Link to home
Start Free TrialLog in
Avatar of VirastaR
VirastaRFlag for India

asked on

My Monitor either goes to sleep "Power saving mode" or turns off immediatley when i switch on every time i boot my computer.

Hi Experts,

I have a strange issue with my LG monitor for the past few days.

Whenever i boot my pc my monitor goes either to "power saving' mode or turns off immediately when tuned on.

I goggle about the same, and based on few suggestion i came across i removed the CMOS Battery and try to boot up display comes up fine,which proves it's not a Monitor issue.

Hence i replaced with a new CMOS Battery too, but when i boot for the first time in the day this happens again, and again i need to boot once without CMOS Battery and then put it back then it works fine from there on.

Finally, on reboot no issues display comes up fine, only on a hard boot.

Any ideas? suggestions?
Avatar of Korbus
Korbus

I'd try   ye olde timey:  unplug and the re-plug the video card (assuming video card is not part of the motherboard).

I'm not clear on your test/conclusion that it is not a monitor issue.  I would connect it to another PC to confirm.

Check your monitor cable for damage.

Since removing the CMOS battery helps, I would suggest you take a look at your BIOS settings, in particular, the power saving options.
What kind of cable is being used to connect the screen to the PC?  

I've had some crazy issues with Display Port that were only resolved by putting a display port to DVI adapter on the cable and using DVI to plug into the back of the screen.
Avatar of rindi
This indicates bad capacitors on the mainboard or the video card. Open the PC's case and look for signs of the electrolytic capactors on the mainboard and the video card, bulging, cracking or leaking. If you are handy with soldering, you can try replacing the bad caps with new ones.
If it's your machine that is going to sleep then I'll agree with rindi that that is a distinct possibility.  If it's just your screen going to sleep and your machine is not in sleep mode as your description implies then it's not bad capacitors on your machine and probably not the video video card.  Bad capacitors will make your machine shut down and/or do other random things but not your screen alone.  I mention this to save you diagnostic time.  

I fought with the display port issue for a while and with some manufacturers they have released firmware updates to fix the screen.  Maybe LG, but not with Dell though, AFAIK.

Another point, do you have another screen you can try on your machine?  I'd try hooking another screen up using standard 15 pin VGA or DVI to rule out the machine and the display port (if you are using that).
i would test with another monitor first; to be sure where the problem is - in the PC or in the monitor !
VirastaR are you still able to use your system or are you using another to ask this question.
I have a few of my own as well.
I feel there is more to this you're not saying but please do as this is important
Is this a monitor or TV?
The Cmos battery also determines the date and time.
Is your date and time country correct?<< important
Is there anything else you can add?
What changes you have made?
Is your HDD turning off as well?
Any messages on the screen such as windows has turned off something to save your computer?
When you change hardware this can effect  your PSU max usage and it could turn it off.
Also monitors have their own recommended display screen resolution if you give it a display resolution not suitable it will turn off..
There is three areas you can set resolution and change monitor settings,
(1) on the monitor
(2) in the video card control panel
and (3) windows
To really test
Can you boot into safemode and the monitor stays on?
Safemode is a diagnostic windows running only minimal things.
If it doesn't turn off in safemode change your resolution and any settings that maybe causing a conflict.
You can also startup in VGA mode.
Please tell me what model is your monitor and what model is your video card.
Is this a desktop or laptop?
Other areas that come to mind
A recent update possibly from Microsoft updated your monitor or video card and the new drivers have changed some settings..they do that and is very annoying
Do you have windows updates set to automatically download and install?
Another thought have you added a secondary screen and changed your default monitor?
Hope you have access to another computer so we can get to through these.
Merete
Avatar of VirastaR

ASKER

Thanks for your valuable input GUYS!!

A quick review of this scenario...

Few days back when  i tried to turn ON my monitor it turned OFF as soon i switch ON ....

I did all sanity checks like checking power cable trying with different cable,different video port, power issues etc etc.

As i am not a expert in troubleshooting display related issues,hence i called for local PC Support and they came and diagnosed that my monitor is toast and cannot be repaired and i have to go for a new one, nothing else can be done,hence i used my another monitor from my secondary pc and noticed that the same issue happening with my secondary monitor as well when connected with my Primary CPU.

That's when i did goggle and came across CMOS Battery troubleshooting step.

Steps i tried:

I removed the CMOS battery from my pc (primary) and rebooted it and found that display came up fine with my secondary monitor that i used temporarily.

Just a flash of thought to connect and see whether it works for my (Primary Monitor) which was diagnosed as "toast" but to my surprise i got display even from my Primary Monitor when my CMOS Battery is off which made me think that it possible could be a CMOS Battery failure issue.

Hence i replaced it with new CMOS Battery and now for first few re-boots it was flawless,but now when i perform a first boot for the day the screen again goes off to power mode untill i take the CMOS Battery "off" - reboot - get display - CMOS Battery "on" - Set Date & Time - then functions as normal untill you full shutdown, no issues on reboot.

Another surprise, since my Primary Monitor started working, i replaced the secondary monitor back to its place and tried to boot and i get the exact same issue on my secondary pc too...

Thnaks for reading and Sorry it was a long story but....

I am just trying to understand which area to focus?

VGA Card?
CMOS Battery?/CMOS Slot?
VGA/Power cable?
Video Port - VGA/DVI
Chipset/Motherboard?
Outlet/Power options?

I would really appreciate if anybody would point me in the right directions.

