Fix When Screen Shuts Off Every 10 Minutes

You may be wondering why is your monitor turns off every 10 minutes but in setting is not set to turn off or screensaver is off.

This can be very annoying because screen turn off even if VLC or other video player is running and making watching movies impossible.



This may be because you have installed other desktop environment and it power manager is turning off screen every 10 minutes (default value). This problem occurs for me after installing Cinnamon desktop environment.

If this is the problem you can try making Gnome Power management default, just type in terminal:

gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.power active true

Now wait 10 minutes to test if it works.
If not you may want try disabling Gnome Power management, just type in terminal:

gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.power active false

Now wait 10 minutes to test if it works.
If this don't help, type in terminal following command:

xset s off && xset dpms force on && xset -dpms

And use, to check if DPMS is Disabled

xset q | grep -A1 -i dpms

This should make it stop shutting down. If problem persist after restart add command to Startup applications


You can also use Caffeine app, it can prevent starting screensaver or shutting off screen for application you have selected or for certain time.

via and thanks to:

fossfreedom over at Ask Ubuntu

VinDSL over at Ubuntu Forums