Posted on 05/17/2016 3:04:11 AM PDT by sushiman
My 3 year old Dell Inspiron desktop & Dell monitor worked flawlessly since purchasing them - until the other day that is . We moved into a new house on 3/31 and didn't get hooked up to the internet until a few days ago as were had to evacuate due to the 2 big quakes here in Kumamoto , Japan. My monitor fell off the desk when the first quake struck ( desktop did not move and I promptly took it off the desk and put it in a safe place until our return ) , so I ordered a new one from Dell Japan as soon as we got back . Connected it the other day and went to Youtube to listen to some music . I came downstairs for about 20 minutes and suddenly the music stopped . I went upstairs and discovered a black screen / no audio . Moved the mouse and the Youtube page is there and the music begins playing where it left off . I tried listening to a talk radio podcast and the same thing happened . It's as if the monitor is going into sleep / power save mode - which it shouldn't when I am in the process of watching or listening to something - and for some strange reason the audio/video stops until moving mouse . Wild . I am still using Windows 7 and Windows Home Premium 64 bit and IE . Anybody have a clue as to how I can solve this problem ? My wife called Dell Support Japan ( handled by Chinese who can speak Japanese ) but they weren't much help . I don't think the guy fully understood what I was experiencing . No help yet from Dell forums either . I went a month and a half without internet due to quake & evacuation and now still can't use the PC without trouble .
It may be an energy saving mode built into the monitor. There should be a front button sequence you can hit when the monitor powers up that will take you to a set up menu that you can look through
My two Dells have four buttons besides the power button that let you scroll through and change things.
Sounds like a design “feature” check all the settings in both the computer and via the buttons on the monitor.
Dell does you the favor of deciding things for you. Like Apple.
Its the power settings. In Windows 7 it is in control panel/hardware/power settings.
Change to sleep - never.
Check your settings and turn off anything to do with sleep or hibernation. I remember my laptop stopped charging, which really freaked me out. The problem was due to the laptop settings and not an actual power problem.
Thanks for replies . Thing is the computer does not go to sleep as the monitor appears to be doing ( and shouldn’t while watching or listening to something on YT or elsewhere ) ; and , for example , the video on Youtube will pause until I move the mouse after getting the monitor on again . Never experienced this before getting the new monitor .
Maybe this is a new tweak from Microsoft to help users stay active.
You have Windows 10, I assume?
You say the computer does not go to sleep, yet there are programs pausing and waiting for input, unlike if it was just the monitor, the screen would go black but the video and audio would keep playing.
First thing, check those power settings in the Control Panel as you were told upthread. Make sleep/hibernate = never.
The only other thing I can think of is that the type of connection you’re using for the monitor is different than the old one.
If you changed the connection over to HDMI, that could cause some of these symptoms. HDMI is an audio AND video output. Make sure to check your audio devices in the Control Panel and if you have separate speakers plugged into sound port in back, switch over to that sound port as the default sound device.
If you are using speakers built into the monitor, then that’s probably the entire problem there. Once you use the Menu function on monitor itself to turn off sleeping, those should work fine.
7 , as I wrote .
Did not switch over to HDMI . I am using seperate Dell speakers which came with computer originally . I assume built in speakers are also working . Haven’t checked . I’ll try and do what you have advised . Computer in Japanese model so not so easy for me and the wife is not a computer wiz either lol .
Besides the already suggested sleep/hibernation settings also set your screen saver mode.
I think you need to get into the monitors settings.
Same answer as I gave you above. The monitor power setting is right below the computer sleep setting.
As others have suggested, it sounds like sleep mode (S3).
Hibernation (S4) would show a windows resuming screen.
Since the application is pausing, it would seem that the system itself is driving it.
if you right click on the power options in the lower right corner of the screen you’ll find a lot of option under the plan settings (including ‘turn off display’ which is different than S3 or S4). There will also be a lot of settings you can check on the left side of the screen.
Not sure why the OS might behave differently with a new monitor but if it is on a different type of input port, maybe that could b a factor in why there is a change. At the turn of the century, hen these different sleep states came into being, it was because of “e-star compliance”. Maybe e-star compliance is a factor in defaulting to power saving modes.
This is an OS configuration issue, not a problem with your monitor. When your monitor is on, the audio plays without issue, because there’s a signal going across the HDMI (or USB). When your monitor goes to sleep, the signal is shut off, thus turning off the sound.
This doesn’t happen with monitors where the sound doesn’t travel over the same cable as the video, because they’re two discrete inputs. However, since most modern monitors use HDMI or DisplayPort, both of which carry audio, you might have a hard time fixing this.
In Windows, you need to find the setting that prevents the monitor from going to sleep when audio or video are playing. This is often found in the AV application itself. The other option is to turn off your screen saver and power saving modes for your monitor. That will ensure the audio continues to play but will mean your monitor is on all the time.
Google is your friend:
https://www.google.com/#q=dell+monitor+goes+to+sleep
Stick your model number in there to narrow down responses.
You might look it up on line and even see if there are any Q&A sites about it.
If it's the only thing that changed, there may be a setting within the monitor, in the monitor settings available via the computer (right click on desktop and choose one of the "graphics" options) or maybe some drivers that need to be downloaded/activated in order to get full control.
If you can't figure it out and can supply the info, I'll be happy to take a gander on line to see if there's anything out there, but you may be able to find it yourself - let me know.
Dell S2216H which replaced the S2204L which is what I had before .
Yesterday evening I tried once again to listen to The Chris Plante show podcast but this time while listening I also checked emails , Facebook , etc., and there was no problem . The problem occurs only when I leave it on Youtube or a podcast for 20 minutes ( which is what I have always had the display sleep set at ...PC is one hour ) without doing anything else on the computer . I’ve asked at the Dell help forum but so far no one has responded . My wife is going to call Dell support ( China for Japan ) again and see if this time we can get the guy to fully understand what is happening . In the meantime , I’d appreciate any help you could give . Cheers to you and all who responded .
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.