[SOLVED] Why does the screen always blank?

[vc]

About every five or ten minutes or somewhat, the screen blanks.  I've gone into the power settings in the control centre and disabled them, but the bloody screen still blanks regardless.  Obviously I've missed something, but what?  Wherever it is, I can't seem to find it.  Has anyone else yet struggled with same?

[MaddogF16]

How do you recover from this? That may lead to a clue as to what may be causing this,which could range from card fail to monitor failing.

[vc]

By moving the mouse, or pressing the Shift key.  It's not a failure; it's behaving exactly as if the default display power management setup was still in effect, despite my having disabled the screen blanking+suspend+poweroff intervals already.  In other words, it's as if the changes I made to those settings are having no real effect.

[CheeseQueen452]

Sounds like the screensaver.... mine is set to blank as well, & it comes on if I don't touch the mouse or press any keys for 5 min. It's supposed to work that way.

By moving the mouse, or pressing the Shift key.  It's not a failure; it's behaving exactly as if the default display power management setup was still in effect, despite my having disabled the screen blanking+suspend+poweroff intervals already.  In other words, it's as if the changes I made to those settings are having no real effect.

[oldschool]

vc,

I used to have this problem. PCLOS running KDE4, has power saving settings being controlled by more than 1 service and in multiple locations. I find the simplest solution is to take "Power Devil" out of the equation. See the thread:     

SOLVED - PowerDevil Notification on every boot.
in KDE 4 Support.

Then, after doing what that thread suggests:

Again, in "Configure Your Desktop"
Select Computer Administration
Select Display
Select Power Control
Configure the settings to suit your requirements, or uncheck Enable Display Power Management.

Assuming it's not a screensaver issue, that should solve your blank screen issue.


oldschool

[vc]

No, it's not a screensaver issue - I disabled that too.

Thank you, oldschool, for the info regarding PowerDevil - I'll attempt to follow your instructions when I get home though; I'm at work right now, and so nowhere near my 'testbed' machine, alas.

What about replacing PowerDevil with KPowersave?  That one used to work properly - but; is it a KDE3-only app, though?

[oldschool]

No, it's not a screensaver issue - I disabled that too.

Thank you, oldschool, for the info regarding PowerDevil - I'll attempt to follow your instructions when I get home though; I'm at work right now, and so nowhere near my 'testbed' machine, alas.

What about replacing PowerDevil with KPowersave?  That one used to work properly - but; is it a KDE3-only app, though?

vc,

I don't find kpowersave in Synaptic (set up for kde4), so it must be a kde3 app. There is a way to make power devil work similarly, however (but it's a pain, in my opinion).

Instead of taking Power Devil out of the equation, try the following:

Modify all of the power saving schemes in Power Devil to match your requirements

       -- or --

Modify one of the schemes and set every power situation to use that modified scheme

****************************************************************
EDIT:

I took another look at Power Control in Display in Computer Administration in Configure Your Computer. Enable display power management looks an awful lot like kpowersave..., it might actually be an integrated kde4 version of it.

End EDIT
****************************************************************



oldschool

[vc]

Alright; I've done that now... let's see what happens.  Here's a screenshot, so I don't get lost:

Edit:  Nope - it still blanks.

[attachment deleted by admin]

[hundin]

Have you tried, just a bit further down, Computer Administration-->Display-->Power Control?

Hundin

[vc]

That was set to this:

[attachment deleted by admin]

[oldschool]

vc,

OK, let's try this one more time. You want kde3 behavior, correct?
In Configure Your Computer:

1) System
      Power Management
        Uncheck Let power devil manage screen powersaving
2) Advanced users settings
      Service Manager
        Uncheck PowerDevil
3) Computer Administration
      Display
        Power Settings
          Either:
          Uncheck Enable display power management
           -- or --
          Check Enable display power management and configure it to suit your needs

I strongly advise doing it this way, because it is extremely easy to miss a setting in PowerDevil (If, for example, you wanted to set all schemes to Performance, you must do it for Screen, for CPU, edit the Actions Profile... ad nauseum -- a real pain)

I hope this clarifies my previous post -- it really should work. If it doesn't, I would definitely begin to suspect a conflict with some other installed package, a slightly borked installation, or worse, an intermittent hardware failure. Fortunately, the most probable situation is that you tried to use PowerDevil plus Enable display power management and you just missed missed changing a setting somewhere in the labyrinth of PowerDevil.


oldschool

[vc]

vc,

OK, let's try this one more time. You want kde3 behavior, correct?

No, not necessarily - any behaviour at all would be nice at this point, because the bloody thing is a lie; it is not working in any sense, period!

In Configure Your Computer:

1) System
      Power Management
        Uncheck Let power devil manage screen powersaving
2) Advanced users settings
      Service Manager
        Uncheck PowerDevil
3) Computer Administration
      Display
        Power Settings
          Either:
          Uncheck Enable display power management
           -- or --
          Check Enable display power management and configure it to suit your needs

I strongly advise doing it this way, because it is extremely easy to miss a setting in PowerDevil (If, for example, you wanted to set all schemes to Performance, you must do it for Screen, for CPU, edit the Actions Profile... ad nauseum -- a real pain)

I hope this clarifies my previous post -- it really should work. If it doesn't, I would definitely begin to suspect a conflict with some other installed package, a slightly borked installation, or worse, an intermittent hardware failure. Fortunately, the most probable situation is that you tried to use PowerDevil plus Enable display power management and you just missed missed changing a setting somewhere in the labyrinth of PowerDevil.


oldschool

A "labyrinth", eh?  Well, then; that'll have to be cleaned up a bit, if users are ever going to accept it.  All controls should follow simplicity and ease-of-use guidelines; they should be laid out and designed so as to be direct, clear (self-explanatory), and fully usable.

Anyway; I've done as you've instructed - PowerDevil should now be disconnected, so let's observe what happens next.

Edit:  Nope; same thing - after ten minutes, the screen blanks.  I'm going to reboot now; see if that changes anything.

[vc]

Good morning!  Apparently the reboot did do something:  I left the machine completely undisturbed afterwards, watched it shining cheerily for about twenty minutes, and then fell asleep.  When I woke up a while ago, the CRT was still glowing happily!  So; I guess I should now mark this thread as [SOLVED].  Thank you!

[vc]

ARRRGH!!  It just did it _again_... why?  Looks like I have to remove the [SOLVED] now.... <sigh>

[arjaybe]

Maybe the monitor itself has a power saving mode?