Monitor No Signal or Going to Sleep When Connected To Laptop?

[paulyjames]

My laptop is Asus u45jc-a1


i3 m370 @ 2.4 ghz processor

4gb ram but i recently upgraded it to 8gb ram

250gb ssd samsung


Last year i bought a monitor that is hp la2405x because it has 1920x1200 resolution which i need because i need it to play online poker. I would connect my laptop to the monitor by vga cable. I noticed that the monitor would keep on going to sleep. Example i would be on the computer for few hours or play poker for few hours, then this message would show up. Then my HP monitor screen gets the no signal and then go to sleep and when im playing, i have to wait like 1 minute or so, then hold the power button on my laptop for a few seconds then it turns off. The i press it immediately and then it would show resuming windows. This was the fastest way for me to get back on the tables when not sitting out longer.


However if i dont wait 1 minute or so and then i just press/hold the power button immediately, then i would shut down my laptop which is horrible because if im playing tables, then i have to wait a few minutes due to having to power up the laptop again.


I then wondered if this was my monitor or it could be my laptop as i read it has something to do with video card? Well what happened was later on, i didn't seem to have this issue anymore then after a while it came back again. This is very annoying when playing on pokerstars due to you going to miss out few minutes if you close the computer while playing because you going to be sitting out etc.


I then later on tried my laptop on another monitor a dell one. Note this monitor is very old, like 8 years at least. Similarly it had the same issue. It would go to sleep just like the HP one which when i bought it was brand new. The thing is you never know when its coming, it might happen once a day, twice a day, or 3 times, sometimes none. Im currently using another monitor and i had this issue yet again. This monitors an Acer. However, it doesn't say go to sleep like the HP one. All it does is have the no signal message. All of these monitors i connect to my asus laptop by the vga cable.

 

[paulyjames]

Does this mean this is 100 percent my laptops fault then? Does anyone know what i can do to fix this issue? Does anyone know why is it that if you wait 40 seconds then press/hold the power button, after few seconds it turns off then you press it again, then it shows RESUMING WINDOWS but if you do this too quickly after the no signal, then press/hold the power button basically turns off the computer, then powering it on again makes you start windows as oppose to resuming windows which takes much more time?


Its very annoying when playing poker and many tables and this happens b/c im going to be sitting out tables due to this.


Another thing i notice is let say im on the computer most of the day but not playing poker, the monitor would go out once a day maybe or not at all. However when im playing poker all day, it will happen at least 1 time a day, sometimes 2 or 3 etc. Rarely does it never have the no signal.


Of course when im on the laptop only and dont connect it to any monitor, i never have this issue.


Does this mean its my laptop and probably the overheating or using too much electricity on the computer? The vga is plugged to my laptop so it isn't loose. Im really confused at this and i basically cannot play poker if this happens as there is going to be at least 2 minutes downtime each time it happens.

 

[Indianatone]

Hi paulyjames and welcome to Sevenforums
What you need to do is adjust the power options relating to the monitor. This can be found under Control Panel, Power Options and then the plan you are using. You can either select "Choose when to turn off the display" on the left or Select Power Option in the plan. See screenshots.

 

[paulyjames]

Hi I done that already. I put never for all of these options...

 

[Indianatone]

Hi I done that already. I put never for all of these options...

Is the laptop under warranty? I would suggest you send it back and get it repaired as if the settings are set to never and it shuts off the displays after a time there is an issue with the video chip. One other possibility you have most likely tried is to update the video drivers. Other than that looks like a hardware issue.

 

[paulyjames]

Hi I done that already. I put never for all of these options...

Is the laptop under warranty? I would suggest you send it back and get it repaired as if the settings are set to never and it shuts off the displays after a time there is an issue with the video chip. One other possibility you have most likely tried is to update the video drivers. Other than that looks like a hardware issue.

This laptop was bought a few years ago so no.



I did try to update the video driver. But each time i did this and restarted the computer, it would have the black screen and it doesn't do anything. Then i have to system repair and system restore each time then it goes back to where the updated driver didn't install.

 

[paulyjames]

Could it because of overheating or too much dust inside the fan of the computer? One person suggested this but said i would need to open up laptop which i dont know how to do.


The other person said he had simlar issue with monitor and his computer and said updating driver solved this issue with the no signal in monitor.


However, could it because the driver im installing is not good? Such as install a driver but not the most up to date one? I did read online that geforce 310m seems to have similar issues with other ppl such as black screen after installing driver and then restarting laptop.

 

[paulyjames]

Could it because of a bios update? Read a thread about someone mentioning their asus laptop had this problem and updating the bios in it fixed it. However few others said that doesnt work.


If so how does one do a bios update for asus laptop?

 

[Indianatone]

What is the full model number of the unit and we'll ask some laptop guys what they know about the model? It could be overheating. Download CPUID - System & hardware benchmark, monitoring, reporting
and post a screenshot after the unit has been on a while.

 

[paulyjames]

asus u45jc-a1 is my laptop

NVidia Geforce 310M is the name of my driver.

Is that waht you need?

