Display issues. Mobo to blame?

[Jalex897]

I have the M4A87TD EVO and I just started experiencing a problem where my monitor goes to sleep when in use. I shut off all the display settings to turn off and its still happening. Sometimes, several times in a 30 second period.

My question is what exactly senses that the computer is in active? Is it the motherboard? Video card?

I am trying to pinpoint the issue. I thought it was my video card, but I tried another video card and it happened again. The computer had been working fine since april.

Thanks!

 

[farrengottu]

the motherboard handles the sleep mode but requires support from the processor for certain modes. try turning off some of the power saving features in the bios, it could fix it.
also if your using an hdmi cable it could be having trouble confirming the connection. since hdmi is packed with drm (digital rights management) crap. you could see if a dvi cable clears up the problem if you have the cable and connections on both monitor and mobo available.

 

[Jalex897]

the motherboard handles the sleep mode but requires support from the processor for certain modes. try turning off some of the power saving features in the bios, it could fix it.
also if your using an hdmi cable it could be having trouble confirming the connection. since hdmi is packed with drm (digital rights management) crap. you could see if a dvi cable clears up the problem if you have the cable and connections on both monitor and mobo available.

Thanks for the response. I am actually using a DVI cable. I have replaced all the cables, tried 4 different monitors and switched video cards only to have the problem come back. I thought the video card was the thing that was most likely but now it seems like it could be the motherboard or cpu. its strange though because the computer has been working fine for months.

could removing that battery on the mother board and putting it back in do anything? because i have called asus and they told me to make changes such as changing something to s3 mode only to have it not work

 

[farrengottu]

oh i forgot an old practical joke i used to play on people. has the same result.
for most modern monitors if its sences a black screen it just reads it as no signal and shuts off. you can put your screen saver as a blank screen and set it to 30 seconds and wala, instant headache for the user. maybe thats the cause.
otherwise id just rma that mobo. you could try more tech support from asus but im betting that the first call took hours. since their support sux.

 

[Jalex897]

oh i forgot an old practical joke i used to play on people. has the same result.
for most modern monitors if its sences a black screen it just reads it as no signal and shuts off. you can put your screen saver as a blank screen and set it to 30 seconds and wala, instant headache for the user. maybe thats the cause.
otherwise id just rma that mobo. you could try more tech support from asus but im betting that the first call took hours. since their support sux.

yeah they do suck...i hope they do advanced replacements so i can actually have a computer while i am waiting for this one to come in

 

[nutcase_63]

Well you could indeed try to reset the bios to its default settings (by removing and replacing the battery (with at least a 30 sec timespan between both operations))
Have to mention that you will have to set the proper time in the bios and some other minor settings also.
Most strange and unexplanable behaving is often caused by a bioschip going totally mad.
So thats your startingpoint to find the source of this prob.

 

[nutcase_63]

By 'replacing' i mean putting the same batterij back,not buying another.

 

[Jalex897]

By 'replacing' i mean putting the same batterij back,not buying another.

If the biochip you speak of is the problem, would removing/replacing the battery and waiting 30 seconds resolve the problem? or does that mean my mobo is a paperweight and i need a replacement?

 

[Jalex897]

UPDATE: I reset the motherboard by taking out the battery. But the problem still exists. So I guess that answers the question of it fixing the bioschip.

I requested a RMA. I will know in 24-48 if ASUS has my board in stock. If they do, they will do the advanced replacement..if they dont, I have to send my motherboard in for repairs..which would suck. hopefully they have a new motherboard.


I have eliminated the as the potential culprit: monitor, OS (i reinstalled winodws 7), video card, video card drivers

which leads me to believe that its either the psu and most likely the motherboard. could ram do this though?

 

[yyk71200]

Check Windows event viewer. Does it show any critical errors?

 

[Jalex897]

Check Windows event viewer. Does it show any critical errors?

