Monitor Stay Off In Power Schemes Options

I searched around the forums and didnt find any thread relating to my problem. I searched around the internet as well and found similiar issues but none with a solid solution. I was hoping to find one here. My problem deals with the Power Scheme in Windows XP Pro SP2. When I try to set the amount of time before my monitor turns off, it doesnt work properly. After the specified time has elapsed, the monitor would go dark and it would say "Monitor is going into sleep mode" which is normal for my monitor (HP f2105 wide flat screen lcd). But then just as it sleeps, about 1 second later, my windows desktop appears like it never went to sleep at all. When I move my mouse I notice my desktop flickers for a split second.Similiar threads on the net suggested there were some third party programs that is keeping my system active or things like my mouse sensitivity moving etc. I tried removing all my perperphials but it still doesnt seem to work.

I recently reformatted my machine and installed the essentional programs/windows updates/etc. I run on a ATI X1950 PRO 512MB video card and installed the new Catalyst 7.12 software package for my drivers. Everything was working perfectly. The Monitor turn off option even worked then.... until I noticed this new driver package seems to be a bit buggy. My monitor would turn black as I would be viewing videos off the internet with my WMP or whatever Im using and all I am left to do is reset by pressing my power button or switching the PSU button (Although strangely, 3D applications ran flawlessly).So I got an earlier version Catalyst 7.10 and installed that and everything is working awesome again... execpt the Power Scheme mode to turn off my monitor. I am unclear on why it would be doing this by just installing another set of drivers for my video card. I am assuming there is some mix up in some file somewhere thats still being used, but thats just pure guessing now.

I recall even before I reformatted I had the *SAME* issue. I was using video drivers 7.8 or so without any problems and decided to update to the latest 7.12 and thats when I *FIRST* noticed that power scheme monitor turn off didnt work any longer. So I decided it was time to do a fresh clean install and I used the Catalyst 7.12 and it worked with the power scheme option. Its this transition between drivers or something... or perhaps ATIs drivers are faultly at the moment and it'll fix itself with future updates... but then again other people around the net with similiar problems didnt have ATI video cards, they had Nvidia.I am assuming it has to do with my video drivers somehow since thats the last thing I installed/changed before the problem appeared. I went into MSCONFIG and diagnostic startup and checked to see if my power scheme monitor turn off worked there and it did..I was hoping to find an easier solution rather then narrowing down each and every startup application/services in MSCONFIG and then figuring out why its doing this all just to turn off my monitor.