Stuck in Power Save Mode?

Question

My Dell Flat Panel seems to be stuck in power save mode.  I can boot in safe mode.  I noticed this old thread - is this still the solution?   http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=dim_monitor&message.id=33721   Any help much appreciated.  I'm kinda dead in the water on my desktop here since booting normally yields only a black screen.  I'm hoping there's a more up to date solution.   Thank you, -AF

Iley · Answer

I have the same problem. You need to download the DVI recovery file fromt hsi site and try it. Dell support just pushed this URL to me and told me to try the utility.

http://www.jeffgeiger.com/Stuff/DVI_Recover.htm

Since I don't have a computer until the 28th, Dell has to replace a defective XPS600, i won't know until then. If this helps resolve your problems, I would be interested to know that it worked for you. Please let me know.

mpkehl · Answer

I have not used my Dimension 8250 for two months (I was away on a business trip in the US) - I'm from Australia, last weekend I was using Nero 6 to create DVD files from an avi file and I checked the option to close down the PC when the program was completed - I have done this before and experienced no problems.

However, on this occasion, my LCD Flat Panel Display (17") decided to provide me with the 'on power save mode and to press any key on the keyboard or move the mouse', to no avail.

I bought my Dimension 8250 in December 2002 and have had no prior issues even with installing Windows XP Pro SP2 also using Office 2003.

The graphics card is the same one installed on purchase - 64MB DDR nVidia(R) GeForce4(TM) MX Graphics Card with TV-Out.

Why now I ask myself. I have had no hiccups with this system until last weekend as I mentioned so I eagerly drilled into the various threads and I am not feeling very comfortable with what I have read thus far, insofar as there doesn't seem to be a definitive solution.

Unlike most threads, my monitor is analog and is working - I did the standard troubleshooting with using another PC to test the cable and the monitor, of which both are working fine.

I have used an eraser on the contacts and made sure the card was firmly in place on the board, as well as making sure the cables were snug (also checked that the pins were not bent or broken).

I went out to buy another graphics card - Xpert Vision GF FX5200 128MB - no change to monitor coming out of power save mode.

I had the Dimension power supply tested and the test showed that the 5V line was defective so I purchased a rather expensive power supply (I thought it was expensive @ AU$85) - being a coolermaster 380 W PSU. Still no change in the monitor state.

I contacted DELL and if I was told to unplug the monitor cable and power supply cable from the monitor and then the monitor cable from the PC, and we did that at least 4 more times and if I was asked to do this one more time, I was going to scream!!!!!!! We did get to a point where I was instructed to open the case and take out the graphic card and reinsert firmly and so the spinning wheel went.

I was then offered to purchase phone support because I was out of warranty. I wasn't even going to consider this a viable option if the phone support I did receive was anything to go by.

Also, and this is the very frustrating part for me, HOW THE HECK CAN YOU GO INTO THE CONTROL PANEL TO CHANGE THE POWER MANAGEMENT SETTINGS IF YOU CAN'T SEE ANYTHING - THE MONITOR IS IN POWER SAVE MODE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have read that replacing the motherboard is an option (not something I would like to do), and I have also read where DELL have supplied (albeit reluctantly) replacement monitors and graphic cards. I don't need a new monitor and likely it would be a refurbished product I suspect, however, having already tried a different graphic card, what would be the point in getting another. I also have read something about the 5200 card is similar to the problems that apparently the nVidia cards were having, so I may have shot myself in the foot by getting the FX5200 card??

Anyway, I am keen to continue my PC and would appreciate a fix.

I'm still waiting for a quote from DELL for a new graphics card so it will be interesting to see what card they offer - considering the previous posts on graphic cards and what has worked and what hasn't.

If anyone wishes to email me on the above as opposed to submitting anything here, feel free at mpkehl@yahoo.com.au thank you in advance!

jchor · Answer

Why exactly was that older thread locked? Was the issue resolved?

I tried the dell fix, it didn't work. I would appreciate an explaination of the problem, instead of blind instructions. It's mostly the 3rd party forum threads that give all the technical details.

But anyways, I'm using an ASUS 7800 GTX for the 2005FPW. I installed the latest drives from Dell's download page as well as nVidia's downloads page. When i use the DVI recover program (DDCW), and it gives me the following error:

"failure while performing read EDID command, check device attached"

I get that message after the batch file executes and after i enter the command "DDCW -m 1". Which i believe is the read command.

