Display standby problem

[jtr1962]

This is a problem I've had for probably a few years now but I've never asked about it. I have my two monitors set to turn off after 5 minutes. This works fine until my computer is on 20 something days continuously. After that the displays never go off. After 5 minutes they just randomly flash on and off. I tried to see if maybe some programs were causing this but I've gone down the list in Task Manager killing everything one by one and the problem persists. The machine didn't always have this problem.

System specs:

ASUS Crossblade Ranger MB
A10-7870K APU
32 GB GSkill DRAM (4 x 8GB)
Windows 7 Ultimate OS
2x Samsung MZ7WD960HMHP-000 960GB SSDs
1x Samsung 840 EVO 500GB
1x Samsung HD204UI 2TB HDD 5400 RPM
No GPU

I had wanted to add some storage to the machine, maybe a 4TB SSD for the boot drive, and replace the HDD with a 2 or 4 TB SSD, but at current SSD prices that's obviously not happening any time soon.

 

[Mercutio]

I'm assuming that you're on the last set of drivers released, which was from... four years ago. Given that's the case, why not just have your PC reboot like every Sunday night so it's not an issue?

 

[jtr1962]

I'm assuming that you're on the last set of drivers released, which was from... four years ago. Given that's the case, why not just have your PC reboot like every Sunday night so it's not an issue?

Yeah, I'm at the latest and last version. And yes, when the problem crops up I just reboot. I was trying to see if maybe someone else encountered this before and had an answer.

 

[Mercutio]

I know there are people who update drivers for older AMD drivers but it's mostly because AMD used to be terrible about abandoning mobile graphics. That A10 is from AMD's pre-Ryzen time in the wilderness. I'm not even sure I've ever installed anything in socket FM2+, but I suspect it would be easier to pick up a an unloved PCIe GPU and work from there.

 

[jtr1962]

So you think it's a driver problem and not something else? At this point it's more of an occasional nuisance than something I can't live with. It's just strange how everything will be working fine and then suddenly it does, roughly after the system is up about 20 something days.

So far my Google searches on the problem haven't turned up anything helpful. I know it's an old system. I'm stuck with Windows 7 on account of much of the software I use won't run on anything newer, including my PCB design software. This is about the newest hardware that actually still had drivers for 7.

I'm averse to reboots right now because a while back my boot drive sometimes wasn't being recognized. It seemed to work OK once I unplugged and replugged the drive cable. Before the problem was solved the drive reallocated some sectors but it's tested fine since then. I'm still worried one day I'll reboot and then I'll never be able to access the drive again. Obviously the prudent solution is to get a new boot drive and image my boot drive onto that but my current financial problems, plus ridiculous SSD prices, make that solution a non-starter. I was actually ready to buy a 4TB SSD last year but I thought the prices were still too high. I was waiting for them to fall under $100. If only I had known prices were going to explode.