Monitor mysteriously turns on and off

[roboref]

My monitor when no one is using the computer will trun off and on. The monitor screen will go black then put up a colored test pattern, then black again then it comes up and will work fine as long as the computer is being used. It will do this every 3 to 4 minutes. Several ideas on what is causing this:

1. something inside monitor is causing it to do this,
2. Power console/surge protector is faulty and is casuing it, (the computer will also occasionaly turon/off.
3. Either the power management in the BIOS or the WIN 98 is messed up.

I am not sure how to go about diaganosing this so any help would be appreciated!

[Reid]

My first thought is that your monitor might not be compatible with Windows power management, so click Start, Settings, Control Panel, and double-click Power Management. Change your monitor to Always On if it has a time set in there now. You can also try turning off the power management in the BIOS.
This link (http://www.hardwarehell.com/power.htm) has some more information.

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reido@my-deja.com

[Paleo Pete]

Also check to see if you have a screen saver trying to start after power management takes over. Screensavers are useless with SVGA monitors, and basically nothing more than eye-candy these days, but if you like to use one, make sure it comes on before power management.

SVGA monitors don't "burn in" like older EGA/CGA monitors did, the worst ones were the original monochrome ones that came with XT machines, that normally displayed mostly text. Screensavers were designed to eliminate this, by keeping a constantly moving image on the monitor. After VGA was designed, screensavers became mostly useless...

If a screensaver tries to start after power management takes over, it will cause problems, and sometimes lock up the machine.

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[roboref]

Additional Info

The monitor in use is an NEC XE 15, which is fuly compliant with win98 se.
I have disable power management in the BIOS and in Windows.
there is no screen saver set up to run.

Hope this will help define problem better.

[Reid]

The video card also needs to be VESA DPMS compliant, but if monitor standby is disabled, that shouldn't matter. I have seen some recommendations to change from DPMS to "V/H Sync=Blank" in BIOS.

Maybe it has something to do with ACPI. This article (http://www.computerbits.com/archive/20000200/acpi.htm) may help.

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reido@my-deja.com