People at Dell: Please... lend a hand. Any assistance is greatly appreciated! :smileyvery-happy:

Here is my history... You can skip the rest of this post if you are not interested.------------------------

My brand new Dell monitor has the same problem as everybody here. Once it's in power saving mode, it won't come back. A reboot shortly after kicks the monitor into power saving mode as well.

Usually, i need to let the computer sit for a while and then reboot it. Initial troubleshooting led me to believe it was heat causing the system to lock up. This was surprising to me as i installed water cooling for my rig. but anyways, i went out and bought a fan controller and some fans. The temps now never exceed 35 degrees Celcius (cept maybe the vid card). It wasn't until i plugged in a seperate lcd monitor to see that the system isn't locked up at all... it's alive!

So off to the dell forums i go. Lo and behold, giant threads with many angry customers share my problem. The real shock is that these problems were documented two years ago, yet the same problem exists today. I've read 90% of the old thread (skipped the ATI ones) and some other threads on a similiar problem, but with different manufacturers.

Here are the other threads:http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?t=33758908&pp=30 and http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?s=&threadid=33758906

My self-built system: AMD X2 4400+, ASUS A8N SLI PREMIUM, ASUS 7800 GTX, Dell 2005FPW, 2x1GB OCZ Platinum PC3200, Creative X-Fi, Swiftech H120-Premium, Hiper 580W Type-R, 2x120GB Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 (Raid 0)

Iley · Answer

Well, to tell you what happened with mine. Still no computer. It has been on order for over two weeks and although the order (I was told) on the 14th, it did not actually go in until the 22nd. However, I tried to continue to troubleshoot the monitor. Frustrated with Tech Support, I contacted them and asked to speak to a manager. His SMART MOUTHED comment was to box everything up and return it to Dell.

I wrote a letter to Dell Corporate Headquarters and told them that I didn't appreciate smart mouthed managers. I also informed them that if I didn't get relief, that I would mention to my company (Northrop Grumman) that the tech support is poor at best and that we shold reconsider using Dell computers as our main computer. I explained all I wanted was a system that works and for the money I paid, I didn't think that was an unrealistic request.

I had a person call me after receiving my letter and he immediately ordered a replacement monitor. I received the monitor yesterday and it works as advertised, so far. It doesn't go into hybernation mode when I turn it off overnight.

If I ever get my computer, I will let you know how it works on the very expensive XPS600.

BTW, for those who are interested, my company has decided to use HP as the main supplier for Northrop Grumman. I have been passing the word about the poor tech support and the smart comment I got from tech support and they weren't very happy. They issued a division wide announcement that all Dell computers would be phased out of use. They are on lease and so as the lease expires, the Dells will go away. Some people you just shouldn't mess with and as a Reliability Engineer, I am one of those people.

I have also started a website that hasn't been completed YET, but will be up this weekend. It is called Dell-?ell.info. (Replace the ? with an H) Feel free to make comments there as well.

jchor · Answer

Unfortunately, I work for a bank that has ALREADY phased Dell out and when I asked around about their tech support, the senior members of IT here told me about the horror they experience three years ago. So I can’t make the same threat…

I hope your new monitor works, but mine didn’t do the “stuck in power saving mode” until about a week into use. (I received mine on Mar 23rd) And to Dell’s credit, it was only a 5 bus-day “order-to-received” latency period. Pretty decent. I found this tool on the net called MonInfo.

When I get home, i’ll post the report. Hopefully people with working and non-working monitors can post theirs so we can compare EDID data/revisions...

There may be a possibility of getting down to the bottom of this.

jchor · Answer

Similiar Prob with 1905fp: http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=dim_monitor&message.id=52039&view=by_date_ascending&page=2

jchor · Answer

more: http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=dim_monitor&message.id=32275&view=by_date_ascending&page=1

jchor · Answer

I used the viewsonic tool instead. It's pretty decent. Anybody want to comment on the "EE" at offset 20? Here's the output:

                           Time: 18:26:11
                       Date: Thu Jul 06, 2006
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
                       VIEWSONIC CORPORATION
                   EDID Version # 1, Revision # 3
                   DDCTest For: DEL DELL 2005FPW
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
128 BYTES OF EDID CODE:
        0   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9
     ________________________________________
0 | 00 FF FF FF FF FF FF 00 10 AC
10 | 09 E0 4C 4D 54 32 06 10 01 03
20 | EE 2B 1B 78 EA 01 95 A3 57 4C
30 | 9C 25 12 50 54 A5 4B 00 81 80
40 | 71 4F 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01
50 | 01 01 01 01 7C 2E 90 A0 60 1A
60 | 1E 40 30 20 36 00 B2 0E 11 00
70 | 00 1A 00 00 00 FF 00 54 36 31
80 | 33 30 36 32 38 32 54 4D 4C 0A
90 | 00 00 00 FD 00 38 4B 1E 53 0E
100 | 00 0A 20 20 20 20 20 20 00 00
110 | 00 FC 00 44 45 4C 4C 20 32 30
120 | 30 35 46 50 57 0A 00 B5
______________________________________________________________________
(08-09) ID Manufacturer Name ________________ = DEL
(11-10) Product ID Code _____________________ = E009
(12-15) Last 5 Digits of Serial Number ______ = 844385612
(16)     Week of Manufacture _________________ = 06
(17)     Year of Manufacture _________________ = 2006
(10-17) Complete Serial Number ______________ = 606844385612
(18)     EDID Version Number _________________ = 1
(19)     EDID Revision Number ________________ = 3
(20)     VIDEO INPUT DEFINITION:
        Digital Signal
        Non - VESA DFP 1.x Compatible

(21)     Maximum Horizontal Image Size ________________    = 430 mm
(22)     Maximum Vertical Image Size __________________    = 270 mm
(23)     Display Gamma ________________________________    = 2.20
(24)     Power Management and Supported Feature(s):
        Stand-By, Suspend, Active Off/Very Low Power,
        Preferred Timing Mode
        Display Type = R/G/B Color
(25-34) CHROMA INFO:
        Red X - 0.637 Green X - 0.297 Blue X - 0.146 White X - 0.313
        Red Y - 0.340 Green Y - 0.610 Blue Y - 0.071 White Y - 0.329
(35)     ESTABLISHED TIMING I:
        720 X 400 @ 70Hz (IBM,VGA)
        640 X 480 @ 60Hz (IBM,VGA)
        640 X 480 @ 75Hz (VESA)
        800 X 600 @ 60Hz (VESA)
(36)     ESTABLISHED TIMING II:
        800 X 600 @ 75Hz (VESA)
        1024 X 768 @ 60Hz (VESA)
        1024 X 768 @ 75Hz (VESA)
        1280 X 1024 @ 75Hz (VESA)
(37)     Manufacturer's Reserved Timing:
          None Specified
(38-53) Standard Timing Identification:
        1280 X 1024 @60Hz
        1152 X 864 @75Hz
        Not Used
        Not Used
        Not Used
        Not Used
        Not Used
        Not Used
______________________________________________________________________
(54-71) Detailed Timing / Descriptor Block 1:
                 1680x1050 Pixel Clock: 119.00 MHz
______________________________________________________________________
        Horizontal Image Size: 434 mm     Vertical Image Size: 270 mm
        Refreshed Mode: Non-Interlaced    Normal Display - No Stereo

Horizontal:
        Active Time: 1680 pixels          Blanking Time: 160 pixels
        Sync Offset: 48 pixels            Sync Pulse Width: 32 pixels
        Border: 0 pixels                  Frequency: 64.67 KHz

Vertical:
        Active Time: 1050 lines           Blanking Time: 30 lines
        Sync Offset: 3 lines              Sync Pulse Width: 6 lines
        Border: 0 lines                   Frequency: 59.88 Hz

Digital Separate, Horizontal Polarity (+) Vertical Polarity (-)

______________________________________________________________________
(72-89) Detailed Timing / Descriptor Block 2:

Monitor Serial Number:

______________________________________________________________________
(90-107) Detailed Timing / Descriptor Block 3:

        Monitor Range Limits:
        Min Vertical Freq - 56 Hz
        Max Vertical Freq - 75 Hz
        Min Horiz. Freq - 30 KHz
        Max Horiz. Freq - 83 KHz
        Pixel Clock - 140 MHz
        Secondary GTF - Not Supported

______________________________________________________________________
(108-125) Detailed Timing / Descriptor Block 4:

Monitor Name:
DELL 2005FPW

(126) No Extension EDID Block(s)
(127) CheckSum OK

mpkehl · Answer

It doesn't look as though anyone from Dell is in the slightest bit interested in this issue, and is obviously problematic for many Dell owners.   As I mentioned in my previous post, there was no way that I was going to purchase a 3-year warranty with the sort of phone help that I was given.  Shocking to say the least.  I mean the person was nice enough, but sometimes 'nice' just doesn't cut it.   I don't regret purchasing the Dimension, but it seems such a great shame that if Dell plan on being the number 1 PC seller in the world that they should get off their corporate fat back sides and support the people buying their products.  Really pushes my buttons when money is the only thing that drives these fat cats.   Anyway, I am so peaved off about the whole thing I'm trashing the PC and having it re-built (with no Dell component in sight)!!!!!!   Good luck and go well :-)

schmooliago · Answer

Anyone find a working solution to this problem.  I tried booting from the CD rom with the DVI recovery file etc.... - isn't working for me.  Any help appreciated.  Is there a simpler solution that anyone knows of?

