Hi Windows 7 (well Windows in general), detects when a monitor is turned off (in a multi monitor setup) and moves the applications outputting to this monitor to the main monitor, however in some situations, this is rather annoying. Is there a way to turn this feature off, so that a program stays on the monitor. TIA Søren

Hi smolesen, Update your video drivers and check what happens. If you have a hardware device that isn't working properly with your computer, you probably need an updated driver. There are three ways to update a driver. Follow the steps in the article given below to update the drivers manually http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Update-a-driver-for-hardware-that-isnt-working-properly If that doesn’t resolve the issue, see if it happens with a different monitor. Azeez Nadeem - Microsoft Support

Hi smolesen, Update your video drivers and check what happens. If you have a hardware device that isn't working properly with your computer, you probably need an updated driver. There are three ways to update a driver. Follow the steps in the article given below to update the drivers manually http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Update-a-driver-for-hardware-that-isnt-working-properly If that doesn’t resolve the issue, see if it happens with a different monitor. Azeez Nadeem - Microsoft Support

Hi Azeez This is not because of a hardware device not working properly, it's because of a rather annoying 'feature' in windows 7 http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Understanding-multiple-monitors and the question was whether it is possible to turn this 'feature' off somehow, so that a program isn't moved to the main monitor when the secondary monitor is turned off. TIA Søren

Hi smolesen, Update your video drivers and check what happens. If you have a hardware device that isn't working properly with your computer, you probably need an updated driver. There are three ways to update a driver. Follow the steps in the article given below to update the drivers manually http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Update-a-driver-for-hardware-that-isnt-working-properly If that doesn’t resolve the issue, see if it happens with a different monitor. Azeez Nadeem - Microsoft Support

Hi Azeez This is not because of a hardware device not working properly, it's because of a rather annoying 'feature' in windows 7 http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Understanding-multiple-monitors and the question was whether it is possible to turn this 'feature' off somehow, so that a program isn't moved to the main monitor when the secondary monitor is turned off. TIA Søren

Hi smolesen, Thanks for using Microsoft Answers! I'm moving your thread to the Windows 7 Misc forums in the TechNet community. They'll be able to better assist you there.Cody C Microsoft Answers Support Engineer Visit our Microsoft Answers Feedback Forum and let us know what you think.

Hi smolesen, Thanks for using Microsoft Answers! I'm moving your thread to the Windows 7 Misc forums in the TechNet community. They'll be able to better assist you there.Cody C Microsoft Answers Support Engineer Visit our Microsoft Answers Feedback Forum and let us know what you think.

Hi RonnieThe problem here, is that the monitors are different inputs on my TV. So every time I change input on the TV, Windows thinks a monitor is turned off, and moved the application to the main "monitor", which is really annoying.Some kind of event must be send to Windows when a monitor is turned off.... would it not be possible to HOOK into this event and throw it away???Søren

Hi RonnieThe problem here, is that the monitors are different inputs on my TV. So every time I change input on the TV, Windows thinks a monitor is turned off, and moved the application to the main "monitor", which is really annoying.Some kind of event must be send to Windows when a monitor is turned off.... would it not be possible to HOOK into this event and throw it away???Søren

Hi smolesen, Thanks for using Microsoft Answers! I'm moving your thread to the Windows 7 Misc forums in the TechNet community. They'll be able to better assist you there.Cody C Microsoft Answers Support Engineer Visit our Microsoft Answers Feedback Forum and let us know what you think.

HiThis behavior is by design and I don't think there is a way to override this functionality except to make sure that both monitors are turned on when you start the system.As described in the article that you posted the link to, if a second monitor is not detected, everything will be displayed on the available monitor.Hope this helps. Thank You for using Windows 7 Ronnie Vernon MVP

Hi RonnieThe problem here, is that the monitors are different inputs on my TV. So every time I change input on the TV, Windows thinks a monitor is turned off, and moved the application to the main "monitor", which is really annoying.Some kind of event must be send to Windows when a monitor is turned off.... would it not be possible to HOOK into this event and throw it away???Søren

Dear Søren, Ronnie, I experienced the same "feature", causing me to search the net for a couple of hours for a way to turn it off. Yes, it is *that* annoying. Just wanted to support Søren in his request: A way to turn that off would be lovely. "This behavior is by design (so live with it)" is not exactly the answer one likes to hear. It raises the question: Whom is it designed for? But to stay factual: Ronnie, is this posting enough to get an official feature request going? Or is there some other place that would be better for that? Best regards, Robin

Dear Søren, Ronnie, I experienced the same "feature", causing me to search the net for a couple of hours for a way to turn it off. Yes, it is *that* annoying. Just wanted to support Søren in his request: A way to turn that off would be lovely. "This behavior is by design (so live with it)" is not exactly the answer one likes to hear. It raises the question: Whom is it designed for? But to stay factual: Ronnie, is this posting enough to get an official feature request going? Or is there some other place that would be better for that? Best regards, Robin

Dear Søren, Ronnie, I experienced the same "feature", causing me to search the net for a couple of hours for a way to turn it off. Yes, it is *that* annoying. Just wanted to support Søren in his request: A way to turn that off would be lovely. "This behavior is by design (so live with it)" is not exactly the answer one likes to hear. It raises the question: Whom is it designed for? But to stay factual: Ronnie, is this posting enough to get an official feature request going? Or is there some other place that would be better for that? Best regards, Robin

Hi RobinThanks for your support... was beginning to think that I was the only one having this problem....It's kind of strange, but it doesn't seem to be possible to get any answers on how to disable this feature, everywhere I ask I just get the answer 'this is by design' even when I ask in a developer forum, to figure is there's some kind of event could suppress programmatically, I don't get any replies....With all the problems I'm having running Windows 7 in a multi monitor(TV) setup, I wondering if Windows7 is mature enough for this kind of usage... maybe MythTV on a Linus box is the way to go.....Best regrads, Søren

Hi RobinThanks for your support... was beginning to think that I was the only one having this problem....It's kind of strange, but it doesn't seem to be possible to get any answers on how to disable this feature, everywhere I ask I just get the answer 'this is by design' even when I ask in a developer forum, to figure is there's some kind of event could suppress programmatically, I don't get any replies....With all the problems I'm having running Windows 7 in a multi monitor(TV) setup, I wondering if Windows7 is mature enough for this kind of usage... maybe MythTV on a Linus box is the way to go.....Best regrads, Søren

Hi RobinThanks for your support... was beginning to think that I was the only one having this problem....It's kind of strange, but it doesn't seem to be possible to get any answers on how to disable this feature, everywhere I ask I just get the answer 'this is by design' even when I ask in a developer forum, to figure is there's some kind of event could suppress programmatically, I don't get any replies....With all the problems I'm having running Windows 7 in a multi monitor(TV) setup, I wondering if Windows7 is mature enough for this kind of usage... maybe MythTV on a Linus box is the way to go.....Best regrads, Søren

Hello Azeez, Would you be so kind as to plain and simply answer ONE of the following questions without giving run around or answering a different question. What registry setting do I add / change / delete to DISABLE this monitor auto-detection service / annoying so-called "feature"? I have a multi-monitor (8 monitors) system and I like to turn off the power to my monitors at night. When I wake up in the morning I turn the power back on, and all my applications are moved around. It appears that Windows 7 is automatically detecting the monitors turning on/off (as I hear the same sound as if I plugged in a USB device) and moving / resizing my application windows once the power is restored. In the interest of saving time / avoiding you giving a non-answer / run around answer, I'll post my question in a slightly different ways so that you understand EXACTLY what I am asking with the hopes that I can get a straight answer out of you. How do I disable this monitor auto-detection so that when I turn my monitors on/off my applications stay where I left them? or How do I get windows to STOP reacting to my monitors being turned on/off? Everything in Windows is controlled by the registry so there HAS to be a registry setting that can achieve this goal. Please tell me how to achieve this goal.

Hello Azeez, Would you be so kind as to plain and simply answer ONE of the following questions without giving run around or answering a different question. What registry setting do I add / change / delete to DISABLE this monitor auto-detection service / annoying so-called "feature"? I have a multi-monitor (8 monitors) system and I like to turn off the power to my monitors at night. When I wake up in the morning I turn the power back on, and all my applications are moved around. It appears that Windows 7 is automatically detecting the monitors turning on/off (as I hear the same sound as if I plugged in a USB device) and moving / resizing my application windows once the power is restored. In the interest of saving time / avoiding you giving a non-answer / run around answer, I'll post my question in a slightly different ways so that you understand EXACTLY what I am asking with the hopes that I can get a straight answer out of you. How do I disable this monitor auto-detection so that when I turn my monitors on/off my applications stay where I left them? or How do I get windows to STOP reacting to my monitors being turned on/off? Everything in Windows is controlled by the registry so there HAS to be a registry setting that can achieve this goal. Please tell me how to achieve this goal.

