[f16] Screen goes blank [due to loss of video?]

[Gene Smith]

Ed Greshko wrote, On 01/20/2012 10:56 PM:
> On 01/21/2012 11:50 AM, Gene Smith wrote:
>> Since moving to f16 (from f14) sometimes my screen goes blanks for no
>> apparent reason. KDE power setting and screen saver settings seem OK.
>> Also, it doesn't happen on every KDE login but when it does its like
>> the computer has turned off and there is no video signal and the
>> monitor goes to sleep until I move the mouse or press a key. Then
>> monitor might only stays on a few seconds until it goes off again.
>>
>> Sometimes logging off and back on fixes it. Today it seems to be OK.
>> Not sure if this is h/w or s/w caused.
>>
>
> Not seeing that problem here...  I suppose the questions I'd ask are:
>
> 1.  How did you go from F14 to F16?  Fresh install, or?
Not fresh -- did upgrade
>
> 2.  What is your video hardware?
Radeon HD  4200 on Mboard.
>
> 3.  What is the output of   xset q ?
Keyboard Control:
   auto repeat:  on    key click percent:  0    LED mask:  00000000
   XKB indicators:
     00: Caps Lock:   off    01: Num Lock:    off    02: Scroll Lock: off
     03: Compose:     off    04: Kana:        off    05: Sleep:       off
     06: Suspend:     off    07: Mute:        off    08: Misc:        off
     09: Mail:        off    10: Charging:    off    11: Shift Lock:  off
     12: Group 2:     off    13: Mouse Keys:  off
   auto repeat delay:  250    repeat rate:  30
   auto repeating keys:  00ffffffdffffbbf
                         fadfffefffedffff
                         9fffffffffffffff
                         fff7ffffffffffff
   bell percent:  50    bell pitch:  400    bell duration:  100
Pointer Control:
   acceleration:  20/10    threshold:  2
Screen Saver:
   prefer blanking:  yes    allow exposures:  yes
   timeout:  0    cycle:  600
Colors:
   default colormap:  0x20    BlackPixel:  0x0    WhitePixel:  0xffffff
Font Path:
   catalogue:/etc/X11/fontpath.d,built-ins
DPMS (Energy Star):
   Standby: 48    Suspend: 72    Off: 96		<<<<<--short standby!
   DPMS is Enabled
   Monitor is On

xset -dpms seems to fix the problem until re-login. On each login, it 
appears the DPMS parameters were coming up with random value or with 
DPMS disabled. I think my problem is that in kde setting for 
"performance" power profile I had unchecked all the options. This 
*seems* to stop KDE from setting any dpms options and they come up 
random. If I check and set at least "Screen Energy Saving" and set it to 
a reasonable value, like 90 min, then on login the DPMS "Standby" value 
follows it and DPMS is enabled and I don't see a quick screen blank. 
("Suspend" and "Off" seem to get set to even longer times but I don't 
think are relevant for my Monitor.)

So now with "Screen Energy Saving" and "Suspend Session" set respective 
to 90 and 120 minutes, I consistently see this with xset q after re-login:

DPMS (Energy Star):
   Standby: 5400    Suspend: 8100    Off: 10800	<<<< now stby is 90 min.
   DPMS is Enabled
   Monitor is On

I will see over time if this actually fixes the problem.

-gene