Windows 7 Desktop Boots Up but Monitor Appears to Stay in Sleep Mode - Any Help?
 

Hey All,

This issue first appeared a couple weeks ago with my wife's desktop computer we usually leave running 24/7. Its running on Windows 7. (Do a hard boot every once in a while) where the monitor just didnt seem to wake up after the computer had been sitting idle for a given amount of time. It is an older Dell S2309Wb monitor where power button stayed orange instead of turning white like it usually does when the computer wakes from sleep mode.

Now all these trial and error testing has taken a couple weeks because I'd try one thing and give up and leave it alone for a few days before I tried anything else...so the details below are an accumulation of the things i've tried on and off over the last couple weeks.

At first, I thought it was a computer problem, so I rebooted a few times (unfortunately the only way I could reboot it was to hold the power button down for 5 seconds to do a a full shut down). It would turn on and I could hear the computer itself working, the monitor would come out of sleep mode and show the message "Entering Power Save Mode" and then go back to sleep (or power save mode I guess).

Then I tried to unplug the monitor cables (DVI connections) and replug them in and that didn't seem to work. I tried plugging it into both the DVI connections on the graphics card but that didn't change anything.

I then decided to try a different S2309Wb monitor (i use one as my secondary screen with my laptop) and then it seemed to work fine so I thought maybe I had fixed it. It would boot up, i would see the loading screens and windows would load up fine and I could use the computer. I went into the settings and set it so that the computer would never go to sleep, hoping this would prevent the issue from occurring again. This seemed to fix it as the computer was usable for the next few days.

Then one day day, I turned the computer on in the morning but didnt actually get to use it as things got busy with the kids. Went back to the computer later in the evening and the windows login screen was showing as normal. But then my keyboard and mouse were frozen and did not work. So again I had no choice but to do a hard restart. And then when I did this hard restart, I could again hear the computer running and loading up windows, and actually heard the welcome sounds (i dont think i had the speakers turned up previously which is why I didnt notice whether if windows was loading property before). However, the screen stayed in that "sleep mode" the entire time the computer was loading (didnt see any loading screens or anything). I entered my password and could also hear windows log in as per normal (screen is still sleeping). I didnt know what to do at this point so I used the keyboard to shut down the computer (windows key, right arrow, enter). I could hear the computer shut down as per normal, and then power off. All the while, the monitor stayed in sleep mode.

Anyway i'm totally lost as to what the issue is.

I'm going to try a different DVI cable tonight to see if that works, but i am not sure if that will fix it, and if it does, what are the chances it is the actual fix and not another temporary fix where the issue comes back again a few days later.

Could this be a graphics card issue maybe? Anyone know how to check if this is the issue?

Has anyone else experienced this? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!

I've had various Dell screens 'crash' on me. The symptom is it stays in sleep mode (power light is amber). Pressing power does nothing. For these situations, I find that unplugging the power until the amber light goes off, and then plugging it back in again will do the trick.

Yes, it does sound like a video card issue. The only way to test out this theory is to use another video card. Any cheapo video card would do fine in this test.

You already verify that it's not the monitor by switching to another monitor.
It is highly unlikely that it's the DVI cable.

By the way, keeping a computer running 24/7 is not good for it, even in sleep and hibernation modes. A regular desktop is designed to run 8 hours a day. Heat is what degrades electronic components over time.

That's interesting. I don't use Dell monitors, so I don't know.

Your vid card is on its way out the door. Try getting a spare one or use the onboard one to confirm.

Where are you getting 8 hours a day from?

Try this.

Power off computer manually, by holding down power button until it turns off.
Unplug power cable from computer -- this is important.
Wait 30 seconds or so, go take a piss or something.
Reconnect power cable, boot.

It's saved me when computer/monitors were stuck somewhere between sleep and awake, although it may be a different thing than what you're experiencing.

Anyway, new line of video cards coming out soon so maybe it's a sign

But repeatably heating up and then cooling it down is no good because the metal expands and retracts every time. So it's better to leave it on 24/7.

A regular desktop is designed to run 24/7 with downtime for patching. The constant expansion and contraction of metal from heat and cooling is what causes parts failure - not heat itself. Otherwise, you'd have way way more server failures that run 24/7/365.

thanks for the feedback guys.

I'm going to try unplugging everything and seeing what that does.

If all else fails I guess i'm hauling it to NCIX to get a new vid card installed (id do it myself but honestly have no idea how to put it all together)

Damn...powering it off did nothing...but yet again i hear the welcome chime of windows...
New vid card it is

Thanks guys

I had a similar problem. After the computer went to sleep, sometimes the monitor stayed blank, and like with you the keyboard and mouse seemed to be frozen. I ended up disabling the sleep mode and made a note to shut the computer down when not using it. 4Head