Hi C4702 Thumbs up ! I still haven't figured out how to solve this problem, getting in contact with Microsoft is like hamering you head against a wall, and you never get a strait answer... Let me know if you figure out something.... Regards, Søren

Hi C4702 Thumbs up ! I still haven't figured out how to solve this problem, getting in contact with Microsoft is like hamering you head against a wall, and you never get a strait answer... Let me know if you figure out something.... Regards, Søren

Hello Azeez, Would you be so kind as to plain and simply answer ONE of the following questions without giving run around or answering a different question. What registry setting do I add / change / delete to DISABLE this monitor auto-detection service / annoying so-called "feature"? I have a multi-monitor (8 monitors) system and I like to turn off the power to my monitors at night. When I wake up in the morning I turn the power back on, and all my applications are moved around. It appears that Windows 7 is automatically detecting the monitors turning on/off (as I hear the same sound as if I plugged in a USB device) and moving / resizing my application windows once the power is restored. In the interest of saving time / avoiding you giving a non-answer / run around answer, I'll post my question in a slightly different ways so that you understand EXACTLY what I am asking with the hopes that I can get a straight answer out of you. How do I disable this monitor auto-detection so that when I turn my monitors on/off my applications stay where I left them? or How do I get windows to STOP reacting to my monitors being turned on/off? Everything in Windows is controlled by the registry so there HAS to be a registry setting that can achieve this goal. Please tell me how to achieve this goal.

Hi C4702 Thumbs up ! I still haven't figured out how to solve this problem, getting in contact with Microsoft is like hamering you head against a wall, and you never get a strait answer... Let me know if you figure out something.... Regards, Søren

How do I get windows to STOP reacting to my monitors being turned on/off? Everything in Windows is controlled by the registry so there HAS to be a registry setting that can achieve this goal. Please tell me how to achieve this goal. Hi C4702 Of course, if we knew of a registry setting that would solve this problem, we would have posted it. Since my initial post in this thread, I have set up a new system with dual monitors and I have not been able to recreate the behavior that is being described here? If we could get everyone who is experiencing this behavior to post their associated hardware/software specs, we might be able to discover some common setups, perform some troubleshooting to pinpoint the cause, and try some fixes.Also, the exact, step by step procedure that is used when you experience this behavior. Mine are: Dell Studio XPS 9000Intel Core i7 920 at 2.67GHzATI Radeon 5870 (latest drivers)Dual Dell ST2210 LCD Monitors (DVI Connected)W7 Ult 64bit (OEM)8GB RAM (OEM)I use the built-in Extended Desktop setting. Both monitors are set at 1680x1050 and I use 3360x1050 Wallpaper.Everything is still using default settings. I haven't installed the gaming software or used any of the advanced Catalyst options yet.Let us know. Thank You for using Windows 7 Ronnie Vernon MVP

How do I get windows to STOP reacting to my monitors being turned on/off? Everything in Windows is controlled by the registry so there HAS to be a registry setting that can achieve this goal. Please tell me how to achieve this goal. Hi C4702 Of course, if we knew of a registry setting that would solve this problem, we would have posted it. Since my initial post in this thread, I have set up a new system with dual monitors and I have not been able to recreate the behavior that is being described here? If we could get everyone who is experiencing this behavior to post their associated hardware/software specs, we might be able to discover some common setups, perform some troubleshooting to pinpoint the cause, and try some fixes.Also, the exact, step by step procedure that is used when you experience this behavior. Mine are: Dell Studio XPS 9000Intel Core i7 920 at 2.67GHzATI Radeon 5870 (latest drivers)Dual Dell ST2210 LCD Monitors (DVI Connected)W7 Ult 64bit (OEM)8GB RAM (OEM)I use the built-in Extended Desktop setting. Both monitors are set at 1680x1050 and I use 3360x1050 Wallpaper.Everything is still using default settings. I haven't installed the gaming software or used any of the advanced Catalyst options yet.Let us know. Thank You for using Windows 7 Ronnie Vernon MVP

If we could get everyone who is experiencing this behavior to post their associated hardware/software specs, we might be able to discover some common setups, perform some troubleshooting to pinpoint the cause, and try some fixes. Let us know. Thank You for using Windows 7 Ronnie Vernon MVP I'm using Nvidia Quadro NVS 440 with 8 DVI monitors (6 @ 1280x1024 and 2 @ 1920x1080) / Windows 7 64bit. I however don't see how this is relevant when the problem has been isolated to Windows 7 new "feature" of auto-detecting monitors. This fix is simple. Disable this monitor auto-detect "feature" so that once the display settings have been setup, they remain until they are setup again. Either through registry, or through a hook that can be handled. Come on Microsoft why let this BUG / Feature give Windows 7 a bad rap when it is clearly such a good OS.

If we could get everyone who is experiencing this behavior to post their associated hardware/software specs, we might be able to discover some common setups, perform some troubleshooting to pinpoint the cause, and try some fixes. Let us know. Thank You for using Windows 7 Ronnie Vernon MVP I'm using Nvidia Quadro NVS 440 with 8 DVI monitors (6 @ 1280x1024 and 2 @ 1920x1080) / Windows 7 64bit. I however don't see how this is relevant when the problem has been isolated to Windows 7 new "feature" of auto-detecting monitors. This fix is simple. Disable this monitor auto-detect "feature" so that once the display settings have been setup, they remain until they are setup again. Either through registry, or through a hook that can be handled. Come on Microsoft why let this BUG / Feature give Windows 7 a bad rap when it is clearly such a good OS.

Hi Thanks. I will try to escalate this to get some attention. In the meantime, please take a minute to post feedback on this subject at the following link. Windows 7 feedback - Speak to us at Microsoft Regards, Thank You for using Windows 7 Ronnie Vernon MVP

Hi Thanks. I will try to escalate this to get some attention. In the meantime, please take a minute to post feedback on this subject at the following link. Windows 7 feedback - Speak to us at Microsoft Regards, Thank You for using Windows 7 Ronnie Vernon MVP

Hi Thanks. I will try to escalate this to get some attention. In the meantime, please take a minute to post feedback on this subject at the following link. Windows 7 feedback - Speak to us at Microsoft Regards, Thank You for using Windows 7 Ronnie Vernon MVP Done! ... and Thank-you. I hope we can get this resolved as this is truly annoying.

Hi Thanks. I will try to escalate this to get some attention. In the meantime, please take a minute to post feedback on this subject at the following link. Windows 7 feedback - Speak to us at Microsoft Regards, Thank You for using Windows 7 Ronnie Vernon MVP Done! ... and Thank-you. I hope we can get this resolved as this is truly annoying.

Hi I'm using: Asus M4A785G HTPC M/B with AMD II X2 240 2,8 GHz cpu Build-in ATI HD4200 (Using both VGA and HDMI in 1920x1080) Asus EAH4350 (Use HDMI in 1920x1080) Both graphich cards ar using the same driver: ATI 8.661.0.0 The TV connected is a Sony Bravia KDL-40W5E Windows 7 Professional x64 I agree with C4702, once the system is setup, it must be possible to disable the monitor/TV auto-detection, so that nothing changes whenever the TV is turned off N.B. I don't have any monitors attached... only the Sony TV.

Hi I'm using: Asus M4A785G HTPC M/B with AMD II X2 240 2,8 GHz cpu Build-in ATI HD4200 (Using both VGA and HDMI in 1920x1080) Asus EAH4350 (Use HDMI in 1920x1080) Both graphich cards ar using the same driver: ATI 8.661.0.0 The TV connected is a Sony Bravia KDL-40W5E Windows 7 Professional x64 I agree with C4702, once the system is setup, it must be possible to disable the monitor/TV auto-detection, so that nothing changes whenever the TV is turned off N.B. I don't have any monitors attached... only the Sony TV.

