Old graphics card doesn't turn off the screen when idle

[couzin2000]

First time poster here.

I had this card in my old PC, which had an Asus Z77 chipset in it. This mobo didn't have a UEFI interface at startup. While my card was installed in there, at post I could see the VBIOS info on screen, and after I could see the mobo's BIOS. I had Windows 10.

Now I have a new board (Asus PRIME Z590-P), but I'm still using the same graphics card because of budget considerations. Still running Windows 10.

In the old machine, when my PC was 5 minutes idle, the setting was that the screen would turn off.
In the new machine, when my PC is 5 minutes idle, the setting is the same - but the screen doesn't turn off. Instead I get the basic Windows "pre-login" screen, made up of a bunch of my background images.

I've gone through power settings, graphics settings, well-- every setting I could think of, and none of it seems to work. The only thing I'M not super-familiar with is the UEFI settings relative to an add-on video card or its power management. I currently have Nvidia Experience and latest drivers running. Both monitors are connected via DVI (yes, older monitors, but everything worked before).

Can anyone tell me if there are things I should be looking at? I really need these screens to shut down.

Thanks in advance.

[couzin2000]

bump

[Nate152]

Hi couzin2000

Welcome to the ROG forum.

What works for me is the sleep/display settings in power options.

[couzin2000]

Nate152 wrote:
Hi couzin2000

Welcome to the ROG forum.

What works for me is the sleep/display settings in power options.

Thanks Nate152, yeah, as mentioned above I have tried all those Windows options, without success. It feels as though Power management can't be managed at the machine level... that's why I mentioned something about the BIOS or UEFI... I'm not sure what could be the incompatibility. Any other idea?

[ahfoo]

Try removing driver of the card, reboot and reinstall the driver, choose clean install option. See it solved your problems.

[couzin2000]

ahfoo wrote:
Try removing driver of the card, reboot and reinstall the driver, choose clean install option. See it solved your problems.

Actually installed it about 2 weeks ago on a clean install, WITH a clean install of the drivers (but couldn't have been otherwise). I don't mean to throw away your idea, but I doubt this is going to help at this point. But I appreciate the idea, I'll go there as a last resort.

[Nate152]

I came across an article with some things to try.

https://www.minitool.com/news/monitor-wont-sleep-windows-10-fix.html

[couzin2000]

Nate152 wrote:
I came across an article with some things to try.

https://www.minitool.com/news/monitor-wont-sleep-windows-10-fix.html

Well, lemme tell ya...
I ran through the page, put everything to the proper settings (somehow I switched out the power plan I was using, so that got all mixed up). Everything was set up properly.
Then I did the next step -- run the Windows Power Troubleshooter.
Stupid thing brought back all (and I mean ALL) the settings I had just removed.

So I did it twice.
No cigar.
Anything else I can try here? Perhaps I should be looking at power management controls for specificly the card? I am running the Nvidia Experience and latest drivers....Perhaps that could help?

[couzin2000]

Ok here's some interesting tidbit of info.
Tried updating Nvidia Experience, but the software tells me my card is no longer supported.
Tried reinstalling, same message. Drivers are still the latest, though.

Other info:
As I'm playing Minecraft, the game is idling. I wait for 5 minutes doing nothing. All of a sudden the screen saver comes on and logs me out.
Seems like the card is no longer able to recognize when games are playing. Media as well - Plex is specifically rigged up so that it prevents turning off the screen when watching a movie - but turns off nonetheless.

Someting is amiss.

[couzin2000]

As it turns out, this was completely a Windows thing.

I went through the complete Settings menu to figure out why Windows was behaving like this and why my video card kept NOT turning off the monitors.
I'm not entirely sure which setting helped, but here are some of them which I think were the guilty parties:
-Settings > Accounts > Sign-in options > Windows Hello PIN (on)
-Settings > Accounts > Sign-in options > Dynamic lock (off)
-Settings > Accounts > Sign-in options > Require sign-in (Never)
-Settings > Accounts > Sign-in options > Windows Hello PIN (on)
-Settings > Accounts > Email ¦ accounts (signed into Microsoft acct)
-Settings > Personalisation > Lock screen > Show lock screen background picture on the sign-in screen (on)
-Settings > System > Notifications & actions > Notifications (on, all checkboxes unchecked)
-Settings > System > Tablet > When I sign in (Never use tablet mode), When I use this device as a tablet (Son't switch to tablet mode)

ONE of these settings did the trick. Not sure which one. Probably the Pin, the dyn.lock, or the tablet settings. But either way, when I reach 5 minutes of mouse idling, both monitors now power down to Energy-saver mode, and can be turned on byt moving the mouse.

Hopefully this helps someone else! Thanks for bouncing ideas!