Q.  When I attempt to run games on my computer, my monitor goes blank and then turns itself off. The only way I can see the screen again is to reboot the computer. What could be going wrong?

If your monitor turns itself off, there could be a problem with the advanced power monitoring settings.

In order to save energy, the computer is able to instruct the monitor to turn off when the computer is idle. Depending upon the monitor and power management software, the computer might think that it is idle if the mouse is not moved or a time-out setting alarm expires. Since games may not use the Windows mouse (particularly if they are older DOS based games) or may alter time-outs and clock settings, it is possible that your game is fooling the power management software into switching off the monitor.

To test this, disable all power management in Windows and in the BIOS. To disable power management in Windows go to Start, Settings, Control Panel and click on the Power Management applet. Select the Power Schemes tab and choose the Always on power scheme. Set System standby, Turn off monitor and Turn of hard disks to Never. Click OK and reboot your computer. When your computer restarts press the hot key to enter the BIOS setup program. Many computers use the DEL key as the hot key but you will need to check with your computer manual since manufacturers can use alternative key sequences. Go to the power management menu and disable this feature. Choose save and exit to save the settings to the CMOS and reboot your computer.

Use Power Management Properties in Control Panel to disable all power management functions

After you reboot your computer, power management should be disabled and your monitor should no longer turn itself off.

If your screen continues to turn itself off, you may have a faulty screen or you may be using an incorrect video driver for the (DOS based) game. If the game does not directly support your video card (and many older games will not), you may still be able to play your game by choosing the VGA or SVGA setting. While the VGA or SVGA setting will display a full range of colours, you will at least be able to play the game.

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