nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support

Posted in Personal Vista

# re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by Rob Conery March 08, 2007 @ 6:32 pm

NVidia's drivers for Vista are shot to hell - I think that's pretty much the state of affairs. I'm using the ForceWhere 100.59 set (which I think is still in beta) but Vista gags on it routinely.

I tried setting up dual monitors and had the same as you - it just doesn't work. I really think the only thing we can do here is to wait, or to kick ourselves. Or maybe just go surfing! Though I think these Kona wind's aren't helping you much up your way.

I'm just about to pull the trigger on an ATI card (I have one in my Mac, which is dual-booted to Vista) and it works perfectly.

# re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by Rick Strahl March 08, 2007 @ 7:44 pm

Thanks Rob... I guess I feel a little better in knowing I'm not the only one <s> or that it's not a problem with the new video card. There's hope after all <s>...

The frustrating thing is that I had dual monitor working fairly reliably with the latest Microsoft and the Dell updated driver. But no more even if I uninstall all drivers and then reinstall those drivers that once worked.

# re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by John March 08, 2007 @ 9:39 pm

Rick, I have the 9300 with a 6800go.
At one stage i had multiple monitor working perfectly but with recent updates every time i reboot I get both monitors but they default to the stock positions (left / right), I use one above the other so I'm forced to move them around every time.
I just went back to the dell released driver 97.46 but the same thing happens. Guess I should be lucky to have it working at all!
Hopefully nVidia will fix this problem before they release vista ;)
John.

# re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by MEL March 09, 2007 @ 6:15 am

No joy here either. I was assuming it was because I was trying to hook up to an LCD TV, not a standard monitor, but maybe that has nothing to do with it. I was just about ready to sell the thing, so maybe I will hold off. Thanks for the input.

# re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by Sylvain Bujold March 09, 2007 @ 8:51 am

Just ordered my new laptop with an nVidia card and an extra monitor. guess I'll have fun setting that up.

# re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by Doug Dodge March 09, 2007 @ 9:16 am

Rick,

Well, for comparison I have a Radeon X550 from ATI (on my desktop) and it runs two monitors well. I do get an occassional (every 3-4 weeks or so) spontaneous reboot but I think it's related to IE7 (and maybe the video card). Perhaps Dell has another video card but I suppose they'd want to charge you for it. *bleh*

Good luck!

# re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by J Donnici March 09, 2007 @ 5:57 pm

Rick - Sorry I can't help, but your post has warned me... my home machine is an E1705 with the same video card. I've been contemplating the leap to Vista on this box and, while I very rarely use it with an external display, your post makes me want to hold off. Earlier today, I read on Omar Shahine's that he was having problems with NVidia's Vista drivers as well.

http://www.shahine.com/omar/IntelAndAMDOnVista.aspx

Really irritating that the drivers would be THAT bad from a major vendor, especially given that they've had RTM bits for four months now.

Jeff

PS -- While I'm using XP Pro, I do have to say that I'm very happy with this machine. I'm hopeful that with 2GB it will (eventually) make for a decent Vista machine.

# re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by DaveKay March 14, 2007 @ 9:34 am

My Nvidia worked fine with Vista 64 ultimate until I updated the drivers to Nvidia 100.65. Now the whole thing seems a bit flakey and dual monitor not working at all! I'm not going to waste any more time and just reinstall vista... The stock Nvidia driver that comes with Vista seems to work ok... I'll have to live without my digital vibrance for a while untill Nvidia get it sorted!

# re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by Sylvain Bujold March 19, 2007 @ 9:01 am

Rick,

I got a new laptop with a NVIDIA Quadro NVS 110M video card and I installed the nVidia drivers that was on Dell website for a Latitude D620 with Vista 32bit, so the version of the drivers is 7.15.10.9746.

The dual monitors works but Aero crashes (the dwm.exe crashes), so I have to use the Classic theme. Also, I had a hard time rotating the display on the 2nd monitor. It would make both screen blanks with the cursor in it flashing, similar behavior you mentioned in your post. After a couple of time resetting the display, it finally worked.

I got a windows update related to the monitor after I plugged it in, I think that helped the nVidia control panel working a bit better.

# re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by Daz Salt March 26, 2007 @ 2:13 am

Hi Rick,

I have exactly the same thing - but I'm not using an nVidia chipset - mine's am ATI Mobiliti Radeon X1800 on a Dell Inspiron XPS M2010. Running Vista, everything seems fine, stick a second monitor on and I get problems. 2nd monitor going off, main LCD going blank, desktop switching to whichever monitor it feels like, aero crashing etc.

I think this may be a more fundemental vista & 2nd monitor issue, probably aero related.

Anyone else think this could be the case ?

Daz.

# re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by Rick Strahl March 26, 2007 @ 2:43 am

Hmm... you have something there. Feel kinda silly that I hadn't tried this before myself, but when I turn Aero off, sure enough dual monitor support works just fine.

The odd thing is that it all seemed to be working fine before my original hardware problem with the nVidia card - well mostly anyway (the driver would still bonk occasionally, but it would do multple monitors).