How do I get windows to STOP reacting to my monitors being turned on/off? Everything in Windows is controlled by the registry so there HAS to be a registry setting that can achieve this goal. Please tell me how to achieve this goal. Hi C4702 Of course, if we knew of a registry setting that would solve this problem, we would have posted it. Since my initial post in this thread, I have set up a new system with dual monitors and I have not been able to recreate the behavior that is being described here? If we could get everyone who is experiencing this behavior to post their associated hardware/software specs, we might be able to discover some common setups, perform some troubleshooting to pinpoint the cause, and try some fixes.Also, the exact, step by step procedure that is used when you experience this behavior. Mine are: Dell Studio XPS 9000Intel Core i7 920 at 2.67GHzATI Radeon 5870 (latest drivers)Dual Dell ST2210 LCD Monitors (DVI Connected)W7 Ult 64bit (OEM)8GB RAM (OEM)I use the built-in Extended Desktop setting. Both monitors are set at 1680x1050 and I use 3360x1050 Wallpaper.Everything is still using default settings. I haven't installed the gaming software or used any of the advanced Catalyst options yet.Let us know. Thank You for using Windows 7 Ronnie Vernon MVP

If we could get everyone who is experiencing this behavior to post their associated hardware/software specs, we might be able to discover some common setups, perform some troubleshooting to pinpoint the cause, and try some fixes. Let us know. Thank You for using Windows 7 Ronnie Vernon MVP I'm using Nvidia Quadro NVS 440 with 8 DVI monitors (6 @ 1280x1024 and 2 @ 1920x1080) / Windows 7 64bit. I however don't see how this is relevant when the problem has been isolated to Windows 7 new "feature" of auto-detecting monitors. This fix is simple. Disable this monitor auto-detect "feature" so that once the display settings have been setup, they remain until they are setup again. Either through registry, or through a hook that can be handled. Come on Microsoft why let this BUG / Feature give Windows 7 a bad rap when it is clearly such a good OS.

Hi Thanks. I will try to escalate this to get some attention. In the meantime, please take a minute to post feedback on this subject at the following link. Windows 7 feedback - Speak to us at Microsoft Regards, Thank You for using Windows 7 Ronnie Vernon MVP

Hi Thanks. I will try to escalate this to get some attention. In the meantime, please take a minute to post feedback on this subject at the following link. Windows 7 feedback - Speak to us at Microsoft Regards, Thank You for using Windows 7 Ronnie Vernon MVP Done! ... and Thank-you. I hope we can get this resolved as this is truly annoying.

Hi I'm using: Asus M4A785G HTPC M/B with AMD II X2 240 2,8 GHz cpu Build-in ATI HD4200 (Using both VGA and HDMI in 1920x1080) Asus EAH4350 (Use HDMI in 1920x1080) Both graphich cards ar using the same driver: ATI 8.661.0.0 The TV connected is a Sony Bravia KDL-40W5E Windows 7 Professional x64 I agree with C4702, once the system is setup, it must be possible to disable the monitor/TV auto-detection, so that nothing changes whenever the TV is turned off N.B. I don't have any monitors attached... only the Sony TV.

Hi Any progress on this? Regards, Søren

Hi Any progress on this? Regards, Søren

Hi Any progress on this? Regards, Søren

I too need a fix for this. I have 3 monitor devices: 23" Dell P2310H (DisplayPort) - main monitor [1920x1080] 22" Dell E228WFP (DVI) [1680x1050) 46" Sharp LCD TV (DVI-->HDMI) clone of main 23" monitor [1920x1080] When the 22" or 26" are turned off, because they are only using DVI, they do not cause Windows 7 to detect them as being disconnected. However, when my 23" main monitor w/ displayport is turned off via the power button on the front of the monitor, Windows 7 then thinks that the monitor is disconnected/unplugged and removes that display, and sets my 22" monitor as the main monitor and moves all windows and icons etc over to it... grrr, very annoying! All I can do to get around this for now is to always leave my monitors on and set the power management settings to turn off my monitors after 2 minutes of inactivity... meh.... I have an ATI Radeon HD 5850 using all 3 outputs on it (DisplayPort, DVI, DVI)...

I too need a fix for this. I have 3 monitor devices: 23" Dell P2310H (DisplayPort) - main monitor [1920x1080] 22" Dell E228WFP (DVI) [1680x1050) 46" Sharp LCD TV (DVI-->HDMI) clone of main 23" monitor [1920x1080] When the 22" or 26" are turned off, because they are only using DVI, they do not cause Windows 7 to detect them as being disconnected. However, when my 23" main monitor w/ displayport is turned off via the power button on the front of the monitor, Windows 7 then thinks that the monitor is disconnected/unplugged and removes that display, and sets my 22" monitor as the main monitor and moves all windows and icons etc over to it... grrr, very annoying! All I can do to get around this for now is to always leave my monitors on and set the power management settings to turn off my monitors after 2 minutes of inactivity... meh.... I have an ATI Radeon HD 5850 using all 3 outputs on it (DisplayPort, DVI, DVI)...

I too need a fix for this. I have 3 monitor devices: 23" Dell P2310H (DisplayPort) - main monitor [1920x1080] 22" Dell E228WFP (DVI) [1680x1050) 46" Sharp LCD TV (DVI-->HDMI) clone of main 23" monitor [1920x1080] When the 22" or 26" are turned off, because they are only using DVI, they do not cause Windows 7 to detect them as being disconnected. However, when my 23" main monitor w/ displayport is turned off via the power button on the front of the monitor, Windows 7 then thinks that the monitor is disconnected/unplugged and removes that display, and sets my 22" monitor as the main monitor and moves all windows and icons etc over to it... grrr, very annoying! All I can do to get around this for now is to always leave my monitors on and set the power management settings to turn off my monitors after 2 minutes of inactivity... meh.... I have an ATI Radeon HD 5850 using all 3 outputs on it (DisplayPort, DVI, DVI)...

Yes, I have the same problem. And one worse problem! I have a NVidia Quadro FX580, which has one DVI and two DisplayPort connectors. The DVI goes straight to a monitor, the DP connector goes through a home theater amplifier (Yamaha RX-V565, though I also tested with a Pioneer 1019AH-K, same problem). When power saving features kick on to put the monitors to sleep, the HDMI connection is broken to the amp, which then puts the monitor in power save. When I wake up the CPU, the DisplayPort connector wakes up and tells the amp to send video to the monitor. Then the amp turns on the monitor and feeds it video. But the monitor is a little slow to sync, so by the time that Windows 7 detects if a monitor is connected, it decides NO, the monitor didn't wake up, and goes through full disconnection logic, thus shutting off the DisplayPort output. Which tells the amp to turn off the monitor. Then, it realizes the amp is there, and turns it on again. Basically, it toggles between 1 and 2 monitor modes forever, making the machine completely unusable until I punch a button on the amp's remote that pulls up the OSD menu, which provides consistent HDMI output. The PC syncs up fine, then I can close the OSD and it recognizes a second monitor. What a horrible pain in my rear. I eventually found a setting in the amp that forces the HDMI out to stay on all the time, even when disconnected, so this fixed my one problem. Even so, the worst thing ever is that my programs keep getting juggled around. I hate that. I don't like most of the changes in Windows 7, but I can live with them. This is not one of those changes that I can live with. Please fix it, give me a way to turn it off, or give me a pop-up message that says "Would you like to move your programs to this monitor? Yes/No/Don't ask me again". No OS should ever move a window for you without permission. It's bad manners. JH

Yes, I have the same problem. And one worse problem! I have a NVidia Quadro FX580, which has one DVI and two DisplayPort connectors. The DVI goes straight to a monitor, the DP connector goes through a home theater amplifier (Yamaha RX-V565, though I also tested with a Pioneer 1019AH-K, same problem). When power saving features kick on to put the monitors to sleep, the HDMI connection is broken to the amp, which then puts the monitor in power save. When I wake up the CPU, the DisplayPort connector wakes up and tells the amp to send video to the monitor. Then the amp turns on the monitor and feeds it video. But the monitor is a little slow to sync, so by the time that Windows 7 detects if a monitor is connected, it decides NO, the monitor didn't wake up, and goes through full disconnection logic, thus shutting off the DisplayPort output. Which tells the amp to turn off the monitor. Then, it realizes the amp is there, and turns it on again. Basically, it toggles between 1 and 2 monitor modes forever, making the machine completely unusable until I punch a button on the amp's remote that pulls up the OSD menu, which provides consistent HDMI output. The PC syncs up fine, then I can close the OSD and it recognizes a second monitor. What a horrible pain in my rear. I eventually found a setting in the amp that forces the HDMI out to stay on all the time, even when disconnected, so this fixed my one problem. Even so, the worst thing ever is that my programs keep getting juggled around. I hate that. I don't like most of the changes in Windows 7, but I can live with them. This is not one of those changes that I can live with. Please fix it, give me a way to turn it off, or give me a pop-up message that says "Would you like to move your programs to this monitor? Yes/No/Don't ask me again". No OS should ever move a window for you without permission. It's bad manners. JH

