[seraphodiabolus]

some spec of the mac i am using

powe mac G4
OS X (version 10.4.10)
do not know of any new update in the system
(in fact, i get frequent prompts to ask me to update my antivirus system, but i simply refuse the request since i need to call our IT guys to come down to my office for it)

the problem:
the mac had been working well until two days ago. on that day, i left the computer on for over an hour without working on it. the computer first went to screen saver, then to sleep (or so it seemed).
when i wanted to use the computer again, i did the "usual" to awaken the computer - touching the keyboard and moving the mouse - yet nothing happened. the display remained pitch black. i needed to reboot the computer twice (first time the display still dead) to bring back to life the display. ever since that incident, the frequency of display-on-strike has been on the rise. now to the point i must constantly use the computer or else once the desktop goes to sleep, it will not come back until i reboot the computer.
since the mac is wired to the network in the office, i asked the IT guy to check on my computer. strangely, he could see everything on my desktop from his terminal (using some sort of remote control thing) and perform all functions remotely (at the same time, my monitor stayed "sleep" in pitch black ).
i wonder what the problems are - the monitor (the light remains green throughout the "black period"), energy saver or screen saver. IT guy is just as clueless as i am, thus i am posting the question here for some advice (to share with our IT teams)

[Waragainstsleep]

I think some info about the display might be in order. If its a generic one and you have others in your office, try one of those. If its an Apple LCD, are you using the hub in it? USB can cause odd sleep issues. If its a Formac LCD, I have one which I have to rebuild every time I want to use it.
You can check if your issue is hardware or software if you have the sytem discs for it, or another Mac and a firewire cable. Boot from your discs by holding the C key during startup. It will load up the instaler program. There isn't a whole lot you can do then, but try and fiddle around for a while, or better yet leave it to go to sleep. If it works OK, you have a software problem. Maybe the graphics card driver is corrupt. You could fix that by continuing through the installer and run an archive & install. Though make sure you are booted from the Tiger disc, since the original discs will be an older version of OS X.
If the screen fails while booted from disc, you have a hardware problem. If not the display, probably the graphics card.