Please help. I have no control over my monitor

Factual Questions
1

I hate to add another techie question here, but I’m at my wits end and all other alternatives have been exhausted.

The scenario-

About two weeks ago my system crashed out. No big deal, it’s done that before. All I have to do is re-install the OS and move on.

But during this re-install process, however, I notice a difference from the previous re-installs I’ve done. Instead of getting the usual crap installed with the install, I get a completely clean version of Win98 instead. No AOL, no CompuServe, nothing, just a clean 'ol version of 98- Cool.

As God is my witness, I didn’t choose anything different in the ‘What do you want to do’ screen of the re-install. I simply selected, ‘Only Windows 98 and nothing more’ option, like I’ve done countless times before. But this time, it gives me a completely clean version.

Now the problem-

Ever since the re-install, I have no control over when my monitor goes into stand-by. None. It wants to enter stand-by after only fifteen minutes regardless of what I tell it I want.

I’ve changed the power settings to ‘Always on’ and ‘Turn off Hard Drive’ and other settings within that window to ‘Never’.

Never Goddammit, NEVER!!

It won’t listen to me. It continues to shut-down after fifteen minutes.

I’ve called NEC, the maker of my system, and while paying $3.99 a minute and telling the guy my name, address, and telephone number for marketing reasons (There’s a pit thread coming, just wait) , he eventually told me to disable the ‘Advanced Power Management’ option in the bios.

Alright, I did it. No dice. It shut off after fifteen minutes again.

Nothing I can do can switch this damn function off. Nothing!

Now the part of this that really bugs me is this- If I enter into the the power management part of my OS and simply check O.K., and nothing else, then the system stays on forever. No shutting down.

I read something about this in the MS database that you should turn it to some other time limit and the problem will be fixed, but I don’t even have to get that far. All I need to do is bring up that window and press O.K., and it works.

All right, I taken up enough of your time. What should I do? What the f*ck is going on with my system? Why won’t it listen? What wasn’t installed this time that makes it do this?

I got a big box of chocolate waiting for anyone that can help me on this.

BTW- Neuhaus chocolate. Not that shitty Godiva crap.

System-
NEC Pent III 450 W/256 RAM
Win 98 first version (I think. It’s not SE or anything like that.)
NVIDIA GEFORCE 3 AGP- Monitor one
3DFX Voodoo 3, 2000 PCI- Monitor two.
CDR-W
CD-ROM

2

Ackk! I had a problem with editing that post above. Please skip past the mistakes.

I’m so flustered about this problem that it screwed up a perfectly good post.

3

monitor one, two, or both?

4

Both monitors.

Whatever I do on monitor two seems to have no effect of monitor one. The O.S. seems to take it’s direction from settings I make on monitor one.

For whatever it’s worth, right now the second monitor is completely disabled- drivers and everything.

In the process of trying to fix this problem, I completely butchered number two’s settings so badly that it’s not working. It’s seperate from the stand-by issue, I believe, because it’s happened before and I’ve been able to fix it.

It will take removing the card and re-installing both the card and drivers before it will be back to working. It’s not anything major on my list right now.

5

Hmmm… this has happened to me before and it’s a very difficult problem to solve without scrubbing and re-installing the OS. It sounds like (and I know you said you didn’t) you inadvertently chose the mimimal or laptop install options or accidently placed some secret DOS line switch in front of “setup” for a basic install (see http://xtronics.com/secret.htm) 98SE and especially ME have more sophisticated and bulletproof power shutdown controls, however if you must use the basic WIN 98 install make sure that;

1: You have upgraded your NEC system BIOS to the most recent update available

2: When installing choose the “custom” setup option and march through every option listed to make sure you have everything you need.

3: Before installing make sure your system’s BIOS power saving options are not defeated in any way or this might screw up the OS’s ability, during install, to properly detect and implement the correct power saving options for your particular chipset.

4: Check the NEC support site (yeah I know NEC in the US is dead) and see if there are any patches related to power control for 98.

5: Oftentimes the applets installed with video cards have their own power controls buried in a sub-menu somewhere. You might check to see if any of these are present.

6

Damn astro, I thought I knew about this stuff until I read your post…

“… you inadvertently chose the mimimal or laptop install options or accidently placed some secret DOS line switch in front of “setup” for a basic install…”

Um. Huh?

I have no clue as to what you just wrote.

From what I can gather that you’re asking me… yes, I did choose the ‘Minimal’ install option. That’s what I’ve choosen each time my system has crashed. Never before have I run into this problem. I’ve never had the ‘clean’ install that I had this time, either.

You’re suggesting I re-install the O.S… I’d hate to do that. It’s a pain and a half to do that and, well, outside of this bitch of a problem, the system has never run better.

I can’t keep thinkng it’s a problem with something that didn’t get loaded in the minimal install. But for the life of me, I can’t find out what that might be.

So far, you get the Godiva. Now who want the Nuehaus?

7

Ohh, I forgot to add-

"You have upgraded your NEC system BIOS to the most recent update available?"

