Monitor goes black when attempting to switch user

[bash]

Hey guys,

Just installed Windows 7 and loving it so far. But there's one problem that's been really bugging me.

Basically, I have two user accounts on the system. When User1 hits "Windows Key+L" to lock the machine and User2 comes along and clicks "switch user", the monitor will flicker to black and say "Entering power save", while the monitor's power light switches from green to amber. After 5-10 seconds, the monitor will come back on (light goes back to green) and present the main login screen that lists the user accounts. User2 then selects their account, types in their password and attempts to log into Windows....and again, monitor flickers to black, says "Entering power save" and stays black for a few seconds, only to re-appear and show the user's desktop. Nothing is affected, but it's just a real nuisance during what's supposed to be "fast" user switching.

This monitor flickering happens on every user switch, regardless of who initiates it. Both users also have identical graphical setups.

Graphics card is an ATI X1900XTX and monitor is a Dell 2007FP. I've tried running the built-in Windows WDM ATI driver as well as the ATI Catalyst 9.1 driver but it didn't make a difference.

Any thoughts or suggestions are greatly appreciated!

Cheers,
Bash

 

[Database]

Look through your power settings and see if there is anything in there? Try to turn off the power saving features and see if the issue goes away.

 

[bash]

Thanks for the reply.

I tried fooling around with various power settings, but nothing made a difference. I believe the power management is only affecting the computer before/during/after sleep mode anyway, whereas this is happening all day long.

I watched a friend of mine with Windows 7 try his "switch user" button today and we noticed that his screen went black for a split second before showing the user menu. So for some reason, that split second on his is turning into 5-10 seconds on mine.

Do other people out there that use the "switch user" button see this little delay? It's almost as if the monitor quickly changes resolutions or refresh rate or something. I'm wondering if it has something to do with my monitor now rather than my video card or drivers...

 

[bash]

Just a quick bump to see if anyone has any ideas...

For those with even one user on the system, can you try clicking the "Switch user" button on the lock screen and see what happens?

 

[equin0xx]

Same exact problem occurring on my system. EXACTLY as you described.

I have an account for myself and one for my wife, and the switch user feature makes the screen go black without actually shutting down the computer. Takes about 15-60 minutes for it to come back, which I seldom wait for.

Apart from that, no problems with Win 7, but I need to get this fixed ASAP.

 

[longtimealaskan]

The problem is not limited to Windows 7. I have Windows XP. Frequently when I switch users the monitor goes black and the computer goes to sleep. It takes several minutes to get the system up and running again. My power setting is for the monitor to turn off after 20 minutes but the hard drive, system standby, and system hibernates settings are set at "never". Yet the entire system goes to sleep sometimes when I switch users. I thought it might help to know the problem isn't limited to Windows 7.

 

[FreshSam]

Thanks for the reply.

I tried fooling around with various power settings, but nothing made a difference. I believe the power management is only affecting the computer before/during/after sleep mode anyway, whereas this is happening all day long.

I watched a friend of mine with Windows 7 try his "switch user" button today and we noticed that his screen went black for a split second before showing the user menu. So for some reason, that split second on his is turning into 5-10 seconds on mine.

Do other people out there that use the "switch user" button see this little delay? It's almost as if the monitor quickly changes resolutions or refresh rate or something. I'm wondering if it has something to do with my monitor now rather than my video card or drivers...

I suffer from the exact same problem.

I have windows 7 installed on my laptop and stationary.
On my laptop, whenever I switch user, log on or get promted by UAC I experience a black screen for 3-10 seconds. Logging in takes 10 seconds, switching user takes about 5.

On my stationary, when prompted by uac it's black for a split second, logging in is faster and smoother. When logging in on my laptop the screen goes black until about 10 seconds later when the desktop is loaded. On my stationary there is a loading screen which then fades into the desktop. The duration of these black screens is shorter on the stationary with the same version of windows, the only thing better on the stationary is that it has a much better video card than my laptop. I figured this was a video card issue...

On XP switching user and logging in/out was lightning fast (stationary), and on vista logging in/switching user did not take as much time on my laptop.

 

[equin0xx]

Resolved

Hey all, I got this problem resolved with a little help from the Microsoft support team -- I still think the dev team needs to release a patch... but:

1. Boot in safe mode, see if you can switch users without trouble (you 95% will be able to)
2. If safe mode user switching works, then you have a problem with a third party service.
3. Follow these steps to perform a clean boot and isolate some of the processes that might be troublesome:
How to troubleshoot a problem by performing a clean boot in Windows Vista or in Windows 7

Hope it works for you all too

 

[Mitch656]

I have this problem to, but i also had it on Vista

 

[equin0xx]

It's back... wtf.

Why don't they just PATCH IT?

 

[Harp]

Bump.

I have this problem too. I had it in Windows Vista. I have it in Windows 7. The screen goes blank for about 10 seconds at 2 points during the switching process. It must be a signal-out bug in Windows, because my monitor displays this monitor-hardware symbol on my screen indicating it has no signal.

