Trouble starting Lenovo H535 desktop

It takes 2, 3, 4 and sometimes 5 tries to start my computer. It seems to start, but the monitor, although on is black. I tried updating the monitor driver, but device manager says the drivers is the best one. it's a Westinghouse LCM-22w2 [Monitor]. Device manager says it's a generic monitor.
Several years ago the power button on the monitor stopped working so I have it plugged in to a power strip and I turn it on with the switch on the power strip before I power up the computer. With my last computer I could shut off the power strip to shut off the monitor (leaving the computer on) and turn it back on later with no problem. With this computer if I turn off the monitor and turn it back on I have to shut off the computer and reboot using the computer's power button because the screen is black when I turn the monitor off and then on again.
I have turned off every sleep and hibernate setting I could find.

Operating System System Model
Windows 8.1 (x64) (build 9600)
Install Language: English (United States)
System Locale: English (United States)
Installed: 1/4/2014 5:16:35 PM
Boot Mode: UEFI with successful Secure Boot LENOVO 10117 Lenovo H535
System Serial Number: ES11339971
Chassis Serial Number: ES11339971
Enclosure Type: Desktop
Processor a Main Circuit Board b
3.40 gigahertz AMD A10-5700 APU with Radeon HD Graphics
192 kilobyte primary memory cache
4096 kilobyte secondary memory cache
64-bit ready
Multi-core (2 total)
Hyper-threaded (4 total) Board: LENOVO Win8 STD MM DPK IPG
Serial Number: ES11339971
Bus Clock: 100 megahertz
UEFI: LENOVO I7KT11AUS 01/18/2013
Drives Memory Modules c,d
971.64 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
937.85 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space

MATSHITA DVD-RAM SW820 SATA CdRom Device [Optical drive]

Generic STORAGE DEVICE USB Device [Hard drive] -- drive 1
ST1000DM003-1CH162 [Hard drive] (1000.20 GB) -- drive 0, s/n S1DACT88, rev CC56, SMART Status: Healthy 7360 Megabytes Usable Installed Memory

Slot 'A1_DIMM0' has 4096 MB (serial number A1_SerNum0)
Slot 'A1_DIMM1' has 4096 MB (serial number 2F451C03)
Local Drive Volumes

c: (NTFS on drive 0) 971.64 GB 937.85 GB free

Network Drives
None discovered
Users (mouse over user name for details) Printers
local user accounts last logon
Ron 1/26/2014 10:22:13 AM (admin)
local system accounts
Administrator 4/26/2013 4:17:00 AM (admin)
Guest never


DISABLED Marks a disabled account; LOCKED OUT Marks a locked account Microsoft Shared Fax Driver on SHRFAX:
Microsoft XPS Document Writer v4 on PORTPROMPT:
Nitro PDF Driver 8 on Nitro PDF Port:

Controllers Display
AMD SATA Controller AMD Radeon HD 7660D [Display adapter]
Westinghouse LCM-22w2 [Monitor] (22.0"vis, November 2006)
Bus Adapters Multimedia
Microsoft Storage Spaces Controller
AMD USB 3.0 eXtensible Host Controller - 0100 (Microsoft) (2x)
Standard Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller (2x)
Standard OpenHCD USB Host Controller (3x) AMD High Definition Audio Device
Pro 9000
Realtek High Definition Audio
Virus Protection [Back to Top] Group Policies
Webroot SecureAnywhere
None discovered
Communications Other Devices

Microsoft ISATAP Adapter
Microsoft Kernel Debug Network Adapter
↓ Microsoft Wi-Fi Direct Virtual Adapter
Status: Not connected to a network
Dhcp Server: none responded
Physical Address: 2C0:5A:E9:F1:65
↑ Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller
primary Auto IP Address: 192.168.2.2 / 24
Gateway: 192.168.2.1
Dhcp Server: 192.168.2.1
Physical Address: 74:27:EA:3C:1A:39
Connection Speed: 100 Mbps
↓ Realtek RTL8188CE Wireless LAN 802.11n PCI-E NIC
Status: Not connected to a network
Auto IP Address: 192.168.2.3 / 24
Gateway: 192.168.2.1
Dhcp Server: none responded
Physical Address: 2C0:5A:E9:F1:65
Connection Speed: 54 Mbps
Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface

