Annoying power saving problem!

Stonedofmoo · 12 Sep 2006 at 13:30

Hi there

Hopefully you people can help me.

Where I work we have a few PC's around our call center that display statistics information about the phone system on large 42-50" screens.
The data is generated through a webpage on Windows XP SP2 computers.

Now the problem is those screens keep going into power save mode after 20-30 minutes or so.
I know what you are thinking - disable the power save mode and set it to 'never'... however we already have.

The screensaver is switched off, and ALL of the power saving features including monitor, hard disk and system standby are all off too.

Despite this the screens all switch off at some point, very frustrating!

Does anyone know why this might be. I've simply run out of ideas. I even checked the BIOS to see if there was a power save mode built in there but there isn't, and the monitors themselves are all different types and brand and NONE of them have built in power saving options that could explain this.

The PC's are all HP Business Desktop DX2200's.

Help!!

Joe42 · 12 Sep 2006 at 14:02

I think you'll have to contact hp, if you disable it in the power settings and the bios if its there then they shouldn't turn off.
Try updated chipset drivers and perhaps an updated bios, i was having a standby problem that was fixed by updated chipset drivers.

sinisterelbow · 12 Sep 2006 at 14:10

This may sound like an odd suggestion, I don't have any powersave options either and my monitor (crt) previously didn't switch off, but i changed my monitor last night (to a tft) and it switches itself off/into power save mode, even though i haven't changed any settings from when i was using my crt.

Maybe there is a powersave option on the screens themselves?

Joe42 · 12 Sep 2006 at 14:15

Thats a point, check the osd menu in the monitor itself.

Stonedofmoo · 12 Sep 2006 at 14:36

But that doesn't make sense. A monitor is just a monitor, how can it know if you are using the PC or not?

I would suggest it's more likely the power save options have defaulted back to standard from where you switched your monitor back.

But then I'm no expert as i've had no success with this myself

sinisterelbow · 12 Sep 2006 at 14:41

Stonedofmoo said:
But that doesn't make sense. A monitor is just a monitor, how can it know if you are using the PC or not?

I would suggest it's more likely the power save options have defaulted back to standard from where you switched your monitor back.

But then I'm no expert as i've had no success with this myself

i don't know, but in may case, the only thing that's changed is the monitor and it now goes into power save!

Joe42 · 12 Sep 2006 at 15:11

Stonedofmoo said:
But that doesn't make sense. A monitor is just a monitor, how can it know if you are using the PC or not?

I would suggest it's more likely the power save options have defaulted back to standard from where you switched your monitor back.

But then I'm no expert as i've had no success with this myself

The monitor knows if its had no image activity for a time, in the same way the pc does.

Stonedofmoo · 12 Sep 2006 at 15:15

The monitor knows if its had no image activity for a time, in the same way the pc does.

How?

All it knows is if it's recieving a graphics signal or not. It can't know if you're using the machine or not; it's just a monitor.

sinisterelbow · 12 Sep 2006 at 15:17

Stonedofmoo said:
Yes but that implies it's the computer causing it to go into power save mode and not the monitor

vicious circle!

Joe42 · 12 Sep 2006 at 15:42

Stonedofmoo said:
How?

All it knows is if it's recieving a graphics signal or not. It can't know if you're using the machine or not; it's just a monitor.

It can have a timer which resets if any of the pixels have changed or if the signal its recieving from the pc has changed in any way. The data being sent to it would remain the same if the image on the minitor was not changing.
Inside that monitor is more than a bunch of pixels, theres quite a bit of logic, a bit of a mini computer.

Stonedofmoo · 12 Sep 2006 at 15:48

Ok well assuming that's correct it unfortunately doesn't explain my situation as the screen's cycle constantly through different stats and pages, so it's not a static image by any means.

Joe42 · 12 Sep 2006 at 16:41

So to wake it it requires mouse movement?

I still say contact hp, somethings not right. Have you tried a chipset driver update?

Stonedofmoo · 12 Sep 2006 at 18:01

Joe42 said:
So to wake it it requires mouse movement?

I still say contact hp, somethings not right. Have you tried a chipset driver update?

That's right, mouse or keyboard movement.

I tried the chipset driver, but i'm not quite sure what drivers it's installed as I download the drivers from the HP webby and they only mention southbridge drivers by ATI when you install it (It has an ATI chipset)

Joe42 · 12 Sep 2006 at 19:03

I bet the drivers on the hp website are out of date.
Find out what chipset it is and get drivers from the manufacturers website.
If you need you can use something like PcWizard to identify the chipset.