# re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by Jordan Moss April 01, 2007 @ 6:44 pm

Nvidia Go 7600 after upgrade to vista everything graphically is down the tube.
Multi monitor barely works, if screen saver or lock machine then go back in it will the will flip monitors from left to right and change resolution on one or both of panels. Sometimes on after unlocking machine it will just flash the screen for a bit then go black I can move mouse pointer around but that is it. A workaround I use is press the power button causing the machine to enter sleep then when I resume it works again saves me losing my work.

Video playback of DVD/MPEG4 is also poor, especially when I connect to plasma as second monitor literally see blocks of pixels yuck...
On my other machine 7600GT same deal poor all round graphics performance...
I hope nVidia can come to the party and make a decent driver as this is totally giving a bad experience with Vista...
OMG I cannot believe that WHQL certified the driver in vista either...

# re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by Toby Deitrich April 02, 2007 @ 5:09 am

I have a Dell Inspiron E1505 with an NVIDIA GeForce Go 7300 display adapter and Vista. I am able to use dual displays (laptop screen & Dell 1702FP) to an annoyingly limited extent.

What I want is to run in extended desktop mode with the laptop display as the primary display on the right and the 1702FP display on the left.

Using the Windows Control Panel: If I go to the Vista display properties, I can drag the 1702FP to be on the left side where I want it, the laptop display remains on the right and is primary -- everything is fine. The problem arises anytime the screen has reason to turn off (e.g. if I lock the screen, hibernate, restart, log out, etc) in which case the configuration always resets and the 1702FP reverts to the right side.

Using the NVIDIA Control Panel: I am supposed to be able to specify which display is left/right and which is primary. The NVIDIA control panel allows me to place the 1702FP on the left where I want it, but always makes it primary, even though I'm telling it to make the laptop display primary.

# re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by Rick Strahl April 02, 2007 @ 12:09 pm

Toby I think you can do that with the newer drivers from nVidia, but not the stock Windows drivers that install in Vista via Windows Update. The newer drivers have the full nVidia control panel that allows placement etc.

But beware of the newer drivers not being stable <s>.

# re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by Firestorm April 02, 2007 @ 5:44 pm

Yep, I got the same problem running a GeForce 7600 on a Toshiba A100-SK9. Worked perfectly fine in XP, constantly shuts down and restarts screen on Vista =/ Ugh.

# re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by Hugie April 05, 2007 @ 9:49 am

I'm using a Dell Latitude Laptop with nVidia 110 card. it took me ages to get anything that even looks as though it is working (blank external monitor after resume from hibernation or reboot), but i think i've sorted it:
1 turn off everything that might look like Aero (eg glass, those 3D previews, thumbnails)
2 use Vista Control Panel (sn the standard nVidia control panel i can't see how to move screens around so as to place one underneath the other)
3 reduce the refresh rate of the external monitor - this last seemed to be the one that made the difference; when i set it up the laptop gets its refresh rate from the external monitor, but after that it sets it to th ehighest refresh rate it can think of which the external monitor doesn't support.
4 hope that nVidia bring out a Vista driver that works real soon

Hope this helps

Hugo

# re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by J. Quick April 13, 2007 @ 6:35 am

2) Second option, in case you don't find the latest drivers. Here is a temporary solution. Do not let the Windows TMM manage your multiple monitors. To do that... Go to Task Scheduler, in Active Task List, Find TMM task line, disable it - trigger on logon disabled (or delete it - save/export task before do it). Bingo, restart your windows, problem solved. Now you have your settings working.
The only inconvenient in this solution is that Windows will not recognize automatically the unplug/plug monitor. It's not a problem for people who use two monitors plugged most the time.

# re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by ScottyDog April 21, 2007 @ 10:50 am

Did anyone notice that the taskbar/system tray utility has been eliminated in Vista that allows you to change from clone to dual view and many other on the fly changes?

I have contacted NVIDIA numerous times and they will not admit that have eliminated this system tray utility. Frankly, NVIDIA has screwed all multi monitor customers with the crappy drivers for vista.

My computer constantly crashes with the latest drivers 158.18 and getting my multi monitors to work is futile.

I purchased a XFX 7600 GT for Vista and it is a useless hunk of silicon. This will be my last NVIDIA video card. They treat their customers like shit and refuse to answer emails or support the customer after you buy their useless cards in Vista. WinXP works fine.

I do not know how they expect to survive in the multi monitor market with their new control panel, which is useless for daily use. I guess I will go back to ATI.

Any suggestions for a good ATI card for Vista?

# DotNetSlackers: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by DotNetSlackers Latest ASP.NET News April 24, 2007 @ 8:40 pm

# re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by b May 10, 2007 @ 6:44 am

Have a Dell Precision M90 with nvidia 3500 card. I use the laptop display on the left (secondary) and a planar LCD on the right (primary).
Primary monitor will not stay primary. I have also noticed some other whacky stuff.
I have used the microsoft driver and the nvidia driver (7.15.10.9809) without any luck.
Used XP without much problems with the dual monitors, but this is driving me crazy.

Interesting thing is the control panel that nvidia provides does not allow for the monitors to swapped (default is external monitor on the left and the "default" primary on the right). I have to use the vista controls to make the swap. This could be the reason why the wierd behavior.

