energy save… After they complete their “blank”, moving the mouse “wakes” the monitors back up. (Just like Control Panel/Power Plan/Turn Off Display after X Minutes…).

Problem started somewhere around last update or the update before. Didn’t note it at the time.

eM Client updating in Windows wouldn’t normally make any difference.

As long as emClient has been open the requisite amount of time, switching to a new theme causes the screen blackout blanking issue.

I personally carn’t replicate monitor screen blanking with any eM Client theme or community user theme after exiting / closing eM Client Windows 10 & 11 running resolutions of eg: Full HD, 2K and 4K. I don’t have 8K to test that. Others on this forum who do can advise on that.

However as you do have this blanking issue exiting eM Client, then “if you originally installed eM Client directly from the website”, try downloading the latest V10.3.2619 for Windows via the release history page below link, and see if that makes any difference as there was updates recently for specific dark themes.mainly though only with message rendering and not this issue.

Note: Close eM Client before updating and also make a manual backup via “Menu / Backup” before updating in case you need to restore for any reason. You can see when the backup is complete in Show Operations via clicking the drop-down on the right of Refresh top left.

“eM Client release history page”

https://www.emclient.com/release-history

Now if the latest V10.3.2619 update makes no difference, then that could be a eg: Windows OS update as changed in some way, or a Video Driver or Monitor driver update has changed in some way, or something else in the OS has changed in some way.

So suggest next if you have been making regular windows system restore points or do regular computer hard-disk images, suggest to try rolling back Windows to an earlier time “when it wasnt blanking” and see if that then works ok.

If that doesn’t then next try “changing video resolutions” and see if that makes any difference as might be your eg: Screen resolution has changed causing it, Or could be you have your Windows desktop “scaled” and not on the default 100%.So check your desktop scaling too.

Failing that I would contact where you got your video card from and speak to their technical support to see if they are aware of any blanking issue with those cards in Windows 10. Also ask them “is there a specific monitor driver” for your card apart from the supplied video driver. Some video card manufacturers supply both apart from the default Windows monitor driver.

Also contact Microsoft technical support to see if there is anything in the OS as far as eg: power management etc that could be causing it.

Lastly with that new Ryzen 9 CPU, you should really now be eg: looking as well at upgrading to Windows 11 being Windows 10 is end of life soon for security updates. Upgrading to Windows 11 “might also fix that issue” with a Win 11 Video driver for your specific GTX 1660 Super card.

I do have a paid license, but I don’t subscribe to their yearly “VIP Support”, so the support I did get with that older “Pro” license has long since expired.

You can extend that for another 12 months via the following page below.

“Get a 1-year extension to your VIP Support”

https://www.emclient.com/extend-support

8

Thank you very much for the detailed post and for taking an interest in this problem. It seems this post has plenty of views, but apart from @PotentialCustomer, little input.

First, Thanks for trying to replicate the problem on your end. My screen resolutions haven’t changed, but I will try changing monitor resolutions temporarily to see if this has any effect. For the record, my 2 Monitors are:

  • Primary - 1920x1080 (100% Scale)
  • Secondary - 1600x900 (100% Scale)

Second, I should have noted previously that I update emClient whenever a new version is released. I am currently on V10.3.2619.

Third, I do make regular image/backups and have been toying with the idea of restoring to an earlier state to see if this problem persists, but have not yet done so. My hesitation lies with the fact that in addition to one of the other PCs I administer also having this problem, @PotentialCustomer is also experiencing this problem. But since you mentioned it, I’m now more inclined to try. If I do, I’ll report back with my findings.

As for contacting Microsoft Technical support, I hadn’t mentioned it before because they were (unsurprisingly) no help. Telling me to do a clean install and checking my drivers when I’ve already told them I performed an in-place upgrade, do not intend to perform a clean install and already checked my drivers is ridiculous. In my opinion.

As for upgrading to Win11. I’m not really interested in permanently upgrading for a variety of reasons, not least of which is the fact that I have applied ESU to the 3 PC’s I mentioned. But I may make an image and try anyway to eliminate Win10 as the problem. This shouldn’t be necessary, though, as all installed programs and hardware on my PC are confirmed to be compatible with Windows 10. (Now, if I were running Windows Me, I could see this being a factor, LOL.)

As for my video card and CPU:
-I’ve already made sure everything is up-to-date (even tried rolling back drivers, and checking their respective forums extensively) and have run some diagnostics, but perhaps @PotentialCustomer could weigh in on the general specs for his machine? You’ve already listed your OS (Win10 Home), but maybe you could share your Video Card (if any) and CPU model? This might give us more insight into the problem.

