Question Windows consistently turns off my screens after 10 minutes no matter what settings I change ?

[thunderclaw98]

Hi chaps. Having a tad of an issue here.
Last night, for no discernible reason, my computer screens started turning off after 10 minutes, even when i'm watching a video, even when it's full screen, and nothing is solving it.
it's not a hardware issue, because moving the mouse turns them back on. it's the computer "Disabling screens" to save power.

HOWEVER!
I've spent the past 5 hours trying to resolve it. i've done everything i can think of.
Made sure power-saving mode isn't somehow enabled.
Restarted. changed the settings, ensuring it says to NEVER turn off screen. Changed FOUR separate things in regedit. gone into the advanced tab on power options to ensure it says never to turn the screen of there too. used trouble-shooter. updated windows. updated graphics drivers.
nothing works. it's set to never turn off, yet it still turns off after 10 minutes.

I've tried using HKEYLOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\PowerSettings\7516b95f-f776-4464-8c53-06167f40cc99\8EC4B3A5-6868-48c2-BE75-4F3044BE88A7 and setting attributes to 2 to allow me more control over power. didn't work.

I've tried going to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System, created InactivityTimeoutSecs, and setting the value to 0.
didn't work.

Tried going to Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop and both set the ScreenSaveTime to 9000 seconds (10 hours), didn't work. Changed "ScreenSaveActive" to 0. didn't. work.
I'm at wit's end.

I wouldn't care if it didn't do it while i'm watching things, but every 10 minutes while i'm watching stuff is unacceptable. It's obviously not a hardware issue, i have 3 monitors and all three disconnect at once, without any disconnect sounds, none of their settings have been changed so it can't be a firmware update, none of them are even connected to the internet.

i've checked NVidia's settings, nothing there. can't be a cable, because that would explain one but not all three - but then is nullified by the movement of the mouse of pressing of a random key on the keyboard turning them back on.

I don't know what to do. No, nothing works. I'm going insane, and I desperately need help.
Help me tom's hardware, you're my only hope!

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

include your complete system specs make & model of all components.
also the make & model of the displays.

when i'm watching a video, even when it's full screen

are these personal files, online content, etc..?

and what are you using to view them;
specific media player, browser, etc?

 

[thunderclaw98]

On this note i do have an update.
It doesn't matter (mostly, which is the odd thing) what i'm watching it on. Personal files on media player, youtube videos on opera, streamed content on discord - it all does it there.
But, when i'm watching (so far specifically only from one site but that i need to test more) - something on microsoft edge rather than anything else, it doesn't turn off my screen.
Alternatively; though again, yet to test this, the only other difference is which screen i have full screened at the time. Right now, while i'm watching something on edge, my tv is the main screen that's full screened. yet when i was watching other stuff, it was one of my two desktop monitors that was full screened. but that doesn't make any more sense than edge being the only browser that works.

 

[Ralston18]

Look in Control Panel > Power Options: What are the settings there?

(Noted: "gone into the advanced tab on power options to ensure it says never to turn the screen of there too." So you may have done some of that - correct?)

= = = =

Look in Reliability History/Monitor and Event Viewer for error codes, warnings, or even informational events that may be being captured just before or at the time of the screens turning off.

Reliability History presents a timeline format so 10 minute intervals may be very obvious.

Look in Task Manager > Startup for any unrecognized apps, etc. being launched at startup.

Likewise look in Task Scheduler for any triggers set at 10 minute intervals.

And do stay out of the registry. Registry edits are a last resort and some update or other action could results in completely crashing the system.

 

[thunderclaw98]

Yeah, I already did go into the advanced power settings. Everything is set (if it can be) to never, and if it can't be, to 6000 seconds (100 minutes) - yet it's still turning off every ten.
i did look through my system section of the events viewer last time it happened, but i coudln't see anything. changing the registry *was* my last resort, and a last resort that did not work. it's even more frustrating to me since i am highly familiar with computers; it's far from the first time i've had to edit registries - though, not on this system - there's no unrecognized apps, i did already check that. No viruses, i did do a full offline scan just to be certain. both event viewer and reliability history have pulled no flags at the time of these issues either.
I have also done a bit more testing, and can now confirm that when i'm using microsoft edge to view videos it does not occur on any site. but if i use anything that isn't edge, then it persists.

 

[thunderclaw98]

further update: It has started occuring unilatirally now, not even edge is safe anymore. I can't think what could possibly be causing such a frustrating problem.

