Dual Monitor Setup

[shashgo]

I have an HP pavillion dv7t-4100.  I have a hisense tv.  I have an HDMI cord plugged into the tv and the laptop.  Earlier, whenever I wanted to choose dual display, I would right click on desktop, go to screen resolution, select duplicate displays or extended displays, and then hit okay, and the tv screen would go black and then reappear with the duplicate or extended display.  More recently, I have had to change the display settings and then restart the laptop and the TV and both would come back up with the dual display.  Nowadays, it seems that nothing is working, and I dont know why.  I set the display setting to dual or extended.  Then I restart the laptop and TV, sometimes the tv and laptop come back showing a proper dual display, but at other times the TV comes back up with "No signal" and when the laptop comes back it loses the display settings and goes back to single display.  Why is it not working properly

[patio]

Does the card support dual/extended display ? ?...just curious.

[Lisa_maree]

Hi shashgo,

You don't say in your post what Windows version you are running, if 10 it is likely Microsoft has updated the drivers for your video. And as the laptop only has Windows 7 64 bit drivers we will need a lot more details to possibly find a solution.
The easiest way is to run speccy from here    https://www.ccleaner.com/speccy/download/portable
Then go File, Publish snap shot and copy the link to the report here.
It could also be a problem with Windows not switching to the ATi second graphics adapter or that the ATI graphics adapter is failing.

[shashgo]

Patio,

Its a laptop, so there is no external graphics card as there is for desktops.  There is an HDMI output.  Also, at times the computer boots up and there are two drivers that get installed under display: intel and ATI, which is when the computer gets displayed on my monitor as well.  At other times, the laptop boots up, and there is only the Intel driver under the Display section in device manager, and the monitor keeps showing no signal, regardless of whether I select a duplicate or extended display mode. 

So Im wondering why this is happening and what is the fix

Lisa_Maree,

Let me post the details.

[shashgo]

Lisa_Maree,

I have three screenshots, I think these are the ones that should tell you what you need to know

[Geek-9pm]

Similar problems reported on HP support forum.
https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebooks-Archive-Read-Only/Random-black-screen-while-laptop-is-in-use-HP-Pavilion-dv7t/td-p/2713199

...and the problem is not just with an HP. Other laptops have this kind-of trouble with some kinds of external monitors.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VI85Qfq41Hk

And I have a similar issue with my old Dell desktop and Windows 10. Windows XP does  better job fining the external monitor.

[Lisa_maree]

Hi

Looks from the report you installed a generic copy of windows 7 on the 24 Aug 2018,  the full report would have shown driver versions, temps and other things.

As i said in one of my other posts quote " It could also be a problem with Windows not switching to the ATi second graphics adapter or that the ATI graphics adapter is failing."

With laptops running dual graphics adapters like yours, it is best to use the manufactures recovery media written to get the best from the laptops configuration.

The external monitor will only work when windows is showing the ATI gpu is enabled and this part of the laptop can become intermittent due to heat problems. The overheating can be caused by the gas leaking from the heat pipes, Blocked heat sink fins or using with the fan blocked or loading windows without correct support for dual display.

If it was a laptop other than a HP pavillion dv7t-4100 then i would put money of windows configuration or drivers .  As it's an  HP with ATI graphics adapter i suspect the ATI graphics Adapter is playing up.

 

[shashgo]

Lisa_Maree,

So, is there any way for me to diagnose the ATI graphics adapter?  But in any case, shoudnt there be an entry for the driver under device manager

[Lisa_maree]

Hi

HP has a windows diagnostic tool from here https://www8.hp.com/us/en/campaigns/hpsupportassistant/pc-diags.html  These diags will show a white screen if the ATI graphics is not working.
Also if you start the laptop pressing the esc key there is diagnostics built into the bios menu. These diagnostics don't test the graphics adapters thou.
You could also run the DXdiag command in windows and see if 2 display adapters are shown. It will only show the 2nd adapter if it is listed in device manager and therefore it should work on the TV.
I have a DV6 here so have tried these steps on it, My laptop has a failed ATI graphics adapter.
 

