Monitor not coming out of sleep

[Prstorero]

Problem:

 

After the monitor times out, it doesn't come back on. It doesn't happen every time the monitor goes off, so it's very sporadic. The are two different instances this will occur:

1. The monitor times out, but the tower remains on. Moving the mouse does not wake the screen.
2. The whole system enters sleep. Moving the mouse wakes up the system, but the monitor doesn't come back on.

The issue first started appearing after installing a new HP printer we bought, so initially that seemed like the culprit. To keep this easy to read, I've included all of my attempted solutions below.

 

OS: Started on Windows 7, continued after a clean install of Windows 10 (Both 64bit)

 

Specs:

• AMD Phenom II X6 1100T
• NVIDIA GTX 550 TI
• 8GB DDR3 Vengeance 1600 MHz ram
• Corsair TX750 750W power supply
• GIGABYTE GA-990FXA-UD3 motherboard
• LG 12X Blue-ray disc rewriter
• Samsung 850 Evo SSD
• Viewsonic VS13518

Attempted Solutions:

• Stock BIOS settings
• Updating GPU drivers
• Updating monitor drivers
• Uninstalling all HP software that installed with the printer
• Switching display cables
• Clean install of Windows 10
• Older GPU drivers (causes a lot of hardware errors)

The only other things I can think of to try at this point is a new GPU or monitor, but I would like to avoid having to buy new hardware if possible. Since this is currently an office PC, there aren't any kind of mods that would cause a potential issue that I'm aware of. Hopefully I've covered all the bases here, thanks in advance for any suggestions.

[Tedster]

postsnip

Welcome to the Forum.

 

Trying to look for something you haven't done...

One of the few things I can suggest at this point is going back to earlier graphics drivers - it's possible that it broke with a graphics driver update.

[Prstorero]

Welcome to the Forum.

 

Trying to look for something you haven't done...

One of the few things I can suggest at this point is going back to earlier graphics drivers - it's possible that it broke with a graphics driver update.

Thanks,

 

Before the issue started happening, I was actually on the same driver update for a very long time. When the monitor issue started happening, that's when I finally updated the drivers. Considering this, would you still suggest reverting to a different one?

[Tedster]

Thanks,

 

Before the issue started happening, I was actually on the same driver update for a very long time. When the monitor issue started happening, that's when I finally updated the drivers. Considering this, would you still suggest reverting to a different one?

I would definitely try going back to an older driver than the one you were using at the time but for all I know the only effect that will have will be more frequent crashes and worse support for Windows 10.

I'd play around with the power management/sleep settings in Windows and make sure that you are running the same settings in your Nvidia control panel.

 

However I have a feeling that it's going to be the panel that's at fault. If it has a factory reset thing on it, I'd try if if you haven't already.

[Prstorero]

I would definitely try going back to an older driver than the one you were using at the time but for all I know the only effect that will have will be more frequent crashes and worse support for Windows 10.

I'd play around with the power management/sleep settings in Windows and make sure that you are running the same settings in your Nvidia control panel.

 

However I have a feeling that it's going to be the panel that's at fault. If it has a factory reset thing on it, I'd try if if you haven't already.

Do you know of a reliable site to get old drivers from? I know there are plenty websites out there if you google for them, but I really don't trust them haha. I rolled back the current one, but it's still only about a month old, so I have my doubts about that. I messed around in the power management before with no luck, but I tried changing a few settings again just to see. I also looked into the Nvidia control panel, and nothing in there seemed abnormal. 

 

I looked around the monitor and didn't find a physical reset button nor did I see one in the on-screen menu. Since I changed a few settings as stated above, I'll see if it happens again before proceeding so we can rule those out.

[Tedster]

Do you know of a reliable site to get old drivers from? I know there are plenty websites out there if you google for them, but I really don't trust them haha. I rolled back the current one, but it's still only about a month old, so I have my doubts about that. I messed around in the power management before with no luck, but I tried changing a few settings again just to see. I also looked into the Nvidia control panel, and nothing in there seemed abnormal. 

