First HTPC, Display issues. Help!

slowbiz

slowbiz

2[H]4U
Joined
Aug 24, 2004
Messages
2,457
Hey all,

I just picked up a Toshiba 42HP86. I want to build an HTPC for it, but I'm testing a few things first. The display works alright when I hook up it up as a secondary monitor to my laptop. It does not work as a primary monitor on a tower I'm trying to use for now. It will show the POST screen, and the Windows XP load screen, but it seems to not work for the other screens. It doesn't work for the BIOS screen either. I'm not sure if this is a resolution issue, but I've tried messing with all the WVGA and WXGA settings on the TV with no luck.

Any ideas?
 
Set it to 1024x768 at 60 hertz using a regular monitor. Shut it down and plug the TV in. It may just be that the card is sending out a signal the TV can't use.
 
That's what I thought too, but I don't have a regular monitor I can use.

The thing that confuses me is this: aren't display settings applied upon entry to Windows? Why would I have display for the POST screen but not the BIOS? Is the card not using low resolution and refresh rates for these screens?
 
Or try and time it perfectly and hit F8 so you get into Safe Mode.

Safe Mode auto defaults to 640x480 or 800x600 with some low refresh rate.
 
I did the F8 and blindly enabled VGA mode, which seems to work... but nothing else works. I tried different resolutions, and the only thing that seems to show an image is VGA mode and the XP load screen. Is this maybe an issue with the video card? I can't understand why it wouldn't show the bios screen.
 
The plasma itself has no settings for refresh rate, and it's set to 'default monitor' in windows with an automatically detect for the refresh rate.

Once again, I don't see how that matters for any images pre-windows.

I'm getting a banner across the screen saying 'no sync signal'.

Very annoying. The computer itself is a piece of shit, but I don't want to build a new one and have the same problem.
 
Finally snagged a monitor from someone to test the PC. It kept outputting an 80Hz refresh rate. Even after changing the settings to 60Hz and 1024x768, it would go back to 80Hz. Being that this was my dad's old work computer, a format was in order, so I did that, and now everything is great. I've got it running at 1360x768, and it looks fantastic.
 
You're telling me.

Lets just say I've formatted so many times that I have the key strokes all memorized to get through all the prompts starting from the boot cd :D

Whether that is something to brag about, I'm not really sure...

Ahh the life of a tinkerer.
 
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