Problem: The computer will be running along fine and then randomly, the monitor would switch off (from green to orange light - so there's still power) and the computer would sound like it's on stand-by some how. I cannot make the monitor come back on again unless i turn the power off and wait a few seconds before turning it on again. All options in windows have been turned to "Never" turn off Monitor, Hard Disk and "Never" to use Standy-By mode. I'm using windows 2000.

I realise it's not a lot of information but i hope maybe someone has had the same problem and has figured out what caused it. It is a fairly new monitor, Viewsonic 19" E790. Today it shut off when i was browsing through the options of Wolfenstein test twice and the third time it did it as i was restarting and was just typing in the password login for the computer. It was happening a while ago but it seemed to stop and now it has begun again. It seems to be a random occurance as it happens when browsing the net, playing a game or at the windows login screen.

Anyone with some reasonable/serious suggestions - i'm all ears. Thanks.

machien specs??
what size psu?

check your power management in your bios as well

make sure its plugged in properly

It's a 300watt PSU.
K7T Pro 2-A mobo
1.2ghz amd t-bird
320 SD ram


I'll check the power management in bios too right now, eds. Ta.

yer mine used to do this

cant remember what is was. wasnt monitor

Try and remember, Geno. I dont think it's the monitor either. I checked the Power Management under bios, everything is fine. It actually says the LED lights on the mainboard would blink if it was on Stand-by mode - and they dont blink when this happens.

Try and remember!

kick it

try other monitors and stuff etc, find out where the problem is. then and ONLY then, kick it

um ok.

well. in the past i have had problems with - PSU, ram, and video card

what i found out was - my ram was absolutely rooted, and my AGP video car dwasnt getting the power it needed. all as a result of a dying PSU

back then it cost me about 600 dollars. all cause of a 30 dollar PSU.

there. i remember.

i dont know EXACTLY what was causing my monitor to switch to standby but i guess it was video card.

there ....

and if kicking doesn't work, hit it with a hammer

sorry if I missed it, but what video card have u got? (sorry if you said already, but I'm sick, so forgive me)

By Koopz

It's an Asus GF2 MX v7100

monitor in wall or powersupply?

and if hitting it with a hammer doesn't work start crying like a little bitch

Monitor in wall.

I dont think it's a power problem. It's got to be something else.

C'mon, somebody help him out with this in a way that does not involve physically abusing his monitor (I need Mirage for a DoD war tomorrow night).

The light going from green to orange only usualy occurs when there is no signal from the pc to the monitor, or if it has been soft powered down. The only things you CAN do are to try a different monitor for a period of time

Also over what period of time does this problem occur? a few mins? Hours? etc

I doubt its anything apart from a Monitor or perhaps a Video Card problem. The video ram could be shonky but I dont know..

I've never waited for it to turn back on...

Seems to me that it's gonna stay off. I've been told that the monitor could be losing the signal - but what would trigger that?

Raraku, this problem has happend before about a month ago, and it basically went away by itself. Now it just came back this morning.

I mean is there any length of time the PC is on before the monitor goes or is it random?

Loosing the signal is only caused by a few things - The cable becomming disconnected, a video card which stops working (very unlikely as the pc boots with)

If you can remember, what things were you doing before this happened? any new programs etc?

Also, I dont know what the program is in 2k, but in 98 its called msconfig, if you can get into the start menu disable the power management from starting up when you load your os. I do this in 98 to save on resources, but i dont know what it could do to 2k better ask a 2k expert before you do

1.Get a mates monitor and check to see if it happens still.
2. Get a mates Vid card test to see if it happens still
3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 and substitute in every part on the computer until u find the faulty bastard

This is going to sounds weird, but perhaps the monitor has a problem, is overheating, and in order to cool down, stop recieving images for a perios of time.

just a suggestion, its never happened to me.

It's just random, Raraku. The wolf test was installed this morning when it seemed to have started this sleep mode stuff. I've un-installed the wolf test but the monitor still shuts off. My younger brother may have installed something else though, i'll have to found out. I've checked the cabling, and like you said, unlikely that it's the vid card.

there's no msconfig-like thing in win2k, stuff like that needs to be done through registry i think. I've been looking through the processes under task manager though, seeing what each file does.

Well, i'll shut down. Sleep, and in the morning, shut guns advice will have worked, heh.

Well, if you're still stuck tommrow, I have a monitor and video card here (its pci) and if you feel like a drive your welcome to borrow them for testing, I hate to see people with problems which nobody knows how to fix

Good luck mate

It could possibly be a loose solder joint - it is a common problem with any CRT-based display unit. Its caused by either s*** solder and soldering, or possibly heat stress from heating up and cooling down all the time (CRTs have a special heating element to aid movement of the electrons). Don't check the joints yourself though, as you probably know theres really nasty voltages inside them :).

my monitor did that once, just shut down, but it wouldn't come back at all, I sent it back to the manufacturer's & they fixed it, I think they told me it was a faulty power supply..........

My other monitor likes to change colours on me, the wires inside the cable are broken right at the RF filetr (that big round thing near the plug) If u jiggle it there the colours come good again, maybe the signal wire is broken inside ur monitor, do you plug & unplug it alot?

yeh thats what i was thinking, the actual vga cable in your monitor that comes out and connects to the vid card my be busted somewhat in there

easy fix tho, just take it to a monitor repairer - hopefully do it same day

:p

Ok, i'll change monitors first and see if the same thing happens. Thanks for your help fella's.