New Laptop. Qubes Installs But Screen Fades at Random, Then Blank, Hard Drive Disppears. Return as Defective? 1 Day to Decide

I purchased a new laptop. I installed Qubes and everything looked good.

While running Qubes, there are times when I have a full battery and the screen slowly fades to black and then disappears.

I typically just reboot and then Qubes starts working again, but the display doing this is very unpredictable. I also am not using the latest 4.1 version.

I also have another problem. At times, the hard drive seems to wipe all of its information. I will be using the system as normal and then it will reboot (either with a screen fade or I may just reboot myself). When I restart the system, it just goes to the bios and there is no option to go to Qubes in the drive. I’ve reinstalled Qubes about 3 times and get the same problem each time.

I can still try to return the laptop, but I need to decide soon, since there is limit to how long I can keep it before returning it due to problems with the device.

If this is just an issue with Qubes, I may want to keep the laptop and install another Linux distro on the device. If this is likely due to defective hardware (like a faulty graphics processor or faulty motherboard), then I want to return it. I don’t have much time to troubleshoot things, as I have to make a decision soon.

I know it would be good to have more information, but based on the limited information here, should I return this laptop? Is there any additional troubleshooting I can do within the next day that would take up to 4 hours that could inform this decision?

I can’t provide additional information about the problem because I won’t be checking this forum until later this evening, then I can do some quick troubleshooting, and then will have to make a decision.

This is likely a screensaver or power manager setting. You can check in the application menu under System Tools > Screensaver and see the ‘Blank After’ setting. Under System tools > Power Manager you can check the ‘Display’ tab.

Laptop spec? I haven’t sees this issue since i joined the forum, so it could be defect.
I suggest that you try debian, install everything needed to be ‘stressed’, then you decide.

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What is the make an model?
Did you check the HCL before you purchased it?

You really didn’t provide ANY useful information.

In this context there is only one useful recommendation one could make: return the laptop, get a refund. Then with more time, let’s have a look at the HCL and plan this a bit better.

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