# re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by roger bly May 11, 2007 @ 5:02 am

J. Quick's work-around saved me on this issue. Thanks. Disabling TMM restored multi-monitor for me.

My config is:
3-monitor, dual 7800 GTX, Nvidia driver 7.15.11.5818, Vista 64-bit with latest updates,

Things were/are working fine on linux with the latest nvidia drivers. It does look like Nvidia still has some work to do on their vista drivers.

# re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by Vista May 17, 2007 @ 7:47 am

I have an integrated video card and using vista without any driver (I mean I haven't install any display driver.)
I can only use the external monitor in 'extended desktop' mode, so I can drag&drop windows to it, but as it is not the primary monitor I can't use it as a real monitor because everything (the desktop, start menu...) is on the primary monitor.
I want to use it as a normal primary monitor as before with XP because the notebook's a very small monitor.
I appreciate any ideas.

# re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by Mark May 28, 2007 @ 3:00 pm

I had multi monitor working reasonably well - other then I had to swap the monitors on my desk as every time the machine rebooted it put the external monitor on the right (I orignally had it on the lef) . After a windows update the whole graphics system crashed if I even plugged in the external monitor. I finally fixed the problem by going into the device manager and disabling the default monitor when I re pluged my monitor everything came up working in Multi mode again . It re installed a new default monitor in the device manager & I deleted the old one.
Hope this helps

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re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by Rick Strahl May 28, 2007 @ 6:14 pm

Hi Mark, interesting. In my case unfortunately the monitor is not the problem - I can plug in an external monitor and it actually works as long as Aero is not enabled. Things start going wrong only with dual monitors and separate monitor output AND Aero on.

I hate nVidia - what kind of a major periphial company can possibly get away with not having release Vista drivers nearly over a half a year after Vista went RTM?

# Colour problems
by Birdman May 30, 2007 @ 9:50 am

Hi guys -

I've been searching the web for people who might know what's going on with dual monitor setups. I have a dell e520 dual-core Pentium D 3.0ghz running 32bit Windows Vista. I installed an Nvidia Quadro FX 3400 but the DVI 1 output does not display colours properly, (red and whites seem to be missing - everything is a shade of greeny-blue!). The other DVI output works perfectly, as do the rest of the card's functions.

Do you think it's a driver problem? i've tried installing another graphics card and I get the same problems... maybe Nvidia need to release new drivers for vista?!

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re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by Christian June 04, 2007 @ 6:40 am

Well. Seems like there is a lot of issues.
I have a Dell D620, nVidia nvs 110M and two monitors.
Aero is working like a sharm om both my screens but I want my external 20" (right screen) to be my primary.
Did that with nVidia control panel and perfect, it is the primary. BUT it is located on the left side in Windows settings.. Soo, I just switched the screens and it works UNTIL I logoff, reboot or LOCK my PC. 2 seconds after I log back on again the external monitor is on the left side again!! Waaa..??

# re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by Ami Schreiber June 06, 2007 @ 8:48 pm

I have been having the same issues you guys seem to be having.

I own a DELL XPS m1210 notebook and it has an NVIDIA GeForce Go 7400 video card. I am pretty certain that this issue is caused by bad NVIDIA drivers. The reason? After I have to do a hard shutdown all of my display settings are lost. I have an external monitor plugged into my notebook and I have it set to be my primary display and my notebook's LCD to be the secondary (to the left of the primary). When Vista comes up again, everything is screwey. My external monitor has it's resolution set to 1200x800 instead of 1280x1024 and it's set as the secondary display to the left of my notebook LCD instead of to the right.

If this were strictly a Vista power management bug then why do I keep losing my display settings when Vista comes back up??? I even tried saving the display settings and rebooting just to make sure that they were being stored in the registry after restarting normally -and everything is fine each time I restart! It's only when this weird "lockup" thing happens that all of my settings disappear.

There is nothing in the event log that tells me anything and it only happens after my computer has been idle for SEVERAL HOURS (+6). If I leave it idle for like 1-3 hours and wiggle my mouse my display turns back on and everything seems to be fine. In fact, I am pretty certain that my computer NEVER even goes into sleep/suspend/hibernation b/c I have all those settings turned off when it's plugged in so this is clearly an issue dealing with the display not turning back on after an extended period of time.

# re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by miranda June 08, 2007 @ 1:00 pm

I have a dell inspiron 9400 with ATI card. Everything is working fine after upgraded to Vista. But only one issue I have. Every morning my monitors switches and I have to configure them again. No matter I shutdown or hibernate the vista its not saving the configuration.

# re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by Lewis Roberts June 09, 2007 @ 5:27 am

The Dell E520 motherboard doesn't support dual DDC channels as I discovered to my cost after investing in an upgraded PCIE graphics card that I couldn't use properly.

Read more: http://www.lewisroberts.com/?p=83

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re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by Bruce Toogood June 18, 2007 @ 4:44 pm

Hello:

I had no problems for over the last year with dual monitors in XP on my Inspiron 9400/Nvidia Go7800 laptop.... I upgraded to Vista this weekend (not having seen this thread first) and now I'm also experiencing the same "loss of configuration" for dual monitors when ever the machine is turned off or goes into sleep mode.

At this point, I'm working with a fresh build of Vista having only installed windows updates (i didn't install the dell vista nvidia driver on their site cause it was dated January 2007 and I figured Windows update would have an updated driver - and there was an updated driver that was installed.