Thanks a lot!
CMOS battery is probably coincidental.  It doesn't sound like you're using Display Port.  If you're using VGA or DVI then check the refresh rate setting on your computer AND check the screen resolution it is set to.  If you have a spare screen, you could plug that in and they sometimes have an information option that tells you on screen what it is getting from the computer.

If they're both ok - like 60Hz is usually what you want for the display refresh rate and maybe 1024x768 or 1280x1024 or ? for the resolution.  Then it's possible your video card isn't sending an acceptable signal to the screen.  Try swapping the video card out.  There could be bad capacitors on the video card OR even in the screen itself.

Which model screen is it and which video card is it?

To clarify about the CMOS issue - CMOS holds the basic board configuration settings, the CMOS battery keeps those settings alive AND keeps the system clock alive.  When you kill the CMOS battery, you generally will wipe your configuration and reset your clock.  There's nothing there that should have an impact on your display.  The simple act of power cycling your machine is probably what is making the difference.
Thankyou VirastaR so you do have two monitors connected. Or two PC connected?
Please dont use the secondary monitor if it's dying.
Use only the known good one.
When you connect a bad hardware it can effect the flow of things
As I'm in Australia my posts will come at a later time and other experts are in other countries so they'll post between. .
You go ahead and post as many details you can, they help us :)
I'd look into the use of two monitors refs to>
since my Primary Monitor started working<< is this connected to the video card vga? and is the known good working monitor.

 I replaced the secondary monitor back to its place<<explain back to "it's place" vga, dvi? connection type.
 and tried to boot and I get the exact same issue on>> my secondary pc too..<< bad monitor.

Either way take the second bad monitor off and put the main primary monitor into the video card outlet reboot.
Does it work with just one monitor off the video card.

How do you connect the second monitor?<<<
This could be simply dust on the video card/chip and as it heats up it switches off.
Or as the techs said your monitor is dying.
Please state the make and model of your computer/s Del model or HP
Then I can look up your computer specs.
And what this secondary computer is a stand alone computer desktop ?

Merete
since you started to have the problem on a 2nd PC - i suppose it can be malware?
run these + an updated AV scan
http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php                         MBAM
http://majorgeeks.com/RogueKiller_d6983.html                  Roguekiller
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Avatar of VirastaR
VirastaR
Flag of India image

Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
I've requested that this question be closed as follows:

Accepted answer: 0 points for virastar's comment #a40050855

for the following reason:

Unfortunately none of the solutions suggested by experts pointed towards RAM Configuration.
i caanot believe you have the same problem on 2 PC's - bad slot ? ?
so better explain what happens
That doesn't make much sense...You didn't mention anything about the machine rebooting or 3 continuous beeps in the original post, only that the screen was going into power save mode.  You probably need to put RAM in pairs which is probably why 3 DIMMs doesn't work and 2 do.

The system RAM could cause be an issue if it was an onboard video and this was a screen related issue, but you never answered the question as to what type of video card you were using.  You did say VGA card, which implies that it's not onboard.
Well done anyway VirastaR, for a non expert you took a few risks testing the ram.
The dimms or slots as you call it can get dust in there always a good idea to clean it..
The gold fingers on a ram board  is what those bars are called. It's actually gold plated.
They can be cleaned with isopropyl alcohol or electrical contact cleaner
Thanks for posting you detailed steps to resolve it.
Glad to see you found a solution, we can only help with details you provide.
When buying a prebuilt computer always ask for the motherboard manual and disc if available.
Cheers
Hi All who objected please read my description thoroughly,based on your question i realize u didn't understood my issue at the first place at all.

Thanks.
I've requested that this question be closed as follows:

Accepted answer: 0 points for virastar's comment #a40057527

for the following reason:

Performed self-diagnosis beyond what is suggested by experts.
Author didn't mention anything about the machine rebooting or 3 continuous beeps in the original post or any subsequent posts except for in his "solution".  He only stated that the screen was going into power save mode and that a local PC repair business came out and said his screen was faulty.

The solution he provides is also contradictory to his previous statement of:
Another surprise, since my Primary Monitor started working, i replaced the secondary monitor back to its place and tried to boot and i get the exact same issue on my secondary pc too...

He's stated that it failed on a secondary PC.  Replacing or fixing RAM on one machine won't make a screen function differently on a secondary machine.
Hi,

The machine got rebooting or got 3 beep sounds when i was using RAM Slot 4/Slot1 happened during my self-diagnosis only,not when i posted the issue in EE.If i would have got 3 Beep sounds at the time of my initial post,i wouldn't even placed this question at first place.

Quoting from my self-resolution,

"Symptoms seen:

Tested RAM Slot 1 only with 3 RAM Modules one by one followed by reboot - 3 continuous beeps untill i power off.
Tested RAM Slot 2 only with 3 RAM Modules one by one followed by reboot - Display OK
Tested RAM Slot 3 only with 3 RAM Modules one by one followed by reboot - Display OK
Tested RAM Slot 4 only with 3 RAM Modules one by one followed by reboot - Restarts frequently.

Even in my secondary PC its a RAM Issue too, but not the faulty RAM Slots,its because of the dust in the RAM Modules or in slots,once i cleaned the gold plated sides of the RAM with eraser and put it back the display came up flawlessly.

Hope that clarifies your answers in question.
>>Even in my secondary PC its a RAM Issue too,

Wow, this is an important lesson for ALL experts.  Usually we use a second system as a kind of confirmation, which completely backfired in this case!

Thanks for following up with us on this VirastaR.
I just wanted to thanks all experts for thier valuable inputs on this regard.

Hope my resolution steps in this issue might be a useful reference in the future.

Thanks All.

Over and Out!