Monitor won't wake up when coming back from sleep (Windows 7)

Anonymous
2010-01-03T18:44:27+00:00

I recently upgraded my Dell Dimension desktop to Windows 7. In order to do so, I had to install a new grapchis card (NVIDIA GeForce).

I set the PC to sleep after a period of time. When I go to move the mouse and wake the computer back up, the PC itself seems to respond, but the monitor never comes back from sleep. I have no choice but to reboot to get the monitor back.

Any suggestions?

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Devices and drivers

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Anonymous
2011-07-11T00:39:26+00:00

A Universal fix would be ideal but - ASUS appears in 14 out of the 16 pages in this thread!!! Not saying everybody having this problem has an ASUS motherboard but if they do, and it seems a high percentage of people do, then they need todisable the PLL Overvoltage in their BIOS!!

IT ACTUALLY WORKS! Not just a workaround, my Computer AND Monitor now both wake from sleep by simply moving the mouse!

Also, obviously only people who have this problem are going to come here. If this is a wide-spread Windows 7 problem, then what about all the complaints large companies like HP Compaq and DELL etc would receive when their customers have the same problem? If they received many complaints and being that  they have a much bigger voice than us they would simply demand Microsoft fix it. I also have a TOSHIBA laptop running windows 7 and it sleeps and wakes just fine.

So if anybody who has friends or family who own a 2011 Dell, Acer or HP etc that came out brand new, factory loaded with Windows 7  please ask them if they have this issue or not. (These companies may have had this problem initially but I would imagine it would be fixed by now??!!)

A lot of people who have this problem also seem to have a separate Video Card (I have a Sapphire Radeon HD 6870 which of course the monitor is connected to) Do any people who are using integrated graphics also have this problem such as people with an H67 mobo?

I am curious as to what percentage of Windows 7 users have this problem. We may find we are in the 1% bracket and 99% of Windows 7 users don't have this problem. It may just be incompatibility of Windows 7  with either our hardware or settings.

In my case disabling PLL Overvoltage works! :-)

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  1. Anonymous
    2010-07-26T09:10:07+00:00

    Hi, Guys.  I have the same problem I have a Dell Optiplex 960 (with Intel Core 2 duo vPro inside and n Series) and a dell E177FP monitor with an integrated VGA card Intel(R) Q45/Q43 Express chipset. These computer came without operating system and we installed Win 7 for the student's computer lab.   Surprisingly the system wakes up but monitor does not wake up.  Since I have the luxury of different model of CPUs and Monitors I made an intensive test. First thing that came in my mind that the monitor is not compatible.

    1. The dell E177FP monitor is connected to Dell Optiplex 960 running win 7. Once, twice the monitor is waking up but When left for 4 or 5 hour and also over night it does not wake up.  I have to unplug the power cord wait for some time for the power to go off then plug it in, then you will see the desktop.
    2. I configured another System of the same model to Vista (utility disk has xp and vista drivers) It work perfect it was on for 3 days wakes up as you move the mouse or touch the keyboard.
    3. I connected the monitor Dell E177FP to an HP Compaq dc 5850 with ATI Radion HD3470 card, It work perfect, it was on for 3 days.
    4. I connected another Dell E177FP monitor to a DeLL 520 with XP Pro 64 bit and Dell 745 with XP Pro, it was perfect it was on for 2 days no problem wakes up by touching the keyboard and moving the mouse.   
    5. I connected another model of Dell E177FPb monitor to a Dell Optiplex 960 running win 7. It work perfect, it was on for several days.

    6.  I even intalled a win server 2008 on the Dell Optiplex 960 with the same Dell E177FP it work perfect, wakes up any time with the mouse and keyboard.

    The monitor does not have issues with the any operating system nor the Dell optiplex 960 (win 7) with a different model of monitor.  The problem lies only if is connected to Dell 960 running win 7 with VGA driver installed as Intel(R) Q45/Q43 Express chipset.  I can not prolong the length of time for the system to be on for 6 hours which defeats power saving option.

    It is really weird don't you think so?

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  2. Anonymous
    2010-07-27T14:41:09+00:00

    I started getting identical symptoms a few days ago (monitor would not wake from sleep). In my case, the solution turned out to be trivial (once found).

    Over time, the cables to my monitor had slipped downwards slightly in their sockets. To my surprise, reseating them cured the problem.

    You may want to try this before exploring more exotic solutions.

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  3. Anonymous
    2010-07-28T15:17:22+00:00

    I have been having intermittent failure to come out of sleep mode too.  This started a few weeks ago.  The settings are all OK as per the 3rd post here about allowing devices to wake up the system.  After about 6 minutes the PC automatically reboots.  I am unable to find how to set the Balanced power setting to Active.  So I just have Power Saver [Active] and each setting at 2 hours.  Maybe this will help but have not had enough time to evaluate.

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  4. Anonymous
    2010-08-02T16:33:09+00:00

    I am SO SICK of my monitor not waking up.  This is a WINDOWS 7 PROBLEM.  I now have BOTH monitors on HDMI cables (one is on DVI to HDMI now, which used to be VGA), and the problem persists.  My computer is not set to go to sleep, so it's always on.  Only the monitors are set to turn off.  This problem manifests itself only if the monitors are off for a long period of time, like overnight.  When I come to work in the morning, my primary monitor does not wake up when I click and move the mouse, even though the secondary monitor does.  The only way to wake it up is to remove the HDMI connection on the active monitor, which seems to force the system to activate the other monitor that wouldn't wake up otherwise.  I think this is a SIMPLE problem, where the OS cannot get it straight which is a primary monitor.  It needs to wake ALL MONITORS SIMULTANEOUSLY, ALL THE TIME.  I think they're doing something like trying to wake only the primary monitor until the user logs in, but it's guessing the wrong monitor is primary and waking up the wrong one.  JUST WAKE THEM ALL.  If I don't see a patch to fix this in the next month, I'm just going to start pirating everything, because there's no way I'm going to pay for broken $hit.

    The time and money I've spent effing with this thing every morning (posting here, trying to log in blindly, pulling monitor cables out every day, purchasing HDMI cable and DVI to HDMI converters, etc.) outweighs the cost of the software.

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