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I'll try to explain this as simple as possible. A client of mine has a 6 monitor setup, one PCI Express 16x video card and two PCI video cards. Each video card is ATI and has DVI and VGA ports. He has three monitors, all plugged in via DVI route rather than VGA. All three of his monitors are Viewsonic VT2130b
Found within Display Properties > Settings we had "extend my windows desktop onto this monitor" selected for monitor "3" and monitor "5" while monitor "1" was the primary. He can move his mouse from the far left monitor "1" all the way right through "3" and then into "5" with success. We updated the monitor driver with the supplied .inf found on the viewsonic CD that came with the monitors.
The Issue: Whenever he restarts his computer, or turns it off and turns it on at a later time, he usually loses input on monitor "3" or monitor "5". He says it is totally random. Sometimes he will boot up and he will have all 3 of his monitors working properly the way it was setup. Sometimes when he boots up monitor "5" is completely black and blank with the amber light on rather than green. Sometimes both "3" and "5" are completely black. Sometimes it is just "3". The strange part about it all is that within the Display Properties > Settings, they are still showing active and "extend my windows desktop onto this monitor" is still checked. However, whenever one never comes on (such as "5" for this example) then when you click on "5" within the display properties, it says "default monitor on Radeon XXXX". It like doesn't hold the monitor drivers.
I'm not 100% sure if it is monitor drivers or something else, but this is definitely strange. He was thinking it was a hardware issue, but the fact that all three of his monitors are plugged into three different video cards, the chances of having two defective video cards together is nearly impossible. It has to be some sort of issue with drivers or within Windows.
I spoke with him on the phone today, and sure enough, every restart it was like random, whether "3" or "5" was blank or both, or everything turned on properly and worked flawlessly. It was 100% random between each boot while I was on the phone. I had him switch monitor "3" with monitor "1" physically on the desk and also the cord, and the new "1" never was blank but again, randomly the "3" was at startup. That sort of threw out whether it was the specific monitor.
I would really like to help this guy out as it must be very frustrating on his end having to restart his computer multiple times until all three of his monitors come up successfully. His only other alternative, which works, is to take off the check mark on the "Extend my windows desktop onto this monitor", click apply, and recheck the "extend my windows desktop onto this monitor" and then the monitor will indeed appear appropriately.
Any help or suggestions are greatly appreciated!!!
Found within Display Properties > Settings we had "extend my windows desktop onto this monitor" selected for monitor "3" and monitor "5" while monitor "1" was the primary. He can move his mouse from the far left monitor "1" all the way right through "3" and then into "5" with success. We updated the monitor driver with the supplied .inf found on the viewsonic CD that came with the monitors.
The Issue: Whenever he restarts his computer, or turns it off and turns it on at a later time, he usually loses input on monitor "3" or monitor "5". He says it is totally random. Sometimes he will boot up and he will have all 3 of his monitors working properly the way it was setup. Sometimes when he boots up monitor "5" is completely black and blank with the amber light on rather than green. Sometimes both "3" and "5" are completely black. Sometimes it is just "3". The strange part about it all is that within the Display Properties > Settings, they are still showing active and "extend my windows desktop onto this monitor" is still checked. However, whenever one never comes on (such as "5" for this example) then when you click on "5" within the display properties, it says "default monitor on Radeon XXXX". It like doesn't hold the monitor drivers.
I'm not 100% sure if it is monitor drivers or something else, but this is definitely strange. He was thinking it was a hardware issue, but the fact that all three of his monitors are plugged into three different video cards, the chances of having two defective video cards together is nearly impossible. It has to be some sort of issue with drivers or within Windows.
I spoke with him on the phone today, and sure enough, every restart it was like random, whether "3" or "5" was blank or both, or everything turned on properly and worked flawlessly. It was 100% random between each boot while I was on the phone. I had him switch monitor "3" with monitor "1" physically on the desk and also the cord, and the new "1" never was blank but again, randomly the "3" was at startup. That sort of threw out whether it was the specific monitor.
I would really like to help this guy out as it must be very frustrating on his end having to restart his computer multiple times until all three of his monitors come up successfully. His only other alternative, which works, is to take off the check mark on the "Extend my windows desktop onto this monitor", click apply, and recheck the "extend my windows desktop onto this monitor" and then the monitor will indeed appear appropriately.
Any help or suggestions are greatly appreciated!!!