I've also had instances where the display driver crashes (a little warning in my system tray alerts me). So, I just figured I needed to grab a different driver. On my XP install i used a mobileforce driver from tweaksrus.com and it worked fabulously. What vista driver is best for the Go7800?

I expect no matter what, the dual monitor support will not work still. I think it's a Microsoft problem not Nvidia per se as other people posting here using ATI cards and have the same dual monitor support so it doesn't sound like a video card driver issue but an OS bug? Anyways, I'd appreciate any driver suggestions?

# re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by Hurricane Andrew June 20, 2007 @ 9:00 am

Christian,

Exactly the same thing here. Dual monitors working great with my Dell Laptop and external Dell monitor, Aero, Flip3D, everything is fine. Then, if the screensaver kicks in and locks the PC, or if I logoff or reboot, the monitors flip and I have to reset the external LCD as the primary display. I guess considering some other issues people are having, I should be pretty happy with a minor inconvienence.

# re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by kevin June 22, 2007 @ 10:35 am

Latitude D820, nVidia nv120
Latest Driver from Dell website seems to fix this problem. (R157686)

I had to run the setup.exe as WinXp compatible, and I got one blue screen... but after that so far so good (crosses fingers).

# re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by Ryan A. June 23, 2007 @ 10:24 pm

Man this is a big boat!

Running new HP nx9420 w/ ATI Mobiliti Radeon X1600, dual external ViewSonic 20" Wide. I have been pulling my hair out for a week now. My monitors tell me that the signal is out of range when trying to connect, can't put refresh rate about 60 and dug around a lot of papers on that issue and why up to this point. Haven;t tried turning off aero nor TMM. Hoping that when I go into work on Monday that one or both of these possibilities will work..

RA

# re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by gazeteler June 30, 2007 @ 10:30 am

My Nvidia worked fine with Vista 64 ultimate until I updated the drivers to Nvidia 100.65. Now the whole thing seems a bit flakey and dual monitor not working at all! I'm not going to waste any more time and just reinstall vista... The stock Nvidia driver that comes with Vista seems to work ok... I'll have to live without my digital vibrance for a while untill Nvidia get it sorted

# re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by ginger July 09, 2007 @ 3:00 pm

I have Asus p5B-VM DO Mobo with 7600GT and Vista 32. I can't even get the secondary monitor option in NVidia control panel, let alone see if it works!! Have tried about 5 versions of drivers from MV and ASUS too. What a load of crap. I'll NEVER buy Nvidia again, if ATI works then I'll go and get me one of those. AVOID !!

# re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by Ami Schreiber July 10, 2007 @ 12:10 pm

I have been checking DELL's website every day for months to see if an updated nVidia display dirver would be posted and they finally put a new one up on 7/8/2007. Only time will tell if they actually fixed the issues.

# re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by dcp July 10, 2007 @ 2:28 pm

Hi,

I'm thinking of buying one of the new Dell Inspiron laptops (e1520) and I want to buy an extra monitor and run in multimon mode. My plan was to buy a nVidia 256M card, and that appears to be the only option for the Inspiron e1520 at this point if you want 256M.

However, this multimon thing is pretty important to me, and after reading the horrific stories in this thread I'm a bit nervous that it's not going to work. What's more, I'd like to be able to use a docking station with the Inspiron and I've heard all the horror stories about aero glass not working when you use a dock because of the WDDM driver requirement.

So in summary, my goal is to run the Insprion in docked, multimon mode, with aero glass enabled. Is this even possible, or just a pipe dream?

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re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by Rick Strahl July 10, 2007 @ 2:40 pm

I still haven't been able to resolve this issue and there are others in the same boat. OTOH, there are also other people who are running similar setups and having it work.

I suspect this might be issues with this particular video card, but who knows. At this point I suppose your best bet is just to get what you need and make sure you try it out immediately for the video setup you want and return if it doesn't work.

#

re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by JP July 11, 2007 @ 6:55 am

I think this is the forum I've been looking for. I just bought a 28" Viewsonic external monitor for my Dell M1710 with a 7900gtx. It's running Vista 64. When I connect the monitor to my DVI output (DVI to HDMI cable) all that happens is that on my laptop, the screen just flickers over and over as it detects and undetects the monitor (kind of like plugging in and unplugging a usb device over and over it makes that sound). I was convinced it was the monitor until I a) booted up XP and it worked fine and b) connected it via VGA and it worked fine. I want to run vista and I want to run dvi->hdmi but it looks like I won't be able to. I'm running the latest nvidia drivers. Its nearly impossible to even get to any settings b/c of the screen flickering.

# re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by blahgoose July 23, 2007 @ 10:54 am

I have actually got dual monitors to barely work on Vista(Nvidia WHQL 160.xx 32-bit vista drivers) , Nvidia 6150 LE card.

But its not perfect.

#1 The 2nd monitor , a 19" widescreen, runs natively at 1440 x 900. The background does not fit the whole screen.

#2 I am trying to ROTATE the monitor so it's vertical( the nvidia control panel ) and it just doesn't rotate at all. Sometimes it even makes my monitors extremely dim so I have to hibernate them to get the brightness back.

I bet it's not even supported...

