Screen blanks out every 20 minutes

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:o: I am bemused.

:confused: I find that my screen “blanks out” every ~20 mins if I’m not doing anything[/COLOR] on it.

Now, I have checked in the Win7 Control panel that the desktop is[/SIZE] set to never “sleep” & to NEVER turn off the monitor! But the ‘puter doesn’t follow my demands!

I did try switching off almost all “start-up” programs with msconfig – to no avail – I still get blanking of my screen – tho’ I can see a glow behind the screen – just no useful display.

Unfortunately, I still can not discover why I can’t keep the screen permanently displaying on this relatively new re-install of Win 7 Ult.

I have discovered that installing Bitsum’s “Project Lasso” – & using the options within it – I can select “Keep PC awake” (Indefinitely) & it works, but this command is not a “sticky” – so on each desktop reboot – I have to repeat this action.

None of my other W7 / W8.1 & W10 display this annoying “feature” that I’d like to be shot of!

Anyone got a working solution?

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BUT – you seem to have overlooked my inscription: Now, I have checked in the Win7 Control panel that the desktop is set to never “sleep” & to NEVER turn off the monitor! But the ‘puter doesn’t follow my demands!

[/COLOR][/SIZE][/B]

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Is any screen saver set at Control Panel, Personalization? (I.E. Blank instead of (None), as that’s separate from Power Options)

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Also, ensure UEFI or BIOS doesn’t have power saves on.

"Take care of thy backups and thy restores shall take care of thee." Ben Franklin, revisted

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kudos to all three of you! If it isn’t any of the above then I am at a loss for explaining what appears to be a timed event of disuse.

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My Acer monitor has an ECO mode (power saving) which works independently of the PC/OS. I don’t suppose it’s something like this?

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I don’t think it has anything to do with my Dell 2209 WA monitor settings, and I’m perplexed as to what the problem is – I can ONLY get the screen to stay radiating its colors by engaging Bitsum’s “Project Lasso” – & using the options within it – I can select “Keep PC awake” (Indefinitely).

I’m averse to reinstalling Win 7 since I only (barely) finished a re-install a couple of weeks ago!:mad:

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Go to Control PanelAll Control Panel ItemsPower Options then left-click on “Edit Plan Settings ” for the plan you are using. In your plan’s settings dialog left-click “Change advanced power settings”. In the advanced settings dialog check the setting for “Sleep”; I have mine set to “Never”.

I also turned hibernation off. See this M$ article: How to disable and re-enable hibernation on a computer that is running Windows

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It might be an idea to have a look at an Energy report to see how many error and/or warnings there are.

1. Click on Start.
2. Type cmd.
3, When cmd appears as found, right-click on cmd.exe and choose Run as Administrator…
4. When the command prompt appears, type PowerCfg -Energy and press the Enter key.
5. After a minute or so, you will be informed that a report has been created (usually C:Windowssystem32energy-report.html).
6. Attach the file to your next post for us to have a look at.

More info here: PowerCFG (Vista/Windows7/Server 2008), including how to set the monitor timeout for the current power saver scheme (Enter Powercfg -Change -monitor-timeout-ac 0 at step 4 above.).

Hope this helps…

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I had a similar problem, fixed by re-installing the relevant drivers. Hope it helps.

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Some propriety computer brands, e.g. Toshiba, include their own power management schemes, which may take priority over the Windows settings. Check if anything like that is running, and if so either disable it or change its settings. If present, it probably runs at startup, in which case you would see it in MSCONFIG.

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Try this…
Right click on empty part of the desktop,
Left click on Personalize,
Left click on Screen Saver,
Make sure that Screen Saver is set to “(None)” and not “Blank”
If Screen Saver is set to “Blank”, the monitor will change to a black screen at time set but the monitor will remain powered on.

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Hmm, no one has asked how the OP gets the screen to work again – is it as simple as a mouse movement or keyboard press? If so, then PHreD might have hit the nail on the head!

Eliminate spare time: start programming PowerShell

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Try this … You stated that you just re-installed Windows 7, a few weeks ago. Windows has a bad habit of setting EVERYTHING to Default settings!!! As others have told you, there are lots of places to check, to get Windows 7, back to your personal settings.

Go to Power Options, in the Control Panel. Look at the left side of the screen, it is there that you will see the settings for “Choose when to turn off the display” and “Change when the computer sleeps.” Set both of those to Never. Then you need to check under Personalization … At the bottom right of your screen, you will see Screensaver, click on that to make sure at the settings are not on Blank, with 20 minutes as the time setting.

