Monitor won't start...sometimes

Clevo · Jun 6, 2009

Hi folks,

Been having a monitor issue lately ever since I installed SP2 for Vista 64bit. Sometimes when I turn the PC on the monitor goes into immeadiate sleepode (the power button blinks). I don;t even see the BIOS boot screen....nothing...just black.

I sometimes can hear windows loading but nothing is on the screen. At other times I don't hear Windows loading at all.

I'm thinking it's a BIOS problem or maybe even a MB problem.

I would appreciate some help on this. I've never had this problem before SP2

Weirdness continues....managed to get some sort of display happening only to be told my windows system files are corrupted and that I need to do a repair...which I am doing now after several attempts to get the BIOS to boot from the DVD drive

Well I bit the bullet and restarted the PC...dissapointed to say that it's didn;t work.

It seems like the BIOS isn;t loding any basic video nor is windows.

Sometimes it just doesn;t even seem to be booting into BIOS at all.

I'm lost on this one...any suggestions?

(other than not turning off PC when it works

)

bogart · Jun 7, 2009

Not going to be much help here but sympathise as Im currently battling with a similar problem. My screen gets as far as doing the Windows bar at the bottom then when I would expect the Microsoft flag I hear the disk chatter a bit my screen goes slightly darker then darker still and then goes to power save mode and thats it.
I've done what people suggested turning of startup programs but to no avail.
Best of luck.

smarteyeball · Jun 7, 2009

I had a similar issue with monitor going straight into sleep mode on another machine. It turned out to be a dying PSU.

Clevo · Jun 7, 2009

smarteyeball said:
I had a similar issue with monitor going straight into sleep mode on another machine. It turned out to be a dying PSU.

I hope that'snit the case...

Replacing the MB battery seems to have helped but I have a feeling that it was a fluke and once I restart the PC I will have problems re-booting.

There seems to be three issues:

1) Boot... nothing happens. No BIOS on Screen...monitor power button flashes immediately as if in sleep mode. Cannot boot from CD drives. (I suspect it never got to BIOS)

2) Boot... Monitor goes immediately into sleep mode and won;t wake up. Monitor is not receiving a signal. can hear Windows booting up through speakers.

3) Boots normally...with vision.

I have to re-boot 6-7 times before I get a normal re-boot.

smarteyeball · Jun 7, 2009

Clevo said:
smarteyeball said:

I had a similar issue with monitor going straight into sleep mode on another machine. It turned out to be a dying PSU.

Click to expand...

I hope that'snit the case...

Replacing the MB battery seems to have helped but I have a feeling that it was a fluke and once I restart the PC I will have problems re-booting.

There seems to be three issues:

1) Boot... nothing happens. No BIOS on Screen...monitor power button flashes immediately as if in sleep mode. Cannot boot from CD drives. (I suspect it never got to BIOS)

2) Boot... Monitor goes immediately into sleep mode and won;t wake up. Monitor is not receiving a signal. can hear Windows booting up through speakers.

3) Boots normally...with vision.

I have to re-boot 6-7 times before I get a normal re-boot.

Unfortunately that sounds very familiar. I would get a screen once every few restarts. Sometimes it took quite a few boots, but once it was on, it stayed on. (I also lost power to a DVD drive and a IDE drive towards the end)

Does your screen have any dis-colouration at times? Right before I replaced the PSU, the screen was also starting to get some odd colours. After replacing the PSU, I got both the screen and drives back.

The fact that it's occurring before booting into an OS does point towards a h/w issue. I'm not saying it's definitely the PSU, but as I mentioned, it sounds familiar

Alternatively, it may just be your video card going south. Have you double checked the connections or tried a different rail (plug) if you can?

JimJoe · Jun 8, 2009

I didn't know monitors had a sleep mode... do they ?

I agree with smarteyeball, check your video cables. I would also check for a loose power cord on the monitor. Check the video card by plugging the monitor into the motherboard video out.

It could be your video driver had a hiccup during SP 2 install and the video driver got corrupted. Reinstall your video driver.

smarteyeball · Jun 8, 2009

JimJoe said:
I didn't know monitors had a sleep mode... do they ?

Yep. It's a built in power saving feature.

It could be your video driver had a hiccup during SP 2 install and the video driver got corrupted. Reinstall your video driver.

The fact that it's occurring during boot and prior to any OS / driver interaction would indicate a h/w problem rather than a s/w one. However it certainly couldn't hurt to uninstall/reinstall the video drivers.

roy69 · Jun 8, 2009

I would agree with smartyeyeball on this.

Have you got an internal speaker connected to the mobo?

Disconnect your HDD and DVD drives then boot up, on boot press DEL.
This will put you into the bios screen.

If your computer fails to post then you know you have a hardware problem, press the reset key if this happens. It may boot on a reset key which does point to the psu. The reason for this is because before your computer boots it has to wait for a Power Good Signal, if it never gets one it will never boot. When you computer does get the Power Good Signal a reset signal is sent to you CPU which makes it jump to a memory area in the bios to start the POST. Pressing the reset button mimicks this.

Ensure all your cables are connected correctly just in case. (After striping down my system I noticed the monitor cable had become dislodged, wifey cleaning again

)

If you have an add on graphics card then try the onboard graphics if you have one.

The PSU is the cheapest thing so I would replace that first or take it to a shop if you dont have many spares.

These are all diagnostic ideas. Use them as you see fit.

JimJoe · Jun 8, 2009

smarteyeball said:
JimJoe said:

I didn't know monitors had a sleep mode... do they ?

Click to expand...

Yep. It's a built in power saving feature.

I know that the power settings on the computer can shut off the video to the monitor, but the only time I have seen a monitor shut off is when the video signal goes away. Some monitors where I work just say 'check video cable' and display a small rectangle of colors instead of shutting off the display. Those are the flat panels. The crt ones have various combos of that.

I just don't remember there being a way to set the power save on monitors manually.

Clevo · Jun 8, 2009

Will try all these excellent suggestions when I get home...thanks all

smarteyeball · Jun 9, 2009

JimJoe said:
I just don't remember there being a way to set the power save on monitors manually.

You can't

It's a feature built-in to the monitor. Basically the power saving mode knows there is a video cable attached, thinks it's no longer needed for display and switches off. Hence the green light for power on and orange when in power saving. Just like when a TV goes into 'standby'.

The check video cable occurs because the monitor goes 'hey, there's no cable - I better report it and to report the message, the screen is required to stay on.

The behaviour is just dependant on particular models, but generally they are all the same.

Monitor won't start...sometimes

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