 

I looked around the monitor and didn't find a physical reset button nor did I see one in the on-screen menu. Since I changed a few settings as stated above, I'll see if it happens again before proceeding so we can rule those out.

Just get older drivers from Nvidia's website? They should just be there?

 

And interesting to know about the monitor.

[Prstorero]

Just get older drivers from Nvidia's website? They should just be there?

 

And interesting to know about the monitor.

Oops I wasn't aware that if you did a search it would actually bring up old drivers as well. I thought it would only give you the newest ones. It looks like the oldest I can get is February of this year, so I'll give that a shot if it happens again.

[Prstorero]

Thought I would give an update of how things are going. So far I haven't had any instances of the screen not waking (but sometimes it can take a day or two to happen), but I have noticed three times in one day that the display driver stopped working and recovered. And the current driver is only from July, so things may get even worse if I try running an older one. So far it seems it's a trade-off between newer drivers with monitor wake up issues or older drivers with crashing issues. I'd still like to test it over today and tomorrow before trying to draw any real conclusions, but this is what I think so far.

 

Edit: I just pulled up the reliability report and it lists 6 hardware errors in less than an hour time span. All but one of them list "LKD_0x141_Tdr:6_IMAGE_nvlddmkm.sys" as the bucket ID. So it does seem like the older graphics driver is crashing quite a lot. It looks like an older driver version on Windows 10 won't be a solution if it causes that many crashes.

[Prstorero]

New update:

 

I just got home and was told it restarted for a windows update. When I went to move the mouse, the screen didn't come on. I checked what the update was and it was audio drivers, which failed to install. I also looked at the reliability history again and there's over 20 hardware errors in there. I didn't go through each one, but all the ones I did open pointed to NVIDIA. So since the screen didn't wake, this older graphics driver didn't seem to work, and I can't go any older since the crashes would probably become a lot worse. Oh ya and there was also a BSOD when I turned the system back on after a force shut down for "Video TDR Failure", but that's probably related to the non-Windows 10 supported graphics driver. Not really sure what to try at this point, any other suggestions, @Tedster?

[GoodBytes]

I had this problem once. My GPU ended up being faulty. Try a different graphic card if you can to confirm this.

[Prstorero]

I had this problem once. My GPU ended up being faulty. Try a different graphic card if you can to confirm this.

Do you mind if I ask how long you had yours for? This one has been running with no problems since 2011, so it seems strange I would just now find out it's faulty. I would have to buy a new one to test it as I don't have any spares, so I'm trying to rule out any possibilities before needing to buy one.

[GoodBytes]

Oh boy... heumm... The GPU was purchased end of 2005, broke maybe 3-4 years ago with this issue.

[Prstorero]

Oh boy... heumm... The GPU was purchased end of 2005, broke maybe 3-4 years ago with this issue.

Hmm dang. Guess it may be time to just buy a new one, kind of a shame haha. I updated the drivers again due to all the crashes from before, so if it keeps happening, I guess I'll just have to get a new one.

[Prstorero]

I just placed an order for a new GPU. Last night when updating the drivers, the screen froze and became unresponsive. Upon a reboot, the GPU fans got extremely loud and it took about 8 restarts to get the system to boot normally, and even then there were all sorts of artifacts covering the top quarter of the display, so this thing was definitely on its last legs. The card will be here Friday and I'll be sure to update this after I install and test it.

[Prstorero]

Alright so the new GPU came in yesterday. After putting it in and booting up the system, it ended up completely freezing on the lockscreen. I decided to go into the BIOS, and it froze there as well. Long story short, it seems the PCI-E slot started malfunctioning. As soon as I moved the card to another one, it booted up flawlessly with no freezing whatsoever. So the initial problem to begin with may very well have been the slot starting to go bad. Unfortunately I don't have the time to put the old GPU back in this weekend and see what happens, but that's my suspicion right now. 

[Prstorero]

I did not get the time to test the old GPU in the same configuration, but there has not been one instance of the screen not waking up in over a week now, so I'm comfortable to mark this as solved.

 

I strongly believe the issue was a dying PCI-E slot.