# re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by OzTex August 10, 2007 @ 8:15 am

I've got the same problem as everyone else... evertime I lock or move the computer the monitors switch sides. (Im on Vista on a Dell 620)

Has anyone tried the new driver, and did it fix the problem?

thanks

# re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by Bruce Toogood August 11, 2007 @ 3:58 pm

I just checked both dell.ca and dell.com for the latest driver for the Go7800 card and for both, the "latest" driver is January 2007!!!! Unbelievable.

#

re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by Rick Strahl August 11, 2007 @ 8:01 pm

Tell me about it! <s>

The January driver is evil. I've been using 101.41 which is much better. There are newer drivers but most of the other ones have not improved the situation for the go 7800.

# re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by mark August 16, 2007 @ 5:21 pm

Thank you! I was experiencing screen flashes when I used my KVM to switch between computers after I installed Vista. After disabling TMM, it stopped!

# re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by Jizeta August 23, 2007 @ 12:29 pm

Has anyone tried to fix the problems with this driver http://drivers.softpedia.com/get/GRAPHICS-BOARD/NVIDIA/NVIDIA-32bit-ForceWare-GeForce-Go-15607.shtml ?

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re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by Sebastian September 07, 2007 @ 2:43 am

OMG screw nvidia, i thought id try out vista but i didnt want to get rid of XP (since there are so many bugs for vista) so i made a partition and a dual boot, vista starts up all fine got dual screen happening so as you do i updated my nvidia driver. next thing #*@!&^.... my 2nd 22' Chimei screen is blank. so i go into XP to have a look and my 2nd screen still doesnt work! even when im booting up windows the load bar doesnt appear! it looks like the connection of this screen is broken or something because even when i plug it into a working output its still blank, but i checked everything, the screen is on and everything just says 'no output' and this all started after updating my nvidia driver. please help, i have a 7900gt and my primary(working) screen is a benq FP7Ig+S

# re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by Marc September 10, 2007 @ 3:33 am

I just purchased a Dell Inspiron 1520 with a nVidia 8600GT and Vista crashes with blue screen when I plug a external monitor, in a few seconds! Dell have a driver update of july but does not solve the problem.

# re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by Shawn September 18, 2007 @ 9:00 am

I have a Latitude D820, and my company cheaped out so I only have the onboard Intel video. I'm experiencing the same issues as you, so I think it's not an nVidia issue, but rather a Vista issue. I just disabled TMM so hopefully that will do the trick, because it really is annoying.

# re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by Minus September 25, 2007 @ 1:42 pm

I have an XfX Geforce 7900 GT Xtreme edition, and Vista Ultimate, still I can't use my second monitor. When I turn on the option, I get a grey, flickering screen etc... I tried ALL the drivers, tried without NV drivers... none worked... I'm Guessing this is a microsoft issue.. and hope it gets solved soon...

# re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by Bolita September 26, 2007 @ 11:31 am

I wish I would have found this before.

I have a Sony Vaio VGN-FZ180U, dual core 2.0 ghz, Vista Ultimate 32bit and have the same issue as described above. When I plug in a second monitor it crashes for no reason (BSOD)

I have not been able to download updates from nVidia (as when I try to install, I get a message stating that my system is not 32 bit -it is btw) and Sony has no updates.

Today, for the first time, I did get a message after reboot stating the the broblem that created the crash is Windows realted (so it may not be a nVidia driver issue). My card is a GeForce 8400 GT

# re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by alberto October 07, 2007 @ 8:56 am

I have vista ultimate 32bit, video card GeForce 7900 GT (driver 163.69).
When I extend desktop on second monitor (Dual view) I get a flickering screen (no BOSD).
Everythings go well if I turn to clone monitor.

# re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by Subaru October 14, 2007 @ 8:35 am

alberto, mine is doing it aswell.

(ASUS G1 - 7700Go 512 - Vista Ulti - Laptop Display & BenQ FP92W)

# re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by Mine Too October 16, 2007 @ 12:07 pm

My Dell Inspiron 6400 (new) with Intel chip is doing the same thing. Plug in a second monitor and the system crashes if I play video or sound (okay with still images).

Dell support says it is Vista. Microsoft support says it is Dell.

# re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by alberto October 22, 2007 @ 2:04 am

Problem solved.
Vista did not correctly identify the second monitor.
Screen was seen as Plug and Play monitor.
You have to install right drivers, use Power Strip.
This program helps you to recognize drivers directly from monitor and allows to save them.
When you have correct driver, only update them.
In display properties, double click on monitor to activate.
Now Vista identifies second monitor and You can manage extend desktop.

# re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by -kds October 26, 2007 @ 9:20 am

what is Power Strip? I have the same prob but am using the intel chipset. Can you walk me through it?

Thanks!

# re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by alberto October 26, 2007 @ 11:17 am

look here (power strip 3.7 site)
http://www.entechtaiwan.com/util/ps.shtm

# re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by Benton. December 08, 2007 @ 7:10 pm

I've got a Pavilion dv6000 with stock cards, and I used to run an extended desktop to a flat panel TV all the time using an S-Video cable. It worked great until today, when I tried to switch my graphics output to notebook+television, no signal went to my screen. Sucks.

