Why does my monitor turn off?
Sunday 26 June 2011, by felix
for about 3 months .. my monitor goes off after random periods, alone and without a precise cause.
Before going off I saw a change of colors or flickering image, so I tried to check the settings (video card drivers, etc. ..), change vga cable, power cord, but nothing worked.
I was sure it was a physical problem with the monitor and I was going to buy a new one,
then I thought - ".. terminal can help me"
some other people - "what??? monitor is broken buy a new an bigger one!"
but, after a bit of googling .. I found some articles about DPMS (Display Power Management System) and the way it can be enabled/disabled from terminal..
felice@server01:~$ xset dpms force off
felice@server01:~$ xset dpms force on
after these two commands my monitor is turned off "only after the inactivity period provided" in screensaver settings.
Therefore I think there was a software problem, probably introduced by an update.
My env:
- Ubuntu 10.04 / kernel 2.6.32-32-server
- Acer X223W monitor (VGA connector)
- Video card: ATI Radeon 5400 (driver: fglrx ATI/AMD)