 

[Indianatone]

Yep that is what we need.
Here is the driver page on Asus website for your laptop.
Notebooks & Ultrabooks - U45Jc - ASUS

You use the Windows Bios Utility to upgrade the bios. I seriously doubt that is the issue. Looks to me the bios was updated for those who downgraded to Windows 8. I have asked an laptop expert who knows more than I do about laptops to take a look. I suspect the Video chip could be overheating and needs the dust and fluff that may have built up in the machines fans removed and possibly some new heat sink compound on the cooler heatsink. Could be a very easy job or a nightmare depending on how the machine comes apart. May not be something you want to do yourself as it can be easily damaged.

 

[paulyjames]

Well my laptop is windows 7. The laptop is a few years old already and thus the processor isn't that fast.


Well there is no way im going to open the laptop up myself. I would have someone else do it as i wouldn't have a clue on how to do this.


Im curious if you think it could be because of the driver isn't updated? The driver i see still shows 2010 or so when i click on the driver. But when i tried updating the driver, of course i get black screen and have to system repair/system restore then the driver is thus back to the old one.

 

[DavidE]

Get a program to monitor the temperatures to see if it's overheating.
HWmonitor has a free version:
HWMonitor CPUID - System & hardware benchmark, monitoring, reporting

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Just my 2 cents worth it seems you are trying to drive a fairly high res monitor from a GPU (and CPU) that are having a job keeping the device functioning.

I stand to be corrected but did you say it was an old monitor and could I suggest you get one of the low powered LED screens - and not overly large?

As for cleaning the air cooling system I always use my laptops on a hard surface not on ones lap or any surface likely to cause a lowered air intake.
Have a read of my ditty here

CLEANINGLAPTOPS

What you can do is to check the air intake aperture and the"rad" and to do that shine a very bright light into the fan apertureand look through from the outlet grill
1. You will see if there is a lot of dust in the fan intake and fan blades and2. you will see if the "rad" is blocked in any way when you lookthrough from the outside.

Now to clean you can blow the dust out using compressed air but first makesure you insert something into the fan blades before you do - to stop the fanfrom spinning as spinning the fan withair will cause it to spin at much higher revs than it was designed for and canwreck the bearing.
The rad you can use those chenille wire play things to very gently clean therad from outside the machine and again blow the dust out. It is fiddly buteffective.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Having net connect problems but will send a pic.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

I meant to add a pic to show you what is involved - this example is very basic but is typical of cooling in a laptop. On my laptops on the outside I tape a piece of fairly fine material as a filter because the intake is very close even on a hard surface to dust / crud.

 

[paulyjames]

Just my 2 cents worth it seems you are trying to drive a fairly high res monitor from a GPU (and CPU) that are having a job keeping the device functioning.

I stand to be corrected but did you say it was an old monitor and could I suggest you get one of the low powered LED screens - and not overly large?

As for cleaning the air cooling system I always use my laptops on a hard surface not on ones lap or any surface likely to cause a lowered air intake.
Have a read of my ditty here

CLEANINGLAPTOPS

What you can do is to check the air intake aperture and the"rad" and to do that shine a very bright light into the fan apertureand look through from the outlet grill
1. You will see if there is a lot of dust in the fan intake and fan blades and2. you will see if the "rad" is blocked in any way when you lookthrough from the outside.

Now to clean you can blow the dust out using compressed air but first makesure you insert something into the fan blades before you do - to stop the fanfrom spinning as spinning the fan withair will cause it to spin at much higher revs than it was designed for and canwreck the bearing.
The rad you can use those chenille wire play things to very gently clean therad from outside the machine and again blow the dust out. It is fiddly buteffective.

Hi. The first monitor i used was an HP 24' monitor with 1920x1200 resolution. The monitor was brand new. The thing is i need that high resolution because of online poker.

The 2nd monitor i used is a dell monitor that has 1600x1200 resolution and is very old. It has similar issues.

The monitor im using now is an acer with 1440x900 resolution.



How much would it cost for me to have someone do what you are suggesting? im 100 percent not going to open the laptop myself.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

The first thing is I see the res is not having much of an issue on the machine.
Secondly if you follow my instructions that cleaning is very easy to do - did you by the way shine the light in the air intake and if so was there anything to see in the outlet grill? If not then that rad is blocked and like I described if you are very gentle with the chenille pipe cleaners you cannot do much damage.
I tell people that because it would really take excessive force to bend the rad fins - for example ramming a small screwdriver in there. It can be done also with a very thin strip of old credit card with no embossed numbers on it but take care not to snap it off when pushing through the rad fins. It is really common sense stuff.
The cost of a techie doing that would be very expensive as he would disassemble the machine and at rates like (out here) $85 per first consult and $75 per half hour after works out as much as the machine is worth alomost
The most important thing is to stop the fan from spinning too fast or at all when using a compressed air can.
First the light shining please.

Now without reading all the ay back what are the temps for the machine when running it?
Speccy will do Speccy - Download

 

[DavidE]

I would check temps when using a monitor and when using the laptop screen.
See what each shows.