# re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by Themetria January 28, 2008 @ 1:58 am

I have a similar issue with my own machine. I use a 22" widescreen monitor with another 17" monitor as dual monitor setup within Windows Vista. Previously, these two monitors have been working together without any issue with the 22" as primary with a 1280x1028 resolution and the 17" as secondary with 1080x768 resolution. All of a sudden, I decide to go downstairs and wash my car, come back to my computer when I'm done and turn it on to find my 17" being the primary monitor and the 22" not receiving any signal within Vista. When I reboot the computer, the 22" shows all the CPU loading information like POST, and the Microsoft Windows loading screen but once Vista actually loads after that, it shuts off and the 17" takes over.

After several hours of swearing and yelling at my computer, I had completely erased every trace of nVidia drivers from my machine. I reinstall drivers and manage to get the 22" as primary and 17" as secondary again, but with a problem: the 17" can scale up to the high resolution my primary used to use, and the primary now can only scale to what the 17" used to use - 1024x768. Nothing I do will allow my 22" to choose 1280x1024 like it always used to. At the moment, my computer is just sitting there left on, with a million display configuration screens on. Maybe if I leave it alone, while I play with my laptop, it'll fix itself the same way it broke itself... mysteriously... while it was powered off...

I hate Vista.

# re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by Phil Gandini January 30, 2008 @ 10:12 am

I just wanted to add my bit of personal frustration to this list of bad Vista experiences. I have a massive Dell XPS 720 H2C, quad core, dual nVidia 3/4Gig video cards, the works...3 screens: 2x20" and 1x30". And Vista in Aero mode crashes the whole machine at least once a day. Always a video problem. I've removed Aero and we'll see if it works. Seems to run cooler already, and a little faster, which are both good signs.

# re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by Åge February 02, 2008 @ 1:56 am

How do you connect the external monitor, with DVI cable or VGA cable?
If you connect the external monitor with DVI cable you might run into the problems you have as Vista suffers from DVI support.
If you connect the external monitor with DVI, try to connect it with VGA instead. You can use a DVI-VGA converter to apply the analog signal from the laptop to the monitor.

Vista do not like drivers with full support for the DVI standard and causes the system to crash, like you now are experiencing.

Regards
Åge, who has just solved a similar problem with a PC by the above mentioned way.

# re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by Rompas February 07, 2008 @ 4:23 am

*Sigh* Finally got a new PC after waiting seven years to upgrade (yes the old one is now in a museum....), worked great for a few weeks, then had exactly the same problem as Themetria. At least it's not just me - I was starting to think given that I now work in testing that I had learnt to break things too well and must have been subconsciously bringing work home with me....

Maybe it's time to learn to surf instead?

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re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by Sam Hodges March 17, 2008 @ 8:31 pm

I picked up a new Samsung Syncmaster 920BM monitor as a second monitor for video instruction on Photoshop. My primary monitor is an Eizo CE240W. When I downloaded the Samsung driver it migrated to the primary monitor, so that now my Eizo primary is running on the Samsung driver, and the Samsung secondary is running on the Eizo driver. This is so even though I configured the Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS control panel with configure seperately with Eizo + Samsung with Eizo as the primary. I have switched the cables, uninstalled all drivers and reinstalled, tried to swap displays using the number 1 and 2 option. I uninstalled Colorvision Spyder 2 Pro and reinstalled it. It even verified the calibration of the Eizo monitor with Samsung Driver and the Samsung monitor with Generic driver which I assume is Eizo since Eizo driver was always described as PnP Generic in the Nvidia control panel. I am running Windows Vista Ultimate 32 bit OS with 2.4 G Quad Intel Processor with 3GB Ram. Any suggestions will be appreciated. Incidently, the system works fine and the monitor calibration prints well as is. Should I leave the hell alone?

# re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by Mark June 19, 2008 @ 4:47 pm

"have a similar issue with my own machine. I use a 22" widescreen monitor with another 17" monitor as dual monitor setup within Windows Vista. Previously, these two monitors have been working together without any issue with the 22" as primary with a 1280x1028 resolution and the 17" as secondary with 1080x768 resolution. All of a sudden, I decide to go downstairs and wash my car, come back to my computer when I'm done and turn it on to find my 17" being the primary monitor and the 22" not receiving any signal within Vista. When I reboot the computer, the 22" shows all the CPU loading information like POST, and the Microsoft Windows loading screen but once Vista actually loads after that, it shuts off and the 17" takes over.

After several hours of swearing and yelling at my computer, I had completely erased every trace of nVidia drivers from my machine. I reinstall drivers and manage to get the 22" as primary and 17" as secondary again, but with a problem: the 17" can scale up to the high resolution my primary used to use, and the primary now can only scale to what the 17" used to use - 1024x768. Nothing I do will allow my 22" to choose 1280x1024 like it always used to. At the moment, my computer is just sitting there left on, with a million display configuration screens on. Maybe if I leave it alone, while I play with my laptop, it'll fix itself the same way it broke itself... mysteriously... while it was powered off...

I hate Vista."