Yes, I have the same problem. And one worse problem! I have a NVidia Quadro FX580, which has one DVI and two DisplayPort connectors. The DVI goes straight to a monitor, the DP connector goes through a home theater amplifier (Yamaha RX-V565, though I also tested with a Pioneer 1019AH-K, same problem). When power saving features kick on to put the monitors to sleep, the HDMI connection is broken to the amp, which then puts the monitor in power save. When I wake up the CPU, the DisplayPort connector wakes up and tells the amp to send video to the monitor. Then the amp turns on the monitor and feeds it video. But the monitor is a little slow to sync, so by the time that Windows 7 detects if a monitor is connected, it decides NO, the monitor didn't wake up, and goes through full disconnection logic, thus shutting off the DisplayPort output. Which tells the amp to turn off the monitor. Then, it realizes the amp is there, and turns it on again. Basically, it toggles between 1 and 2 monitor modes forever, making the machine completely unusable until I punch a button on the amp's remote that pulls up the OSD menu, which provides consistent HDMI output. The PC syncs up fine, then I can close the OSD and it recognizes a second monitor. What a horrible pain in my rear. I eventually found a setting in the amp that forces the HDMI out to stay on all the time, even when disconnected, so this fixed my one problem. Even so, the worst thing ever is that my programs keep getting juggled around. I hate that. I don't like most of the changes in Windows 7, but I can live with them. This is not one of those changes that I can live with. Please fix it, give me a way to turn it off, or give me a pop-up message that says "Would you like to move your programs to this monitor? Yes/No/Don't ask me again". No OS should ever move a window for you without permission. It's bad manners. JH

Im having the same issue and it is really messing with the way I use my computer. Searching for a solution I found this: To disable monitor detection, with AMD/ATI gfx cards under Windows 7, search for DMMEnableDDCPolling registry key and set it to 0 (it is DWord). There are several places in the registry where this key is located. Change them all and reboot. Doing this will disable constant polling of the display driver to detect if user attached a monitor. Although I didnt find that string in my registry. Maybe its different for me since I have a swedish version. A solution for this problem is something that Microsoft really needs to provide. It shouldn't be very hard. Im gonna call the support tomorrow and see if they can help me but thought I'd post here as well. My setup is a Radeon 5850 with the latest drivers with my main monitor being a HP ZR24w connected by Displayport, a BENQ connected with DVI and a Philips LCD TV connected with HDMI. Everything works fine unless I turn of the main monitor. Then that monitor is disabled and everything I had on it is moved to my TV and everything that I had open on my TV is moved to the BENQ. It all gets back to its rightful place as soon as I turn on the HP again. But, I cant use the setup the way I want to when it behaves like this.

Im having the same issue and it is really messing with the way I use my computer. Searching for a solution I found this: To disable monitor detection, with AMD/ATI gfx cards under Windows 7, search for DMMEnableDDCPolling registry key and set it to 0 (it is DWord). There are several places in the registry where this key is located. Change them all and reboot. Doing this will disable constant polling of the display driver to detect if user attached a monitor. Although I didnt find that string in my registry. Maybe its different for me since I have a swedish version. A solution for this problem is something that Microsoft really needs to provide. It shouldn't be very hard. Im gonna call the support tomorrow and see if they can help me but thought I'd post here as well. My setup is a Radeon 5850 with the latest drivers with my main monitor being a HP ZR24w connected by Displayport, a BENQ connected with DVI and a Philips LCD TV connected with HDMI. Everything works fine unless I turn of the main monitor. Then that monitor is disabled and everything I had on it is moved to my TV and everything that I had open on my TV is moved to the BENQ. It all gets back to its rightful place as soon as I turn on the HP again. But, I cant use the setup the way I want to when it behaves like this.

Im having the same issue and it is really messing with the way I use my computer. Searching for a solution I found this: To disable monitor detection, with AMD/ATI gfx cards under Windows 7, search for DMMEnableDDCPolling registry key and set it to 0 (it is DWord). There are several places in the registry where this key is located. Change them all and reboot. Doing this will disable constant polling of the display driver to detect if user attached a monitor. Although I didnt find that string in my registry. Maybe its different for me since I have a swedish version. A solution for this problem is something that Microsoft really needs to provide. It shouldn't be very hard. Im gonna call the support tomorrow and see if they can help me but thought I'd post here as well. My setup is a Radeon 5850 with the latest drivers with my main monitor being a HP ZR24w connected by Displayport, a BENQ connected with DVI and a Philips LCD TV connected with HDMI. Everything works fine unless I turn of the main monitor. Then that monitor is disabled and everything I had on it is moved to my TV and everything that I had open on my TV is moved to the BENQ. It all gets back to its rightful place as soon as I turn on the HP again. But, I cant use the setup the way I want to when it behaves like this.

Thank you Mattias. I have a Lenovo W500 laptop with hot switchable graphics (the intel graphics and an ATI card) and this registry mod seemed to do the trick! I'm connected to the monitor through a KVM box, so every time I switched the KVM to my other machine, when I switched back to my W500 the settings were automatically changed (the display resolution was set too low). Now that I set the DMMEnableDDCPolling to 0, when I come back the settings were just as I left them. Thanks again!

Thank you Mattias. I have a Lenovo W500 laptop with hot switchable graphics (the intel graphics and an ATI card) and this registry mod seemed to do the trick! I'm connected to the monitor through a KVM box, so every time I switched the KVM to my other machine, when I switched back to my W500 the settings were automatically changed (the display resolution was set too low). Now that I set the DMMEnableDDCPolling to 0, when I come back the settings were just as I left them. Thanks again!

Thank you Mattias. I have a Lenovo W500 laptop with hot switchable graphics (the intel graphics and an ATI card) and this registry mod seemed to do the trick! I'm connected to the monitor through a KVM box, so every time I switched the KVM to my other machine, when I switched back to my W500 the settings were automatically changed (the display resolution was set too low). Now that I set the DMMEnableDDCPolling to 0, when I come back the settings were just as I left them. Thanks again!

You have given me hope that a solution may exist. I'm having the same issue with monitors being auto-detected and need to disable the "feature". I however am not using an ATI card and as such do not have the DMMEnableDDCPolling setting in my registry. Are there any other registry or other suggestions that might disable monitor auto-detection (specifically when you turn the monitor "off" or "on"). Setup: Dell Studio 540, Core 2 Quad, 4 GB ram, Integrated Intel graphics (no card), HDMI output to the TV through a receiver. and YES! .. the issue is that annoying. Let me know if anyone has an Intel-integrated graphics solution.

You have given me hope that a solution may exist. I'm having the same issue with monitors being auto-detected and need to disable the "feature". I however am not using an ATI card and as such do not have the DMMEnableDDCPolling setting in my registry. Are there any other registry or other suggestions that might disable monitor auto-detection (specifically when you turn the monitor "off" or "on"). Setup: Dell Studio 540, Core 2 Quad, 4 GB ram, Integrated Intel graphics (no card), HDMI output to the TV through a receiver. and YES! .. the issue is that annoying. Let me know if anyone has an Intel-integrated graphics solution.

You have given me hope that a solution may exist. I'm having the same issue with monitors being auto-detected and need to disable the "feature". I however am not using an ATI card and as such do not have the DMMEnableDDCPolling setting in my registry. Are there any other registry or other suggestions that might disable monitor auto-detection (specifically when you turn the monitor "off" or "on"). Setup: Dell Studio 540, Core 2 Quad, 4 GB ram, Integrated Intel graphics (no card), HDMI output to the TV through a receiver. and YES! .. the issue is that annoying. Let me know if anyone has an Intel-integrated graphics solution.

