Re: Vista does not detect external display


Hey there!

I ran across a very similar issue. I was researching my problem when
I came upon your note. Well, I figured out what seem to resolve the
issue - but still don't understand what the actual problem is...

I picked up a new laptop:

Sony Vaio VGN-FW351J
Vista Home premium 64-bit
Duel Core w/ 2.0 ghz a piece
4GB Ram
Bluray player + cd/dvd read and write
HDMI out among other readable media drives

I have a Toshiba Regza 42" LCD HDTV that accepts PC input and also has
4 HDMI inputs. I am not using the PC input for this scenario, but I
believe the problem isn't with the type of connection, but more of a
problem with the OS and auto-detect that most likely spans all
connection types.

I'm anticipating that this post will be helpful to others, so I'll do
some background as I go along..

The 1st few times I connected the laptop to the HDTV via HDMI cable, a
little two-note sound would play when inserting the HDMI cable to the
PC. Vista immediately recognized the output device and the "wizard"
would pop up asking, -"What do you want with the external display
device: mirrored, extension of monitor, or external display only?" -

EXTERNAL DISPLAY \"MIRRORED\" SETTING[/B] WILL NOT ALLOW THE EXTERNAL
DISPLAY TO USE IT'S OWN MAX RESOLUTION/DISPLAY CONFIGURATION BECAUSE THE
OS IS STILL OUTPUTTING TO THE PC MONITOR AND NOT THE EXTERNAL DISPLAY HD
OUTPUT DEVICE. THUS, I WAS ONLY GETTING 720P AND A SMALL SCREEN SIZE
(MAX FOR PC MONITOR) ON THE HDTV (THE TV RECOGNIZES WHAT SIGNAL IT IS
RECEIVING). SONY'S VAIO WEBSITE
HTTP://ESUPPORT.SONY.COM/US/PERL/SUPPORT-INFO.PL?TEMPLATE=&INFO_ID=23
HAD A COOL LIL' HOW-TO FLASH VIDEO THAT EXPLAINED THIS. I WAS USING
THIS SETTING FOR A WHILE AND NOTICED THAT THE OUTPUT WAS ONLY 720P AND
THE BLURAY MOVIE RIPS I HAD BEEN WATCHING HAD NOTICABLE \"REFRESH
LINES\" THAT WOULD SCROLL DOWNWARD AND SLIGHTLY DISRUPT THE PICTURE. IT
WAS ANNOYING.

*EXTENSION OF MONITOR SETTING:* HAVEN'T TRIED TO USE THIS, BUT WITH
DEDUCTIVE REASONING, THIS SETTING WOULD STILL BE SENDING THE DISPLAY
SIGNAL TO THE PC MONITOR 1ST, AND WOULD STILL BE UNABLE TO FULLY TAKE
ADVANTAGE OF THE HDTV'S DISPLAY POWER.
*
EXTERNAL DISPLAY ONLY:* THIS ONE TURNS YOUR PC MONITOR OFF, AND ALLOWS
THE PRIMARY DISPLAY OUTPUT TO BE THE EXTERNAL DISPLAY DEVICE. MY
TELEVISION RECOGNIZES THE SIGNAL AS 1080P. WORKING DIRECTLY ON THE HDTV
AS MY MONITOR, ONCE THE OS REALIZED THAT IT WAS NO LONGER LIMITED BY THE
PC MONITOR, IT WOULD ALLOW ME TO INCREASE MY DISPLAY RESOLUTION.

NOTE: THE FOLLOWING WINDOWS® DESKTOP RESOLUTION SETTINGS CAN BE USED
FOR DIFFERENT OUTPUT DEVICE TYPES:

HD DISPLAY TYPE DESKTOP SCREEN
RESOLUTION
1080P / 1080I ---------------------------- 1920 X 1080

1768 X
992
720P ------------------------------------ 1280 X 720
1176 X
664

AFTER I REALIZED THIS AND STARTED USING THE \"EXTERNAL DISPLAY DEVICE
ONLY\" SETTING, VISTA STOPPED DETECTING THE EXTERNAL DISPLAY DEVICE
AUTOMATICALLY.

THE FIRST SOLUTION WAS TO USE A DIFFERENT HDMI INPUT PORT ON THE HDTV.
VISTA WOULD AUTO-DETECT THE \"NEW\" PORT ON THE TV. A FEW DAYS LATER,
THOUGH, THAT SOLUTION STOPPED WORKING AS WELL...

SO, THERE I WAS
- HDTV SWITCHED TO THE PROPER \"VIDEO SOURCE/INPUT\" SETTING
- NEWLY REBOOTED PC WITHOUT ANY HDMI CONNECTIONS ON BOOT (JUST IN
CASE).
- CONNECTED THE TWO: TV FIRST, THEN PC.

MY FIRST THOUGHTS WAS THAT THE HDMI CABLE OR THE TV'S OR PC'S HDMI
PORTS GOT FRIED SOMEHOW. AFTER CONNECTING THE TWO, HOWEVER, MY
TELEVISION WOULD IMMEDIATELY GO FROM \"NO VIDEO SIGNAL\" TO
\"UNSUPPORTED VIDEO SIGNAL.\" THE TV WOULD NOT SAY UNSUPPORTED VID
SIGNAL IF IT WAS NOT RECEIVING ANY SIGNAL AT ALL - IT WOULD CONTINUE TO
DISPLAY \"NO VIDEO SIGNAL.\" THIS WAS A GOOD SIGN. I'M GLAD THE
PROBLEM WASN'T MY HARDWARE.

