Monitors Shutting Off!!!

[sgman123]

I have dual monitors and 5 out of 10 times my PowerPC boots up fine and then 1 minute later, my monitors black-out. Computer is still on, but monitors just go black. They are ON just asleep or something.

A hard re-boot of the computer and then my monitors are fine EVERY time. Other times, they come on and stay on. No pattern whatsoever! I have the monitors on different power strips because I thought that might be an issue, but it still happens at random.

Thoughts?

[vansmith]

Have you tried changing (if possible) the VGA or DVI cable between your monitor and the machine? Have you tried a different monitor to see if the problem is monitor specific?

[sgman123]

I have two different monitors hooked up with two different cables, so it can't be that. I'm thinking it might be my graphics card, but the confusing part is the reboot and how it fixes the problem every time. I just don't feel like spending the cash on a new card if it's something simple!

[pigoo3]

Have you checked your "Energy Saver" preference settings? Maybe your monitors are set to go to sleep after a very short time (1 minute, 5 minutes, etc.).

If so...just adjust the settings as necessary.

- Nick

[sgman123]

I thought about that too, but it doesn't account for the fact that when I start my computer for the first time my monitors go blank, but after a hard reboot they are working fine. If it was a setting issue or cable issue, then I would assume it would happen every time and the reboot wouldn't help? I'm at a loss here!

[CPulsar]

Just throwing out ideas but have you tried to plug in your monitors in to different outlets? Like one in one outlet and another in a different outlet.

[sgman123]

I have them on different power strips altogether. Main monitor is on a battery back-up and secondary is on a simple power strip. Love the ideas, keep em coming!

[Aqua]

check what you have in activity monitor before you shut down if possible, check you memory(*)

Oh and run Onyx

[harryb2448]

What PowerPC is this? Perhaps if it is say a G5 the gfx card needs to be re-seated.

[Aqua]

Also are you or have you been gaming or using memory heavy programs (well it doesn't even need to be those, some times parallels or other programs leave things or aren't connecting properly.. check console for if anything is mentioned there)

[sgman123]

OK, this is above my pay grade, but when I went to Console this is where everything seemed to go wrong (SEE BELOW) and that lower list that looks like 0X0000 etc. goes for another 30 lines.

My computer is a Mac Pro 2 x 3 GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon. ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512 MB

No gaming.

However, I still can't understand why a reboot makes it work EVERY TIME. If my monitors stopped working I'd toss the card and replace it without a second thought, but the reboot confuses the hell out of me.

9/22/13 4:19:40.000 PM kernel: ATIRadeon::wait_for_rb_space: Overflowed block waiting for FIFO space. Have 2, need 5. RBBM_STATUS 0x9001c100
9/22/13 4:19:52.000 PM kernel: ** ASIC Hang Log Start **
9/22/13 4:19:52.000 PM kernel: 0x01017249 00040100 00000000 200801d8
9/22/13 4:19:52.000 PM kernel: 0x1ba1c073 c0003a0c 00000002 00000008
9/22/13 4:19:52.000 PM kernel: 0x00000047 00000000 00002222 9001c100
9/22/13 4:19:52.000 PM kernel: 0x00080000 00000000 00000001 40000000
9/22/13 4:19:52.000 PM kernel: 0x60000000 0004000a 00000000 00800000
9/22/13 4:19:52.000 PM kernel: 0x00000003 0000444f 10039004
9/22/13 4:19:52.000 PM kernel: 0:0x000101ce
9/22/13 4:19:52.000 PM kernel: 1:0x2072e6c0
9/22/13 4:19:52.000 PM kernel: 2:0x00000068
9/22/13 4:19:52.000 PM kernel: 3:0x00000578
9/22/13 4:19:52.000 PM kernel: 4:0x00000064

[pigoo3]

Just for the heck of it...try doing both an SMC and PRAM reset:

- SMC
- NVRAM and PRAM

* Nick

[sgman123]

pigoo3 Might be the winner here!!!!!! Jury is still out since I've only turned my computer on a few times since this post, but cross your fingers. Thanks everybody!