I found a program that is working VERY GOOD called Actual Window Manager (http://www.actualtools.com/windowmanager/) It allows you to set individual window settings and at any time press <WIN+F5> to restore those settings. It will keep applications exactly where U want them. It retails for $50 but that is not too bad when you see how powerful this software is. Good Luck!

I found a program that is working VERY GOOD called Actual Window Manager (http://www.actualtools.com/windowmanager/) It allows you to set individual window settings and at any time press <WIN+F5> to restore those settings. It will keep applications exactly where U want them. It retails for $50 but that is not too bad when you see how powerful this software is. Good Luck!

I found a program that is working VERY GOOD called Actual Window Manager (http://www.actualtools.com/windowmanager/) It allows you to set individual window settings and at any time press <WIN+F5> to restore those settings. It will keep applications exactly where U want them. It retails for $50 but that is not too bad when you see how powerful this software is. Good Luck!

This problem is not new in Windows 7. I have a similar problem in Win XP. This only happens when I power off my Panasonic HD TV which is connected by an HDMI cable. Not only does the system move applications to the primary monitor, but it also disables the TV in the Display Properties. In order to set things back to normal, I need to open display properties and re-enable the monitor first.

This problem is not new in Windows 7. I have a similar problem in Win XP. This only happens when I power off my Panasonic HD TV which is connected by an HDMI cable. Not only does the system move applications to the primary monitor, but it also disables the TV in the Display Properties. In order to set things back to normal, I need to open display properties and re-enable the monitor first.

This problem is not new in Windows 7. I have a similar problem in Win XP. This only happens when I power off my Panasonic HD TV which is connected by an HDMI cable. Not only does the system move applications to the primary monitor, but it also disables the TV in the Display Properties. In order to set things back to normal, I need to open display properties and re-enable the monitor first.

Ronnie, In my experience the problem only occurs if you have a Display Port or HDMI cable attached to a monitor (or TV) capable of sending a control signal back to the PC. I have the following setup: Intel Core i7 870 @ 2.93 GHz ATI Radeon HD 5970 (latest drivers) 2x Dell 2407WFP (DVI Connected) 1x Dell U2410 (DisplayPort connected) All monitors are set to 1920x1200. 8.00 GB RAM Windows 7 Professional 64 bit Once you have a setup like that, go ahead and setup your desktop the way you like it then turn off the DisplayPort connected Monitor. You'll notice that all your windows are moved into one monitor.

Ronnie, In my experience the problem only occurs if you have a Display Port or HDMI cable attached to a monitor (or TV) capable of sending a control signal back to the PC. I have the following setup: Intel Core i7 870 @ 2.93 GHz ATI Radeon HD 5970 (latest drivers) 2x Dell 2407WFP (DVI Connected) 1x Dell U2410 (DisplayPort connected) All monitors are set to 1920x1200. 8.00 GB RAM Windows 7 Professional 64 bit Once you have a setup like that, go ahead and setup your desktop the way you like it then turn off the DisplayPort connected Monitor. You'll notice that all your windows are moved into one monitor.

Ronnie, In my experience the problem only occurs if you have a Display Port or HDMI cable attached to a monitor (or TV) capable of sending a control signal back to the PC. I have the following setup: Intel Core i7 870 @ 2.93 GHz ATI Radeon HD 5970 (latest drivers) 2x Dell 2407WFP (DVI Connected) 1x Dell U2410 (DisplayPort connected) All monitors are set to 1920x1200. 8.00 GB RAM Windows 7 Professional 64 bit Once you have a setup like that, go ahead and setup your desktop the way you like it then turn off the DisplayPort connected Monitor. You'll notice that all your windows are moved into one monitor.

Ronnie, In my experience the problem only occurs if you have a Display Port or HDMI cable attached to a monitor (or TV) capable of sending a control signal back to the PC. Once you have a setup like that, go ahead and setup your desktop the way you like it then turn off the DisplayPort connected Monitor. You'll notice that all your windows are moved into one monitor. You are correct. I have this issue as well. Windows 7 treats DisplayPort much like it is a USB device: Once the USB device (or DisplayPort monitor in this case) loses power, the system 'disconnects' it AND disables the 'desktop' which was associated with the device (you even hear the same sound as when disconnecting a USB device, when you power off a DisplayPort monitor in Windows 7). With DVI, you do not have this problem. Windows keeps a 'virtual desktop' active despite the DVI monitor being powered off. There should be an option in Windows 7 to be able to right click on your monitor in display settings, and say "DO NOT DISABLE DESKTOP WHEN MONITOR IS DISCONNECTED". If this is a 'feature' why doesn't it work the same with DVI? Inconsistencies like this make it seem much less like a feature, and more like an oversight. Im honestly supprised how much of an afterthought multi-monitor support is in Windows 7. Why do i still need 3rd party applications like UltraMon just to have half way decent multi-monitor support? This is ridiculous microsoft, its 2010... people have more than a few monitors.... lets see some better multi-monitor taskbar support, better window control options specific to multi-monitor scenarios, and better DisplayPort support. This seems like pretty basic operating system stuff. People just want the option for their HDMI and DisplayPort monitors to act like their DVI monitors used to. Not too much to ask. When a DisplayPort monitor falls asleep, windows doesn't disable the desktop associated with it because technically the powers still on (so windows still see's your device). It just needs to act the same way when it is actually powered off. A temporary solution to the problem may be to write a script to force your monitors to sleep that you use instead of powering off your monitors at night. This will keep everything open the way it was. EDIT UPDATE: ------------------------------------------------------ I found this app: http://www.dekisoft.com/mou.php it seems to do the trick for now.... now i can double click a shortcut, or do a keyboard shortcut to force my monitors into sleep mode instantly... when they return, my desktops are exactly as i left them.

Ronnie, In my experience the problem only occurs if you have a Display Port or HDMI cable attached to a monitor (or TV) capable of sending a control signal back to the PC. Once you have a setup like that, go ahead and setup your desktop the way you like it then turn off the DisplayPort connected Monitor. You'll notice that all your windows are moved into one monitor. You are correct. I have this issue as well. Windows 7 treats DisplayPort much like it is a USB device: Once the USB device (or DisplayPort monitor in this case) loses power, the system 'disconnects' it AND disables the 'desktop' which was associated with the device (you even hear the same sound as when disconnecting a USB device, when you power off a DisplayPort monitor in Windows 7). With DVI, you do not have this problem. Windows keeps a 'virtual desktop' active despite the DVI monitor being powered off. There should be an option in Windows 7 to be able to right click on your monitor in display settings, and say "DO NOT DISABLE DESKTOP WHEN MONITOR IS DISCONNECTED". If this is a 'feature' why doesn't it work the same with DVI? Inconsistencies like this make it seem much less like a feature, and more like an oversight. Im honestly supprised how much of an afterthought multi-monitor support is in Windows 7. Why do i still need 3rd party applications like UltraMon just to have half way decent multi-monitor support? This is ridiculous microsoft, its 2010... people have more than a few monitors.... lets see some better multi-monitor taskbar support, better window control options specific to multi-monitor scenarios, and better DisplayPort support. This seems like pretty basic operating system stuff. People just want the option for their HDMI and DisplayPort monitors to act like their DVI monitors used to. Not too much to ask. When a DisplayPort monitor falls asleep, windows doesn't disable the desktop associated with it because technically the powers still on (so windows still see's your device). It just needs to act the same way when it is actually powered off. A temporary solution to the problem may be to write a script to force your monitors to sleep that you use instead of powering off your monitors at night. This will keep everything open the way it was. EDIT UPDATE: ------------------------------------------------------ I found this app: http://www.dekisoft.com/mou.php it seems to do the trick for now.... now i can double click a shortcut, or do a keyboard shortcut to force my monitors into sleep mode instantly... when they return, my desktops are exactly as i left them.

