Crashing After Turning off Monitor

[prsnrs]

Using Win 7 Pro 64bit. Every time I turn off the monitor I either see a blank screen, or the taskbar is gone or the PC is in terminal sleep (can't be awakened). I usually have to reboot. If I leave the monitor on, these things don't happen. Any hints as to why this might occur?

Thanks.

PRS

 

[WalkerA WinTeam]

Hi PRS,

Please post your System Specs, and describe your setup for us. Are you using a monitor with an open laptop, in a dual-screen configuration? Or is the monitor your only screen?

Cheers,

Walker
Windows Outreach Team

 

[prsnrs]

Windows Experience Index - 5.8
Processor - Intel Core 2 CPU [email protected] GHZ
64 bit OS (Win 7 Prof)
Computer Dell XPS-720
RAM - 4.0 GB
Mobo - Dell
nVidia GeForce 7950 GX2
Monitor - SynchMaster 214T

 

[prsnrs]

Dell XPS-720
Win 7 Pro 64 bit
Intel Cor 2 [email protected]
Dell Mobo
4GB RAM
nVidea GeForce 7950 GX2
Creative SB X-Fi
SyncMaster 214T monitor (not using laptop)
1600x1200 (Native)

 

[WalkerA WinTeam]

Every time I turn off the monitor I either see a blank screen, or the taskbar is gone or the PC is in terminal sleep (can't be awakened). I usually have to reboot. If I leave the monitor on, these things don't happen.

Do you mean every time you turn off the monitor and then try to turn it back on, you experience those things?

Is it a new monitor? New graphics card? Have you updated your nVidia drivers recently?

Cheers,

Walker
Windows Outreach Team

 

[prsnrs]

Crashing after turning off monitor

Dear Walker,

Yes. Everytime I turn off the monitor this happens. I've not timed it, but it takes several minutes. For example, I shut the monitor off for lunch. When I return it's in it's irretrievable sleep mode. This does not happen in the Sleep Mode.

It's not a brand new monitor.

I'm using the same graphics card that came with the computer.

I used NFR (Nasty File Remover) to delete everybit of the previous nVidia drivers. Then I installed a fresh copy.

There are some posts that suggest that large SATA hard drives might be the problem. Mine are in the 250GB range.

The big clue for someone is that none of this happens in the safe mode.

Thanks.

Phil

 

[prsnrs]

b00st3d had several solutions that seemed to work.

Suggested going to Advance Power Settings and disable "Allow wake timers" and "USB selective suspend setting."

I'm not sure why, but it seems to have worked after the monitor is off for 5 minutes. Next I'll try 30 mins, then several hours.

PRS

 

[prsnrs]

The computer no longer goes into deep sleep but the task bar disappears. I can get it back by logging off and on.

PRS

 

[WalkerA WinTeam]

Huh, well it sounds like you have solved the bigger issue and replaced it with a minor one. That's a start

Here's a possible solution if there's conflict with any screensavers you're running: http://www.sevenforums.com/general-discussion/40919-taskbar-disappears-after-sleep-mode.html

And if it's a shell problem, here's a batch file you can create that will relaunch explorer.exe when you run it after the Taskbar disappears:

1. Open Notepad and type in these two lines.

taskkill /F /IM explorer.exe
start explorer.exe

2. Save the file as whatever.bat.

Cheers to Alehbye for that. Not a permanent solution but a possible quick fix until we find one.

Walker
Windows Outreach Team

 

[prsnrs]

Unfortunately, the hotfix didn't work. Desktop was in irretrievable deep sleep. Needed to do a hard reboot.

PRS

 

[WalkerA WinTeam]

That hotfix is only to relaunch the shell, the part of the OS that displays the Taskbar (sort of like the Finder on Mac OS X). It was only meant as a quicker way to reload the Taskbar than logging off and logging back on. I thought you fixed the deep sleep issue?

Walker
Windows Outreach Team

 

[prsnrs]

b00st3d's fix worked partially for a day or so.

Somehow I feel it's key that all seems to work well in the Safe Mode. What might this be telling us?

Phil

 

[WalkerA WinTeam]

b00st3d's fix worked partially for a day or so.

