BSOD

[Slytod]

Well, didn’t find the enthusiasm (nor the time) to turn off the PC and open it up all week, so brought it with me to my woman’s place this weekend in the expectation of getting it done here at some point. Unfortunately a session at the pub last night, trying to match pint for pint with an old friend, means I’ve not felt up to tackling it today; expecting to feel more like it tomorrow. In fairness, once installed, it ought to be tested on my usual set-up, so that’ll be Tuesday, or more realistically, Wednesday.

[veeg]

Ok…thanks for the update.

[Slytod]

Well have changed the hardware; not fired it up and installed the software yet. May wait until I get back home.
I knew the new card was smaller, just the one fan etc. (makes one wonder if one’s going in the right direction) but I was surprised to find it took just one power lead. The older one took two ! Does that seem right ?

A different cable was supplied too, but I think that’s the optional adaptor they refer too. I didn’t use it but simply used the existing cable that fitted the socket I found on the new card. Again, does that seem ok ?

Well if it doesn’t go <BANG !> later it should be ok.

[veeg]

Yes the newer vid cards do not take as much power these days. Yes the existing power lead cable shouldn’t be an issue.. These haven’t changed much over the years.

[Slytod]

Ok… Sometimes I have to hold my hand up and admit to having not checked properly. Was convinced I had adaptors enough to connect both monitors to the new board without a problem, but either I don’t, or at least I can’t find them.

Previously 2 DVI sockets meant one monitor plugged in directly, the older one with the VGA plug connected via a VGA to DVI adaptor. Now with just 1 DVI socket I either need a DVI splitter or a VGA (or DVi) adaptor to either HDMi or DisplayPort. (Unsure where my nearest PC shop is.) But: any thoughts on which adaption would be preferable ?

Oh… and a nasty thought. If I went for a DVI splitter how do I assure different images sent to each monitor and not a unhelpful copy of one screen on both ?

[Bruce]

the DVI splitter is connected to one video port, so you’d only get the same source on whatever gets connected to the splitter.

[Slytod]

Ah. Thanks. The spec mentioned dual link DVI. Interpreted that as having dual data stream.
Have now read up on it and it’s apparently a second stream of data to the same monitor in order to bump up the possible resolution. Ah well…

Got impatient and turned it on with one monitor. Seems ok but won’t be able to do comparison testing until the system is as before.

[Bruce]

Ah, hang on there, a splitter is not the same as a dual-link adapter.
With a dual-link, it plugs into a ‘special’ DVI port and Yes, you can run 2 monitors of the same port.
It’s an area I only play with occasionally, so I’m a bit rusty.
You have DVI-D and DVI-I ports, and for dual link, I think you need a special port on a capable card, requiring that special cable to ‘split’ it to two monitors.

[Slytod]

Ah ok. Encouraged me to look at the spec again and I now see it says ‘DVI-D = Digital Only. Please do not connect to “DVI to VGA” adapter’, so I guess that rules out that option. I think I’d rather avoid having two adaptors in series so I’ll see if I can get an inexpensive DisplayPort to VGA adaptor. Will have to buy on Net though so it’ll be a few days even if all goes ok.

Only just thought to check. Should I expect the graphics board fan to not be turning ? I thought it would be on permanently.

[Slytod]

Right. Received the DisplayPort to VGA adaptor today. Initially all seemed ok, but it has led to a further question to add to the ones above.

Since the size of things, windows etc. seemed larger on the Hitachi CM802E I opted to up the resolution. The size of things changed ok but the top and bottom of the screen was suddenly no longer used. Despite a reboot and a revert back to the recommended resolution, the screen still has unused portions top & bottom. Any ideas/solutions ? Thanks.

Hmmm… I’ve resized the screen on the second montor using the control buttons on the front; but still don’t understand why a change of resolution in the settings window caused the issue in the first place. Meanwhile a window crossing the two screens clearly changes size. It may be my memory but I don’t recall it being so pronounced before. Things seemed to be on the same level at much the same height. Perhaps I’ll just put up with it. Few things need to be across both screens anyway.

[Slytod]

I played the game that tends to crash out last night. I suspect not for long enough; difficult to get interested in it again just yet. One needs a break before going back to an old favourite. But it didn’t crash. I’m unsure what to make of that. Unfortunately I shan’t be around for a little while now, so I won’t be able to test it further just yet.

Meanwhile though, I’d appreciate anyone’s thoughts on the questions posed above if you can shed light on them. i.e. whether the graphic fan cooling fan not moving is to be expected, and why the Hitachi monitor needed the vertical controls change after I changed the resolution setting, and why it never returned to as it was again when I changed it back.

Thanks.

[veeg]

Any updates for us?

[Slytod]

Actually, apologies for this but; on rebooting the PC when I got back, the screens had messed up. The main screen had moved to the right hand monitor, the IDs 1 & 2 switched, all the icons had been unsorted (AGAIN !) and on the wrong screen, and I had to move the cursor off the right hand side of the right monitor in order to get it to appear on the left hand side of the left monitor. All highly amusing. I managed to switch them back again, but have not got around to resorting the icons (I really don’t have the enthusiasm to do it yet again), but I’m left with a further query.

When one checks ‘Display Settings’ it clearly shows the representation rectangle for the right monitor (the Hitachi, which is annoyingly insists is ‘1’) as being much smaller than the left monitor (the Eizo) when in fact they are a similar height. Both claim to be ‘Generic PnP Monitor’ (in my day they used to know what monitor they were). It seems to make it difficult to set the resolution and position such that a window crossing the divide stays the same size and in the same position. If I set the right hand monitor to maximum resolution to try to get a similar size to the left monitor, things get weird. The edges of the window are lost, the task bar at the base is 3 times as high. It just doesn’t do what it ought. No idea if that is caused by the DisplayPort to VGA adaptor, the issue wasn’t obvious, as far as I recall, 10 days ago.

Anyone have any thoughts on getting that sorted, and switching the ‘1’ and ‘2’ ID designations too, if possible ? Especially this insistence that it uses the older CRT monitor as the priority one.

Actually the rectangle representation size seems to have changed. Unsure why. Have decided to put up with a little change in window size as it passes between the monitors, as the aspect ratio seemed messed up on the right hand monitor if I have it on maximum resolution.

[jmarket]

The fan will not move if it’s not being used enough to warrant it. It’s a power-saving feature. Nothing to worry about

[Slytod]

Thanks for that.

The PC sleeps overnight, and when I awake it in the morning the right hand monitor has slipped it’s screen to the left ?!?! What on Earth ? I’ll now have to fiddle with the horizontal controls on the monitor again.