Monitor wont turn off in Windows 10

Ryland

2[H]4U
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Nov 19, 2004
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I also had this problem under windows 7 on the same machine and it persisted through an upgrade to Win10. The monitor is set to turn off in 10 minutes, although the time doesnt matter, and sleep is set to never yet the monitor never turns off. I have tried powercfg /requests which comes up with nothing. The NIC is set to be turned off for power saving and the only other devices are a mouse, keyboard and webcam.
 
do you have another monitor to test on the system, or another system to test the monitor on?
Or different cables?
 
I could probably swing another monitor in. I hadnt because I assumed it was something keeping windows from turning the monitor off.
 
Do you use DVI, DP or HDMI?

If DP, nVidia had to patch in the ability for monitors to sleep using DP in the latest drivers I believe. This was a problem on Win10 for quite some time before it was finally fixed.
 
Thanks for this info. Should solve the problem on my setup.
 
Do you use DVI, DP or HDMI?

If DP, nVidia had to patch in the ability for monitors to sleep using DP in the latest drivers I believe. This was a problem on Win10 for quite some time before it was finally fixed.
HDMI.
 
there has to be something in the background keeping it awake. you could try msconfig and diagnostic startup see how it acts. or a fresh install on another drive and only load drivers. see how it acts.
does the power button on the monitor work? you could always press it when you walk away....
 
One user had this problem and it was caused by a program that cycled his desktop backgrounds.
 
I only have a single static background. The power button does work (I tested that through my windows 10 upgrade fiasco). I actually realized over the weekend that my other computer which has a fresh install of win10 does the same thing and has almost nothing in common except for Avast, Malwarebytes, Steam and one or two other programs.
 
Perhaps you should add a fourth AV/Malware suite in addition to Windows Defender, Avast and MB. Perhaps that will fix the problem? :D
 
Perhaps you should add a fourth AV/Malware suite in addition to Windows Defender, Avast and MB. Perhaps that will fix the problem? :D
Defender is disabled (or better be, guess I need to double check that) with Avast installed.
 
remove both of those and see what happens. just refrain from the donkey pron for now...
 
user "powercfg /requests" to check if any process has enabled the do not turn of monitor flag
 
Didn't see this anywhere, unplug the webcam or otherwise disable it.
Also have you tried another keyboard? Maybe it has a flaky key that triggers once in a while on its own. Open notepad or something and have focus and see if anything types in it.
 
So far as I can tell its not keyboard, mouse, webcam, avast or malwarebytes. Is there a way to get wizmo to execute a command to imitate the monitor off time?
 
Unplugging all USB devices is a simple way to test if they're the problem. Also, when you turn on the computer and it goes to the lock screen before logging in, does the monitor shut off on this screen? Mine usually does after a minute or two
 
Unplugging all USB devices is a simple way to test if they're the problem. Also, when you turn on the computer and it goes to the lock screen before logging in, does the monitor shut off on this screen? Mine usually does after a minute or two
I guess I could unplug everything, just a pita because I dont have any real access to the back of the computer but I will do it this weekend.

It automatically logs in when booted.
 
I guess I could unplug everything, just a pita because I dont have any real access to the back of the computer

Perhaps you'll find a Bill Gates shaped pixie back there yanking your USB cables. Who knows?
 
Perhaps you'll find a Bill Gates shaped pixie back there yanking your USB cables. Who knows?

Lol. Just means I need to fight the dust bunnies that have collected back there to pull the cables and hope I put them back into the same spots when Im done.

Im honestly surprised that figuring this one out is being such a pita.
 
Well disabling everything running in the background and disconnecting all extra devices are the first steps. Not that hard unless you make it.
 
Well, upgraded to the 398.11 drivers.
SCARED THE SHIT OUT OF ME.
My middle monitor refused to recognize afterward.
Popped the DP connector on both sides. Multiple reboots. No dice. Shitting pants.
Finally pulled the power to the monitor and started up again. Success.

And you know what else? IT FUCKING WORKED.
I no longer have my screens randomly powering on overnight!
 
Well disabling everything running in the background and disconnecting all extra devices are the first steps. Not that hard unless you make it.
It gets harder to disconnect everything when you have 3" to do it in.
 
lol theres so many jokes in there. ;) disconnect whatever you can from the back of the device, same thing. then deal with the rest the [[H]ard way.
 
lol theres so many jokes in there. ;) disconnect whatever you can from the back of the device, same thing. then deal with the rest the [[H]ard way.
Sigh. How could I have missed THAT?

Well I have determined that its not going idle by creating a task to kick off wizmo monoff when it goes idle and that isnt happening.
 
One thing I like to do as a method of diagnosis in order to rule out a possible hardware issue is to boot of Ubuntu live media and see if the problem is still present. If it is than you know it's not Windows and you have a hardware issue.
 
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One thing I like to do as a method of diagnosis in order to rule out a possible hardware issue is to boot of Ubuntu live media and see if the problem is still present. If it is than you know it's not Windows and you have a hardware issue.
That sounds like an awesome idea. Downloading the iso now.
 
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