Ah, that's no good. Sorry to hear that.

If all is well in Safe Mode it probably means it's a hardware or hardware driver conflict. Here are some diagnostic tools you can use while in Safe Mode to try and narrow down the possible causes: Diagnostic tools to use in safe mode

And here's a tutorial on some other system recovery options in case you don't have much luck: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/668-system-recovery-options.html

Cheers,

Walker
Windows Outreach Team

 

[prsnrs]

Widnows 7 Woes

Hi Walker,

You must be getting sick of me.
I bought my Win 7 from Digital River as an iso download. I wanted the 64 bit OS but now I'm (late) thinking that perhaps my mobo and CPU can't handle 64 bits. My mobo is Dell supplied and is for the XPS-720. Processor = Intel Core 2 CPU. [email protected] & 2.67GHz. 4GB DDR2 RAM.

The other possibility is a corrupted OS. I do a Full Backup on the 1st of every month and a daily incremental. Backups are performed on a separate internal HD.
The OS is on it's own partition. Should I have to reformat and reinstall the OS will I be able to restore my backups so I don't loose the data, etc. from all the programs I've installed?

Newest symptom - startup taking longer and Outlook needs to be "restarted" (I forget the exact message). Regardless, instead of opening in a second, it now takes 30-60 seconds.

The Microsoft compatibilty program tells me that everything I have should work fine. Driver Detective and CNET Tracker say all my drivers are up to date.

I'm snake-bit and don't know what to do next.

Phil

 

[WalkerA WinTeam]

Hi Walker,

You must be getting sick of me.
I bought my Win 7 from Digital River as an iso download. I wanted the 64 bit OS but now I'm (late) thinking that perhaps my mobo and CPU can't handle 64 bits. My mobo is Dell supplied and is for the XPS-720. Processor = Intel Core 2 CPU. [email protected] & 2.67GHz. 4GB DDR2 RAM.

Nah not just yet I'm happy to try and help. I double-checked your hardware and it should run Windows 7 64-bit just fine, so that's not the issue here.

The other possibility is a corrupted OS. I do a Full Backup on the 1st of every month and a daily incremental. Backups are performed on a separate internal HD.
The OS is on it's own partition. Should I have to reformat and reinstall the OS will I be able to restore my backups so I don't loose the data, etc. from all the programs I've installed?

Are you using third-party backup software for this? Are you backing up the data as a disc image, or the actual files (simple copy operation)?

Cheers,

Walker
Windows Outreach Team

 

[prsnrs]

Progress?

I've been talking to the folks at Microsoft.

1. They're investigating the repetitive "ding-dong" sound I get when turning off my monitor. One "ding-dong" is normal. Continuous "ding-dong" is not.
2. They're calling Dell & Samsung.
3. We went through the msconfig routine startup and unselected all non-Microsoft programs. I left the monitor on for several hours. It did not turn off (as it had been) and the PC did not go into terminal sleep.
4. I then turned off the monitor for 30 minutes and the PC went into terminal sleep.
5. Microsoft is supposed to be calling this AM.

PRSNRS

 

[WalkerA WinTeam]

This is starting to get interesting! Thanks for the update Phil, please keep em coming

Walker
Windows Outreach Team

 

[prsnrs]

No real solutions yet.
In msconfig we disabled all 3d party choices. Still could reproduce problems.
Put it into Diagnostic Startup. Could not reproduce problems.
As I mentioned previoulsy, no problems in the Safe Mode.
Interestingly, there are also no issues if I log out.
The Level 2 Microsoft tech thinks it's a possibility that my Digitalriver iso copy may be corrupted. So I am to download another iso copy, burn another disk and do a Repair Install. We'll see:sarc:.

Phil

 

[prsnrs]

Found the problem for crashing after monitor shuts down

Tried a different monitor ==> no "ding-dong" or crashing. Ordered new monitor ==> no crashing or "ding-dong."

PRS

 

[WalkerA WinTeam]

Well that's fantastic news, sorry you had to ditch the monitor though! Let me know if you need anything else.

Walker
Windows Outreach Team