TV as VGA monitor in Windows 8 won't wake from sleep regularly

Mabel D

Honorable
Jul 16, 2013
2
0
10,510
I have a brand new Dell running Windows 8 and connected to a new Insignia TV via VGA as its monitor. Everything worked fine the first week, but now anytime I leave it for awhile and come back, the monitor won't wake. I've tried the mouse, the keyboard, checking the connections, even the power button on the monitor won't get it to turn off and then back on. I've had to start unplugging and re-plugging it from the outlet to get it back on. Some of the similar forums mentions things like BIOS and mobo, which I'm not familiar with. I'm a recent convert from years of using Macs, so please help walk me through some options with basic language. Thanks!
 
Solution
In my experience, TVs are as a pain. If your computer goes past screensaver into black screen, they usually need to be turned back on.

Disabling the power saving features (in either your TV or your computer) is another option.

Mabel D

Honorable
Jul 16, 2013
2
0
10,510


Windows' own instructions for changing the "Power Plan" involves a lot of using the Search tool, but I got there. I believe I've just disabled the Windows display turn-off, sleep, hybrid sleep (??), hibernate, etc. settings (so many options for such a simple purpose!)

I've gone through all of my TV's menu options and can't find a way to change the sleep settings on the device itself, so I'm hoping that if the TV's sleep/power down settings are fixed, maybe it'll wake up fine as long as it's not being complicated by the computer's own sleep mode, but this remains to be seen, and I'm still crossing my fingers that someone has a better solution and a bit of knowledge about the pros/cons of turning off the various sleep settings, or which ones are best kept on.