Monitor won't turn off when machine idle

[Anthony Buckland]

I have a Sony VAIO desktop, purchased in 2006, running
XP Professional with SP3, fully updated. I have the
screensaver set to none, and the power settings set to
turn off the picture on my monitor (ViewSonic) after 15
idle minutes. The hard drive is never turned off, the
system never goes into standby, and the system never
hibernates.

This worked fine until a few weeks ago. Now I find my
monitor always on, no matter how long the idle time has
been. If I happen to be present at the end of a 15-minute
interval, I can see the screen momentarily turn off and
then turn on again, with no more than 2 seconds of
darkness.

I've tried updating my video card, monitor, keyboard and
(wired, optical) mouse drivers. Nothing better than my
present drivers was found. I've tried unplugging the mouse,
and then the keyboard. This made no difference.

I've found various forum discussions with Google on this
and closely similar problems. None of them offered a
solution (except one that would have required subscribing
to see the responses to the question), apart from other
users suggesting reviewing the power settings, updating
drivers and looking in a very general sense for some
software that might make the system believe it was not
idle. Aside from Windows updates, the only software
that might be recently changed would be my antivirus,
ZoneAlarm Extreme Security, which from time to time
updates itself. The only software I _know_ of, anyway.

Does this remind anybody of possible causes or
solutions? Thanks for any comments.

 

[Elmo]

Anthony Buckland wrote:
> I have a Sony VAIO desktop, purchased in 2006, running
> XP Professional with SP3, fully updated. I have the
> screensaver set to none, and the power settings set to
> turn off the picture on my monitor (ViewSonic) after 15
> idle minutes. The hard drive is never turned off, the
> system never goes into standby, and the system never
> hibernates.
>
> This worked fine until a few weeks ago. Now I find my
> monitor always on, no matter how long the idle time has
> been. If I happen to be present at the end of a 15-minute
> interval, I can see the screen momentarily turn off and
> then turn on again, with no more than 2 seconds of
> darkness.

If Windows attempts to shut it down after 15 minutes, the monitor blinks
for a couple of seconds then restarts, I would suspect the monitor. See
if there's an option in the monitor's menu to allow EnergyStar features,
or otherwise allow it to be shut down via software. Why it might have
changed, I don't know.. maybe that feature of the monitor is damaged.

--

Joe =o)

 

[MowGreen]

Anthony Buckland wrote:
> Aside from Windows updates, the only software
> that might be recently changed would be my antivirus,
> ZoneAlarm Extreme Security, which from time to time
> updates itself.


Uninstall ZAES and see if it's the cause of the monitor not shutting off.

Technical Support
http://www.zonealarm.com/security/en-us/support/technical-support-zonealarm-extreme-security.htm

Zone Alarm "products" have gone rapidly downhill since Check Point
acquired it.


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

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

 

[Unknown]

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.
"Anthony Buckland" <anthonybucklandnospam@telus.net> wrote in message
news:9fWdnWC-_sZRz-DRnZ2dnUVZ_hidnZ2d@giganews.com...
>I have a Sony VAIO desktop, purchased in 2006, running
> XP Professional with SP3, fully updated. I have the
> screensaver set to none, and the power settings set to
> turn off the picture on my monitor (ViewSonic) after 15
> idle minutes. The hard drive is never turned off, the
> system never goes into standby, and the system never
> hibernates.
>
> This worked fine until a few weeks ago. Now I find my
> monitor always on, no matter how long the idle time has
> been. If I happen to be present at the end of a 15-minute
> interval, I can see the screen momentarily turn off and
> then turn on again, with no more than 2 seconds of
> darkness.
>
> I've tried updating my video card, monitor, keyboard and
> (wired, optical) mouse drivers. Nothing better than my
> present drivers was found. I've tried unplugging the mouse,
> and then the keyboard. This made no difference.
>
> I've found various forum discussions with Google on this
> and closely similar problems. None of them offered a
> solution (except one that would have required subscribing
> to see the responses to the question), apart from other
> users suggesting reviewing the power settings, updating
> drivers and looking in a very general sense for some
> software that might make the system believe it was not
> idle. Aside from Windows updates, the only software
> that might be recently changed would be my antivirus,
> ZoneAlarm Extreme Security, which from time to time
> updates itself. The only software I _know_ of, anyway.
>
> Does this remind anybody of possible causes or
> solutions? Thanks for any comments.
>

 

[Anthony Buckland]

"Unknown" <unknown@unknown.kom> wrote in message
newsKTC9RhSLHA.2068@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
> 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]

"MowGreen" <mowgreen@nowandzen.com> wrote in message
news:i5juaa$v7p$1@speranza.aioe.org...
> Anthony Buckland wrote:
>> Aside from Windows updates, the only software
>> that might be recently changed would be my antivirus,
>> ZoneAlarm Extreme Security, which from time to time
>> updates itself.
>
>
> Uninstall ZAES and see if it's the cause of the monitor not shutting off.
>
> Technical Support
> http://www.zonealarm.com/security/en-us/support/technical-support-zonealarm-extreme-security.htm
>
> Zone Alarm "products" have gone rapidly downhill since Check Point
> acquired it.
>
>
> MowGreen
> ================
> *-343-* FDNY
> Never Forgotten
> ================
>
> "Security updates should *never* have *non-security content* prechecked

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.

