# [SOLVED]Frequent Xorg blackouts????

## platojones

I don't even know where to start with the description of this *very* irritating issue, except to say I know it's not hardware, since it doesn't happen in Windows 7.

I'll just describe the problem, then give some configuration details and see if that will work....

Every several minutes (seemingly random intervals), my screen blanks for about 5 seconds, as if it's going to sleep, but the power light stays on.  After 5 seconds or so, it comes back.  sometimes it goes an hour or more before doing this, sometimes it does it constantly, every few minutes...seems totally random.  I've got KDE screen saver turned on and power management to turn the screen off after 10 minutes.  That all works fine.  It's just the constant black outs that driving me nuts.

I'm running xorg server 1.12.2, but this problem was also happening with xorg-server 1.11.x series as well.  I'm running the latest nvidia-drivers (though it's been happening with previous versions too).  I'm running KDE 4.8.3 and it was happening with earlier versions of that...back to the KDE 4.7.x versions.

Any thoughts?Last edited by platojones on Sun Jun 10, 2012 9:58 pm; edited 1 time in total

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## Jaglover

Monitor going bad. My 2c.

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## platojones

 *Jaglover wrote:*   

> Monitor going bad. My 2c.

 

Thanks for the reply, but I don't think so.  Only has exhibits this behavior when I'm booted in Gentoo.

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## Hu

Does it happen if you use different drivers?  For example, can you use the Nouveau driver or swap in a non-nVidia video card?

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## Jaglover

Same resolution, same refresh? Does it happen also when running some Linux liveCD?

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## platojones

Good ideas, both of you.  

Let me try a live CD again to confirm...I can also test nouveau that way as well.

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## Jaglover

Forgot to say, monitors generally are designed to show the green light when there is a signal in the input. Which makes video card and driver issues unlikely. As a side note the monitor I'm using right now was given me for free because it blacked out every now and then, the circuit that triggers thermal protection was out of calibration, after I little soldering job it has been working great for two years now.

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## platojones

Well, good news and bad news.  Good news is I know now what the problem is.  Bad news is that it's the monitor that's going bad.  I usually don't stay in Win 7 more than an hour or so at a time and never noticed the blanking, but I stayed in Win 7 today for half a day and sure enough, several hours in, the same thing started happening.  Gotta be the 4 year old monitor (all the rest of the hardware is less than 3 months old). I've been seeing faint red snow on the black background for several months now too, so it's not just this.  So, new monitor on order.  

Wow, I've had some pretty rotten luck with monitor lifetimes since I made the switch to LCDs about 10 years ago.  Is it me, or do these things not last more than about 3 to 4 years?

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## platojones

Also meant to thank both Jaglover and Hu for the ideas.  I never could get a live CD to boot with new UEFI machine for various reasons.

Jaglover, you were right all along...I wish I could solder   :Very Happy: 

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## Jaglover

Thanks for appreciation.  :Smile: 

The weakest point of a LCD monitor is the backlighting system. It consists of an inverter board and CCFL tubes. Lights get older, draw more current, inverter board starts cutting off - depending on its design it may or may not start again without power reset.

Nowadays there is a viable alternative. LED. I've converted tens of CCFL monitors to LED. Using something like this.

Just toss the inverter and CCFL lights, install LEDs and enjoy a monitor that consumes less power and emits less heat.

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## platojones

Glad to hear about the LED backlights...the monitor I just ordered, a DELL U2412M, has those, so maybe I won't have these issues going forward.  I did some research on this dying monitor LG L246WP, and sure enough, numerous problems appear...bulging power supply caps, etc, when they age.  Anyway, hopefully the new lasts more than 4 years.

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