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Monitor goes into standby(dark) when starting to play games

W

whatnow

Senior member
When I play certain games, my monitor goes into power savings mode(dark). I'll get sound and if I hit the "esc" key they will start playing( Age of Empires-Empire Earth). On Real War, I'll get sound but when I hit the "esc" key my computer locks up. My machine: PIII-1000(non OC'd) 512mb, 64mb Radeon vid card. Any & all help would be welcome.
 
I had that happen to me twice while I was playing CS. I just pressed ESC and I got the picture back. I'm not sure what's the cause of it, so I'd like to know too.
 
[edit, on retrospect, your computer locks up altogether so this info doesn't apply to you, but I'll leave it for others who might gain from it]

I'd try to get your hands on a different computer or a different videocard and see if the symptoms persist. I had something similar happen, and it turned out that my Geforce 2 was killing my monitor, probably through incorrect refresh timing. Usually I had to turn the monitor off and back on again to get the picture back, every time I changed resolutions. I bought a geforce 3, and after about a week, I haven't had any of those symptoms with my monitor again, though I'll probably want to send it back before warranty is out because there was definite damage done.
 
There might be other reasons, but this has happened to me if I try to play a game with a resolution that my monitor doesn't think it supports. It's kind of strange though, as its a valid resolution and shows up on the list of enumerated resolutions, just when I enter the game - boom, standby mode. My work around was to switch my monitor settings to take off plug & play. Then you get a list of every resolution your video card supports although your monitor might not support it. You just have to be careful to make sure you only use ones your monitor is capable of running or you could risk damage.

Btw, this happens to me on a Radeon AIW card - usually everytime after I update to new drivers. At one point I was able to fix it, but I can't remember how, so now I just leave plug and play off.
 
I've had similar issues with refresh rates my monitor couldn't handle. You might be able to test it by changing your desktop resolution to all standard resolutions (640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, 1280x1024 etc...) each with 16bit then again with 32 bit colour. See if your monitor goes black again on a certain resolution or colour depth.
 
Many thanks to all that replied. I got it to work thru the Radeons' refresh rate adjustment and rereading my monitors' manuel. Thanks again for all the help! 😀
 
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