Ditto, yet I was out of town. This has to do something with Vista updates as it worked fine until I, Finally, updated this past weekend. On boot up, the bios is avail. on my 22" screen then the same screen goes blank after vista starts up. At that point only the 15" monitor is avail to use. Trying to use display settings and extending my monitor to the 22" screen is rediculus, vista will not even recognize it. the option to change the resolution is unresponsive, stuck at 800 x 600 on the 22" monitor. double clicking the second monitor to bring up advanced settings, reveals that options are unavail for change. This is a nightmare. hoping to find a solution as I can at this point only work with dual monitors. Do it at work as well as at home, until now!

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re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by Oliver July 14, 2008 @ 2:49 am

After reading thousands of posts on this topic. I feel i know the reason of the bug. Vista or the Nvidia driver can't recognize the older monitor types with DVI support. So the systerm switching the video card back to analog output even if you are using the DVI cable. So if you change your cable back to the blue VGA one you will get your monitor working. Another solution is using a DVI-VGA converter.

My sytem

Vista 64 home
Nvidia 7800GT
Samsung 240T primary 1920x1200 DVI cable DIGITAL SIGNAL
AgNeovo F-419 secondary 1200x1024 DVI cable ANALOG SIGNAL

So my vista can't identify my 4 years old Neovo at all, and it using some generic monitor driver for it. Even if if change cables, DVI connectors, rebooting with only the old monitor, even when im staning on my head.

I think if your monitor dont support analog signal via DVI cable you wont get picture at all.

Good luck :)

# re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by Adam White August 18, 2008 @ 8:41 am

Im in the same boat tring to run dual monitors in vista I've done everything I can short of throwing the computer out the window, I think the only thing could be is the drivers at this piont anyway it looks like it!

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re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by Misha August 22, 2008 @ 11:54 am

Well, I will chime in here and see what I can learn. No help from Microsoft or NVIDIA on their sites. So I am running Windows Vista Ultimate x64 with NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT x2 (dual video cards SLI) and got my shiny new 22" Acer Monitor to sit beside my shiny new LG 20" monitor. Vista (via the NVIDIA controls) sees both monitors, BUT I can only choose single view one or the other monitor. I have absolutely no choice for dual, clone, nada, zip, zero...I am at work so when I get home I will try some of the suggestions I see on here. And I have the latest drivers from NVIDIA so perhaps that is a problem?

Peace

# re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by rocohopo August 24, 2008 @ 12:22 pm

On a clean 32 vista family install with the nVidia driver form the CD (9800 GX2) and then updated via window update with "new" nVidia drivers, dual monito didnt work with any combiantion or GAV/DVI cables for my two monitors.

Impossible to change anything with the nVidia interface.

I uninstalled the drivers and then re-installed the latest drivers direct from nVidia, rebooted and then did sense some differance at startup, but still the 2nd screen was blank.

The display properties only indicated one screen, but in the nVidia interface I could now enable multi screens, once done, hey presto, in the windows display props I could now enable the 2nd display and finally have dual screen operational.

Worked for me on a clean install.

Cheers

# re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by Mike August 24, 2008 @ 9:57 pm

Same problem here, maybe the new drivers have fixed it. DVI on one and Analog on the other work fine, but i want DVI for both...Time for me to give it a go.

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re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by Rye September 19, 2008 @ 11:10 am

i have the same problem. its such a shame that i cant use my hp notebook with a projector or lcd monitor.

my system specs:
hp dv6500t
Vista Home Premium with latest updates (SP1 included)
nvidia 8400GS with latest driver released from HP

# re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by Joe E Stephens October 09, 2008 @ 4:11 pm

Have you tried these drivers... I had trouble with my ATI Radeon until I switched to Modded drivers from NGO. They also offer tray tools for your graphics tweak.

http://downloads.guru3d.com/GeForce-ForceWare-178.15-Vista-64-bit-download-2083.html

# re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by Joe E Stephens October 09, 2008 @ 4:13 pm

You can also find other useful graphics tools at the homesite

http://downloads.guru3d.com/

# re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by greg October 26, 2008 @ 5:43 am

Disabling TMM works! Thanks! Finally it works, I've been living for over 6 months with this nasty problem.

# re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by Noel October 27, 2008 @ 8:16 pm

I'm having major problems with Vista x64 and the Quadro FX 3400 card using dual Dell LCD monitors connected with DVI links. I've already diabled TMM to no good effect.

The old (ca. 2006) drivers that came as part of Windows seem to work and run Aero quite snappily, but some stuff is buggy. These just seem immature and outdated.

The newest drivers are slow as molasses, and some GPU functions just don't work.

All versions cause the signal to go wacko on monitor number 1, as it flashes on and off very irritatingly when you get a bunch of windows on screen. It only happens very rarely with the 2006 drivers, but it's virtually constant with the latest from nVidia.

I've even tried a second card, thinking that the first one was faulty, to no avail.

<B>Could nVidia really be releasing such awful support for this expensive card for Vista x64 here?</b> These cards cost over a thousand dollars when they were new just a few years ago. Now you can't even push a 2D window around on the screen with it!

-Noel

# re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by Noel October 29, 2008 @ 5:46 am

Follow-up to previous message:

1. I spent a whole day intensively debugging and investigating this problem. I came to the conclusion, because of the way the various driver downloads eliminated or changed parts of the problems, that the nVidia drivers reall are at fault.

2. I went down and bought an ATI Radeon HD 4670 card. It installed beautifully and my computer is now not only perfectly stable running across 2 monitors, but faster than it ever has been.

