Only Way to Power On Asus Monitor is to Turn on PC

[russmj2000]

Hello - I am posting this in the "monitors" forum only because my monitor is where my problem manifests itself. I honestly believe the problem is not the monitor, but I don't know what.

I have an Asus VE228H LCD monitor connected to my computer via a Sapphire Flex Radeon HD6870 graphics card (DVI). My motherboard is also an Asus: It's a M4A88TD-V.

My problem is that the monitor's power switch only works while my PC is powered on. The PC physically powers off the monitor (not standby) when the PC shuts off. This is evident by an audible relay click inside the monitor just after the PC turns off; at which point the monitor goes dark, the monitor's LED does dark, and the monitor cannot be turned on again with it's power button.

In a nutshell: If the PC shuts off the monitor, the PC has to be the one to turn it back on again. The power button will not work, even if I unplug the DVI cable and unpug/replug the monitor's power code. This is a problem because I want to connect my game console to this monitor's HDMI port and play games without turning on my PC.

I tried a different monitor on my system and it did not behave this way. I tried my monitor on another system and it did not behave this way. In both cases, when the PC shut off, the monitor went into standby and the LED color changed from blue to amber. This is the behavior I expect, not a hard power-off like my system is doing.

I have tried the HDMI and DVI ports on both my internal graphics adapter as well as my external graphics card, but the behavior persists. I have updated all the drivers I could find, reviewed the BIOS settings, updated my motherboard BIOS but I have not found what is causing this.

I reviewed the HDMI specification and found that it does contain an optional provision to shut off the monitor, but Sapphire says their graphics cards don't support it. I could find no setting in the Windows power options or the AMD Catalyst Control Center to change this behavior.

I have contacted Asus technical support, but they are useless. All of my tech friends have never heard of this problem and agree that it's not right. Yet this is how my system has behaved since day one.

Does anyone have any idea of what could be going on here and how I can fix it (aside from buying a different monitor)?

Thanks!

 

[popatim]

This sounds like an AC power issue and nothing really to do witht he PC itself.

You either have the monitors power cord plugged into the pc's power supply (though I haven't seen power supplies like that in several years)
or
(And this is my main guess) you have a load sensing power strip and when the pc is turned off, the power strip senses this and turns-off / removes power from its 'controlled' outlet ports to which the monitor is plugged in to. Fix: just move the monitor power cord to a non-controlled outlet.

 

[russmj2000]

Hi popatim, and thanks for your reply.

I must admit that I originally discounted your answer because 1) "Who would have a monitor plugged into a PC's power supply?" and 2) I've never heard of a sensing power strip, but I am pretty sure I don't have one.

It has been five years since I even crawled under my desk to look at my AC power situation, so I figured I'd jump through the hoops and check things out anyway. I crawled under my desk and guess what I found? My power strip is in fact a power-sensing kind: a "Monster GreenPower™ Digital PowerCenter™ MDP 900".

I am usually the one to read manuals before setting things up, but I must have skipped this one or just didn't realize the implications. After all, it's just a surge-protected power strip. How difficult can it be?

Not wanting to dig for the manual, I found a YouTube video which reviewed this thing. I was thrilled to locate the small switch on the side which disables the "GreenPower" feature and finally lets me operate my equipment the way I would like to.

The one thing I cannot explain is that I *thought I had tried another monitor here. So either my memory is failing me or I must have had it plugged into a different outlet.

Amazing answer. Thanks a ton!

 

[popatim]

Grats! Thanks for coming back and updating us, many people never do this after they've got their fix, and I appreciate the Best Answer.