- Dec 30, 2023
- 8
- 1
- 15
First off, I forgot my Tom's login, I know it was an old (now unreachable) email address and this shows how stuck I am. I very rarely post for hardware problems anywhere but often refer to Tom's for advice and have for over 15 years, but as stated this one's got me.
The machine was purchased for a client as an affordable business machine, alas Lenovo what have you done to Business Machines. It is refurbished and was purchased less than a month ago.
NOW FOR SPECS:
LENOVO 10FH000MUS ThinkCentre M900
Processor:
3.40 gigahertz Intel Core i7-6700
256 kilobyte primary memory cache
1 megabyte secondary memory cache
8 megabyte tertiary memory cache
Multi-core (4 total)
Hyper-threaded (8 total)
Main Board:
LENOVO 30BC SDK0J40705 WIN
Bus Clock: 100 megahertz
UEFI: LENOVO FWKT58A 09/05/2016
OS:
Windows 10 Professional (x64) Version 22H2 (build 19045.3803)
Install Language: English (United States)
System Locale: English (United States)
Installed: 12/12/2023 11:01:19 AM
Servicing Channel: General Availability
Boot Mode: UEFI with successful Secure Boot
System Memory:
31.89 Gigabytes Usable Installed Memory
Slot 'ChannelA-DIMM0' has 8 GB
Slot 'ChannelA-DIMM1' has 8 GB
Slot 'ChannelB-DIMM0' has 8 GB
Slot 'ChannelB-DIMM1' has 8 GB
64 Gigabytes Maximum System Memory Capacity
Display:
Intel(R) HD Graphics 530 [Display adapter]
Driver Date: 11/16/2022
Driver Version: 31.0.101.2115
ASUS VE228 [Monitor] (21.7"vis, s/n B7LMXXXXX, July 2011)
Not a bad rig, it's fast. The monitors all same model as above have one HDMI input, one DVI input and one VGA input.
There are three video outputs on the intel HD530. Two Digital Ports and one VGA. The VGA was odd in my mind at first until I remembered and indeed came to confirm that the good ol serial can wake up anything.
NOTE: This is a remote client's setup so my hands aren't available, remote support is being provided via Google Remote Desktop.
THE INITIAL PROBLEM:
Out of the box neither of the two extra monitors would fire up. After then the below:
FAILED TREATMENTS TO DATE:
This really shouldn't be a problem. A machine advertised with "4K 3-Monitor Support (2x DP 1 x VGA)" should be plug and play, granted the monitors needed the inputs config'd, but once done the GPU should pick them up reliably. I've come to the conclusion that either A. The little 210W power supply simply can't push three monitors. B. the hardware just can't talk reliably with the digital port conversion. or C. The board or at least onboard GPU is defective. Regardless, barring a miracle cure from Tom's valiant contributors I'm gonna return the machine and get a machine with either 3 HDMI ports or 2 HDMI and a DVI or VGA. Too bad because the machine is quick for business application, but the time I've spent not to mention the paying Client's hands on efforts have diminished any returns thus far. Further note, this is an RMA for the first machine that shipped which would not even power on, the vendor promptly sent a replacement which is the hardware in question.
I'll be monitoring the thread so if anyone thinks of anything I might have missed please let me know, otherwise the vendor is getting the wrath first day after the New Year.
Thanks
-jb
The machine was purchased for a client as an affordable business machine, alas Lenovo what have you done to Business Machines. It is refurbished and was purchased less than a month ago.
NOW FOR SPECS:
LENOVO 10FH000MUS ThinkCentre M900
Processor:
3.40 gigahertz Intel Core i7-6700
256 kilobyte primary memory cache
1 megabyte secondary memory cache
8 megabyte tertiary memory cache
Multi-core (4 total)
Hyper-threaded (8 total)
Main Board:
LENOVO 30BC SDK0J40705 WIN
Bus Clock: 100 megahertz
UEFI: LENOVO FWKT58A 09/05/2016
OS:
Windows 10 Professional (x64) Version 22H2 (build 19045.3803)
Install Language: English (United States)
System Locale: English (United States)
Installed: 12/12/2023 11:01:19 AM
Servicing Channel: General Availability
Boot Mode: UEFI with successful Secure Boot
System Memory:
31.89 Gigabytes Usable Installed Memory
Slot 'ChannelA-DIMM0' has 8 GB
Slot 'ChannelA-DIMM1' has 8 GB
Slot 'ChannelB-DIMM0' has 8 GB
Slot 'ChannelB-DIMM1' has 8 GB
64 Gigabytes Maximum System Memory Capacity
Display:
Intel(R) HD Graphics 530 [Display adapter]
Driver Date: 11/16/2022
Driver Version: 31.0.101.2115
ASUS VE228 [Monitor] (21.7"vis, s/n B7LMXXXXX, July 2011)
Not a bad rig, it's fast. The monitors all same model as above have one HDMI input, one DVI input and one VGA input.