You know, I haven’t. Don’t ask me why, but I haven’t.

I fiddle around with everything else on this computer- the bios, the registry, damn near everything else that runs the thing- but patching the bios makes me nervous.

Again, don’t ask me why- I know there’s a newer version of what I’m running- AMIBIOS, but I’m simply uneasy about doing it.

If someone can tell me there’s no reason to worry about it, than I’ll give it a go. I just haven’t heard enough good reason on why to do it yet.

Besides, the system didn’t go into stand-by before this recent install. Why monkey around with those deep settings when it’s probably something else?

That’s the same thinking I had as the NEC guy was telling me to switch around bios settings… “You know, it worked before… Why are you trying the bios as opposed to something else?”

I still appreciate the reply, however.

8

Re-reading this thread, I see that I somewhat implied that astro’s suggestions merited a shitty reward (Saying he should get Godiva chocolates, rather than Nuehaus).

On the contrary, I won’t diss anyone willing to offer a suggestion. I’ll toss in a few newsberries for 'ya, astro, if you’d like.

I just wish I could figure this thing out, that’s all.

9

No worries I’m not a chocoholic anyaway.

In re-reading your OP I assumed (but didn’t see) that you
had already gone into your BIOS setup ((not your Windows 98 OS power setup) and defeated any power conservation options and timeout settings. If you have not you might want to try this as these will over ride any OS settings. Aside from the OS and the PC you might also want to check and see if your monitor itself has a power timeout built into it’s setup accessible via the monitor controls and turn off any power conservation features that may be present.

10
  1. Look at the monitor manual. Look & see if it has its own power management (mine does).
  2. Under display properties of W98 make sure that YOUR monitor exact type is listed & not a generic one. If not, change it so it shows your monitor & your driver, but I don’t know which one you are using.
  3. Make sure your display adapters are listed correctly too.
  4. Check your display adapter manuals for any power saving functions they may have, not that they have any, never can tell.

Mostly 2 does the trick.

11

if the standard plug and play monitor is listed as the monitor type that should work well too, I’ve never seen any problems with it…

also check windows safe mode to ensure there are not multiple extra monitors

12

Go to the MS site and update that Win98…if you have the first edition of Win 98 there were documented problems with power management features associated with a few major brand computers. This may or may not solve your problems but seems to me the first step to try.

13

Sorry guys and gals, I didn’t mean to abandon this thread.

I appreciate the replies, I’d really like to get this thing resolved and think your possible solutions might give me a chance. Other matters were involved in not coming back, one of which was trying to nail down what exactly was going on with my monitor.
Now I have the fix. It’s a pain, but this is what I have to do whenever I restart the computer or fire it up for the first time in the morning.

First, and this has to be in order for it to work, is to right click the screen and choose the ‘Screen Saver’ tab and check O.K.

I don’t need to change anything, mind you, just look at the tab. I know, goofy as hell, but if it’s not done in this order it won’t work.

Second, or lastly, I need to get into the settings tab and check the ‘Advanced’ tab. Again, I don’t have to check or uncheck anything, apparently I just need to view this screen for verification of somesuch that I’m certainly not aware of for the settings to work.

For the life of me, I can’t figure this out. Not doing one of the steps above means my monitor goes into standby mode within fifteen minutes.

It’s not aggravating enough that I’ll re-install the OS for this problem alone, but I’d still like a solution, or an avenue to pursue.

Thanks again.

14

Sounds like you managed to get your computer into “girlfriend mode” a.k.a. “retired parent mode,” wherein it freaks out if you don’t pay it just the right amount of attention. Good luck with that, dude.

15

My experience with “power mismanagement” has been full of problems. In the end I have figured it is not worth the hassle and just turn everything off and do my own “manual” power management. To me, saving a few cents is not worth the hassle. And Windows keeps me plenty busy with a host of other problems.

16

For the sake of this thread, I restarted my computer. <I hate doing that>

The entire, and I mean entire APS, is off. OFF! I checked it again in the CMOS setup.

It seems to be within the Microsoft operating system.

Regardless of the settings in the BIOS, the monitor will still “standby” in fifteen minutes unless I follow that goofy routine posted above.

Man it’s a bitch.

You’re right, KTK, it is like a broad.

To answer other questions-

I’ve updated the OS as much as I can. Well, at least I think I have. I can’t make anything out of that stupid MS update site. They wanted to update all kinds of things I didn’t want updated.

I went with the service pack updates and the OE update.

The monitor is a Hewlett Packard A4033A. It’s a twenty-one incher that wasn’t really offered to the public. Well, public in the sense that it wasn’t pushed like a hooker in polyester tights, it was harder to find out in the open. I got mine from a friend that runs a HP reseller deal.

Because of that, I haven’t had drivers to run the monitor. Instead of the model I run, I choose the 21 inch VGA HP in the device drivers section of the OS.

I’ve checked on drivers for this monitor, but have only come up with crappy alternatives. Before, it ran fine with the 21 VGA driver from the MS OS data base.

These chocolates are melting folks!