Monitor won't turn off when machine idle

PS Cripple 'zone alarm' and try to go into sleep mode.
"Anthony Buckland" wrote in message
...

"Unknown" wrote in message
...
Do a test. Set idle time to about one minute. If monitor shuts down, you
know something is
running in the background which would interrupt the 15 minute timer.
...

Well, that was an interesting experiment. The only
way I found of recovering from it (no offense intended,
the suggestion was definitely one to try) was to bring
up an ancient CRT monitor from the basement, otherwise
I couldn't start the system in order to change back from
the one-minute interval. That done, I could switch back
to my regular LCD monitor and continue life. So, to
make things clear, setting the interval to one minute
caused the monitor to switch off part way through
rebooting, leaving me with a started system that could
not display anything and could not accept any
input. Even a recovery CD couldn't overcome the
one-minute cutoff that had been programmed into
the monitor as a piece of hardware.

PS Cripple 'zone alarm' and try to go into sleep mode.
"Anthony Buckland" wrote in message
...

"Unknown" wrote in message
...
Do a test. Set idle time to about one minute. If monitor shuts down, you
know something is
running in the background which would interrupt the 15 minute timer.
...

Well, that was an interesting experiment. The only
way I found of recovering from it (no offense intended,
the suggestion was definitely one to try) was to bring
up an ancient CRT monitor from the basement, otherwise
I couldn't start the system in order to change back from
the one-minute interval. That done, I could switch back
to my regular LCD monitor and continue life. So, to
make things clear, setting the interval to one minute
caused the monitor to switch off part way through
rebooting, leaving me with a started system that could
not display anything and could not accept any
input. Even a recovery CD couldn't overcome the
one-minute cutoff that had been programmed into
the monitor as a piece of hardware.

Anthony Buckland wrote:
Thanks, but I still swear by ZA for my protection. It's beginning
to definitely seem like a hardware problem with the monitor.
Uninstalling ZAES as an experiment would leave me with a
system that I had to keep isolated from the net, meaning no
mail or browsing. I appreciate that some people loathe ZA,
sometimes for reasons which I can't discern. For myself,
I loathe McAfee and Norton, based on experiencing horrible
system slowdowns when using them.





It's *your* system. Good luck with it.



MowGreen
================
*-343-* FDNY
Never Forgotten
================

"Security updates should *never* have *non-security content* prechecked

Anthony Buckland wrote:
Thanks, but I still swear by ZA for my protection. It's beginning
to definitely seem like a hardware problem with the monitor.
Uninstalling ZAES as an experiment would leave me with a
system that I had to keep isolated from the net, meaning no
mail or browsing. I appreciate that some people loathe ZA,
sometimes for reasons which I can't discern. For myself,
I loathe McAfee and Norton, based on experiencing horrible
system slowdowns when using them.





It's *your* system. Good luck with it.



MowGreen
================
*-343-* FDNY
Never Forgotten
================

"Security updates should *never* have *non-security content* prechecked

On 9/2/2010 1:15 PM, Unknown wrote:
PS Cripple 'zone alarm' and try to go into sleep mode.
"Anthony wrote in message
...

wrote in message
...
Do a test. Set idle time to about one minute. If monitor shuts down, you
know something is
running in the background which would interrupt the 15 minute timer.
...

Well, that was an interesting experiment. The only
way I found of recovering from it (no offense intended,
the suggestion was definitely one to try) was to bring
up an ancient CRT monitor from the basement, otherwise
I couldn't start the system in order to change back from
the one-minute interval. That done, I could switch back
to my regular LCD monitor and continue life. So, to
make things clear, setting the interval to one minute
caused the monitor to switch off part way through
rebooting, leaving me with a started system that could
not display anything and could not accept any
input. Even a recovery CD couldn't overcome the
one-minute cutoff that had been programmed into
the monitor as a piece of hardware.



Since you added an "ancient" CRT monitor to the debacle.
The old method "Large Hammer" method of dealing with the problem was to
set the monitor signal from the computer to blank without turning off
the monitor or forcing it to standby. Some LCD displays see this first
as a loss of signal, and may eventually timeout and shut down. Others
just go into standby. Some of the older ones seem to display No Signal.
There is a difference between a blank video signal and no video signal,
And some monitors are happier with a blank vs. no video signal at all.

There is also a minor detail that involves bi-directional "digital"
communication between the display and the computer. If this does not
work properly, the computer sort of assumes it has a "dumb" display, and
supposedly behaves accordingly. This changes the way that the power
management behaves. If working partially, problems like you have
mentioned can occur.