Public message to nVidia: Your policy of releasing drivers for older cards without doing enough testing to ensure they are even basically stable is ridiculous. If you're going to sell in the 64 bit market, you need to realize your audience isn't teenage gamers, but mature professionals who expect nothing less than functional perfection and stability, NOT JUST THE APPEARANCE OF IT. You lost a customer yesterday (me) who was once willing to send you not hundreds but THOUSANDS of dollars. You can bet the video card I'll be buying next time won't be nVidia either. :(

-Noel

# re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by steven November 23, 2008 @ 4:46 am

have hade the same problem with quad moniters
i have come to realise there is no other way until nvidia fix there problem
but its like windows is not saving my settings because as soon as some recent update installed every time i restart all my moniters dont show up just reverts back to default
dont know , cant help sorry ,
feels better headbutting a brickwall

if someone has the answer please respond
head is starting to hurt. :)

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re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by ash January 28, 2009 @ 7:44 pm

just reading this blog and wondering if anyone has solved this problem yet - now that it is 2009. My Dell Inspiron 1720 stopped working in dual monitor mode - I changed drivers, then had to uninstall all nvidia drivers using driver cleaner pro. Then it worked! For a week, and halfway through working on it, the monitor went blank. Have once again spent hours trying different nvidia drivers, but it wont respond. It does work at home when I plug a monitor through a KVM switch - but wont work if monitor is plugged direct. not good as a mobile solution for using projectors - if I have to carry a KVM switch as well...I currently have a very nice ultrasharp dell monitor on my desk which is blank...

# re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by Edwiser February 02, 2009 @ 9:03 am

I have a Dell optiplex 745 that has onboard video and an Nvidia GeForce 5500. worked great for dual monitors under XP buit after an upgrade to vist will no longer work. If anyone has any experience with the 5500, vist and Dual monitors it would be appreciated.

# re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by zameen February 06, 2009 @ 6:34 pm

wow ! i wish i'd come across this website earlier today. i've been head banging all day over this issue. we bought a projector recently. i took it out of the box thinking OMG how do i get this thing to work ? we want to watch movies via the computer onto the wall. so i think to myself ...let's play "blonde" ! i look at the stuff from the box and let's see ...this plugs in here (because it fits here) and this plugs in here ...ok so now let's turn everything on. viola ! my laptop running XP projects a 'better than i thought it would' image on my wall. SOOO simple ! ok so now my desk is cluttered with all this stuff and i think ...why not hook up the projector to my desktop pc which runs Vista. i'll gain lots of desk space ! i'm using a sparkle graphics card of which i downloaded the latest nvidia drivers, recommended by everest software. i need the shader 3.0 technology to play lost via domus, which is why i bought the sparkle. a real deal at just 25$. all day i've tried to get the projector working through it. at one point i can see my desktop behind me on the wall. at another point when i double click ..say ...my skype icon on my computer, it opens up behind me on the second monitor on the wall ! i've decided to go back to my old radeon and use the ati drivers. the fan on it is a bit loud which is why i bought the sparkle, but i don't think i'm gonna mind the sound of it once i can turn up the volume on the surround sound :) i'll likely come back here for any advice others have to offer on this subject. thanks to all who have already posted here, and good darn luck with vista, it sux for sure !

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re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by Keith February 21, 2009 @ 5:10 am

I recently bought an Optoma 720p projector for use with my HP Pavillion Dv6527ea running Vista and Nvidia Geforce 7150m series onboard graphics. Dedicated video memory 64MB, System video memory 0MB, Shared system memory 735 MB.
Needless to say the dual monitor function which works perfectly with my partner's HP Pavilion running GeForce on XP does not work properly on mine in Vista.
On attaching the projector the resolution on my laptop drops so far that the cursor becomes an inch long and there is only enough room on the 17" screen for 4 huge icons.
This means that although I can run the Nvidia control panel multiple display page, I can't get to any of the buttons because they are some feet below the screen!
Disconnecting the VGA cable to the projector returns the laptop screen resolution to normal and for a fraction of a second I can see two monitor icons on the multiple display page, then just one.
I downloaded fresh drivers from HP but it didn't help.
I haven't found a mention of this problem on my trawl through the impressive number of rants against Nvidia.
All help gratefully received.

# re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by jsmith February 26, 2009 @ 12:29 pm

run [right click] RUN AS ADMINISTRATOR "nvidia control panel" from start/all programs/NVIDIA Corporation/etc...

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re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by Ric April 15, 2009 @ 1:53 pm

Evening all,

Just wondered if anyone had found an effective way arount this problem?

I read the thread, tried the TMM thing but it seems to make no difference. Presently using a Nvidia 8800 GTS. Each monitor works but not at the same time and not dual. The 2nd monitor just goes into power saving mode looking for a signal.

Any ideas?

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re: nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
by adam davies May 11, 2009 @ 4:34 am

geforce 9800 gx2
this is my video card it has hdmi i have a plasma tv with hdmi i have a cord to connect one to the other.
my nvidia settings have 1 option for single screen.
there should be a 2nd an 3rd options, clone and dualview.
i want dualview , why cant i find it.
stupid hdmi cord cost me 90 bux