There are three video outputs on the intel HD530. Two Digital Ports and one VGA. The VGA was odd in my mind at first until I remembered and indeed came to confirm that the good ol serial can wake up anything.
NOTE: This is a remote client's setup so my hands aren't available, remote support is being provided via Google Remote Desktop.
THE INITIAL PROBLEM:
Out of the box neither of the two extra monitors would fire up. After then the below:
FAILED TREATMENTS TO DATE:
- Brought Win10 up to date — the refurb was obviously a ghosted OEM vanilla install (don't recall the revision), not the Lenovo m900 image. While that might not have mattered, I installed to ensure the current GPU was picked up by Windows. The GPU driver was updated to Microsoft's HD530 driver. Still, the system failed to detect the two extra monitors.
- Installed the official Intel driver bringing it up to date — this picked up one of the other monitors.
- Not being on location, and after trying some tedious remote cable swapping it was finally brought to my attention that the 'blip' of the screen coming on after the monitor's ASUS boot up logo, one of the monitors stated 'NO DVI INPUT'...okay valid statement as there was no DVI input. Ahhh...yes, I assumed the monitors like most modern ones would poll the inputs until a signal was found . That was my bad. The monitors were previously used on another machine with a PCI-e multi monitor ATI card which had one HDMI out, one VGA out and one DVI. Therefore, the monitors had their inputs set accordingly. Fortunately, the VGA input forces the monitor into VGA mode. The monitors after failing to connect it's previous config would instantly go to sleep, disabling the OSD menu and (I'm not entirely sure on this) the analog input button also failed to switch modes. So, one at a time, not wanting to guess what was connected to what port, I had the user connect via VGA to allow the OSD menu, factory reset the monitors and choose HDMI as the input on two of them and reconnect the DP to HDMI and voila the other two monitors appeared in Remote Desktop and on location. I set the VGA to primary and arranged the monitors in Display Properties and all was well. Rebooted a few times to make sure the config stuck and it did. The following day the client goes to wake up the machine and the two other monitors didn't wake.
- Set system power config to never turn off anything and disabled hibernation via Power Shell.
- Using the primary monitor (VGA) I thought perhaps the monitor's existing driver being older than the 22H2 Windows Updates, might not be playing nice. I updated the monitor driver to the most current version available from ASUS, newer than the one being used but listed as win 8.1 (but the config *did* work previously on a Win10 machine) — no change. So OS, GPU and monitor drivers are most current available.
- Reluctantly, I went through the now nerve shatteringly tedious VGA 'trick' and even then all three have yet to come up at once again. Got two temporarily but won't do so reliably without messing with cables.
- Removed all inputs and outputs and used only one DP to HDMI on a single monitor. Fires up fine on both with those set to HDMI input. So both monitors work independently. Both ports work independently. Both cables work. Nerves now shredded both client side and my own.
This really shouldn't be a problem. A machine advertised with "4K 3-Monitor Support (2x DP 1 x VGA)" should be plug and play, granted the monitors needed the inputs config'd, but once done the GPU should pick them up reliably. I've come to the conclusion that either A. The little 210W power supply simply can't push three monitors. B. the hardware just can't talk reliably with the digital port conversion. or C. The board or at least onboard GPU is defective. Regardless, barring a miracle cure from Tom's valiant contributors I'm gonna return the machine and get a machine with either 3 HDMI ports or 2 HDMI and a DVI or VGA. Too bad because the machine is quick for business application, but the time I've spent not to mention the paying Client's hands on efforts have diminished any returns thus far. Further note, this is an RMA for the first machine that shipped which would not even power on, the vendor promptly sent a replacement which is the hardware in question.
I'll be monitoring the thread so if anyone thinks of anything I might have missed please let me know, otherwise the vendor is getting the wrath first day after the New Year.
Thanks
-jb
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