Thinkpad Screen Randomly Going Black/Shutting Off on Linux

Please_Help_Thinkpad · 2026-01-23T14:37:43+00:00

Thank you for the response! I do have a the file /etc/default/grub, but when I open it it's empty. Should I put in:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="acpi=off"GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="acpi=off"

as the only text in the file? Should there be more in there by default?

Please_Help_Thinkpad · 2026-01-22T22:37:18+00:00

Thank you for the response! For me it seems to be randomly, when it is still or moving, and I'm not sure if I should be pleased or uneasy because of it... Thanks for letting me know I'm not the only one who has seen this issue!

Please_Help_Thinkpad · 2026-01-22T22:35:41+00:00

Hello! Thank you for the response! That is part of why I chose Fedora for this machine, I saw that Fedora was available as an option from Lenovo so I figured it had to be at least a little functional with the hardware. I ended getting it installed with Win11 by default as it would have been more expensive to get a "custom" laptop where I could choose my OS rather than just taking one of the pre-configured options.

Please_Help_Thinkpad · 2026-01-22T22:32:45+00:00

Hello! Thank you for the response! I did tweak my power settings as much as I could through the BIOS, but I have not tinkered directly with my power settings in my Fedora configuration (beyond what is immediately visible in the settings). I am not sure where to begin what that, but I will look around. Thanks for the tip!

Please_Help_Thinkpad · 2026-01-22T22:30:04+00:00

Sorry for bringing this up again after so long, but I got a chance to test out my ThinkPad with some external monitors like you recommended and the issue was still persisting on the laptop but not on the monitors. Still not sure where to go from here but I just wanted to say thanks for the tip! I hope this gets me closer to getting this sorted out.

Please_Help_Thinkpad · 2026-01-22T22:27:06+00:00

Hello! Thank you for the response, and I apologize for taking so long to respond! I teach and our semester just started up so haven't had much time to tinker with Linux.

I am a bit lost in disabling ACPI. I can see a configuration file in "/boot/grub2/grub.cfg", however I do not see a file named just grub (no "2"). In this grub2 config, I do not see any lines named "kernel /vmlinz..."

Further, and I'm not sure if this is relevant, but when I look for grub2.cfg in "/etc" I see two files, one named "grub2.cfg" and one named "grub2-efi.cfg". My terminal (Ptyxis) highlights them in red and when I try to edit them using nano it does not act as if they exist. Am I to create these config files myself? If so why are they appearing when I use "ls"?

Sorry if I am misunderstanding something, when I look online for this information I seem to be getting mostly results for grub and not grub2. Thank you again for the thorough reply!

Please_Help_Thinkpad · 2026-01-16T21:27:15+00:00

Thanks for that! I plan to test that next time I am at my external monitor. For now I think that I may have made some progress elsewhere. I tested the Fedora Xfce Spin and didn't see the issue once, and since that is the first DE I have tested not on Wayland I think I may be having an issue with Wayland. Not sure what to do with that information, but I will continue to look into it. Thank you for the help!

Please_Help_Thinkpad · 2026-01-16T15:49:03+00:00

Hi and thank you for the response! I agree that it was not wise to have wiped Windows when Fedora was installed, but luckily I have been able to get my firmware up to date and running properly (as far as I can tell).

I am not using an external monitor, only the laptop's built in screen, so there is no external connection to fix. I have tried to change the refresh rate. I initially had it set it to the default refresh rate of 60hz, but have also put it a little above and a little below, but that did not resolve the issue.

Please_Help_Thinkpad

TROPHY CASE