Monitor not working because of Sleep - Help!

Please remove your Service Tag. It's a violation of the forum's terms of use to post a Service Tag. :emotion-5:

Can you borrow a monitor from somebody?

Go here and look on page 17 of the manual. Is your monitor connected to the blue onboard video port shown in that picture or is it connected to a port in the area marked "6" in that picture? If it's connected to the onboard port, is there another video port in area 6?

Would you be comfortable working inside the case or do you have a geeky friend that can help?

Hi, I'm honestly not sure. sorry no i cannot test it on another computer since I dont have another desktop. honestly im not sure which video driver i have but its the stock model, monitor and video card. I think it does have either NVDIA or ATI but im not sure which one. The service tag will remain a mystery.

Are you using onboard video or do you have an add-in video card (eg, AMD/ATI or nVidia)?

Can you test this monitor on a different PC or a different monitor on this PC? That may help determine if it's the monitor or the video output..

Hi sir im not sure ill be able to borrow a monitor but i do have some other latops and a USB drive, however I can open the case. The monitor is attached on top in the Blue section. Worst comes to worse i can just replace the system. Any other ideas?

Don't know if you need to buy a whoile new system unless you really want to spend money on a new toy. :emotion-5:

What color is the power button when the problem starts? And is it steady or blinking?

Do you hear any beeps from the PC?

Try booting from a bootable CD, such as your Dell Windows Reinstallation CD or the Dell Utilities CD.

1. Power off and unplug
2. Press/hold powre button for ~15 sec
3. Open case and remove motheboard battery (Be sure to read the manual that I linked above for more details)
4. Press/hold power button for ~30 sec
5. Reinstall the battery (Right-side-up!)
6. Close case and boot with only mouse, monitor and keyboard connected

Hi Sir, unfortunately no luck yet. Here's what happens:

Computer starts just fine with Dell logo on monitor and solid blue light.

Monitor turns black but both PC and monitor have blue lights.

Goes through other start up sequences and PC appears to turn on monitor again.

Monitor goes black again.

Have to manually turn on monitor to get it to wake up and input my password.

Computer runs just fine except monitor turns black every 3 seconds and must manually be turned back on then it turns back off again.

As you requested I tried removing the battery for the motherboard and that failed to solve it. the power light was yellow but when I restarted it turned blue and the same thing as above happened. Will try the other step tomorrow.

Reading over your discussion,

Noticed you mentioned re-seating the video cables, have you tried purchasing new cables and testing?

Also, if you do not have an extra monitor you could supplement a flat panel tv if it has a VGA (blue) connection on the back.

Another thing to ask is when did the issue start, do you know what was happening leading up to this issue? Like Windows updates, adjusting monitor settings or video settings, moving equipment around?

The fact that the issue is happening as the machine is booting almost rules out any software issue as drivers are loaded at a later stage.

Would concentrate your efforts on the hardware. Monitor, monitor cables, VGA port (is it loose) things of that nature.

Computer runs just fine except monitor turns black every 3 seconds and must manually be turned back on then it turns back off again.

That's sounding like the monitor has failed. If it's an LCD monitor, the backlight may be going off, turning the screen black. Suggest to either take the monitor to a friend's or to a shop to test it.  Or perhaps buy a new monitor from somewhere that will take it back, if it doesn't solve the problem.