dl21

For some reason when my computer goes into power save mode, when I move the mouse to use my computer again, my 2nd monitor doesn't come on. The standby light changes to green meaning that its on, it just isn't receiving a signal from the video card.

Restarting my computer used to fix the issue but now restarting doesn't even help more than 75% of the time. When I restart both monitors are on showing the bios screen and windows start up screen, but when windows opens up, my primary monitor is on and my secondary monitor just goes black (even though it is not in standby)

I'm also able to deactivate the monitor and reactivate it via the display settings and that works some times, but most of the time, I have to deactivate it, wait 20-30 minutes, and then when I activate it, the monitor will show a picture.

It didn't do this when I first got the video card and its been about 3 or 4 months since it started doing this. I googled the problem and found that sometimes ati cards don't play nice with dell monitors but if that were the case, this would have happened from day one.

I've reinstalled windows, reinstalled the video drivers and nothing seems to fix the problem, my 2nd monitor is only available 25% of the time and its getting pretty annoying being so used to using dual monitors at work and at home.

Any thoughts or ideas, maybe something I haven't tried?

System Dell xps gen 5 running windows xp.

tecknomage

Assuming your PC is a desktop, go into Control Panel, Power Options icon, and ensure ALL settings = Never, and Hibernate is disabled.

The only setting that MAY be set to be timed, is turning off the monitor. Up to you.

WinXP tends to default to laptop power options, which I think is dumb. Win98 detected your system and automatically selected Desktop or Laptop profile.

Also, do you have a Screen Saver set in Desktop Properties? Try setting None.