Dual Monitor "No Signal" Shenanigans

D

Deeky

Gawd
Joined
Feb 7, 2008
Messages
982
NOTE: This is a re-post from the Display forum.

Okay, so, Windows 7 Professional 64-bit. I'm running a GTX 285 with 260.99 connected to a 24" monitor and a 32" LG HDTV sharing an extended desktop. Nine times out of ten, when I come out of standby or even from cold boot, the HDTV fails to pick up a signal and only the 24" wakes up. The LG becomes invisible, I'm unable to detect it.

This isn't new. I've posted about it before, in fact.

BUT ... the strange thing is, Windows somehow manages to detect the LG while it is turned off. I power it down, I hear the chime that a new device has been connected and the 24" reverts back to "secondary" monitor status (just the wallpaper with no icons). As soon as I turn the LG back on, Windows drops the connection and the 24" reverts back to main monitor with full desktop and the LG reports "no signal".

What the heck is going on?
 
sounds like the problem is the tv. the drivers you should be able to force detect the display so that it ignores windows detection. look through the multi display section of the drivers it should be in there i think.
 
sirmonkey1985 said:
sounds like the problem is the tv. the drivers you should be able to force detect the display so that it ignores windows detection. look through the multi display section of the drivers it should be in there i think.
Click to expand...

Hmm.

Under "Set Up Multiple Displays" in the Nvidia CP.

I select "My display is not shown ..." at which point I enable "Rigorous Display Detection". It rigorously fails to detect the LG.

Nvidia then offers to "Force television detection", an option which is grayed out. Selecting Yes adds a check mark in the grayed out box but does not activate the "Restart Now" button. I instead hit OK, close the window.

If I then immediately re-enter the Rigorous Display Detection window, the grayed out "Force television detection on startup" box is no longer check marked.

Meh! :p Is there something I've missed?
 
New development:

I shutdown, disconnected my 24" HP and tried to boot the LG solo. It made it to Windows, but the resolution was way wrong AND capped 720p. This was via HMDI. Anywho, I tried to change to 720p and the LG lost signal and fell back into it's pattern of detecting when turned off, losing signal when turn on. This is the first time I was able to re-create the power on/power off oddness after making it into Windows. The problem appears to be related to incorrect resolution information.

EDIT: I just now booted up using a DVI to VGA cable. Made it into Windows at 1080p but text was terrible. Without powering anything down, I yanked the VGA and switched to my DVI-HDMI. It immediately picked up a signal, but again it had dropped down to 720p. Detecting the display under Windows fixed the resolution issue, but there's obviously something wrong.

I wonder if it's my HDMI cable or my adapter?
 
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It's either your TV's firmware or your PC's software. HDMI cables and DVI-HDMI converters are both dumb devices; they're just a bunch of wires in a lump of plastic.
 
DanNeely said:
It's either your TV's firmware or your PC's software. HDMI cables and DVI-HDMI converters are both dumb devices; they're just a bunch of wires in a lump of plastic.
Click to expand...

My thought exactly, which is why I've been ignoring a simple cable swap to this point.

Having exhausted every other option, I grabbed the 8 foot HDMI cable from my Blu-ray player upstairs and swapped it with the 4 footer I've been using.

Haven't dropped the signal since.

So far, with the "new" cable, the signal is picked up following extended periods of inactivity without fail; through reboot, shutdown, standby, even disconnecting/reconnecting the cable in mid-operation.

Maybe the old cable is faulty. Maybe the new cable is higher quality. I've even heard that the length of the cable may be the deciding factor, that more cable can actually solve HDCP handshake issues.

Either way, everything is working great! Thanks all! :D
 
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that's bizarre, I assume it must be a bad cable because nothing else would make sense. have you tried the 4 footer with your bluray player to see what happens there?
 
Gonna put it to the test with some crap horror movies tonight! Part of me doesn't care and is just happy the damn thing works. The other (larger) part of me demands to know WHY.

Something else that's strange: I had no problem with the 4 foot cable when I borrowed a friends spare ATI card. It went 24 hours without a dropped signal. Makes me wonder why the GTX 285 is so picky with the cable.
 
I had a similiar expierence with my tv (but with bluray player). The tv kept cutting out or saying no signal. I changed the cable and all was well, what's weird was the cable worked fine for 6 months and one week just went bad.
 
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