The real problem may be that the LCD monitor
and your current power management settings don't like each other.
There is also a possibility that a system update or a BIOS update
is involved, and does not work as expected with settings made before the
update(s).

There is a question in my understanding of your problem--I can think of
several interacting areas that might be involved, depending on your
various settings in windows.

There are power management settings, display related settings, BIOS
settings, and possibly settings that are made from the LCD display
internal controls/settings. Any of these separately or in combination
can result in trouble similar to yours.
(Too many "knobs to turn")

On 9/2/2010 1:15 PM, Unknown wrote:
PS Cripple 'zone alarm' and try to go into sleep mode.
"Anthony wrote in message
...

wrote in message
...
Do a test. Set idle time to about one minute. If monitor shuts down, you
know something is
running in the background which would interrupt the 15 minute timer.
...

Well, that was an interesting experiment. The only
way I found of recovering from it (no offense intended,
the suggestion was definitely one to try) was to bring
up an ancient CRT monitor from the basement, otherwise
I couldn't start the system in order to change back from
the one-minute interval. That done, I could switch back
to my regular LCD monitor and continue life. So, to
make things clear, setting the interval to one minute
caused the monitor to switch off part way through
rebooting, leaving me with a started system that could
not display anything and could not accept any
input. Even a recovery CD couldn't overcome the
one-minute cutoff that had been programmed into
the monitor as a piece of hardware.



Since you added an "ancient" CRT monitor to the debacle.
The old method "Large Hammer" method of dealing with the problem was to
set the monitor signal from the computer to blank without turning off
the monitor or forcing it to standby. Some LCD displays see this first
as a loss of signal, and may eventually timeout and shut down. Others
just go into standby. Some of the older ones seem to display No Signal.
There is a difference between a blank video signal and no video signal,
And some monitors are happier with a blank vs. no video signal at all.

There is also a minor detail that involves bi-directional "digital"
communication between the display and the computer. If this does not
work properly, the computer sort of assumes it has a "dumb" display, and
supposedly behaves accordingly. This changes the way that the power
management behaves. If working partially, problems like you have
mentioned can occur.


The real problem may be that the LCD monitor
and your current power management settings don't like each other.
There is also a possibility that a system update or a BIOS update
is involved, and does not work as expected with settings made before the
update(s).

There is a question in my understanding of your problem--I can think of
several interacting areas that might be involved, depending on your
various settings in windows.

There are power management settings, display related settings, BIOS
settings, and possibly settings that are made from the LCD display
internal controls/settings. Any of these separately or in combination
can result in trouble similar to yours.
(Too many "knobs to turn")

"Chuck" wrote in message
...
On 9/2/2010 1:15 PM, Unknown wrote:
PS Cripple 'zone alarm' and try to go into sleep mode.
"Anthony wrote in message
...

wrote in message
...
Do a test. Set idle time to about one minute. If monitor shuts down,
you
know something is
running in the background which would interrupt the 15 minute timer.
...

Well, that was an interesting experiment. The only
way I found of recovering from it (no offense intended,
the suggestion was definitely one to try) was to bring
up an ancient CRT monitor from the basement, otherwise
I couldn't start the system in order to change back from
the one-minute interval. That done, I could switch back
to my regular LCD monitor and continue life. So, to
make things clear, setting the interval to one minute
caused the monitor to switch off part way through
rebooting, leaving me with a started system that could
not display anything and could not accept any
input. Even a recovery CD couldn't overcome the
one-minute cutoff that had been programmed into
the monitor as a piece of hardware.



Since you added an "ancient" CRT monitor to the debacle.
The old method "Large Hammer" method of dealing with the problem was to
set the monitor signal from the computer to blank without turning off the
monitor or forcing it to standby. Some LCD displays see this first as a
loss of signal, and may eventually timeout and shut down. Others just go
into standby. Some of the older ones seem to display No Signal.
There is a difference between a blank video signal and no video signal,
And some monitors are happier with a blank vs. no video signal at all.

There is also a minor detail that involves bi-directional "digital"
communication between the display and the computer. If this does not work
properly, the computer sort of assumes it has a "dumb" display, and
supposedly behaves accordingly. This changes the way that the power
management behaves. If working partially, problems like you have mentioned
can occur.


The real problem may be that the LCD monitor
and your current power management settings don't like each other.
There is also a possibility that a system update or a BIOS update
is involved, and does not work as expected with settings made before the
update(s).