No critical errors. Maybe if I explain my problem more clearly, I could get some advice. While I am using my computer (surfing, playing games, working) the monitor will go to sleep as if it was programmed to do so. The only problem is that I shut off all the options to shut off the display. Upon wiggling the mouse it wakes up, but this can repeat itself multiple times in a 30-1 min period which can be very annoying. I cant pinpoint anything that triggers it because it happens randomly. sometimes it will happen soon after starting up the computer, other times it will take hours/days to see it happen. I have tried 4 different monitors, different dvi/hdmi/power cables, my old nvidia card and the same thing is happening. I also changed bios settings that ASUS told me to change and I even did the CMOS thing (removing the battery). I even wasted my time reinstalling windows 7 thinking that i some how messed up the drivers. None of these things worked. So basically I believe its either the motherboard giving a false signal or getting a false reading that the computer is inactive or I heard the psu could be faulty (i doubt this). I built the computer back in april and havent had a problem with it until last week. ive been dealing with this headache ever since.

Now that i think of it, could it possibly be the RAM or CPU?

 

[Fokissed]

Do they pass memtest/prime95?

 

[nutcase_63]

Its just a very small effort so you could try,normally i use this trick for my ati videocard to solve a problem related to yours.
Controll settings/power plan setting/change powerplan settings/ now look for the setting "allow hibernate" and disable it,restart your comp.

 

[nutcase_63]

O btw did you disconect your keyboard and see what happens then?
Highly unlikely but in theory a defect KB could also trigger this.

 

[Jalex897]

Do they pass memtest/prime95?

I just ran it...the RAM isnt the issue

 

[Jalex897]

O btw did you disconect your keyboard and see what happens then?
Highly unlikely but in theory a defect KB could also trigger this.

I had hibernate set to never already. Didn't work. I'll try the keyboard thing. I kind of eliminated that because It had been working fine with the computer all these months. Ill get back to you. Thanks for the suggestions

 

[Jalex897]

Strange enough, It hasn't happened since I unplugged the keyboard and mouse. I'll keep my computer on to see if it continues because it happens randomly. But if it was the keyboard or mouse why would it suddenly happen? It had been working fine since april

 

[Jalex897]

Spoke too soon. It happened again (both mouse/keyboard disconnected)

 

[we_san]

Is this from the first time or it's ok before and this just happened recently ?

 

[Jalex897]

Is this from the first time or it's ok before and this just happened recently ?

This started happening last Monday right after connecting a brand new monitor. I think it was a coincidence because after getting 2 replacements, and trying my old monitor I was using before, the same thing was happening

 

[nutcase_63]

"
Spoke too soon. It happened again (both mouse/keyboard disconnected)"

You sure the monitor go's to sleep several times in a very short time when the KB was disconnected?
Im saying,is it not the normal sleepmode (say after 30 min or so) the pc is on lol?.
Normally only thing left apart from the MB should be the VidCard,but since you allready switched that also to another 1 ,only the MB is left as the source of this problem.
Also you said you did reinstall Windows,did you do a real fresh install with even formatting the drive or?

 

[Jalex897]

"
Spoke too soon. It happened again (both mouse/keyboard disconnected)"

You sure the monitor go's to sleep several times in a very short time when the KB was disconnected?
Im saying,is it not the normal sleepmode (say after 30 min or so) the pc is on lol?.
Normally only thing left apart from the MB should be the VidCard,but since you allready switched that also to another 1 ,only the MB is left as the source of this problem.
Also you said you did reinstall Windows,did you do a real fresh install with even formatting the drive or?

not several times, that doesnt happen all the time...but 5-10 mins is usually how long it takes. and all those sleep mode settings are off so it should not be sleeping at all. i cleared everything on my hard drive and reinstalled windows. if the settings are off to turn of the display and go to sleep, i figured the problem must be be that something (the motherboard) is over riding something because something is messed up with it.

 

[we_san]

My feeling is software issue. clear cmos (BIOS) and What version of windows ? could you try xp or maybe even linux ?

 

[Jalex897]

My feeling is software issue. clear cmos (BIOS) and What version of windows ? could you try xp or maybe even linux ?

I did clear cmos a while ago, but it didn't seem to help. Strange enough, it hasn't happened in days. After running some anti malware software and anti virus software. I thought whipping everything out like I did days before would have fixed the problem but it didn't. Maybe some malware/virus survived? I don't think its my version of windows (windows 7 64 bit) because I had been using it since april and had no problem.


This problem seemed to have resolved itself for now...I still dunno what caused it. maybe an update fixed it or the scans i did for malware and virus. can malware/viruses survive a re installation of windows?