[shashgo]

I am able to get it to work, so it isnt a failed adapter or anything.  But it doesnt work the way it should.

This is what I had to do to make it work:  First of all, I uninstalled the Intel HD driver, then went to control panel and completely uninstalled the ATI Catalyst Install Driver.  Then I rebooted, and when the computer rebooted, it loaded a basic video graphics driver and also the ATI driver with a question mark (meaning the ati driver did not load sucessfully).  So I went to the folder where I had downloaded the two video drivers for my computer from the hp website, and I ran the amd driver file as administrator, after which the computer prompted me to reboot.  So I did, and then everything worked fine, and the dual setup worked.

I then rebooted the computer to see if the setup would stay and work each time, I rebooted the laptop with the tv off, and then turned it on, I rebooted the laptop with the tv on.  In all these cases, the dual setup stayed and worked properly.  However, after I turned the laptop off and left it off for an hour or so, and then turned it back on to see if the dual setup would still work, it did not.  So, the configuration was lost or the driver didnt work or something.

But then this morning , when I repeated the steps (2nd paragraph) to make the dual setup work, I was able to get it working again.  But again, after an hour of being turned off, the dual monitor setup stopped working.    Doing the steps (paragraph 2) got it to work again.

So Im wondering, why is the setup configuration being lost.  My initial thought was the bios battery, but thats not it, because the time and date have not been lost

[shashgo]

Whoops, I spoke to soon,  the problem with the dual monitor setup persists.

I have my tv monitor plugged in to my laptop via an hdmi cable.

If the computer loads two drivers for the display (when the computer boots up), then if I manually install the amd/ati driver (that I download from the HP website),the driver is installed without errors and everything works fine.

 If the computer only loads one driver for the dispay, then the ati/amd driver does not install correctly and the dual monitor setup does not work.

So, should the laptop see the second monitor as soon as it is plugged in via the hdmi cable and powered on, or is there a driver that makes the laptop detect the monitor.  I thought that because the monitor is a device, should it automatically be detected as a plug n play device?

How do I get my laptop to consistently load two drivers for display instead of just one?

[Geek-9pm]

Whoops, I spoke to soon,  the problem with the dual monitor setup persists.
...
So, should the laptop see the second monitor as soon as it is plugged in via the hdmi cable and powered on, or is there a driver that makes the laptop detect the monitor.  I thought that because the monitor is a device, should it automatically be detected as a plug n play device?

How do I get my laptop to consistently load two drivers for display instead of just one?

No, laptops are not predictable with dual displays. You have to do it yourself.

[patio]

1 question... did it ever work ?

[shashgo]

@Patio,

It did.  Whenever the laptop boots up with two drivers under the display tab in device manager, then Im able to get the ATI driver installed successfully and the TV comes to life.  But more often than not the laptop only boots up with one driver under the display tab, and then even if I try to install the ATI adapter, the install fails, and the dual setup does not work.  So Im wondering why the second driver doesnt load up consistently on every boot.

@Geek,

I do go to the Screen resolution when I right click on the desktop, and sect extended displays and even sometimes duplicate, but if the second driver is not loaded automatically by the laptop on bootup, then the extended or duplicate display setup does not work, because the ATI driver that I need to install does not install properly.
The only one driver that does load up updates to the Intel HD display driver.  Whenever the other driver is loaded automatically by the laptop, it turns into the ATI 5650 driver once I install the ATI driver.
So my question is, what makes the laptop decide to load one or two drivers under display upon bootup?

[Geek-9pm]

Here is an article that was recently updated.
https://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000801.htm
It has some links that may help.

Also, the link below may answer your last question.
https://windowsreport.com/the-best-driver-software-is-already-installed-windows-10/