Strange monitor behaviour after driver update

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
B

banjaxt

Honorable
Feb 20, 2012
25
0
10,530
HI

My monitor was working fine up until I updated to the latest CCC 15.5 beta drivers when initially both screens would go black randomly requiring a reboot. This happened about 3 times until the main monitor was no longer being picked up at post and would only work in strange configurations in windows e.g. 1920x1080 50hz. any other configuration would result in no input detected or cycling through white - red - green -blue - black

Hardware is as follows:
mobo: gigabyte 970a-ds3
Monitor 1 (the problemed one): Qnix 2710LED at 2560x1440 100hz via DVI-D
Monitor 2: Bush 24inch LCD at 1600x900 60hz via HDMI (works fine)
Gfx card 1: Gigabyte 7950 (drives monitor 1)
Gfx card 2: ATI 5450 (drives monitor 2)
CPU: Phenom II x4 840

I have tried the monitor on both Gfx cards, another computer and in a Ubuntu live disk with no success. Every time the monitors resolution wouldn't get picked up, wouldn't show post / bios and would only work after being set to1920x1080 50hz, and even then with weird results:

ydIRAR8.jpg


The right portion of the screen is blue / turquoise lines and the bottom of the screen repeats the top part. The 7950 seems to work ok because it can drive other monitors without any problems, same with the 5450. I inspected the monitors driver board and there is no signs of any shorts or other damage.

I am sure the panel is ok because using CRU i can set the resolution preset manually and it will change to that and work ok. However, this does not persist through reboots. On every boot i need to unplug and replug the monitor then manually redetect displays then fix the resolution to the custom one.

Windows picks it up as a Generic non-PnP monitor whereas it used to detect it as a Generic PnP Monitor. sometimes i need to unplug and replug it a few times for it to stick without it not picking the monitor up. CCC picks it up as having a maximum resolution of 640x480 but the monitor cannot display that now whereas before it was 2560x1440 and it could display 640x480 before.

Ive tried completely removing and reinstalling any AMD drivers and reinstalling windows with no success. The only thing I can put it down to is the lead, but it seems unlikely to me that an update would break the lead. Using a single link DVI -> HDMI conversion lead in 1080p60 has the same results, cycling colours with CCC stating a max res of 640x480. I have been unable to try a second DVI-D lead as no shop nearby sells them, but will try as soon as I can get my hands on one.

Im honestly stumped here, so any help is much appreciated.

Thanks, banjaxt
 
Sort by date Sort by votes


No difference unfortunately. Drivers shouldn't cause the monitor to not be picked up at boot, would they? Clearing and resetting the bios also doesn't help any either.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You would be amazed sometimes by the problems buggy drivers can cause. And being a beta driver is why I suspected the problem in your case. But I should have read the rest of your post, and I did not, so I apologize for that.

If you only had one machine, and the video card is connected to the graphics card, its a little bit rough to try to figure out which item is the one with the problem. Because since the monitor only connects to the graphics card, if the graphics card was defective, and not telling the system about the monitor *OR* if the monitor was defective and not properly talking to the graphics card, it would normally be a little difficult for us to figure that out. But, you have already tested this monitor on multiple video ports and multiple operating system, and its not working properly anywhere. So that pretty much confirms that the monitor is the problem.

Before we completely declare it dead though, I would like you to go back to the same device manager I sent you to last night, but this time expand Monitors and see what it is that Windows thinks is connected. You should see the brand and model number of the monitor if it is working properly. If its not listed there, then I think it is time to replace the monitor.

 
Upvote 0 Downvote


In device manager the hardware ID comes up as MONITOR\Default_Monitor and the compatible ID as *PNP09FF. Both monitors display no manufacturer and both display no faults

KVZKnTh.png


In CCC it comes up as a DDC with max res of 0x0 at 0hz instead of a Dual-DVI Display

CWBmTWH.png
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Yeah, that is a problem. I only have one monitor, but this is more like what you should be seeing.
2vlrxx1.jpg


Try this out. Right click on the desktop, and select Screen Resolution. On the page that shows up, over to the right of the dual monitor images that you should be seeing is an Identify button. Select a monitor, and click that button. Then click the other monitor and do it again, and see if anything changes.
5xuedf.jpg

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Nothing changes when I press the identify button, it just seems to display the number of the display. There is however a ghost display comping up under VGA which is strange because there is only 2 connected

qSSPeuy.png


75NUwQ2.png


Hitting the detect button does not remove this but can stop the problemed monitor from being detected. The only way to get it detected again is to unplug it and replug it then redetect
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Ok so i completely unistalled 15.5 including all left over folders and reg enteries and reverted to the 14.12 stable drivers. The monitor still says it's not getting any input at boot and is only detected in windows sometimes, so something here is very wrong. When it shows up it displays as a Generic non-PnP Monitor but doesnt stick around long enough to get any other info.

Ill file a report to AMD as well and see what they have to say, apparently there are some issues with the 79xx cards on these recent beta drivers., but i havent heard of it doing more than crashing certain games, never mind breaking any monitors. The other monitor is running off it and using a DVI->HDMI coversion lead works with the secondary monitor fine, so it's not the port on the card either from what i can tell
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
What happens if you only use one monitor at a time?

Because I have a hard time believing that a pair of monitors went bad at the same time. The odds against that happening are pretty high. Which is leading me to believe there is a problem with your video card. And the only way that you can test this is to get your hands on another video card and plug it into your system. Is the card you have now under warranty? Can you RMA it?