Microsoft -- FIX PLEASE!

 

[equin0xx]

Update: they couldn't fix it, they could only make it stop for a few hours. I had to reinstall Vista. I've given up. Thanks for nothing MSFT

 

[Jonhoo]

Again, exactly the same problem on 64-bit 7 Professional.
Clicking switch-user makes the screen go black for a couple of seconds. Same thing happens on login..
Running a dual-screen setup with ViewSonic LCDs and a nVidia 8600 GT..

Jon

 

[Forrest]

Are your running SoftOSD?

I had almost this exact same problem. After doing a user switch (fast user switching), the screen would black out for a second or two about 5 to 30 seconds after doing a user switch. It was more annoying than anything else.

As it turns out, it was the SoftOSD service that caused the problem. SoftOSD, produced by EnTech Taiwan for OEMs and it is a great product supplied by a number of monitor manufactures. It allows you to adjust you monitor hardware settings, among other things, through a software interface.

If you loaded all the software that came with your monitor, SoftOSD may be part of that package. In my case SoftOSD came with my Lenovo L220x monitor. I killed the SoftOSD service and the monitor black-out problem after user switching went away.

 

[karlsnooks]

Lo and behold. One learns something new every day.

I seldom switch user but you made me curious.

User switch runs about 6 seconds of black screen.

I realize much has to be done behind the scenes to save info on present user and prepare for new user. I would say MS's mistake was to simply show a black screen. Perhaps a screen saying "Busy saving and initializing" or something to that effect would help give us a warm puppy dog feeling about switching user.

thanks for pointing this out.
karl

 

[211]

I too am suffering from the same Black Screen issue and wondering if anyone has found a solution?

The only difference with my issue is the monitor will not come out of the standby mode (or black screen). This doesn't happen every time I switch users either, it's very random but it does happen several times a week depending how much use the PC sees that week.
In the past when this would happen I would push the power button which forces the PC into Sleep mode, once the power cuts off and fans spin down I push the power button again to wake the pc up. It usually resumes right back at the login screen. From there I can log into my account like normal.
The last time this happened I decided to unplug the monitor cable going into the video card and plug it back in; low and behold the monitor sprang back to life showing the desktop.

 

[camchute]

I have the extact same problem.

WORKAROUND: When this happens, I push the power button on my monitor to turn off the monitor. Then I turn the monitor back on (no unplugging or restarting).

I'm extremely annoyed that MSFT has no fix for this yet.

 

[211]

I have the extact same problem.

WORKAROUND: When this happens, I push the power button on my monitor to turn off the monitor. Then I turn the monitor back on (no unplugging or restarting).

I'm extremely annoyed that MSFT has no fix for this yet.

That doesn't work for me.
My workaround has been to unplug the monitor input cable from the video card and plug it back in; while powered and running. Probably not the best idea for either devices but once I plug it back in the monitor wakes back up.
I've had to do this three or four times since my last post... and come to think of it my monitor hasn't bugged out in quite a while.
Geeze, if that didn't just invite Murphy over I don't know what will.

 

[franci]

Hey there everyone... i came across this thread while searching about the same exact problem online. And i registered just to join in on this topic! In short, i have multiple user accounts on my system and whenever i use the "switch user" option, the monitor blacks out for around 6 to 8 seconds as my account is being switched. Like everyone here probably knows, this is quite a pain!

So here's my setup:

Windows 7 Ultimate x64
Intel HD 2000 Graphics (part of the i3 Sandy Bridge)
ViewSonic 22" LED monitor running at 1920x1080 native resolution
Output to the monitor is via an HDMI interface on the motherboard

Now i know it's not the monitor cause i used it earlier in a different system without this problem. Though i can't say I'm certain it's a problem with the OS, i feel certainly inclined towards that answer. Either the OS (or some software / driver attached to it) is causing this problem to happen. I had a different system earlier that was running on the same 64-bit OS. It was a Core2Duo and had an ATI Radeon HD 4870. There was no lag whenever switching users on that system.

I've been researching this issue for quite a number of days and the best answer i was able to find was by two people in this same post:

One mentioned that a service might be running that causes the screen to blackout. I searched for any possible service that might be causing this (through services.msc) but i couldn't identify anything easily. With somewhere close to 100+ services listed, it's not exactly an easy thing to do.

Another person suggested trying to go into safe-mode to see if the problem goes away. And yes, it does go away. Switching through user accounts in safe mode is so swift and easy without any black screens or delays.

So that means the OS (or some driver / software) is causing this problem when the OS runs in it's normal mode. But what ??? Well, i'm not an expert on this issue. So i would really love to hear what everyone has to say. I hope someone somewhere has a fix for this...

 

[211]

This may be a long shot for you but I took some contact cleaner and cleaned out the plug at the end of the monitor cable as well as the DVI port at the back of the video card. Looking at my last post on this topic, it's been almost a year since having any issues.