It is not uncommon for the Screensaver setting, to turn your Monitor into a blank screen, after 20 mins. Also, please do check out what your Power Plan settings are at … I have found that 20 mins., seems to be a common issue with Windows XP and Windows 7. If, you are using an older Off Lease computer, like I am, I have a Dell Optiplex 960, running Windows 7 Pro 64Bit. I always, MUST check out my BIOS settings, to make sure that the BIOS power settings are NOT conflicting with my Windows 7 Pro settings. Why, I told you that … It is normal for Off Lease computers, to be working like an office computer, where the BIOS settings will turn off the Monitor or even the computer, when nothing is being used. Offices want to save, everywhere they can. You may have not purchased an Off Lease computer, but, none the less, you may have purchased a computer that is meant for the Office. They are different.

Now, should you have built your own computer, I would question the Display or Graphic Card. Graphic cards can go out, slowly, by simply doing crazy things. No different, then when you need to replace the CMOS battery, when your computer will not keep time. Yes, I have built my own computers, in the past, in fact, I have built 12 of them for Hubby, family, friends and me. I do not pretend to be an expert, but, I really am a geek, at heart. I am also, self-taught and 71 years old, a wife, a mother, a grandmother and a great grandmother. I thank the stars daily, that I love my computer, because it keeps me young and mentally alert.

I hope that I have helped you and that your problem is finally resolved. :D:

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I doubt very much if this is something which can be resolved by a Windows reinstall–almost definitely a waste of time imo. Strange the other suggestions haven’t solved this for you–the recurring specific timing of 20 minutes almost certainly means a setting or software is the cause.

None of my other W7 / W8.1 & W10 display this annoying “feature” that I’d like to be shot of!

1. Swap the ‘bad’ monitor with one of your other ‘good’ ones. Does the bad one work fine on another computer? Does the good one blank after 20 mins on the ‘bad’ computer? Swap the video cables also while doing this. These will prove it is or is not the monitor or cable.

2. Turn on a screensaver, set to operate after 1-5 minutes. Does that happen?
2a. If yes, set it to operate after 25-30 minutes [ie longer than it takes your screen to blank out]. Does the blanking happen before the screensaver kicks in?

3. Similar to ‘2.’ above, but with power plan this time. Set a power plan to turn off the screen after 5 minutes, and let it happen. Now set a plan to turn off after say 30 minutes. Does the screen blank before the monitor switches off?

2 & 3 above should eliminate the possibility that there are screensavers or power plans being applied unknown to you. It also sometimes happens with software that switching some setting off and on again will magically rectify a glitch.

4. Are your PCs networked? Your monitor can be remotely accessed and manipulated by another network computer via Dell Client Manager. I imagine there is other network manager software which can do the same.
Disconnect your ‘bad’ computer from your network and see if the blank screen still happens.

5. If above 4 tests haven’t revealed anything, then afaics you should be left with some software operating independently. Others have mentioned the two obvious choices–independent settings in your monitor which should be changeable via its hardware menu, or settings in your UEFI [BIOS]–so poke there next.

PS Please answer Access-MDB’s question, do you ‘unblank’ the screen via mouse movement / keyboard press, or is something else required?

Lugh.
~
Alienware Aurora R6; Win10 Home x64 1803; Office 365 x32
i7-7700; GeForce GTX 1060; 16GB DDR4 2400; 1TB SSD, 256GB SSD, 4TB HD

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OldChinaHand last posted 4 days and 8 replies ago.
We may never know if the mystery was ever solved. :confused:

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I am back – sorry for the hiatus – Yes, the screen did “unblank” at the movement of the wireless mouse – or tapping the keyboard.

I used to need to have Process Lasso program “on” and set to always keep my desktop PC “awake”.

Strangely enough – I have NOT had to fiddle around with the mouse or keyboard for a couple of days – i.e. The problem seems to have disappeared…. and I really don’t know why !!

For the last few days I’ve been “fighting” my small X100e Thinkpad as I installed a secondhand Intel SSD into it, and failed in my endeavors to clone my “Viagra” [Hard Disk] partitions on to it !

So, several attempts later – when I had found my x64 copy of Win 7 – and screwed it up several times when trying to get dual booting with my Win 10 (10041), I finally have got it together.

I didn’t much care for the MicroSquelch “select boot” – so I used “EASYBCD 2.2” to control WHICH O/s boots up. and the delay before booting to either O/s can be set so that neither ever automatically boots.

Well, it’s a bit “off topic” – but I think you guys & girls deserve an answer for my “disappearance” :fanfare:

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Let’s hope it stays resolved.

A friend had a similar problem. It turned out that when he upgraded Windows he used the default Windows mouse drivers. Once he installed the proper manufacturer’s full driver set for the mouse everything was fine. I’m not suggesting that was the cause of your problem, just that it’s something else to be considered when these sorts of problems arise after a re-install or upgrade of the OS.

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So presumably it was the screensaver as PHreD suggested….

Eliminate spare time: start programming PowerShell

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