 

[thunderclaw98]

because my computer is a home version of windows, it did not have a group policy. but on a whim, i checked my gpresult and it said, sure enough, that the group policy had been updated the very same day that i started having issues. which was the 12th.. I force installed the group policy editor through console, since i didn't have it, went through it, and nothing seemd to be defined - but to be safe, i've set everything i can think of that might be relevant - turn off adaptive display timeout and turn off the display have been force disabled in policy (Forcing it to (hopefully) adhere to user settings)
ability for applications to prevent sleep transitions and automatic sleep has been enabled
specify the unattended sleep timeout has been disabled, again, hopefully forcing it to not do this. any other changes i should make would be appreciated, because the fact it's now doing it on every appplication makes it impossible for me to watch videos that are more than ten minutes long. it's incredibly frustrating. I also then used the gpupdate command to ensure the new policies were enabled.

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

doesn't matter (mostly, which is the odd thing) what i'm watching it on. Personal files on media player, youtube videos on opera, streamed content on discord - it all does it

this doesn't actually answer the question.

what specific media player, what specific web browser, or what specific link your using, etc...

if you're just using some specific links that may not be carrying the content correctly it wouldn't matter how you're trying to view them.

 

[thunderclaw98]

anything and everything. I already said before, opera, edge, even discord streams - windows media player, all versions of - it simply doesn't matter what it is. youtube, crunchyroll, amazon, everything.

 

[KingLoki]

Try booting into safe mode and check it ??

 

[Ralston18]

Also run the built in troubleshooters. The troubleshooters may find and fix something.

Next try "dism" and "sfc /scannow".

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-use-dism-command-line-utility-repair-windows-10-image

https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-use-sfc-scannow-to-repair-windows-system-files-2626161

Lastly, how was group policy "force installed"?

 

[Colif]

what are specs?
Is it a laptop?

we can't tell from where we sit.

Try a clean boot and see if it changes anything - make sure to read instructions and make sure NOT to disable any microsoft services or windows won't load right - https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/help/929135/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows

It doesn’t delete anything, it just stops non Microsoft programs running with start. Easy to reverse.

if clean boot fixes it, it shows its likely a startup program. You should, over a number of startups. restart the programs you stopped to isolate the one that is to blame.

 

[thunderclaw98]

Apologies for the silence for a while, I came up with a temporary solution that hasn't fixed anything, just prevents it from being able to turn off (A macro just clicking control once every minute for a single splitsecond)
There's now a new problem, which is that now my audio is fluctuating as if it were being wrangled by a setting to either get quieter when more than one source is playing so I can hear things, or to maintain audio at a "consistent" volume which is in fact not consistent, and very very noticable.
Again, all my settings had fixed this problem because i had it early on and i had changed my settings to prevent it. It is now ignoring those settings too.
In answer to your questions, in order:

Try booting into safe mode and check it ??

Will do; though i suspect this will either end up being impossible to properly test (especially in audio's case) or not do anything, i'll get back to you.

Also run the built in troubleshooters. The troubleshooters may find and fix something.

Next try "dism" and "sfc /scannow".

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-use-dism-command-line-utility-repair-windows-10-image

https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-use-sfc-scannow-to-repair-windows-system-files-2626161

Lastly, how was group policy "force installed"?

Forgot those two were options; while i'm typing this i'll run them and add whatever results i get to the end of this segment. group policy was installed via command code. I forget what the code was off the top of my head, but it was basically the windows equivalent to sudo apt-get
DISM didn't detect any issues.
sfc on the other hand did. I'll save this as a draft, restart my computer and get back to you.
Update: SFC did some repairs! But it didn't fix the problem.

what are specs?
Is it a laptop?

we can't tell from where we sit.

Try a clean boot and see if it changes anything - make sure to read instructions and make sure NOT to disable any microsoft services or windows won't load right - https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/help/929135/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows

It doesn’t delete anything, it just stops non Microsoft programs running with start. Easy to reverse.

if clean boot fixes it, it shows its likely a startup program. You should, over a number of startups. restart the programs you stopped to isolate the one that is to blame.

No, it's a desktop. Specs aren't exactly relevant as far as I can tell; but i'll grab 'em for you anyway, since i could be wrong.

Motherboard	ASRock A320M-HDV R3.0
CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 1600 six-core
GPU	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER
RAM	(2x) 16 GB Corsair DDR4 2400

 

[Colif]

did you try a clean boot? it might show if its a start up program causing it.
Only one I see for Asrock might be the Motherboard utility... it could change settings... not sure what it does