Re: Strange video troubles (DPMS & nv driver)
On 08/09/2007 04:43 PM, cothrige wrote:
> I have been having a couple of odd developments lately which I think may
> be traceable to my Samsung SyncMaster 940BW 19" LCD monitor. It started
> when I noticed I was not getting consistent reactions to my DPMS
> settings. In my xorg.conf I have the following:
>
> Section "ServerFlags"
> Option "BlankTime" "10"
> Option "StandbyTime" "40"
> Option "SuspendTime" "50"
> Option "OffTime" "60"
> EndSection
>
> ...
>
> Section "Monitor"
> Identifier "940BW"
> HorizSync 30.0 - 81.0
> VertRefresh 56.0 - 75.0
> Option "DPMS"
> EndSection
>
> I would expect that after 10 minutes idle my screen would blank, and
> then after 40 it would enter standby mode, and so on. However,
> sometimes it just never does any blanking or sleeping at all. Other
> times it will blank and then never sleep. Of course, often it does both
> just as it should. I have tried using xscreensaver, which I don't
> usually run, with its power management settings, but it didn't seem to
> affect anything. There is just no telling really what may or may not
> happen in this area.
>
> In response I have tried to find something in the logs regarding actual
> calls to the monitor relevant to DPMS, but have found nothing. Is there
> a way to see when the computer sends a signal to the monitor to blank or
> sleep and see how the message was received or responded to?
>
> In trying to solve this problem I thought I would make sure it was not
> video driver related and tried the nv driver. I usually use the nvidia
> driver. However, I could not get nv to work. Everything was a bit
> fuzzy, and my fonts were all jaggy and hard to read, with the vertical
> lines being very faint. Also the screen was too tall for the monitor by
> about thirty pixels, and was way off to the side with about two inches
> of black down the right. This could not be corrected with the
> horizontal placement setting, and the best I could get was about a half
> inch of black on the side, with the other side cut off. Obviously it
> was completely unusable.
>
> I can think of no reason why the nv driver would fail this badly, and
> why DPMS is so hit and miss. Perhaps it is as simple as a bad monitor,
> or maybe it is two unrelated coincidences. I would like to make sure
> before replacing it but just can't find much information to make a
> judgement by. Has anyone heard of something like this with 'nv' or have
> any suggestions about tracking down DPMS and what is going on there?
>
> Many thanks,
>
> Patrick
wrt dpms:
Until you get a more knowledgable reply, man xset (especially, the 's'
option) and man xscreensaver-command (-time) may help.
I use the nv driver, but have a crt.
Sometimes, mplayer or another player disables the screen saver and
forgets to re-enable it, which is annoying. That accounts for failure
to engage dpms actions for me for those cases.
fwiw, I have no Section "ServerFlags" in my xorg.conf on this etch box.
There are no log entries indicating screen saver or dpms actions or
settings.
Good luck!
Ralph Katz
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