Windows XP 64-bit - monitor stuck in power save mode after idle for some time

[ohadbenita]

Hi all,

something strange recently began to happen on my machine.
Whenever the computer is left for the night (downloading or just idling) the monitor become stuck in power save mode, no action helps but reset from the computer case.
In event viewer I didn't see anything unusual but I didn't know where to look to start with,

Any help is appreciated,
Ohad

 

[Tmagic650]

Laptop or desktop computer? Is this computer always left on all the time? If so, open it up (desktop computer) and clean all the dust out and make sure all the fans are clean and running. If a laptop, its a bit more involved... I'm guessing that it is a desktop

 

[ohadbenita]

Hi, thanks for the reply.

It's a desktop which is cleaned periodically and was recently cleaned.
I'll run speedfan in any case to monitor and log temperatures.

Ohad

 

[Bluemouse]

I have a feeling that it's a graphics card issue. I've had issues like that before, and the fan on the gfx card started making funny noises and died soon after.

 

[ohadbenita]

Even though I doubt it's the cast 'cause the graphics card is relatively new, I'll monitor the fan speeds and temperature of the graphics card.
Additionally, I've run windows memory diagnostic which didn't find any error.

 

[ohadbenita]

Seems it's not any temperature issue, anyone's got a clue?

 

[Tmagic650]

Replace the power supply

 

[ohadbenita]

Disabled monitor power save mode

and it helped a bit,

now hang-ups happen every 5-6 days, which is strange if it was the power supply.
I do have now a power supply I haven't installed yet, any point in doing so in light of
the fact there are less hang-ups than before ?

In addition I once had during restart a "hyper transport sync flood error" in the bios,
Any idea what might cause this ? are the two problems related ?

Thanks

 

[Tmagic650]

What is the model number of your motherboard? MSI?

 

[ohadbenita]

yes, K9N ultra

 

[Tmagic650]

It is caused by a problem with the bios on that board. What bios version are you running?

 

[ohadbenita]

Don't know, how can I check that ?

 

[Tmagic650]

When the computer is starting to boot, the first screen should show your bios version. In any case you are going to have to go to MSI's support website and find a bios update for your motherboard and the instructions on how to flash the bios. Good luck

 

[ohadbenita]

I see my bios version is 3.7, where the updated bios version is 3.A.
Moreover, I've looked in the changelog and it only says update cpuID,
- Fixed system report incorrect CPU speed for G2 stepping CPU.

I've done some more reading, people are complaining about shutdowns during large file transfers and surfing the net using the onboard lan card, which isn't the problem I'm suffering from

 

[ohadbenita]

It seems it didn't help

recently the computer get stuck more often,
could an upgrade to Windows 7 or a clean installation help improve things ?

 

[Tmagic650]

Yes you can try a clean install of Windows 7 64 bit