My monitor just goes blank and won't go to standby...display power management is enabled in the desktop configuration and after the specified time in standby, suspend or power off, it just goes blank (like a blank screen screensaver) but won't go to power-save mode. How can I fix this?

You may want to adjust some of the DMPS functions in "ServerLayout" Section in your X configuration file. You may add the section if it does not exist.

To manipulate the DPMS functions, you can create/modify the following items in the ServerLayout section.

Section "ServerLayout"
Option "BlankTime" "10" # Blank the screen in 10 minutes (Fake)
Option "StandbyTime" "20" # Turn off screen in 20 minutes (DPMS)
Option "SuspendTime" "30" # Full hibernation in 30 minutes (DPMS)
Option "OffTime" "40" # Turn off DPMS monitor (DPMS)
EndSection

BlankTime is not actually a power saving level at all. The screen is sent a "fake" blanking effect and defaults to activate after 10 minutes. Alternately, it can indicate the number of minutes until the screensaver should activate. It has nothing to do with DPMS.

StandbyTime is a very minor power saving level. This setting usually involves blanking the screen by turning off the electron (RGB) gun. However, the power supply is left on and the tube filaments energized. When you need to use the monitor again, the monitor will come back on very quickly. This option requires DPMS monitor/video-card support and defaults to 20 minutes under X-Windows. Also known as hsync suspend mode, since the horizontal sync signal is turned off to signal this power management state to a DPMS monitor.

SuspendTime is a very strong low power alternative. This setting usually involves the same power conservation as StandbyTime, however in addition the power supply is turned off. This option requires DPMS monitor/video-card support and defaults to 30 minutes under X-Windows. Also known as vsync suspend mode, since the vertical sync signal is turned off to signal this power management state to a DPMS monitor.

OffTime usually means just that. The computer monitor is turned off. A small auxiliary circuit stays on to monitor the signals from the computer to turn the monitor back on when data needs to be displayed to the screen. Obviously, this keeps power consumption to a bare minimum (zero). While the power saving is substantial, to reactivate the monitor may take up to 8-10 seconds. This option requires DPMS monitor/video-card support and defaults to 40 minutes under X-Windows. Both the horizontal and vertical sync signals are turned off to signal this power management state to a DPMS monitor.

KC

The X configuration file is the /etc/X11/xorg.conf? There is a serverlayout section in it, but it doesn't have any blank/standby time values in it... It looks like this:
Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Layout[all]"
InputDevice "Keyboard[0]" "CoreKeyboard"
InputDevice "Mouse[1]" "CorePointer"
Option "Clone" "off"
Option "Xinerama" "off"
Screen "Screen[0]"
EndSection

Should I just add the lines you wrote? Or is it the wrong file?

Yes, you can add them all and just comment '#' out the ones you don't wish to use as such:

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Layout[all]"
InputDevice "Keyboard[0]" "CoreKeyboard"
InputDevice "Mouse[1]" "CorePointer"
Option "Clone" "off"
Option "Xinerama" "off"
Screen "Screen[0]"
# Option "BlankTime" "10" # Blank the screen in 10 minutes (Fake)
Option "StandbyTime" "20" # Turn off screen in 20 minutes (DPMS)
# Option "SuspendTime" "30" # Full hibernation in 30 minutes (DPMS)
# Option "OffTime" "40" # Turn off DPMS monitor (DPMS)
EndSection

KC

Hmm, I've been having the exact same problem. So I guess Xorg broke the KDE control center applet for power management, because I know this was working perfectly with Mandrake 9.2 which uses XFree.

Well, it was worth a try.

Despite never having a 'BlankTime' entry in my xorg.conf and despite adding an 'OffTime' entry, it continues to blank my screen (leaving the backlight on, just blanking it) after about 5 minutes -- where it gets that number from I'll never know. Ironically, running 'xset -dpms' stops the useless screen blanking but does nothing to dpms. As a side note, running 'setterm -powersave off' -- yes, I've tried EVERYTHING -- returns 'cannot (un)set powersave mode', whatever the !@#$ that means.

I added the lines in xorg.conf, still the same problem...

Sounds like driver prob......

Well, I'm using an integrated Intel 'ExtremeGraphics2' (or something like that) video card. 3D DRI is working perfectly with it, surprsingly, since I've had many probs with that in the past. What kind of vid card are you using bomber?


OpenGL vendor string: Tungsten Graphics, Inc
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa DRI Intel(R) 852GM/855GM 20041217 x86/MMX/SSE2
OpenGL version string: 1.3 Mesa 6.2.1

I have a Nvidia Vanta card. Haven't installed nvidia drivers. My monitor is a Sony CPD-200ES.