monitor not turning off after idle time met

im running windows xp with the power options set to turn off the monitor after being idle for 5 minutes, with the screensaver disabled.

after 5 minutes the monitor starts to turn off (goes black) but then immediately comes back on, and this repeats every 5 minutes. i ended every process that i could one by one to see if it was a certain program causing the problem, but nothing worked. im 99% sure that it is a problem in explorer.exe, because if i simply open the display properties and then click ok without changing anythign, the monitor will turn off like it should.

i have no idea what causes it, it seems to happen randomly.

its mostly just an annoyance, i was hoping for some easy quick fix.

 

Any chance you are using either a wireless mouse or keyboard? These have been known to defeat power settings. :wave:wave

 

nope, sorry, usb mouse, ps/2 keyboard

 

Network connections also cause this sort of thing, if you have any.

 

no norton or live update

i dont see how it could be a network connection if the fix for it is opening the display properties window, plus it seems weird that it would start to turn off the monitor and then cancel, as if it ran the script to turn off the monitor and then ran a check to see if any program should prevent the event, id think if it were a network connection causing it, it would just cause the computer to appear to not be idle.

thanks for the suggestions though, keep em coming.

 

bump

 

Curious, does the same thing happen in safe mode? If yes, it is more likely hardware, if no, it is more likely software. :wave:wave

 

it doesnt happen all the time, id have to be booted in safe mode for at least 24 hours to properly test it, which will probably never happen.
but it didnt always happen, it started recently, like a few weeks ago, it worked fine until then, and again because the fix is so simple im positive that it is a software issue.

 

If it happens only some of the time, it sounds like you may have software running a scan or an update. Have you looked at when your scans run, and if this coincides with this issue? Or perhaps next time it happens to take a look in your task manger to see what processes are running.

Do you recall if you recently downloaded any new software? Many times, even with an update, it will place itself into your autoruns, including an updater. :wave:wave

 

when it happens it continues to happen until i open the display properties dialog, ive ended every non-critical process before, and it has still continued to happen.

there is no scan running, or update being installed. i have 2 things installed that modify explorer, one is just a few .dlls that allow explorer to create thumbnails for all picture files, not just the couple it natively supports, and the other runs as an endable process that allows any program to be minimized to the tray.

using process explorer i can check the handles and dlls explorer is using, and ive removed all of the ones related to these programs but the problem persists. i am baffled.

 

i read online that changing the power scheme name may fix this problem so i created a new power scheme, but this did not work, however, i later changed the time from 5 minutes to 3 and since then its worked fine.