Random screen blanking -- a clue

[Matthew Saltzman]

On Sat, 2009-07-11 at 13:52 -0400, Matthew Saltzman wrote:
> On Sat, 2009-07-11 at 11:26 -0400, Shannon McMackin wrote:
> > On 07/10/2009 10:10 PM, Sam Varshavchik wrote:
> > > There's been a steady trickle of complaints from different folks about
> > > their screens going blank for a second, or two, after upgrading to F11.
> > >
> > > I've observed this too -- it happens on one of my laptops every couple
> > > of days, or so. I've always had the impression that, for some reason,
> > > this was the screensaver kicking in. They way that happened always gave
> > > me that idea.
> > >
> > > I'm now pretty sure that, sometimes, for some reason the screensaver
> > > kicks in even though the system is not idle. I just finished typing, and
> > > began reading something on the screen, when the screen went black about
> > > three seconds after I stopped typing.
> > >
> > > I did nothing, and the screen continued to stay black. After waiting
> > > about ten seconds, I pressed the shift key, and my desktop came back.
> > >
> > > It's the screensaver. Something's causing it to trip, when it shouldn't.
> > >
> > Happens on my Lenovo T61.  Usually just goes out for a second or 2 and 
> > then comes back.
> 
> Happens on my T61 (nVidia driver) too.  Last time, I just waited and it
> didn't return until I touched the touchpad.

Another thing I notice: I have the screen set to dim on idle.
Sometimes, the screen dims even when I am typing and does not restore
full brightness until I turn the brightness up manually.

-- 
                Matthew Saltzman

Clemson University Math Sciences
mjs AT clemson DOT edu
http://www.math.clemson.edu/~mjs