Skyhooker
Member
- Reaction score
- 9
- Location
- Dundee, Illinois
I FINALLY figured out the cause of the problem I've been having with my dual-monitor setup. For months, hell, maybe for a couple of years, I've had a problem with one monitor or the other not initializing - black screen - both when booting up or when switching back on after power saver settings shut them off. I could usually get it to boot up correctly by Ctrl-Alt-Deleting after POST, and when my Recover Console boot option shows up, and doing so repeatedly until both monitors lit up. Annoying, yes, but I figured the hardware, probably the vid card, was slowly failing and I just didn't want to put more money into it.
Lately it's become worse, and I still don't know why the change, but it's been almost impossible to keep both monitors working during the day. I tried every hardware test I know, examined for bad caps, re-seated every connection, swapped power supplies - you name it, nothing worked consistently.
Then I noticed the black monitor trying to search for a signal, switching from Digital to Analog and back, but still not initializing, and I had an "Ah HAH!" moment. I swapped the two monitors' video cables (I have one VGA and one DVI output on my card), finally got each one to start up, and opened the settings menu of each monitor. I switched the mode from Auto to whatever that monitor was connected to, Digital or Analog, and rebooted - Hey, Presto, both monitors fired right up, and have done so each reboot.
So, the lesson is that to avoid problems, set monitors to conform to the input type connected, not "Auto," and you won't be scratching your head and wearing out the Ctrl-Alt-Delete keys
Lately it's become worse, and I still don't know why the change, but it's been almost impossible to keep both monitors working during the day. I tried every hardware test I know, examined for bad caps, re-seated every connection, swapped power supplies - you name it, nothing worked consistently.
Then I noticed the black monitor trying to search for a signal, switching from Digital to Analog and back, but still not initializing, and I had an "Ah HAH!" moment. I swapped the two monitors' video cables (I have one VGA and one DVI output on my card), finally got each one to start up, and opened the settings menu of each monitor. I switched the mode from Auto to whatever that monitor was connected to, Digital or Analog, and rebooted - Hey, Presto, both monitors fired right up, and have done so each reboot.
So, the lesson is that to avoid problems, set monitors to conform to the input type connected, not "Auto," and you won't be scratching your head and wearing out the Ctrl-Alt-Delete keys
