Monitor turns on from sleep on its own Windows 7 Pro 64

tector · 17 Dec 2015

SOLVED: problem was that I plugged my mouse into a PCIe USB 3.0 card. Once I removed it from there, monitor stopped turning on.

Hello everyone. I have an issue and I can't find a solution on my own. The problem is that my monitor (Acer a221hql ) turns on from sleep on its own. When I'm away from keyboard I like to set the monitor to sleep after 1 minute. I does this just fine, but then it doesn't stay in sleep mode instead it turns every 10 minutes or so. It's driving me crazy. I suspect that this has been happening for a few months now, only now I caught the monitor turned on when I came in. I noticed this happening a few days ago when I came into my room and the monitor was turned on. What I tried so far to fix this issue:

Disable "Allow this device to turn on the computer" for mouse, keyboard, network card
Disable wake timers for the entire system, in my currently active power profile
Shutting down logitech keyboard software cause I read that it can cause problems
Completely unplugging the mouse (generic chinese mouse) and keyboard (logitech k208 i think)

I don't know what else to do, is there some log file, event viewer where I can see what process turns on the monitor? It's driving me crazy, please help.

ICIT2LOL · 31 Dec 2015

Hello tector mate I would start with something really basic - these for instance

SFC /SCANNOW Command - System File Checker
Disk Check - use Option 2 and if needed the /f and /r switches

if nothing comes up on these checks then try the following

SUPERAntiSpyware | Remove Malware | Remove Spyware - AntiMalware, AntiSpyware, AntiAdware!
https://www.malwarebytes.org/antimalware/ when downloading and installing watch out for the tick box for the trial version untick it if you do not want to trial it (see below)
AdwCleaner Download
(NB if you have Kaspersky installed it may rave on about the download – ignore it or disable it for the duration of the download/scan)

tector · 31 Dec 2015

ICIT2LOL said:

Hello tector mate I would start with something really basic - these for instance

SFC /SCANNOW Command - System File Checker
Disk Check - use Option 2 and if needed the /f and /r switches

if nothing comes up on these checks then try the following

SUPERAntiSpyware | Remove Malware | Remove Spyware - AntiMalware, AntiSpyware, AntiAdware!
https://www.malwarebytes.org/antimalware/ when downloading and installing watch out for the tick box for the trial version untick it if you do not want to trial it (see below)
AdwCleaner Download
(NB if you have Kaspersky installed it may rave on about the download – ignore it or disable it for the duration of the download/scan)

Thank you for your reply. This is a new install, at least it was once the problem started appearing, from a Dell install DVD, so I don't think the problem is malware infection, but I will run those and report back. Another thing I noticed is that when I set the PC to just show a screensaver, nothing wakes up the monitor, so with a screensaver, monitor stays in screensaver mode, but when it's put to sleep, it is waken up periodically. For now I just use a blank screensaver, but I would like to know if there's some log file where I can look up monitor wake ups and see what's causing them.

ICIT2LOL · 31 Dec 2015

Ok mate now still run the other two scans it could just be a glitch in the install or how the drive has taken it.
The malware stuff well for the time it takes to do it really is not a problem - I mean you could have been exposed while updating for example if you were not covered by an AV during that time. Personally I always load my AV asap before I do the updates but that is just me.
I just like to do things to eliminate stuff rather than go looking for some more in depth and possibly complicated answer.

tector · 20 Jan 2016

ICIT2LOL said:

Ok mate now still run the other two scans it could just be a glitch in the install or how the drive has taken it.
The malware stuff well for the time it takes to do it really is not a problem - I mean you could have been exposed while updating for example if you were not covered by an AV during that time. Personally I always load my AV asap before I do the updates but that is just me.
I just like to do things to eliminate stuff rather than go looking for some more in depth and possibly complicated answer.

It's a been some time since this post, but I would just like to report that I found a solution, by accident of course. I did all the scans that you suggested, but nothing was found, no infections and no errors. Then I switched my mouse from a USB 3.0 PCIe card port to an internal USB 2.0 slot and monitor stopped switching on. There must be some kind of communication between my mouse and the PCIe USB 3.0 card that turned on the monitor. All is well now. If you have similar issues and you use a PCI or PCIe USB card, just unplug any peripherals from them and plug them into native USB slots of your PC.

Thanks for the help,
Cheers everyone.

ICIT2LOL · 20 Jan 2016

Ok mate as long as it it is fixed and by the by I used one of those PCI card USB things - once and never again just not worth the grief. You would be better off getting a hub if necessary.

Look I don't know what your board is but usually there are several USB headers on them so far better of fixing an extrenal fitting and connect to one of the headers.

Layback Bear · 20 Jan 2016

Their is absolutely no reason to use a mouse or keyboard in USB 3.0.

A person can't move a mouse or type on a keyboard fast enough to use all the speed of even a USB 2.0 connection.

My 2 keyboard that I'm using have two USB 3.0 connection ports on the keyboard itself but I still use the USB 2.0 ports on the computer. Therefore my keyboard USB ports are now USB 2.0.

Another little goody.
Sometimes with some motherboard bios you will not be able to use a USB 3.0 mouse or keyboard in bios because the the drivers for USB 3.0 aren't load yet.
That problem would happen to me at times when I used USB 3.0.

tector · 20 Jan 2016

I used the USB 3.0 card because my computer is older and it doesn't have any USB 3.0 ports to begin with. I know I shouldn't be using USB 3.0 ports for my mouse, but I used the USB 2.0 ports for other stuff at the time when I was plugging in my mouse and it ended up in the USB 3.0 port. Now I know. Thanks everyone.