Computer wont boot/wake from sleep after adding a 2nd monitor

[Leonardo Chi]

I recently got a new 1440p monitor to replace my main monitor and hooked it up to my pc with a displayport cable. Ever since I got the monitor, whenever I try to wake the computer from sleep or even sometimes when I turn the PC on, the power light on my case will turn on, the monitor will "turn on" but not actually display an image, and the fans will throttle up really high but the computer wont actually boot.

 

For context, when I turn on my pc and it successfully boots, the power light will turn on and the processsing light under the power light will flash to indicate that it is booting; the fans also spin up but noticeable quieter than when the aforementioned problem happened. To fix the issue, I typically have to turn the computer off by holding down the power button and turn it back on and hope it boots correctly, which could require 7-10 power cycles to achieve. When I finally get the PC to boot, I will sometimes get the message "Computer failed to boot several times, Press F2 or ESC to enter UEFI settings" from my mother board before it continues to load Windows. It is worth noting this issue did not occur when I had both of my 1080p monitors hooked up via HDMI, it only started happening when I replaced my main monitor with the 1440p one.

 

Additionally, when the computer is in sleep mode, sometimes the both the power and processing light under the power light are completely off (typically the power light flashes when I am in sleep mode) and turn back on when I try to wake the computer before the issue occurs.

 

I have looked for fixes to this issue and tried a couple of different things:

- Reinstalled NVIDIA drivers and even downgraded to an earlier version to test. Did not change anything.

- Ensured my mouse and both of my keyboards are able to wake the computer. I did this by changing the power settings in the device manager. Did not change anything.

- Got a new DisplayPort cable to replace the one that came with the monitor because I read on Reddit that apparently a faulty cable can sometimes cause issues like this. Did not change anything.

- Edited my startup type under "App Readiness" setting to disabled. DId not change anything.

- Edited my power plan so that my computer never sleeps. This technically works but obviously does not allow me to use sleep mode since the problem occurs even if I manually put the computer to sleep.

- Unplug one of my monitors, turn the pc on, and then plug the monitor back in. This appears to work most of the time but is another janky fix that I would rather avoid if possible.

- Tried a variety of hardware fixes such as: booting without GPU, booting with only 1 RAM stick, reseating most power connectors, clearing CMOS in between most of these attempts, and replacing the CMOS battery. None of these made any difference.

 

At this point, Im not really sure what to do. Ive scoured the internet to no avail. Im starting to think I might just have to live without sleep mode but id rather avoid that since sometimes I leave my computer while working on homework and then I come back to it in sleep mode, which causes the issue when I try to wake it and requires me to power cycle it a couple of times and I lose any progress that I have not saved and I have to reopen all the files and tabs I was looking at to continue.

 

As I have continued to use the computer, I have noticed something strange. As I mentioned above, I have set my "Time until Sleep" to never so that my computer never enters the sleeping state; however, the screens turn off after 10 minutes of inactivity. When they turn off and I turn them back on by typing on the keyboard/moving the mouse, my right monitor (which is in a vertical configuration) will turn on first and the contents that were on my main, large monitor will be on the vertical screen; the screen will also be in a horizontal configuration, meaning that the text on the screen is parallel to the wall, before the main screen wakes back up and the screen go back to normal. The NVIDIA control panel will also popup saying that a G-Sync compatible sceeen has been plugged in and FxSound (a volume mixing application) will set the default output device from my headphones to my main monitor. It seems as if the main screen is being "plugged in" every time it turns on as opposed to just turning back on.

 

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. If there is any information I left out, please let me know so I can include it.

Specs:

Windows 11

i5-4690k

RTX 3060ti

LG 32" UltraGear QHD 165Hz HDR 10 Monitor with FreeSync - 32GN600-B.AUS