Display will not go to sleep (turn off) and screen saver will not activate

[Jumpstile]

I am running Windows 7 Ultimate x64. I have an Nvidia GeForce 460 SE video card and a 27" HDMI monitor. Since installing this video card and monitor, my screen saver never activates (unless I do it manually) and the computer will not put the display to sleep (turn off) after the allotted time has passed in the Power Management settings. I've tried setting the timer to 1 minute on both (not at the same time of course) and it never attempts to activate the screen saver or put the display to sleep. Its not like it's even trying to activate the screen saver and then quickly waking up - it's like it's ignoring that the setting even exists.

Does anyone have any ideas on how I can fix this issue? Any ideas to try?

 - J*

[Hoopz]

Have some programs running that are preventing it from sleeping?  Fresh install or have bloatware on it?

[drventure]

+1 on the bloatware. Trying running through the Installed programs list and remove everything you don't actually use.

Then have a look in Taskman, particularly for processes running under your user credentials that you didn't actually run.

[Jumpstile]

Theres no bloatware. This is a Win 7 install that was installed fresh by myself. No spyware or viruses. Very clean.

- J*

[Hoopz]

Disable everything under the startup tab in msconfig and reboot.  Even if it's a fresh install, I'd make sure that nothing is running.

[drventure]

Interesting. I'm having a similiar, but unrelated problem with Win XP.

None the less, I googled around and turned up this thread. It's long, but it mentions a number of things you might try. In particular, updates to the MS Keyboard and mouse stuff might be something to consider.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-desktop/screen-saver-wont-work-windows-7/c91674b0-110d-4503-b7ff-037b6eb507dc

[Jumpstile]

I figured out what's causing the issue, but I don't know if there's a way to solve it.

I have two LED-Wiz controllers connected to my cab via USB. When those are plugged in the computer will not go to sleep or even activate the screen saver. With them unplugged, all is good. Sleep works great.

I've spoken to RandyT over at GroovyGameGear and he tells me that there is really no fix, as they are designed to not let the PC go to sleep (why, I have no clue - IMO that should be determined by the OS settings, not the hardware plugged into the computer).

If someone has a workaround, I'd be grateful!

 - J*

[drventure]

I've got several LEDWiz controllers running under XP. I'm not sure about the screensaver, but I do have the screen set to powerdown after a while and that does work.

Honestly, I'm not sure I'd worry terribly much about not being able to automatically go to sleep. it's pretty trivial to setup a hidden button or some button combo that'll fire off a bat file to sleep the machine.

But, I tend to agree with you. Seems like hardware like the LEDWiz really shouldn't prevent going to sleep.

If the mobo has several different USB connections, you might try connecting them to different connectors.

Also, if you have a third party USB PCI card you can slap in there, try connecting your LEDWizs to it and see if it'll play nice then.

[Howard_Casto]

I'm not a hardware expert or anything, but usb devices can draw either a low amperage or slighly higer amperage current from your usb port.  The ledwiz obviously needs the higher amperage.  Here's the rub.... when windows goes into sleep mode, the current is turned down on all devices period.  This makes sense normally as usb devices are typically input/output devices and you wouldn't be interacting with them when the computer is inactive.  Randy desigend the ledwiz to be always on though, so I'm guessing he made it that way so the leds don't go dim/out whenever your cab goes into sleep mode. 

It's probably in the coding, but a powered hub might help, I dunno.

I'm just astounded people still use screensavers in this day and age.  There's this button marked "power" on your monitor somewhere.... I suggest you try it. 

[Jumpstile]

When you have your monitor installed in a cabinet behind glass, it's a bit difficult to press the power button.

 - J*

[drventure]

One more thought about this, there's a difference between having the monitor powerdown after a few minutes of inactivity and actually having the PC go into sleep mode.

For a cab, I'd think sleep mode is not strictly necessary, just power it down when your down with it (i mean the whole thing, and that's pretty easy to wire up an external switch for).

For just the monitor, if the screensaver timeout doesn't appear to be working, try one of the command line tools for powering the monitor down. if that DOES work, then you know it's just something interfering that's making windows THINK it's in use when it's not.

Maybe a mouse or trackball is occasionally spitting out deltas when it shouldn't, or a keywiz is generating keystrokes (that happened to me at one point when I had it hooked up to an underpowered USB hub).

Worst case, you could write a bat file to execute the "turn off the monitor" program, then hook it up to a hotkey and just press a couple buttons on your CP to put the monitor to sleep.

Check out nircmd for a slick little utility to turn the monitor off

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/nircmd.html