Windows 7 locks up when turning on display

[hbbtstar]

Hey all, this is kind of a weird error so I thought I'd share:

I have been a Windows 7 user since beta, and so far my experience with it has been fantastic. I have been running on Windows 7 RC 32-bit, but when 7 Ultimate became available on MSDN I just reformatted and installed 64-bit to use all 4 GB of RAM. I have had no problems with it except this one peculiar error- I have the power options set to turn off the monitor after 20 minutes. If this happens, and I come back to the computer, if I press a button the screen comes back and it will work for about 1/2 - 1 second and then it locks up completely; sometimes it comes back, sometimes I have to do a hard reboot (not even ctrl+alt+del works). More often it does not come back though.

Nothing shows up in the event logs, and if I disable turning off the display it never locks up. I read somewhere about this being an issue with my motherboard and Vista 64-bit and to update the firmware, so I did but the problem stuck around. I also updated my graphics drivers and chipset drivers, and I even set the hard drives not to spin down, thinking that could be it; none of it is the case. It doesn't happen if I put the computer to sleep, the computer always comes back from sleep just fine. I have to admit I'm pretty perplexed, and I'm wondering if anyone had run into this / had any ideas on how to fix it. Thanks in advance!

 

[Antman]

Provide: Monitor type and model number. Connection type - vga, dvi, hdmi

 

[hbbtstar]

It's a laptop, so whatever the LCD model is for an ASUS N51VF, I haven't had any luck finding that on Google.

 

[Antman]

Duh. I could have looked up your model number and saved myself that embarassing moment.

Nonetheless, I must retire for the evening. Someone at SF will address this before I get back. Failing that, see you in about 8 hours.

 

[hbbtstar]

No worries, it's not your job to look up my model number; I should've provided all the information in the original post. Also, my video card is an NVIDIA Geforce GT 130M, that may be relevant to further investigation.

 

[zigzag3143]

hbb

are you by chance running auto hide taskbar?

 

[hbbtstar]

I am, yeah.

EDIT: Aha, I searched the auto hide / monitor sleep and discovered that they are, in fact, the cause of this issue! Thanks so much for helping me get to the root of this problem, and I'll just not let the display sleep until a hotfix comes out for this. Thanks again!