Actually, that pinging was from your usual everyday server crash. I remember when I was there and the level ended, and then it proceeded to go to the next level with an "instant win" blank screen, and then finally, the crash. This happens everyday, especially on CTF servers.

In addition, I don't think turning the monitor off, automatic or not, does anything to the server at all. You might have had some extra features, such as the useless "turn off hard disk" feature. I cannot be exactly sure if this does anything to network data uploading/recieving, but you might want to turn that off too if it is on.

[EDIT: Hmm, didn't seem to catch the part about minimizing in your post there, Mono. Yup, the minimizing is most likely the problem.]

- Loghead