Ronnie, In my experience the problem only occurs if you have a Display Port or HDMI cable attached to a monitor (or TV) capable of sending a control signal back to the PC. Once you have a setup like that, go ahead and setup your desktop the way you like it then turn off the DisplayPort connected Monitor. You'll notice that all your windows are moved into one monitor. You are correct. I have this issue as well. Windows 7 treats DisplayPort much like it is a USB device: Once the USB device (or DisplayPort monitor in this case) loses power, the system 'disconnects' it AND disables the 'desktop' which was associated with the device (you even hear the same sound as when disconnecting a USB device, when you power off a DisplayPort monitor in Windows 7). With DVI, you do not have this problem. Windows keeps a 'virtual desktop' active despite the DVI monitor being powered off. There should be an option in Windows 7 to be able to right click on your monitor in display settings, and say "DO NOT DISABLE DESKTOP WHEN MONITOR IS DISCONNECTED". If this is a 'feature' why doesn't it work the same with DVI? Inconsistencies like this make it seem much less like a feature, and more like an oversight. Im honestly supprised how much of an afterthought multi-monitor support is in Windows 7. Why do i still need 3rd party applications like UltraMon just to have half way decent multi-monitor support? This is ridiculous microsoft, its 2010... people have more than a few monitors.... lets see some better multi-monitor taskbar support, better window control options specific to multi-monitor scenarios, and better DisplayPort support. This seems like pretty basic operating system stuff. People just want the option for their HDMI and DisplayPort monitors to act like their DVI monitors used to. Not too much to ask. When a DisplayPort monitor falls asleep, windows doesn't disable the desktop associated with it because technically the powers still on (so windows still see's your device). It just needs to act the same way when it is actually powered off. A temporary solution to the problem may be to write a script to force your monitors to sleep that you use instead of powering off your monitors at night. This will keep everything open the way it was. EDIT UPDATE: ------------------------------------------------------ I found this app: http://www.dekisoft.com/mou.php it seems to do the trick for now.... now i can double click a shortcut, or do a keyboard shortcut to force my monitors into sleep mode instantly... when they return, my desktops are exactly as i left them.

I have exactly the same problem until I start using Displayport! At first I was going to blame ATI for it. I do not have this problem if I use DVI on my 3008wfp monitor. This problem started if you connect a Displayport on your 3008wfp monitor have it EXTENDED to your HDTV using HDMI. Lets say you are watching a movie on your HDTV and you turn off your monitor, boom .. your movie crash! W7 somehow says you only have 1 monitor now and thats your HDTV. Thats why your movie or anything crash on the screen! If you have it connected your monitor thru DVI, it will not have this problem and W7 says your monitor is still the primary screen even when you OFF it! Well, I like to turn off my monitor when I watch movies on my HDTV. Yah I can dim my monitor screen, but it is generating so much heat on the back of the monitor! Microsoft, please fix this for the next service pack! I like to add that this program did not work for me: This app: http://www.dekisoft.com/mou.php I play a movie, then use this software. Did you play a movie on your HDTV? It put the monitor to sleep, then it comes on again in 1 sec! Is there any more other fix for this? Chong

I have exactly the same problem until I start using Displayport! At first I was going to blame ATI for it. I do not have this problem if I use DVI on my 3008wfp monitor. This problem started if you connect a Displayport on your 3008wfp monitor have it EXTENDED to your HDTV using HDMI. Lets say you are watching a movie on your HDTV and you turn off your monitor, boom .. your movie crash! W7 somehow says you only have 1 monitor now and thats your HDTV. Thats why your movie or anything crash on the screen! If you have it connected your monitor thru DVI, it will not have this problem and W7 says your monitor is still the primary screen even when you OFF it! Well, I like to turn off my monitor when I watch movies on my HDTV. Yah I can dim my monitor screen, but it is generating so much heat on the back of the monitor! Microsoft, please fix this for the next service pack! I like to add that this program did not work for me: This app: http://www.dekisoft.com/mou.php I play a movie, then use this software. Did you play a movie on your HDTV? It put the monitor to sleep, then it comes on again in 1 sec! Is there any more other fix for this? Chong

I have exactly the same problem until I start using Displayport! At first I was going to blame ATI for it. I do not have this problem if I use DVI on my 3008wfp monitor. This problem started if you connect a Displayport on your 3008wfp monitor have it EXTENDED to your HDTV using HDMI. Lets say you are watching a movie on your HDTV and you turn off your monitor, boom .. your movie crash! W7 somehow says you only have 1 monitor now and thats your HDTV. Thats why your movie or anything crash on the screen! If you have it connected your monitor thru DVI, it will not have this problem and W7 says your monitor is still the primary screen even when you OFF it! Well, I like to turn off my monitor when I watch movies on my HDTV. Yah I can dim my monitor screen, but it is generating so much heat on the back of the monitor! Microsoft, please fix this for the next service pack! I like to add that this program did not work for me: This app: http://www.dekisoft.com/mou.php I play a movie, then use this software. Did you play a movie on your HDTV? It put the monitor to sleep, then it comes on again in 1 sec! Is there any more other fix for this? Chong

yea unfortunately my trick only works to alleviate your icons and windows being consolidated to the "1 monitor" when you intend to turn ALL of your monitors off. I sympathize with your movie watching, i had exactly the same issue last night. That is why this definitely still needs to be fixed.

yea unfortunately my trick only works to alleviate your icons and windows being consolidated to the "1 monitor" when you intend to turn ALL of your monitors off. I sympathize with your movie watching, i had exactly the same issue last night. That is why this definitely still needs to be fixed.

yea unfortunately my trick only works to alleviate your icons and windows being consolidated to the "1 monitor" when you intend to turn ALL of your monitors off. I sympathize with your movie watching, i had exactly the same issue last night. That is why this definitely still needs to be fixed.

Cant Microsoft program the Displayport to have the same behavior as the DVI? Is there a fix coming soon? For now, you can just go to the ATI CCC and make your contrast as small as possible. But your monitor is still running and it is giving out alot of heat esp. during the summer. Have you try this DMMEnableDDCPolling in you registry? I cannot find it.Chong

Cant Microsoft program the Displayport to have the same behavior as the DVI? Is there a fix coming soon? For now, you can just go to the ATI CCC and make your contrast as small as possible. But your monitor is still running and it is giving out alot of heat esp. during the summer. Have you try this DMMEnableDDCPolling in you registry? I cannot find it.Chong

I have an ATI Radeon HD 4350 on XP that caused the same issue. Disabling the 'ati hotkey poller' service killed the auto detection.

I have an ATI Radeon HD 4350 on XP that caused the same issue. Disabling the 'ati hotkey poller' service killed the auto detection.

Once you kill the auto detection, does it work? How do you disable the 'ati hotkey poller' ?Chong

Once you kill the auto detection, does it work? How do you disable the 'ati hotkey poller' ?Chong

Cant Microsoft program the Displayport to have the same behavior as the DVI? Is there a fix coming soon? For now, you can just go to the ATI CCC and make your contrast as small as possible. But your monitor is still running and it is giving out alot of heat esp. during the summer. Have you try this DMMEnableDDCPolling in you registry? I cannot find it.Chong

I have an ATI Radeon HD 4350 on XP that caused the same issue. Disabling the 'ati hotkey poller' service killed the auto detection.

Once you kill the auto detection, does it work? How do you disable the 'ati hotkey poller' ?Chong

The reply I got back from ATI: It is because you are connected through the Display Port connection. It is an issue with Windows and the way it allocates resources. There is no current workaround other than keeping the DP monitor active at all times. This may change with driver updates or Windows updates. Display Ports are not an AMD/ATI idea, they are the next generation monitor connections, AMD just happens to be the first video card company out with a wide range of products supporting the interface. In order to update this service request, please respond, leaving the service request reference intact. Best regards, AMD Global Customer CareChong

The reply I got back from ATI: It is because you are connected through the Display Port connection. It is an issue with Windows and the way it allocates resources. There is no current workaround other than keeping the DP monitor active at all times. This may change with driver updates or Windows updates. Display Ports are not an AMD/ATI idea, they are the next generation monitor connections, AMD just happens to be the first video card company out with a wide range of products supporting the interface. In order to update this service request, please respond, leaving the service request reference intact. Best regards, AMD Global Customer CareChong

The reply I got back from ATI: It is because you are connected through the Display Port connection. It is an issue with Windows and the way it allocates resources. There is no current workaround other than keeping the DP monitor active at all times. This may change with driver updates or Windows updates. Display Ports are not an AMD/ATI idea, they are the next generation monitor connections, AMD just happens to be the first video card company out with a wide range of products supporting the interface. In order to update this service request, please respond, leaving the service request reference intact. Best regards, AMD Global Customer CareChong

I AM A TRADER AND USE MULTIPLE MONITORS. I LIKE TO CLOSE THE LID (KEEP DATA RUNNING) WHEN I AM NOT AT MY DESK. HOWEVER MY MONITORS GET ALL SCREWED UP BECAUSE OF THIS FEATURE PLEASE HELP TO GET MONITORS TO STAY THE WAY THEY WERE

