Monitor turns itself on

[Tom]

I have my monitor set to turn itself off after a period of time in
Windows, but it sometimes wakes itself up without any external (mouse or
keyboard) intervention.

Is this a software (Windows) problem or hardware (monitor/cabling)
problem? OS is XP Pro 32-bit with SP2.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Swifty]

I have my monitor set to turn itself off after a period of time in
Windows, but it sometimes wakes itself up without any external (mouse or
keyboard) intervention.

I can think of two things relevant to this:

1. There are some programs which can prevent your screen going into
power saving mode. In my experience Windows Media Player can have
this effect, especially if you leave it paused, rather than stopped.
So you come back and find your screen on, and assume that something
has caused it to come on, whereas it never went off.
2. Sometimes my system reboots, perhaps because a critical fix has been
applied in the middle of the night, sometimes because of a system
problem. When this happens, the power-saving scheme in effect at the
initial logon prompt causes the screen to stay on. If I'm not fully
awake, I don't notice that my userid is starting from zero after I
logon.