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lfitzgerald

Member

Registered: 2021-07-16

Posts: 175

[SOLVED] Opening some sites in browser turns off monitor

When I open certain sites in my browser (Chromium, Firefox and Qutebrowser all have the same problem) my monitor turns itself off. The power LED on the monitor stays lit but changes color, and basically behaves as if I pulled out the HDMI cable. So I guess it's probably the video card that turns off, not the monitor. As soon as I change to a new window or even open a new tab, it turns back on again. An example is this site: https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/

Does anyone know what exactly the problem is and how to fix it?

I remember reading on the internet that it's related to video drivers, and apparently downgrading to the open source nouveau driver fixes it (I am currently using extra/nvidia 515.48.07-9). However the open source driver seems to have much worse performance and many more other glitches, so while it does take care of this one issue it's actually a step back overall.

Last edited by lfitzgerald (2022-06-24 03:53:12)

Irets

Member

Registered: 2019-02-01

Posts: 143

Re: [SOLVED] Opening some sites in browser turns off monitor

Output of 'journalctl -b-0' and probably 'dmesg' could help, after visiting such site.

EDIT:
If redirecting the output of those commands to a text file is difficult while the monitor is off, see if you can access a TTY or run the commands from a terminal emulator, prepended by a short sleep command, so you have time to open such a site before the monitor blanks.
A simple alias in .bashrc also could help for this use case.

Last edited by Irets (2022-06-20 05:15:57)

seth

Member

From: Won't reply 2 private help req

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 76,492

Re: [SOLVED] Opening some sites in browser turns off monitor

Does it also happen if you make the browser window much smaller?

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lfitzgerald

Member

Registered: 2021-07-16

Posts: 175

Re: [SOLVED] Opening some sites in browser turns off monitor

Does it also happen if you make the browser window much smaller?

Huh, actually it doesn't. In fact, it seems like the problem does not happen so long as the browser window is not using the whole screen. If I make it take up 99% of the screen, I don't have the issue. If I let it do 100% I do.

I use i3, so there's also the status bar and window title, but those are not enough to prevent the problem. Only a second tile prevents it.

Last edited by lfitzgerald (2022-06-24 03:54:47)

seth

Member

From: Won't reply 2 private help req

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 76,492

Re: [SOLVED] Opening some sites in browser turns off monitor

The signal is too much and the HDMI connection breaks away.

xrandr -q

Do you have a different (better…) cable?

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How to upload text · How to boot w/o GUI · Disable Windows Fast-Start! · Fix your xinitrc

lfitzgerald

Member

Registered: 2021-07-16

Posts: 175

Re: [SOLVED] Opening some sites in browser turns off monitor

The signal is too much and the HDMI connection breaks away.

That seems strange. I'm able to do things like watch movies, play 3D games without problem. You would think that those would generate as much signal as a browser. Happy to try and confirm this though.

Do you have a different (better…) cable?

It's actually a bit complicated: The monitor is connected by VGA to a KVM switch. Then there's a VGA cable going from the switch to a VGA-HDMI adapter connected to my video card. Obviously there's several points of failure in this chain. My monitor has VGA, DVI and HDMI ports, so I'll try a direct connection for all of those and see if that does anything.

lfitzgerald

Member

Registered: 2021-07-16

Posts: 175

Re: [SOLVED] Opening some sites in browser turns off monitor

I've tested it with a few different cables.

The KVM switch doesn't seem to be the problem because I still get the issue without it.

With a direct DVI or HDMI connection, I don't have the problem. My monitor has a VGA port but it turns out my graphics card doesn't, so I couldn't try a direct VGA connection. However monitor VGA -> adapter -> graphics card HDMI does have the problem. If anyone is wondering, the adapter is a J&D 4454913 (Amazon SIN B014M014NA) - but I wouldn't be surprised if many similar cheap adapters had the same issue.

I guess the moral of the story here is: don't use a VGA switch with HDMI adapters, just get an HDMI switch. Since HDMI switches are like $20, I'll give up here on finding a software solution.

Good job on guessing it right, Seth!

lfitzgerald

Member

Registered: 2021-07-16

Posts: 175

Re: [SOLVED] Opening some sites in browser turns off monitor

Just in case someone stumbles on this later - I tried to get a cheap HDMI switch, but ended up regretting it. Turns out HDMI is a bloated standard and as a result switching takes 7-8 seconds. It also confuses both computers because they see the switching as monitor disconnected (and audio, because HDMI combines A+V). That triggers desktop getting rearranged and audio device switching. There are active HDMI switches that workaround that, but they are more expensive and complex (bigger, separate power brick, etc.)

I went back to my VGA switch which can switch in 1-2 secs, and the computers do not rearrange the desktop due to the switch. Audio is unaffected because there's no audio on VGA. Unfortunately my video card did not have a VGA port, but it did have a DVI-D port. I used a VGA -> DVI-D adapter, and everything is fine now. The websites do not turn off the monitor when going through DVI.

Sorry for the necropost.