I AM A TRADER AND USE MULTIPLE MONITORS. I LIKE TO CLOSE THE LID (KEEP DATA RUNNING) WHEN I AM NOT AT MY DESK. HOWEVER MY MONITORS GET ALL SCREWED UP BECAUSE OF THIS FEATURE PLEASE HELP TO GET MONITORS TO STAY THE WAY THEY WERE

I AM A TRADER AND USE MULTIPLE MONITORS. I LIKE TO CLOSE THE LID (KEEP DATA RUNNING) WHEN I AM NOT AT MY DESK. HOWEVER MY MONITORS GET ALL SCREWED UP BECAUSE OF THIS FEATURE PLEASE HELP TO GET MONITORS TO STAY THE WAY THEY WERE

Is your main monitor connected to Displayport? You type in cap cause you are mad?Chong

Is your main monitor connected to Displayport? You type in cap cause you are mad?Chong

Is your main monitor connected to Displayport? You type in cap cause you are mad?Chong

Chong I am not mad.... just a little frustrated that I cannot close the lid or I will get a mess in my desktop I have a Laptop.... I am connecting my second monitor to the Serial Port (15 pin connector)..... PEDRO

Chong I am not mad.... just a little frustrated that I cannot close the lid or I will get a mess in my desktop I have a Laptop.... I am connecting my second monitor to the Serial Port (15 pin connector)..... PEDRO

Chong I am not mad.... just a little frustrated that I cannot close the lid or I will get a mess in my desktop I have a Laptop.... I am connecting my second monitor to the Serial Port (15 pin connector)..... PEDRO

I am not getting that with my laptop and my 2nd monitor connected thru HDMI. So you saying thru Serial Port? Its a known problem with your monitor conncted thru DP.Chong

I am not getting that with my laptop and my 2nd monitor connected thru HDMI. So you saying thru Serial Port? Its a known problem with your monitor conncted thru DP.Chong

I am not getting that with my laptop and my 2nd monitor connected thru HDMI. So you saying thru Serial Port? Its a known problem with your monitor conncted thru DP.Chong

Support on this issue? I've been checking this thread daily and still have not heard back since the issue was "escalated". What progress has been made on this issue or has it simply been dropped? Myself and many others are still having issues and need a fix to disable monitor auto detect on display-port and HDMI monitor setups. This issue is not going away it will only get larger as the number of HDMI/multi-monitor users increases. Why are you ignoring this thread and the issue? None of the mentioned fixes have worked. 'DMMEnableDDCPolling' registry does not exist on my PC and there is no 'ati hotkey poller' service to disable. I've tried both integrated Intel HDMI display out as well as ATI graphics card HDMI display out, both have the issue.

Support on this issue? I've been checking this thread daily and still have not heard back since the issue was "escalated". What progress has been made on this issue or has it simply been dropped? Myself and many others are still having issues and need a fix to disable monitor auto detect on display-port and HDMI monitor setups. This issue is not going away it will only get larger as the number of HDMI/multi-monitor users increases. Why are you ignoring this thread and the issue? None of the mentioned fixes have worked. 'DMMEnableDDCPolling' registry does not exist on my PC and there is no 'ati hotkey poller' service to disable. I've tried both integrated Intel HDMI display out as well as ATI graphics card HDMI display out, both have the issue.

Support on this issue? I've been checking this thread daily and still have not heard back since the issue was "escalated". What progress has been made on this issue or has it simply been dropped? Myself and many others are still having issues and need a fix to disable monitor auto detect on display-port and HDMI monitor setups. This issue is not going away it will only get larger as the number of HDMI/multi-monitor users increases. Why are you ignoring this thread and the issue? None of the mentioned fixes have worked. 'DMMEnableDDCPolling' registry does not exist on my PC and there is no 'ati hotkey poller' service to disable. I've tried both integrated Intel HDMI display out as well as ATI graphics card HDMI display out, both have the issue.

I have the same issues running on my ThinkPad T61 connected to an external monitor via a VGA cable. It would be nice to be able to disable the auto-detection feature. I tried the registry update below, but that didn't fix it either. Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\TMM] "UseIViewHelper"=dword:00000000 "TMMRestrictionOverride"=dword:00000000 "PollingInterval"=dword:00000000 Reading other threads, it sounded like TMM was a deprecated Vista feature and Windows 7 doesn't use it. Weird thing is, the TMM key still exists in Windows 7.

I have the same issues running on my ThinkPad T61 connected to an external monitor via a VGA cable. It would be nice to be able to disable the auto-detection feature. I tried the registry update below, but that didn't fix it either. Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\TMM] "UseIViewHelper"=dword:00000000 "TMMRestrictionOverride"=dword:00000000 "PollingInterval"=dword:00000000 Reading other threads, it sounded like TMM was a deprecated Vista feature and Windows 7 doesn't use it. Weird thing is, the TMM key still exists in Windows 7.

I have the same issues running on my ThinkPad T61 connected to an external monitor via a VGA cable. It would be nice to be able to disable the auto-detection feature. I tried the registry update below, but that didn't fix it either. Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\TMM] "UseIViewHelper"=dword:00000000 "TMMRestrictionOverride"=dword:00000000 "PollingInterval"=dword:00000000 Reading other threads, it sounded like TMM was a deprecated Vista feature and Windows 7 doesn't use it. Weird thing is, the TMM key still exists in Windows 7.

You need to create the DMMEnableDDCPolling key if you are using an ATI card. Unfortunately I am using an nVidia card and updating my video driver triggered this issue for me in my 2x monitor KVM setup. Looks like I'll be downgrading my video driver as a fix, and possibly switching to an AMD graphics card.Network and Systems Manager

You need to create the DMMEnableDDCPolling key if you are using an ATI card. Unfortunately I am using an nVidia card and updating my video driver triggered this issue for me in my 2x monitor KVM setup. Looks like I'll be downgrading my video driver as a fix, and possibly switching to an AMD graphics card.Network and Systems Manager

You need to create the DMMEnableDDCPolling key if you are using an ATI card. Unfortunately I am using an nVidia card and updating my video driver triggered this issue for me in my 2x monitor KVM setup. Looks like I'll be downgrading my video driver as a fix, and possibly switching to an AMD graphics card.Network and Systems Manager

It is a Windows7 bug or feature. While it happens on all cards. and even more interesting it is that widgets stay in place but windows are restored, to "primary" display. It just depends which monitor it is detected first. On Vga - DVI configuration i get random results. on DVI-HDMI config DVI always wake ups first. Probably window manager should wait a while and compare new configuration with previous one , before it make changes.

It is a Windows7 bug or feature. While it happens on all cards. and even more interesting it is that widgets stay in place but windows are restored, to "primary" display. It just depends which monitor it is detected first. On Vga - DVI configuration i get random results. on DVI-HDMI config DVI always wake ups first. Probably window manager should wait a while and compare new configuration with previous one , before it make changes.

It is a Windows7 bug or feature. While it happens on all cards. and even more interesting it is that widgets stay in place but windows are restored, to "primary" display. It just depends which monitor it is detected first. On Vga - DVI configuration i get random results. on DVI-HDMI config DVI always wake ups first. Probably window manager should wait a while and compare new configuration with previous one , before it make changes.

