Monitor in sleep mode

[JayJay]

Posting a question on behalf of a friend.

New computer with Vista Home Premium, components includes the
following.
Asus P5N-E Socket T Motherboard.
Asus nVidia GeForce 8400GS PCI-Express Video Card.
Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 2.33Ghz CPU
ViewSonic VG2021 Monitor.

The machine works perfectly apart from one problem, which is; After
installing a USB device such as a Keyboard and Mouse, or a printer the
monitor boot up in (sleep mode?) and canÿt be woken up. The only way
to get the monitor to be seen is by pressing the reset button which
gives the message that the machine has been incorrectly switched off.
The computer and devices then works correctly without a problem.
Yesterday, they had a cable modem installed onto the Ethernet
connection and the same problem happened again - reboot and monitor in
sleep mode forcing a reset.
Power setting has the ´never turn off hard drive or monitor set¡.
Can anyone suggest a solution to this problem? Or is the situation
normal with Vista?

 

[Paul]

Posting a question on behalf of a friend.

New computer with Vista Home Premium, components includes the
following.
Asus P5N-E Socket T Motherboard.
Asus nVidia GeForce 8400GS PCI-Express Video Card.
Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 2.33Ghz CPU
ViewSonic VG2021 Monitor.

The machine works perfectly apart from one problem, which is; After
installing a USB device such as a Keyboard and Mouse, or a printer the
monitor boot up in (sleep mode?) and canÿt be woken up. The only way
to get the monitor to be seen is by pressing the reset button which
gives the message that the machine has been incorrectly switched off.
The computer and devices then works correctly without a problem.
Yesterday, they had a cable modem installed onto the Ethernet
connection and the same problem happened again - reboot and monitor in
sleep mode forcing a reset.
Power setting has the ´never turn off hard drive or monitor set¡.
Can anyone suggest a solution to this problem? Or is the situation
normal with Vista?

The vip.asus.com forums aren't completely functional right now,
so I can't take a look at the posts over there. They have a forum
for each motherboard model. I can see the first page of 10 posts,
but cannot access any others.

http://vip.asus.com/forum/topic.aspx?board_id=1&model=P5N-E+SLI&SLanguage=en-us

By any chance, is there 4GB of memory installed in the machine ?
It could be an address space issue of some sort, related to
improper handling of resources during POST. A BIOS upgrade might
fix it *IF* the BIOS release notes mention the existence of the
problem, and that it is fixed. Remove some RAM and try again, if
there is 4GB present.

Otherwise, I'd check the Event Viewer (whatever the Vista
equivalent is), to see if a driver is throwing an error.

If you had another computer, it'd be fun to see if you could
get Remote Desktop running, and see if the operating system
thinks everything is OK, even though the screen is dead.
In other words, use a second computer, to "look inside" the
busted one.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terminal_Services

Paul

 

[JayJay]

The vip.asus.com forums aren't completely functional right now,
so I can't take a look at the posts over there. They have a forum
for each motherboard model. I can see the first page of 10 posts,
but cannot access any others.

http://vip.asus.com/forum/topic.aspx?board_id=1&model=P5N-E+SLI&SLanguage=en-us

By any chance, is there 4GB of memory installed in the machine ?
It could be an address space issue of some sort, related to
improper handling of resources during POST. A BIOS upgrade might
fix it *IF* the BIOS release notes mention the existence of the
problem, and that it is fixed. Remove some RAM and try again, if
there is 4GB present.

Only 2GB memory installed. Bios is up to date.

Otherwise, I'd check the Event Viewer (whatever the Vista
equivalent is), to see if a driver is throwing an error.

If you had another computer, it'd be fun to see if you could
get Remote Desktop running, and see if the operating system
thinks everything is OK, even though the screen is dead.
In other words, use a second computer, to "look inside" the
busted one.

Something to think about, thanks.

 

[kony]

Posting a question on behalf of a friend.

New computer with Vista Home Premium, components includes the
following.
Asus P5N-E Socket T Motherboard.
Asus nVidia GeForce 8400GS PCI-Express Video Card.
Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 2.33Ghz CPU
ViewSonic VG2021 Monitor.

The machine works perfectly apart from one problem, which is; After
installing a USB device such as a Keyboard and Mouse, or a printer the
monitor boot up in (sleep mode?) and canÿt be woken up. The only way
to get the monitor to be seen is by pressing the reset button which
gives the message that the machine has been incorrectly switched off.
The computer and devices then works correctly without a problem.
Yesterday, they had a cable modem installed onto the Ethernet
connection and the same problem happened again - reboot and monitor in
sleep mode forcing a reset.
Power setting has the ´never turn off hard drive or monitor set¡.
Can anyone suggest a solution to this problem? Or is the situation
normal with Vista?

You have not explained the problem very clearly.

You are saying that if the system is completely off and
turned on, then you never get any output to the monitor
unless you press the reset button, correct?

If so, do you have any reason to believe the system had
posted and was trying to boot windows, or does it just stop
as if it did not POST at all? Either way, it does not seem
to be a Vista problem.

If the system continues to boot, I wonder if the monitor has
dual inputs (analog D-sub and DVI) and when the signal to
the input used is gone momentarily, it switches to the other
(default) input. If this might be the case, when the
monitor shows no input try toggling the input mode with it's
menu buttons.

If the system does not reboot, keep an eye out for bios
updates that might address this and check the motherboard
manual for jumpers that set 5VSB/5V for USB ports and jumper
them to 5V, not 5VSB. Try clearing CMOS. Unplug the USB
peripherals and see if having only the ethernet plugged in
still causes this.

 

[JayJay]

You have not explained the problem very clearly.

Sorry about that

You are saying that if the system is completely off and
turned on, then you never get any output to the monitor
unless you press the reset button, correct?

No, the problem only happens if a device has just been installed.

If so, do you have any reason to believe the system had
posted and was trying to boot windows, or does it just stop
as if it did not POST at all? Either way, it does not seem
to be a Vista problem.

The computer deeps on start up and the hard drive light is active as
normal, only the monitor doesn't show (the power light stays yellow
instead of blue which the normal colour.

If the system continues to boot, I wonder if the monitor has
dual inputs (analog D-sub and DVI) and when the signal to
the input used is gone momentarily, it switches to the other
(default) input. If this might be the case, when the
monitor shows no input try toggling the input mode with it's
menu buttons.

Both analog and digital, the monitor is set DVI. I'll try your
suggestion, thank you.

If the system does not reboot, keep an eye out for bios
updates that might address this and check the motherboard
manual for jumpers that set 5VSB/5V for USB ports and jumper
them to 5V, not 5VSB. Try clearing CMOS. Unplug the USB
peripherals and see if having only the ethernet plugged in
still causes this.

Once the device has been installed and after the first reboot the
computer works normally, as explained in the original posting.

Bios is up to date, and the CMOS settings have already been cleared.