"Entering Power Save" during gaming (new problem)

Hello everyone.

I've run into a problem recently.

I have a horrible, stock graphics card on my 3 year old comp, but I've managed to play Battlefield 3 and other games with no problem. Yesterday in the middle of a game my monitor went black and displayed the "entering power save" message. Since then, I've taken the comp apart and cleaned all the dust out, installed/uninstalled/reinstalled drivers, but the problem remains. DirectX Diagonstic finds no problem. Many people are having similar problems after the latest BF3 patch, but I got the same "entering power save" error when testing out a few other games.

Can anyone point me to some good diagnostic tools or offer me any advice? Would be much appreciated. I am puzzled at how this problem has manifested and hope there is a solution. Thanks for your help!

edit: after some more looking around it seems the new 310.90 nvidia drivers are giving people a lot of similar problems....

Hey there, it seems that the latest patch for Battlefield 3 changed the way input is handled, it no longer allows user action to be detected by windows, therefor it thinks you are idle and does into power save/standby.

I would set windows not to go into power save by modifying your power plan settings.

Thanks for the reply. If the patch in fact changed that, then that is ridiculous. It is seeming more and more like these bogus drivers have really messed things up too.

Many of the sources I've looked at have made the same recommendation re: changing power plan settings. I haven't tried that yet because I wasn't sure if by changing the power setting, my card might overheat or some other damage might occur that the power save would prevented.

Also. right now my power plan is set to turn off display after 1 hour, and go to sleep after 1 hour. I get the "entering power save" notice only after 10-15 minutes or so of game play. That makes me wonder if changing my power settings would have much effect since my computer is entering power save mode prematurely. Thanks for your help.

Update: Have messed with power settings, problem remains. I have messed with several different drivers and had the same results.

I was hoping I could have some quality gaming before I have to spend several weeks away from my comp. Oh well. Any help is still appreciated.