Z800 - Black Screen, PC still running

[tenokraat]

Dear community,

At a customer we are running Z800 workstations with the following configuration:

HP Z800 Workstation

Windows 7 Professional 64bit OS

Intel Xeon X5650 2.66 12M 1333 6C 1 CPU

12GB DDR3-1333 ECC (6x2GB) 1CPU RAM

NVIDIA Quadro 6000 6GB GFX

500GB 7200 RPM SATA 1st HDD

The screen is locked (after a defined period defined by policy, 10min) and the display (HP ZR30w) turns off as well. The screen is in standby (amber light) and the workstation is running.

In a few cases (no pattern recognized so far) the screen remains black even if you move the mouse or press any key on the keyboard. The workstation itself is running. You can connect to the workstation remotely as well. If you put the workstation to sleep mode remotely you can wake the workstation once you press the power button.

We already investigated several things like screensaver issues so far with no success. Also the issue appears only on a few workstation while it doesn’t happen on others. The HW configuration and model is always the same.

Since we are running AutoCAD 2012 on these machines we are also using NVIDIA driver 276.43 which is a certified driver from NVIDIA according to Dassault Systems. http://www.nvidia.com/object/dassault_certified_drivers.html

We are therefore not using the driver available from the HP support site.

I would appreciate any input on how to narrow down the root cause of this. I’ll be happy to provide you with more input if required.

Best regards

[Skylarking]

The only issue that comes to mind is that in some instances, when using a display port cable, a monitor can get stuck in standby mode and can not be brought out from this hung state. In this state, the monitor just never sees a video signal.

This particularly issue has occurred with my Z210 when I was using my Dell U2711 monitor via DP cable. I was never able to resolve the actual cause. Instead, I side stepped the issue by connecting 2x U2711 monitors to my Quadro 2000 with DP cables and have not seen this monitor hung in standby.

Another alternative solution which also worked for me was to use DVI cable though I have read on Dell forums that some still get the issue via DVI cable.

Maybe you are experiencing a similar standby hang with your HP ZR30W.

If your monitor is connected to the Quadro card via DP, try a dual link DVI cable instead and post if this resolves your monitor standby hang state.

[curt12345]

I have seen this exact problem with the same monitor and workstation, the corrective action to manually select the correct input after it goes to sleep, the monitor loses signal to the videocard and doesn't find the active input, I have seen this on bootup's as well, same thing, blank screen system booted, manually select the correct input and the 30" monitor should come up, make sure you have moved the mouse and hit the keyboard buttons too.

[Skylarking]

The Quadro drivers were updated to resolve a specific lockup situation occurring with some os, graphics card & monitor combinations.  Specifically, for Quadro driver 310.15 as released by HP via sp61049.exe for my Z210 workstation, the package contains a comment within "Rel310_Versions.pdf" outlining a driver fix relevant for Win7 64bit to resolve Quadro 2000 & HP ZR2440 monitor going black and unresponsive when returning from sleep or being powered on after system restart.

Possibly the latest NVidia Quadro driver will resolve such black screen issues also for Z800 with Q4000 and ZR30 monitor combination as experienced by OP.

Note that this is the first acknowledgment that I have found where os, hardware & driver combination can cause such black screen lockups!!

Unfortunately this acknowledgement is buried in release notes and not highlighted by HP or known by support staff. I guess HP worked with NVidia to localize this issue and are thus better than Dell who flatly refuse to even acknowledge there is an issue with their products!!!

PS: In my case, when the single Dell U2711 monitor is locked up in sleep mode, the monitor menu either does not work or if it works changing input does nothing. Hopefully the updated driver would resolve such single monitor sleep lockups but as I said, I'm running 2x U2711's so this sleep lockup does not occur. Your mileage may vary.