OK, see if this has happened to you:
You're rocking a multi-monitor system and you go to install Win8 CP. The initial setup process goes nice and smooth and you're already drooling. The system tells you that it has to reboot to finish and does so. BUT...instead of opening up to the initial personalization screen, all you see is a sea of black!
WHAT THE %$%@???
Well here's how you can fix this without having a coronary or cursing MS- simply disconnect all other extra monitors! It's really that simple!
So how do I know this? Am I some senior-level programmer at MS or NVIDIA or AMD? Hardly. But it happened to me, and boy was I peeved when I figured it out!![Smile :) :)](/data/assets/smilies/smile.gif)
You see, I have XFX's 6950, modded to run as the 6790, a Dell U2410 for my primary display, and a Panasonic 46" plasma for a secondary. The Dell is connected via DVI and the plasma via HDMI (and I think that might be part of the problem- maybe the OS is using HDMI as the primary connector as a default and the others are secondary- my Dell is ALWAYS identified as monitor 2).
I ran through the install process on a separate partition (dual booting with Win7 Pro x64), and everything was going butter-smooth until that reboot and nothing happened. I could tell something was going on so I let it sit there for several hours, figuring this was some issue with a BETA OS (and people, please remember that- THIS IS A BETA AND NOT EVERYTHING IS GOING TO WORK RIGHT-OFF THE BAT- BE PATIENT!).
Well after a while, I had enough and started from scratch. I checked the checksum for the ISO file, reformatted the USB drive (I used the Win7 DVD install tool from MS), deleted, re-created, and re-formatted the partition I was using for Win8, and began again...same results. I could hear the drives performing tasks and when I pressed keys on the keyboard and clicked the mouse, I could hear the PC responding, but still saw nothing.
This is when I got the suspicion that the output was being sent to the plasma (which I rarely use for a secondary display). I changed the TV input to the HDMI channel for the PC, and guess what?
Yup- Win8 was defaulting to the PLASMA! WTH?!?![Smile :) :)](/data/assets/smilies/smile.gif)
So, I merely disconnected the plasma from the GPU and the output went to the LCD as it should. After finishing the Win8 install, I installed the new AMD Catalyst Control Center (CCC) app.
BUT...
For whatever reason, multi-monitor support is still pretty buggy in the CP...for instance, I would play a DVD in WMP and send that output to the plasma while using my LCD for browsing and other PC work. Now, I can't do this (especially with WMC)...I can get the full-screen on the plasma, but the cursor is 'stuck' over there and won't come over to the other side (monitor).
I hope this helps!
You're rocking a multi-monitor system and you go to install Win8 CP. The initial setup process goes nice and smooth and you're already drooling. The system tells you that it has to reboot to finish and does so. BUT...instead of opening up to the initial personalization screen, all you see is a sea of black!
WHAT THE %$%@???
Well here's how you can fix this without having a coronary or cursing MS- simply disconnect all other extra monitors! It's really that simple!
So how do I know this? Am I some senior-level programmer at MS or NVIDIA or AMD? Hardly. But it happened to me, and boy was I peeved when I figured it out!
![Smile :) :)](/data/assets/smilies/smile.gif)
You see, I have XFX's 6950, modded to run as the 6790, a Dell U2410 for my primary display, and a Panasonic 46" plasma for a secondary. The Dell is connected via DVI and the plasma via HDMI (and I think that might be part of the problem- maybe the OS is using HDMI as the primary connector as a default and the others are secondary- my Dell is ALWAYS identified as monitor 2).
I ran through the install process on a separate partition (dual booting with Win7 Pro x64), and everything was going butter-smooth until that reboot and nothing happened. I could tell something was going on so I let it sit there for several hours, figuring this was some issue with a BETA OS (and people, please remember that- THIS IS A BETA AND NOT EVERYTHING IS GOING TO WORK RIGHT-OFF THE BAT- BE PATIENT!).
Well after a while, I had enough and started from scratch. I checked the checksum for the ISO file, reformatted the USB drive (I used the Win7 DVD install tool from MS), deleted, re-created, and re-formatted the partition I was using for Win8, and began again...same results. I could hear the drives performing tasks and when I pressed keys on the keyboard and clicked the mouse, I could hear the PC responding, but still saw nothing.
This is when I got the suspicion that the output was being sent to the plasma (which I rarely use for a secondary display). I changed the TV input to the HDMI channel for the PC, and guess what?
Yup- Win8 was defaulting to the PLASMA! WTH?!?
![Smile :) :)](/data/assets/smilies/smile.gif)
So, I merely disconnected the plasma from the GPU and the output went to the LCD as it should. After finishing the Win8 install, I installed the new AMD Catalyst Control Center (CCC) app.
BUT...
For whatever reason, multi-monitor support is still pretty buggy in the CP...for instance, I would play a DVD in WMP and send that output to the plasma while using my LCD for browsing and other PC work. Now, I can't do this (especially with WMC)...I can get the full-screen on the plasma, but the cursor is 'stuck' over there and won't come over to the other side (monitor).
I hope this helps!