jchor · Answer

this is a stupid work-around, but it works... 1. turn off powersaving mode. 2. turn on defualt windows screen-saver (black background with windows logo shifting around) 2. turn off screen when you walk away from the computer that way, when you return to the computer, just power on the screen and everything comes back. if you forgot to turn off the monitor when you walked away, hope that you had set the screen saver to something that keeps shifting around, or you get 'burn-in'... (where the 'ghost' of the image is sorta burned into the screen) so i guess you manually power-save... which defeats the purpose of the mode... ah... whatever. this whole issue is frustrating.

schmooliago · Answer

jchor,

thanks. although i can't even get out of power saving mode at this point. The only thing I can do is get into my pc in safe mode. In normal, the screen is blank. From all the info I've gathered, it seems like I have to find a cable for the analog - to me it looks like a 24 pin connector to the pc and a 15 pin connector to the monitor. Once I have that the monitor should work and then I should be able to try the fix that amajamar indicated here below. Does anyone know of a cable that would work for this? dvi related?

http://tinyurl.com/oledz

from his post - all below - from 09-07-2003

Ok, this is EXACTLY what I did...

Install the new drivers for the NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440 (R70838) (if this is the card you have)

First and MOST important, if you have more than one cdrom or cd/dvd device make sure you know which is the BOOTABLE device! My cd/dvd burner was NOT the bootable one and it took me a long time to figure it out!

Make sure you set the BOOT SEQUENCE in the BIOS to boot the CDROM first.

1. Leave BOTH the analog and DVI cable installed and leave the monitor on ANALOG. (I assume you are using your analog cable now and can see the monitor)

2. Boot from the cd - you should SEE the EDID MSDOS program run. You will probably be left at an A:> prompt.

3. DO NOT BOOT TO WINDOWS YET! Remove the analog cable from the back of the monitor leaving the DVI cable installed. Switch the monitor to DIGITAL. (at this point the monitor is blank,obviously!)

4. Hit control+alt+delete to reboot.

5. If you see the EDID MSDOS program run, it's fixed!

After that, remove the cd from the drive, re-order the boot sequence in the BIOS (if you want) and boot into Windows.

If you have the DVI feed again and you want to have BOTH the analog and digital switchable, do this.

(This worked for ME with the card and monitor I have, I would have no idea about different configurations)

1. Go to Device Manager and confirm you have a Digital monitor listed.

2. Plug the ANALOG cable back in and reboot.

3. Go to Device Manager and see if you have TWO monitors listed. One should be Digital and the other Analog.

4. Go to Display Properties; Settings. There you should see a two monitor system displayed. If you do, click the Advanced tab; GeForce4 MX 440 tab; nV View Display Mode tab. Then click the Clone button.

5. Switch the monitor to analog and it should work.

That's all I have, if you have any questions, I'll try to answer them.

amajamar

Message Edited by amajamar on 03-12-200408:54 AM

Message Edited by amajamar on 03-12-200408:58 AM

jchor · Answer

The monitor should come with both analog (blue connector) and dvi (white connector) cables. I don't know how valid this fix is with a video card that has dual dvi outputs instead of seperate analog and dvi outputs. Since my card (nvidia 7800gtx) doesn't have analog outputs, i used a digital to analog adapter.   the dell fix never worked for me. the msdos program kept giving me an error message about not being able to read edid data for the dvi port. it would spit out the analog port data with no probs tho. and if you've seen my earlier posts, i don't have trouble reading the edid data for the dvi port using the viewsonic tool. but i usually was able to boot into windows using the dvi connection, so my problem seems less severe than most. (altho as soon as the problem kicked in, even rebooting the computer did not bring the monitor back. i need to turn everything off, wait for 30mins, and then try again. -- i would love to have somebody explain to me how that works!!!)   good luck with your troublshooting

Hobbes4020 · Answer

Hi I am also getting this problem but I don't have DVI. I have a DELL and a FX5200 card and the symptoms seem identical. The PC boots into the XP screen then goes blank with the 'In power save mode' message. I can get into the PC in safe mode.   However the cable I use is an analogue cable. Very grateful for any ideas!   Thanks, Chris

Monitors

Stuck in Power Save Mode?

Was this post helpful?