THE PC'S BEHAVIOR WAS STRANGE. ONLY THE 1ST TIME THE HDMI CABLE WAS
PLUGGED IN TO THE PC WOULD THAT TWO-NOTE SOUND PLAY, SUBSEQUENT
RECONNECTION ATTEMPTS WOULD PRODUCE NO -\"HEY, YOU'VE CONNECTED
SOMETHING..\"- SOUNDS FROM THE OS.
I HAVE ALSO EXPERIENCED ISSUES LIKE THAT WHEN CONNECTING PCS (NOT JUST
THIS LAPTOP) WITH EXTERNAL HARDDRIVES OR MOBILE PHONES VIA USB. WINDOWS
SEEMS TO HAVE PROBLEMS WITH DETECTING/RELEASING EXTERNAL DEVICES
FOR/FROM OS CONTROL. MOST OFTEN, THERE ARE -\"IT'S SAFE TO REMOVE
HARDWARE\"- OPTIONS THAT COME ALONG WITH USING ANY EXTERNAL DEVICE.
WHY WOULD ANY OS NEED SOMETHING LIKE THAT? JUST UNPLUGGING IT DOESN'T
DO THE TRICK? WHAT'S THE HOLD-UP HERE? WHY DOES THE OS NEED A WIZARD
FOR UNPLUGGING HARDWARE IF THE OS \"UNDERSTANDS\" EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENS
WHEN YOU UNPLUG SOMETHING? WHY DO I NOT HAVE \"SAFE TO REMOVE
HARDWARE\" OPTIONS FOR MY HDMI PORT? THE OS OBVIOUSLY NEEDS IT...

I BELIEVE THE ANSWERS TO THOSE QUESTIONS WILL PROVIDE A SOLUTION OR THE
REASONING BEHIND THIS PROBLEM, BUT I DON'T KNOW THEM. THOSE QUESTIONS
LED ME TO BELIEVE THAT THE PROBLEM WAS WITH THE OS AND THAT, -*\"YES,
SOME AMOUNT OF DIGGING/CONFIGURING SHOULD BE ABLE TO RESOLVE THIS.\"*-

[B]INVESTIGATION:
While looking through Vista's device manager while the TV and PC were
still connected, I noticed that the display monitors that were listed
were two "Generic PnP" monitors. Before, it had been appearing as one
generic PnP monitor and one HDMI output device. I disabled one of the
generic PnP monitors. I am not certain about the outcome of this
action. I have not been able to relate this step to resolving the
problem, it's just something I did.

Using the "Windows Mobility Center" application would allow me to click
the "connect display" button but nothing would happen. Intermittently,
it would show "display connected" and "not connected." I have yet to
determine why this is.

I powered down the HDTV and the PC and disconnected them. Then
restarted...
- HDTV switched to the proper "video source/input" setting
- Newly rebooted PC without any HDMI connections on boot (just in
case).
- connected the two: TV first, then PC. I tried using a different
HDMI input on the TV just for jollies.

TV still was saying "unsupported video signal" when connected. Still
no autodetect pop-up that used to happen, but I did have the two-note
signal that something had been connected. I opened up the "Windows
Mobility Center" which -in the external display section - said "display
connected." I still clicked on the "connect display" button. The
application said, -"detecting..."- Then, popped up with the options
for -"how do you want to use the external display?"- I got excited,
noticed that "external display only" was already selected and clicked,
'ok.' Nothing happened. Unsupported video signal on the TV. Display
still on the PC only.

I clicked on the "connect display" button again from the Windows
Mobility Center -> Detecting -> pop up options for "how do you want to
use the external display" again. This time I choose to see if the
"mirrored" setting would work. I clicked the radio button to select it,
then clicked, 'apply.' My monitor flickered and - whammo - mirroed
settings on my HDTV. The TV noticed it was receiving a 720p signal.

Hm.. I clicked on the "connect display" button again from the Windows
Mobility Center -> Detecting -> pop up options for "how do you want to
use the external display" again. This time I switched it back to
"external display only" and clicked apply. Monitor went completly black
and then the TV noticed the signal had changed to 1080p!

_So,_the_problem_seemed_to_correct_itself_when_I_modified\switched_around_the_external_display_\"what_do_you_wanna_do_with_it\"_settings_and_actually_applied_them.___It_seemed_like_the_OS_was_like,_\"oh_yeah,_I_can_do_this_-_no_problem\"_as_if_it_had_forgotten.__

Anyway, I typed this up because I was extremely irritated about the
amount of worry I put in to this. Laptops and HDTVs are expensive and I
wanna watch blu-ray, damn it!
Hopefully, it will give you a few items to try and a few things to note
when you are troubleshooting.

-Zenrocks.


OS = operating system, like: Vista, XP, MacOSx, Linux


--
Zenrocks
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