Networking Dns Server: 192.168.2.1
Line In (Realtek High Definition Audio)
Microphone (Pro 9000)
Microphone (Realtek High Definition Audio)
Speakers (Realtek High Definition Audio)
Stereo Mix (Realtek High Definition Audio)
HID-compliant consumer control device
HID-compliant system controller
USB Input Device (3x)
Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000
HID Keyboard Device
Logitech USB TrackMan Wheel [Mouse]
Fax
Microsoft XPS Document Writer
Nitro PDF Creator (Pro 8)
Root Print Queue
Microsoft Device Association Root Enumerator
Microsoft IPv4 IPv6 Transition Adapter Bus
Logitech USB Camera (Pro 9000)
USB Composite Device
USB Mass Storage Device
USB Root Hub (5x)
USB Root Hub (xHCI) (2x)
Generic volume shadow copy
USB Storage Use in past 30 Days (mouse over last used for details) Hosted Virtual Machines (mouse over name for details)
Last Used
Generic STORAGE DEVICE, s/n 000000009843, rev 9843 1/4/2014 4:50:16 PM*


* Possibly used again before the reboot following this time. None discovered

 

I see some identifying info in there that you might want to remove...

 

I would try another monitor and see what happens.

Understand there really is no such thing as monitor drivers. Virtually all monitors are PnP - or plug and play.

Those "so-called" monitor drivers really do nothing but inform Windows of the brand and model number of the monitor, and the resolutions that monitor supports - or rather, it "grays-out" the resolutions it does NOT support so users don't see dozens of unsupported resolutions, and replaces "Generic" with brand and model number.

Operating systems communicate with graphics cards (or integrated graphics). So it is graphics cards drivers you really need. From there, the card communicates with the monitor.

 

Monitor drivers also load a color profile for the monitor.

 

I should have been more clear. To the best of my knowledge, the vast majority of monitor drivers do nothing, other than what I said earlier. There are exceptions, of course, but if a monitor actually needs drivers, then that monitor is not a standard PnP monitor. It may be a professional model with unique features for CAD or CAE, for example, or one for professional photographers.

I also believe there may be some profile type information there depending if CRT analog or LCD digital - but that is standard info.

Profiles are often set and saved (as they are for my Samsungs here) via the monitor's OSD menu system. But my Samsungs also came with "additional" software that allows me to save "profiles" for the OS I am using. I don't use it because it adjusts the graphics cards settings, not the monitor's - because again, Windows does not communicate directly with monitors. It, and I use NVIDIA's software to adjust NVIDIA's drivers.

The software also allows for such things as calibrating the monitor colors with a color printer's output and saving that "profile" in Windows for later use. It is still the OS that says put this shade of green dot there, and it is still the card that tells the monitor to do it, not Windows - or Linux or MacOS.

But in any case, that software adjusts my NVIDIA drivers, not the Samsungs.

 

I will clarify as well. They load ICC profiles, if monitor drivers exist. These are specific to the OS.

http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/articles/icc_profiles.htm

These are more important to graphics professionals though and not relevant to here.

Something else I would ask the original poster:

If you turn the monitor off and back on, do you get any screen view? If it does, and then shuts off after a couple seconds, that is a sign that the inverter is failing on that monitor. I would also try safe mode (can you even view the BIOS startup screen when turning on the computer?) because it bypasses your installed graphics drivers and uses a UGA driver. That will test your video drivers.

 

Hi,
Thanks for the reply. If I turn the monitor off for a few seconds and then back on it comes right back on, but if I turn it off for any lenth of time and then back on, the screen remains black, though I can see the monitor power light is on.

 

Try lowing the brightness to about 40% and then try that again.


If the monitor is still staying on while black (not in standby), it is receiving a video signal, but if the inverter is going bad, it won't be able to reliably light up the display.

Lowering the brightness takes stress off the inverter. Give it a shot and let us know.

 

Tried turning down the brightness, that did not help, but I found the answer. I had to turn off "fast startup". For some reason Lenovo computers (desktop and laptops) often have a glitch that doesn't allow it to take the kernal out of hibernation. With fast startup the kernal goes into hibernation and the hardware is shutdown. That's why the computer has no problem with a reboot but only starting up after a shutdown. With a reboot the kernal shuts down and restarts.
To turn off "fast startup": Go to Control Panel, then Power Options. On the left, click on "Choose what the power buttons do". On the bottom of the page under "Shutdown settings" untick "Turn on fast startup (recommended)" and click "Save changes" at the bottom of the page. If "Turn on fast startup (recommended)" is grayed out, click on "Change settings that are currently unavailable" near the top of the page and then untick "Turn on fast startup (recommended)" and click "Save changes". With fast startup off, the computer still boots pretty fast.