What you have been going through, while it started happening when you installed the beta drivers, almost has to be a hardware issue. I especially think this now that you are back on the previous drivers, and this issue continues to happen.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I've got a 5450 i can test with. In exactly the same setup the results are pretty much exactly the same. Ive also tried the secondary bios on the 7950 with no luck. With just one monitor at a time the results for each monitor are also the same as both monitors simultaneously.

As far as i know the card is well out of warranty so that's not an option.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Yeah. they both either show up as Generic PnP or Generic non-PnP on both cards, but the smaller one can be detected much more reliably and shows at boot i.e. i can access bios with it
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
both monitors are currently connected to the 7950 and the results are the same when both are connected to the 5450, so unless both cards have exactly the same fault i dont think that could be it.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Well, I am very glad that is not my system. I think by now I would have tossed the entire system into a box, grabbed my shotgun, and headed out into the woods with the whole mess. Everything works, but nothing works right.

I've been building and fixing computers for over 35 years. This is seriously one of the head scratchers that you come across every now and then. And when you think you have tried to figure the problem out, and absolutely nothing works, its time to go all the way back to the very bare bone basics. And start at ground zero.

Does your motherboard have a tiny little speaker on it that beeps when you turn on the computer?

First thing I want you to do is to pull the power plug for the computer, and both monitors from the wall. Make sure you turn them off before doing this.

Remove the video cables from the back of the video card(s).

On the monitors, I want you to press the power buttons and hold them in for about 10 seconds, at least 5 times over a 2 minute period.

On the computer, I want you to hold and press the power button on the front of the computer for about 10 seconds, 5 times over a 2 minute period. Watch to make sure no fan moves or that any LED even flickers each time you do this. If anything lights up or any fan moves, add 1 to the 5 times. Now I want you to take that shiny. round chrome battery that is on your motherboard out of its socket and set it aside. You will be putting this back in its socket in a few minutes.

After removing the battery, pretty and hold the power button 2 more times for 5 seconds over 30 seconds.

Now I want you to reconnect one monitor to the 7950 video card.

Now make sure the rocker switch on the back of the computers power supply is turned off. Rocker switch side that has the | should not be pressed inward at this point. Now I want you to plug both the computer and the monitor into the wall.

Turn the monitor on.

Next will be powering up the computer. During the boot process, if you motherboard has a tiny little speaker on it, you should hear some beeps. One beep by itself means that everything passed the bootup tests. Anything else means something failed. You might hear multiple beeps, and when you do there might be some short beeps and/or some long beeps. If you get more than a single beep, I would like to know what short/long beep code you hear. So press the power button on the computer and listen. Hopefully you will see the bootup process, and during this, it will tell you to press F2 or DEL to go into the BIOS. Do that, or whatever key your BIOS says to use to enter the BIOS.

Once in the BIOS, go directly to the Save/Exit page. Normally on that page is a Restore Default Settings option. If its not there, look around. It is there somewhere. Then select Save and Exit. At this point the computer will restart and attempt to boot. Let it go, but keep listening for beeps or anything else that is not normal. If it does manage to get back to the desktop, right click it and see if it has identified the monitor properly or not.

If it did identify the monitor properly, I would like you to shut down, and go back through the pulling the power plug from the computer, and then pressing the power button 5 times routine, and finally, put at chrome battery back into the socket on the motherboard.

And boot back up. Let me know what happens.

If the problem has not been fixed by this point, I would like a list of brand and model numbers of the motherboard, memory, power supply, hard drive(s), SSD(s), and so on..
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Hmm, no difference unfortunately. Main monitor wasn't picked up, other monitor was able to display bios. The mobo has no speaker, but the bios was definitely reset to defaults with no apparent faults.

Full parts list of the current setup is as follows:
motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3 (rev. 1.1) bios version F7d
Gfx card: Gigabyte 7950 3gb with driver 14.12
CPU: AMD Phenom II x4 840
SSD: INTEL SSDSA2CT040G3 ATA Device 40GB
HDD: WDC WD20EARS-00J2GB0 ATA Device (2TB WD Green)
PSU: Corsair CX600 non-modular
RAM: 12GB Corsair Vengence - x2 sticks from a 16GB pack and x1 from an 8GB pack, all 3 1600 MHz

The monitor that is having the problems is a Qnix QX2710LED, i got it because it is (or was at least) hailed as the best overclockable monitor for its price. Its a korean brand monitor with a samsung panel model no. LTM270DL02. It only has a single DVI-D input. It is however still in warranty, but sending it back to korea may as well warrant a new monitor altogether. I'm currently talking with the seller to see what my options are in that regard, but i want to be completely sure it is the hardware before having to worry about that stuff

Everything has been running solid for at least 6 months where i changed out the processor, GPU and added the now problematic monitor back in November. Everything else solid for about another 2 years prior.

And I completely get the head scratching part. Not even installing POS systems is this nasty.

Ill be able to test the monitor on an nvidia card tomorrow hopefully, so that'll prove if it's card or monitor.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
In that case, lets stop right here, and see what the monitor does tomorrow. Because I will be gone for a few hours here, and I really would like to know if it is the monitor or not. That would simplify things a lot.

I know... Like I said... Shotgun time... Im pretty good at this.. This one is a tough one.

I will be back late this evening if you discover anything. Otherwise, I will talk to you tomorrow when you get back with the monitor.

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
ok so the new lead arrived and it didn't make any difference, neither did an nvidia card. I'm beginning to think the monitor's driver board is shot and it was just a coincidence it happened when it did. The monitor board type is a bypass board, so that really only leaves the card and monitor board as culprits, and my other monitor works fine on the card.
Thankfully it's still well within warranty, so I'm in contact with the monitor seller and should get it sorted soon.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom