Very often you can find complaints from users who use their computers and laptops to switch the device to standby mode, that the monitor indicator blinks after sleep mode, but it does not show any signs of life. What is the reason for this common phenomenon, and what methods help to cope with problems of this kind, then we will figure it out.
The monitor does not turn on after sleep: what is the reason?
In general, when considering the root causes that could theoretically cause the appearance of such a situation, most users usually identify problems with the monitors themselves or problems with the functioning of video cards installed on desktop PCs or laptops. Yes, indeed, very often this is exactly the case, but do not forget about some other factors that could indirectly also affect the occurrence of emergency situations. Among all the reasons that the monitor does not turn on after hibernation, the following can be especially singled out:
- failure of a monitor or graphic adapter;
- incorrect connection of the video card to the monitor;
- incorrectly functioning accelerator drivers;
- incorrect BIOS settings;
- Primary system firmware obsolescence
- damage to system files and components;
- Incorrect configuration of the power supply;
- idle sleep and hibernation modes.
Next, he will consider possible methods of troubleshooting, without taking into account the effects of viruses. But in this case, one should not forget that among their countless variety there are also extremely dangerous threats that can affect monitors through drivers, for example, incapacitating them by focusing the maximum energy at one point on the screen.
How to “wake up” the monitor after hibernation, and what if no manipulations give an effect?
Usually, in order to wake up the monitor from the sleep state, on stationary PCs you just need to move the mouse or press any key on the keyboard unit. On laptops, if there is no special key or button on the main panel, you must press the power button. But what if the monitor does not turn on after hibernation and does not respond to any user actions?
To begin with, it is worth looking at connecting a monitor to a video card on a stationary unit, as well as checking the wires for integrity and isolation of the contacts. It would also be nice to check the supposedly non-working monitor by connecting it to another PC. If the image appears, it means the matter is clearly not in the monitor, but in the graphics adapter, from which no signal is being received. If the effect is zero, you can try to press the power button. But it also happens that the cooling system works, noise from the rotation of the hard disk is heard, but the screen is still empty. In this situation, it remains only to turn off the computer forcibly, and then re-boot and tackle troubleshooting, completely disabling the use of standby mode in the current power scheme.
Note: to use the mouse or USB keyboard as devices that wake the computer from sleep, make sure that the appropriate resolution is enabled in the power management settings.
What is wrong with the video card?
Since one of the reasons for this monitor behavior may be the graphics adapter, it must immediately be checked for operability.
To do this, you can use any popular program for checking a video card like FurMark, PhysX, 3DMark, Everest (only Ultimate Edition), etc. Even the general-purpose utility GPU-Z is suitable. Sometimes experts recommend not performing a standard test, but conducting stress testing. Based on the results, it will be possible to judge the weaknesses of the accelerator (perhaps the card does not have enough power, or something is wrong with the GPU cooling system).
However, in most cases, the problem that the monitor does not turn on after hibernation, namely with respect to the video card, is the incorrect functioning of the control drivers. They must either be reinstalled or updated.
In case of reinstallation, it is better to first remove the existing drivers using the small Display Driver Uninstaller program, download the latest drivers from the official website of the adapter manufacturer, and then install them yourself (if they were downloaded as a regular “executable”), or indicate the location of the new files to the system , using the update function in the “Device Manager” (if the files are in INF format, but installation directly from the file is not supported).
BIOS issues
Another reason that the monitor does not turn on after hibernation, which many people forget (or do not know at all), are considered to be problems with the primary systems. In the BIOS settings, special attention should be paid to the status of the Power Off Energy Saving mode. It must be turned on.
If the setting has been changed for some reason, activate it or, if possible, set a balanced power supply circuit. In addition, obsolete firmware may indirectly affect the operation of the adapter, monitor, or other related components. If resetting to factory settings does not work, but there is an update item in the BIOS, try installing a more recent version by first downloading the modification that exactly matches your primary system and writing it to removable media (it won’t install when saved to the hard drive).
Note: in the case of UEFI, firmware usually comes in the form of EXE-format files, and you can start the update directly in the Windows environment.
The choice between sleep and hibernation
Finally, decide on which particular standby mode you are experiencing problems with.
If you use advanced hibernation, try disabling it by running the command powercfg –h off on the command line, which must be run as administrator. If we are talking about a normal dream, activate hibernation by replacing the “off” parameter with “on” in the previous command.
If none of the above helps at all, you will have to fully check both the monitor and the video card. It is possible that they have some kind of physical damage, violations in electrical circuits, etc. If this does not work, check the motherboard (I’d like to hope that it won’t come to that).