Again, @cyberzork, while I appreciate any suggestions you may have, my primary PC is the not the only one exhibiting this behavior. In addition to @PotentialCustomer’s PC, and as I stated in my post from May 29th:

Given this, contacting my video card/CPU support may not be necessary at this point. While I’m still considering it, I’ve already gone through their support pages and forums thoroughly. I’ve also searched extensively for related issues beyond emClient-specific ones, to no avail.

As for the extended support. I’ll have to think long and hard about that one. But thanks for the link!

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FWIW, I’m using eM Client 10.3.2619 on a Windows 10 Home 22H2 system running on an HP Pavilion Desktop TG01.
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 4600G
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Super
RAM: 32GB

Still experiencing the issue of the monitor going to sleep when I close EM Client if it’s been open for more than a few hours (don’t have an exact reading on the number of hours).

Hope this helps!

1 Like
10

The issue your facing will be to do with you old Nvidia card particularly in win10 nowdays it’s eol after 10 yrs on October , also this happens commonly because your drivers will randomly try to sync video and reset
Screen resolution so not 100% stable anymore as driver support and card support is end of life and your screen can blank because of mismatch hardware drivers support way down at the bottom now let alone that video card is years old over 10 and it’s not suited to the ryzen motherboard at all.
Nothing to do with time it does this.
Also Radeon’s were made for ryzen chips not Nvidia.
Best to match them together. PPl originally only used Nvidia cards because Radeon never had them, now they do. Best to match them.
.
Yes this is not uncommon or to blank out completely and not return untill a reboot. Laptops can do similar things. Also make sure motherboard drivers upto date.
.
Ultimately Num one you need to replace the video card with at least a 7600 Radeon card to match the new ryzen cpu and motherboard you bought or uninstall the nvidia drivers to give you a little more time and let Microsoft install a standard set instead. Sometimes this can get around the issue for a while longer will you upgrade. It will still run games too on Microsoft driver.
It can be better on ancient video card as more default.
.
Good luck.

1 Like
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To be clear, the monitor going blank happens ONLY when closing eM Client and at no other time. And the monitor is only going to sleep, which is dealt with simply by jiggling the mouse or pressing a key. It’s more of an annoyance than anything else, one that wasn’t happening in previous months or years.

H-P sold me the PC with that Ryzen CPU + Nvidia GPU configuration. I have to think they wouldn’t have done that if the combination presented any kind of problem… if only to cut down on the number of tech support calls! :slightly_smiling_face:

UPDATE: Tonight, the monitor didn’t go to sleep after closing eM Client, even though the program had been open most of the day. Will continue to, uh, “monitor” the situation.

12

Ok..
.
It was probably ok in the day selling you a Ryzen computer with that card Nvidia in the day and a lot companies bundle dell, hp, Lenovo, Acer with much older cards cause they were cheaper to sell.
Companies even do this today in 2025.
Again it’s not a bad card but a very old design now.
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Again it’s also not uncommon to use Nvidia with Intel raptor or meteor lake cpu either but it would have the same issues if the nvidia video driver was not stable now as it once was. A lot of people had onboard video this happened to as well blank screens etc going into games or apps as well now same issue or because they did not update their gfx drivers so again very important to make sure if any gforce updates for that nvidia card do them and do custom install and reboot at the end.
Note: You can try just non custom update Nvidia video driver express route Install but sometimes it won’t correct those issues like that, only custom works.
.
Also note: Some custom computers like this you need to be careful installing third party sw as it might break sw and cause issue, might be unstable. Ring them.
Usually the custom built computers from hp/dell etc have auto update sw to do this for you bottom right tray.
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Again yes the fact that it does this when you close it means it’s causing the display to reset to desktop view again which if 100% in driver in conjunction with motherboard will work fine but if there is anything in there wonky on the drivers now in relation to that card you can get issues where u did not before.
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See how u go as you say. See also if your machine has drivers for windows 11 on the hp website as an alt thing as well again. It might be a future option depending on the motherboard hardware inside.

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That then definitely points to either an OS problem, or Video Card or Video Driver issue.

So suggest “if it’s not an integrated video card” and is removable, test with another different video card in it to rule out if it’s the OS or Video card causing that blanking issue.

If it then does the same thing with another video card, then you might need to do a clean Windows install.

14

Exactly. The supposed “necessity” for brand matching is a well-documented myth. (I could back that up, but I’d rather not dilute this post with irrelevancies.)

Secondly, a quick note - our graphics cards aren’t “very old.” Both launched around 2019. The 2060 was discontinued in late 2022 and the 1660s stayed in production until early 2024. Both are still officially supported and will be for years. And as I’ve mentioned before, I always keep my drivers updated - I’m assuming you do too.

Contrary to the belief of some, buying new equipment every year is not necessary. But hey, if anyone wants to buy me a new card, I won’t stop them! As you said, this is more of an annoyance, so going out and buying new hardware isn’t on the agenda…

BTW, I do have a new development. The laptop I mentioned earlier is no longer displaying this issue. So… confusing. The only things I can think of are a driver issue, or a software issue - maybe how emClient uses the GPU.

As for the drivers, that may be part of the problem.. but not the way others are suggesting. I have rolled back the CPU drivers but I don’t think I rolled back the GPU driver. (I should have kept better notes!) So, I’ll do that and see what happens.

One thing that recently occurred to me - I have Calibre Reader installed and it had a similar issue. I fixed it by disabling QT WebEngine GPU usage. Since emClient continues to act up, I hadn’t originally made the connection. Maybe they aren’t related, but the issue could be a software/rendering issue. I need to figure out how emClient uses the GPU. Maybe I can temporarily disable that to see what happens.

The problem with testing this stuff is how long it takes to see results. Just yesterday, I thought I’d solved it (or at least was on the right track). I closed emClient after 3.5 hours and the error didn’t occur. But after restarting emClient, then closing it after 8 hours, it blanked…

And, again, as you said, this is more of an annoyance (and I’m not an emClient employee) so testing isn’t an extremely high priority.

1 Like
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UPDATE: For the last several days, the issue of the monitor going to sleep upon closing eM Client has been inconsistent. Two nights ago it happened again, but then it didn’t happen last night or tonight.

I’ll try to remember to keep a log of how often the issue is recurring.

16

Update:

Well, I think I figured it out. Unfortunately, I’m not sure how much my case will help yours…

I was running a batch file that used nircmd through Autohotkey to shut my monitors off from my keyboard. (EDIT: So, running the script intentionally causes some kind of conflict in emClient that later leads to the blanking issue when closing emClient…)

I probably should have figured it out sooner but I’ve been running the script for years without any issues - it became such a part of my routine that I didn’t even think about it anymore. Beyond that, the previously mentioned laptop uses the script (just not through AHK), while the third PC runs AHK (but doesn’t use the script).

I made the discovery after installing a second copy of Windows on a separate partition. After updating Windows, installing emClient, updating all drivers, and testing emClient at each step, it finally dawned on me. I installed AHK, ran the script, and… the monitor blanked immediately after closing emClient. (Now I’m not even sure time is a component to this problem now, but it still could be.)

Before my realization, I tried several things beyond what I’ve already documented. First, I reinstalled the GPU driver with an older version (572.83 from March). Then, using DDU, I installed an even older version (560.94 from late 2024) - both drivers pre-dated the blanking. I even factory reset my CPU (after previously rolling it back) and restored AMD Ryzen Master to defaults (I had it set to ECO). None of this made any difference.

Now, some might say this issue was self-inflicted, but that doesn’t explain why the blanking only began occurring recently. Like I said, I’ve been using emClient and nircmd for years without issue. Something in emClient seems to have changed around early May (possibly with how it handles rendering. Or something.) Also, the version of nircmd I was using was old and hadn’t been updated until after I realized what was happening (updating it made no difference), so I’m pretty confident this is emClient-related. I haven’t tried installing an older version of emClient on the new Windows partition, but now that know what’s going on, I might just to confirm my theory.

Either way, I’ve written a new script that doesn’t use nircmd, and the blanking hasn’t occurred since. Although it’s only been a day or so, I’m fairly confident it won’t happen again. I’m hesitant to say the issue is solved, because I still suspect something has changed in emClient itself. But at least for me, things are stable again.

Hopefully this will shed some light on your end…

2 Likes
17

Thanks for sharing this, Michael. It’s always good when people do so because it is possible one person’s findings might help another user.

1 Like
18

Update:

So, I tested my theory…

I Installed a couple older versions of emClient on my new Windows testing partition and ran the nircmd script. First, I completely uninstalled the current emClient version and re-installed:

10.1.4588.0
Thursday, November 7, 2024
-no blanking

Then I updated to:

10.2.1712.0
Friday, February 28, 2025
-blanking occurred

1 Like
19

@Michael_Premo

10.1.4588.0
Thursday, November 7, 2024
-no blanking

10.2.1712.0
Friday, February 28, 2025
-blanking occurred

If you originally installed eM Client from the eM Client webpage, then try updating to the latest 10.3.x versions and see if it makes any difference .

If you do update, make a backup of your current version first via “Menu / Backup” and close eM Client before updating. You can see when the backup is complete in Show Operations via the dropdown on the right of Refresh.

“eM Client release history page”

https://www.emclient.com/release-history

1 Like
20

Just to clarify, in case it wasn’t clear:

On my test Windows installation:

First, I completely uninstalled the current emClient version.

By “current version,” I meant 10.3.2619.

Then I reinstalled the two earlier versions I mentioned, in the order I described.

As I said, I was testing a theory—specifically, whether emClient was responsible for the screen blanking issue.

1 Like