 

[Anthony Buckland]

"Elmo" <elmogeek@xxx.invalid> wrote in message
news:x-GdnYB7UZSRwODRnZ2dnUVZ_tadnZ2d@insightbb.com...
> Anthony Buckland wrote:
>> I have a Sony VAIO desktop, purchased in 2006, running
>> XP Professional with SP3, fully updated. I have the
>> screensaver set to none, and the power settings set to
>> turn off the picture on my monitor (ViewSonic) after 15
>> idle minutes. The hard drive is never turned off, the
>> system never goes into standby, and the system never
>> hibernates.
>>
>> This worked fine until a few weeks ago. Now I find my
>> monitor always on, no matter how long the idle time has
>> been. If I happen to be present at the end of a 15-minute
>> interval, I can see the screen momentarily turn off and
>> then turn on again, with no more than 2 seconds of
>> darkness.
>
> If Windows attempts to shut it down after 15 minutes, the monitor blinks
> for a couple of seconds then restarts, I would suspect the monitor. See
> if there's an option in the monitor's menu to allow EnergyStar features,
> or otherwise allow it to be shut down via software. Why it might have
> changed, I don't know.. maybe that feature of the monitor is damaged.

Thanks, and I'm beginning to suspect my hardware in this case.
There are no driver updates suggested. The monitor indeed
has a setting for shutdown, which seems to faithfully reflect the
most recent setting in XP of the power-saving property.

My "solution" for the time being is to turn off the power-saving
property and to manually power down the monitor overnight.
In the old days, I was taught never to power down a peripheral
while the system unit was running, but this seems less of
a commandment these days. My monitor isn't plug-n-play,
but the system unit doesn't seem to object to its disappearance
while the system is up. Any other opinions on this point?

 

[Unknown]

What you described makes no sense to me. The program to turn off the monitor
isn't active during booting so how did the
monitor turn off? There are many cases of failing to go to sleep mode or
hibernate caused by Norton. Norton starts up
which resets the monitor power off timer. If I were you I would try 3-4
minutes or display task manager to see what is
resetting the timeout (display off) counter.
"Anthony Buckland" <anthonybucklandnospam@telus.net> wrote in message
news:XeGdnbYXAstdieLRnZ2dnUVZ_qmdnZ2d@giganews.com...
>
> "Unknown" <unknown@unknown.kom> wrote in message
> newsKTC9RhSLHA.2068@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
>> 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.
>

 

[Unknown]

PS Cripple 'zone alarm' and try to go into sleep mode.
"Anthony Buckland" <anthonybucklandnospam@telus.net> wrote in message
news:XeGdnbYXAstdieLRnZ2dnUVZ_qmdnZ2d@giganews.com...
>
> "Unknown" <unknown@unknown.kom> wrote in message
> newsKTC9RhSLHA.2068@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
>> 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.
>

 

[MowGreen]

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

 

[Chuck]

On 9/2/2010 1:15 PM, Unknown wrote:
> PS Cripple 'zone alarm' and try to go into sleep mode.
> "Anthony Buckland"<anthonybucklandnospam@telus.net> wrote in message
> news:XeGdnbYXAstdieLRnZ2dnUVZ_qmdnZ2d@giganews.com...
>>
>> "Unknown"<unknown@unknown.kom> wrote in message
>> newsKTC9RhSLHA.2068@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
>>> 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")

 

[Anthony Buckland]

"Chuck" <cdkuder@msn.com> wrote in message
news:eAMAgztSLHA.5196@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
> On 9/2/2010 1:15 PM, Unknown wrote:
>> PS Cripple 'zone alarm' and try to go into sleep mode.
>> "Anthony Buckland"<anthonybucklandnospam@telus.net> wrote in message
>> news:XeGdnbYXAstdieLRnZ2dnUVZ_qmdnZ2d@giganews.com...
>>>
>>> "Unknown"<unknown@unknown.kom> wrote in message
>>> newsKTC9RhSLHA.2068@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
>>>> 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.