There is a question in my understanding of your problem--I can think of
several interacting areas that might be involved, depending on your
various settings in windows.

There are power management settings, display related settings, BIOS
settings, and possibly settings that are made from the LCD display
internal controls/settings. Any of these separately or in combination can
result in trouble similar to yours.
(Too many "knobs to turn")

The problem is solved. I disconnected the phone line from the
(wired) network to make it safe. Then I turned off the antivirus.
Next, I noted that I had a 15-minute power-down setting for the
monitor, and that the monitor's OSD time-out setting is also
15 minutes, bore in mind the "don't like each other" suggestion,
and reduced the power-down setting to 10 minutes. With that,
normal functioning was restored (specifically, after 10 minutes
the monitor goes black, then it goes a grey distinuguishable
from black only in dim ambient light and announces that there
is no signal, then it goes black again and stays that way until
there is mouse or keyboard activity).

The normal function survived a reboot, turning the antivirus
back on, another reboot, reconnecting the network to the
phone line, and another reboot, and now seems robust.
A lot of reinitializing happened in there, and if I was solving
problems for a living I would have done a bit more "one thing
at a time", but I'm happy to have normality restored. I never
did get around to looking at the BIOS settings, but thanks
to the advice I've received I now know a lot of things to look
at if this problem happens again.

Thank you, Chuck, and the other respondents.

"Chuck" wrote in message
...
On 9/2/2010 1:15 PM, Unknown wrote:
PS Cripple 'zone alarm' and try to go into sleep mode.
"Anthony wrote in message
...

wrote in message
...
Do a test. Set idle time to about one minute. If monitor shuts down,
you
know something is
running in the background which would interrupt the 15 minute timer.
...

Well, that was an interesting experiment. The only
way I found of recovering from it (no offense intended,
the suggestion was definitely one to try) was to bring
up an ancient CRT monitor from the basement, otherwise
I couldn't start the system in order to change back from
the one-minute interval. That done, I could switch back
to my regular LCD monitor and continue life. So, to
make things clear, setting the interval to one minute
caused the monitor to switch off part way through
rebooting, leaving me with a started system that could
not display anything and could not accept any
input. Even a recovery CD couldn't overcome the
one-minute cutoff that had been programmed into
the monitor as a piece of hardware.



Since you added an "ancient" CRT monitor to the debacle.
The old method "Large Hammer" method of dealing with the problem was to
set the monitor signal from the computer to blank without turning off the
monitor or forcing it to standby. Some LCD displays see this first as a
loss of signal, and may eventually timeout and shut down. Others just go
into standby. Some of the older ones seem to display No Signal.
There is a difference between a blank video signal and no video signal,
And some monitors are happier with a blank vs. no video signal at all.

There is also a minor detail that involves bi-directional "digital"
communication between the display and the computer. If this does not work
properly, the computer sort of assumes it has a "dumb" display, and
supposedly behaves accordingly. This changes the way that the power
management behaves. If working partially, problems like you have mentioned
can occur.


The real problem may be that the LCD monitor
and your current power management settings don't like each other.
There is also a possibility that a system update or a BIOS update
is involved, and does not work as expected with settings made before the
update(s).

There is a question in my understanding of your problem--I can think of
several interacting areas that might be involved, depending on your
various settings in windows.

There are power management settings, display related settings, BIOS
settings, and possibly settings that are made from the LCD display
internal controls/settings. Any of these separately or in combination can
result in trouble similar to yours.
(Too many "knobs to turn")

The problem is solved. I disconnected the phone line from the
(wired) network to make it safe. Then I turned off the antivirus.
Next, I noted that I had a 15-minute power-down setting for the
monitor, and that the monitor's OSD time-out setting is also
15 minutes, bore in mind the "don't like each other" suggestion,
and reduced the power-down setting to 10 minutes. With that,
normal functioning was restored (specifically, after 10 minutes
the monitor goes black, then it goes a grey distinuguishable
from black only in dim ambient light and announces that there
is no signal, then it goes black again and stays that way until
there is mouse or keyboard activity).

The normal function survived a reboot, turning the antivirus
back on, another reboot, reconnecting the network to the
phone line, and another reboot, and now seems robust.
A lot of reinitializing happened in there, and if I was solving
problems for a living I would have done a bit more "one thing
at a time", but I'm happy to have normality restored. I never
did get around to looking at the BIOS settings, but thanks
to the advice I've received I now know a lot of things to look
at if this problem happens again.

Thank you, Chuck, and the other respondents.