I just wonder if this bug is fixed in W7 SP1. If not, we are going to wait a while. I hope it is fixed. I got a Displayport monitor and a Displayport cable, yet I am not using it because of this bug.Chong

I just wonder if this bug is fixed in W7 SP1. If not, we are going to wait a while. I hope it is fixed. I got a Displayport monitor and a Displayport cable, yet I am not using it because of this bug.Chong

I just wonder if this bug is fixed in W7 SP1. If not, we are going to wait a while. I hope it is fixed. I got a Displayport monitor and a Displayport cable, yet I am not using it because of this bug.Chong

How about this? My TV is hooked to the laptop (Win7) via HDMI. I want the TV to take over as the main monitor and turn the laptop monitor off as soons as I choose that HDMI input on TV. In addition, I want the laptop monitor to take over as soon as I change the TV input to something other than the computer HDMI input. Is THAT possible? Thank you. Sejo

How about this? My TV is hooked to the laptop (Win7) via HDMI. I want the TV to take over as the main monitor and turn the laptop monitor off as soons as I choose that HDMI input on TV. In addition, I want the laptop monitor to take over as soon as I change the TV input to something other than the computer HDMI input. Is THAT possible? Thank you. Sejo

How about this? My TV is hooked to the laptop (Win7) via HDMI. I want the TV to take over as the main monitor and turn the laptop monitor off as soons as I choose that HDMI input on TV. In addition, I want the laptop monitor to take over as soon as I change the TV input to something other than the computer HDMI input. Is THAT possible? Thank you. Sejo

I would like it to take over on its own. It used to do exactly that with my older 46" Panasonic Viera. Now that I switched to 50" TV, I have to do it manually through "graphics" options. Strange. Sejo

I would like it to take over on its own. It used to do exactly that with my older 46" Panasonic Viera. Now that I switched to 50" TV, I have to do it manually through "graphics" options. Strange. Sejo

Take over on its on or you toggle it?Chong

Take over on its on or you toggle it?Chong

I would like it to take over on its own. It used to do exactly that with my older 46" Panasonic Viera. Now that I switched to 50" TV, I have to do it manually through "graphics" options. Strange. Sejo

Hi, I have a similar issue and it IS really anoying. I have a Windows 2008 Server R2 that is my primary testing/email/development machine and I have 2 screens connected to it. One of them is connected via a KVM switch. If I switch away with the KVM to another machine nothing happens yet. But if I switch back to that machine, Windows detects the "new" screen, activates it and disables the other 2nd screen. So after this I have to switch back on my 2nd screen with Windows-P. Unfortunately I have Hyper-V enabled on the server, so switching screens takes about 30 - 60 seconds (maybe because Aero doesn't run too well on W2K8R2 Hyper-V). So everytime I switch my KVM I loose a minute staring at 2 black screens. I am using a NVIDIA graphics adapter. Like others have reported, this did not happen with old drivers, so there must be a way to avoid this behaviour. It would be great if somebody from Microsoft could step up and find out how one can work around this problem. I even would install my old driver, if I knew which of the 20 versions on my disk was the right one. Cheers, Daniel

W7 64-bit, NVIDIA Quadro NVS 440 (dual DMS-59 connectors, NOT DisplayPort, so it appears this behaviour is not limited to DisplayPort connectors.) I starting experiencing this issue recently, but only after updating the NVIDIA drivers to the latest WHQL set (driver version 8.17.12.5896). It never occurred with standard Windows 7 driver installed when I built the system. The two DMS-59 connectors are configured with 2xVGA adapter (Outputs 1 and 2 in Windows) and 2xDVI adapter (Outputs 3 and 4). One of the VGA outputs is hooked up to a projector that is used only occasionally. When I power up the projector (normally Output 2), Windows automatically detects it and messes around with the display configuration. Specifically, it promotes the projector to 'Output 1' status, disables the other VGA-attached monitor (Output 2) and rearranges the monitors. WORKAROUND: I found that right-clicking desktop>Screen Resolution>Detect puts things back the way they should be. Hope this helps as a relatively convenient workaround until someone figures out a proper fix for it. Rolling back the display driver also fixes it for me, so perhaps it's a combination of factors. --Simon

W7 64-bit, NVIDIA Quadro NVS 440 (dual DMS-59 connectors, NOT DisplayPort, so it appears this behaviour is not limited to DisplayPort connectors.) I starting experiencing this issue recently, but only after updating the NVIDIA drivers to the latest WHQL set (driver version 8.17.12.5896). It never occurred with standard Windows 7 driver installed when I built the system. The two DMS-59 connectors are configured with 2xVGA adapter (Outputs 1 and 2 in Windows) and 2xDVI adapter (Outputs 3 and 4). One of the VGA outputs is hooked up to a projector that is used only occasionally. When I power up the projector (normally Output 2), Windows automatically detects it and messes around with the display configuration. Specifically, it promotes the projector to 'Output 1' status, disables the other VGA-attached monitor (Output 2) and rearranges the monitors. WORKAROUND: I found that right-clicking desktop>Screen Resolution>Detect puts things back the way they should be. Hope this helps as a relatively convenient workaround until someone figures out a proper fix for it. Rolling back the display driver also fixes it for me, so perhaps it's a combination of factors. --Simon

W7 64-bit, NVIDIA Quadro NVS 440 (dual DMS-59 connectors, NOT DisplayPort, so it appears this behaviour is not limited to DisplayPort connectors.) I starting experiencing this issue recently, but only after updating the NVIDIA drivers to the latest WHQL set (driver version 8.17.12.5896). It never occurred with standard Windows 7 driver installed when I built the system. The two DMS-59 connectors are configured with 2xVGA adapter (Outputs 1 and 2 in Windows) and 2xDVI adapter (Outputs 3 and 4). One of the VGA outputs is hooked up to a projector that is used only occasionally. When I power up the projector (normally Output 2), Windows automatically detects it and messes around with the display configuration. Specifically, it promotes the projector to 'Output 1' status, disables the other VGA-attached monitor (Output 2) and rearranges the monitors. WORKAROUND: I found that right-clicking desktop>Screen Resolution>Detect puts things back the way they should be. Hope this helps as a relatively convenient workaround until someone figures out a proper fix for it. Rolling back the display driver also fixes it for me, so perhaps it's a combination of factors. --Simon

I'm having the exact same problem. No answers yet? In the meantime, I've added a shortcut to the taskbar with: C:\Windows\System32\DisplaySwitch.exe /extend So that I can get the 2nd monitor back up quicker.

I'm having the exact same problem. No answers yet? In the meantime, I've added a shortcut to the taskbar with: C:\Windows\System32\DisplaySwitch.exe /extend So that I can get the 2nd monitor back up quicker.

I'm having the exact same problem. No answers yet? In the meantime, I've added a shortcut to the taskbar with: C:\Windows\System32\DisplaySwitch.exe /extend So that I can get the 2nd monitor back up quicker.

Any news on this problem, has Microshit called any attention to this issue yet? I have the same issue with my AMD 6870. I don't have DMMEnableDDCPolling in the registry, someone mentioned manually adding it, where to?

Any news on this problem, has Microshit called any attention to this issue yet? I have the same issue with my AMD 6870. I don't have DMMEnableDDCPolling in the registry, someone mentioned manually adding it, where to?

Any news on this problem, has Microshit called any attention to this issue yet? I have the same issue with my AMD 6870. I don't have DMMEnableDDCPolling in the registry, someone mentioned manually adding it, where to?

I am also having this problem and it is becoming very annoying. I recently upgraded to Win7 on my HTPC box specifically to use Windows Media Center as my DVR/media software. I think WMC is a great piece of software and was excited to see how much smoother and feature packed it was than BeyondTV which I was using previously. It is quite annoying for me that it detects/undetects my TV when I turn it on or off. The detection process I think sometimes is even throwing some flak into any currently recording shows, which stinks. However, its not too bad when it works, because for me, no resolution changes occur..and it just adds a few seconds of unresponsive UI in WMC. But the main issue is that now, about once every couple days, when I turn on my TV, Win7 does not even detect it at all, so I just get stuck with a "No Signal" on my TV. I have resorted to hooking up a secondary DVI monitor just so I can use it to navigate to the "Screen Resolution" window and click the "Detect Monitors" button which then brings back the TV output. In XP, turning on/off the TV did not register any sort of event, so windows did not even know about it. That is what I would like to see again in Win7 somehow. Otherwise, I will have to downgrade back to XP and BeyondTV just to get my TV output to not go away, which sucks. I can't believe this issue is still around...seems to me to be a total deal-breaker for a lot of people wanting to use WMC as their primary DVR. Microsoft - seriously, if WMC is desgined as DVR software, who thought it would be a good idea to undetect/redetect an attached HDMI TV connection every time its turned off/on??! Or at the very least provide a way to turn it off! So what I am searching for now in the meantime is a way to create a macro or something to do the "Detect Monitors" function that I can activate from a remote control. Does anyone have an idea how to do something like that? Can I run a command line to detect the monitors? Thanks! Rob

I am also having this problem and it is becoming very annoying. I recently upgraded to Win7 on my HTPC box specifically to use Windows Media Center as my DVR/media software. I think WMC is a great piece of software and was excited to see how much smoother and feature packed it was than BeyondTV which I was using previously. It is quite annoying for me that it detects/undetects my TV when I turn it on or off. The detection process I think sometimes is even throwing some flak into any currently recording shows, which stinks. However, its not too bad when it works, because for me, no resolution changes occur..and it just adds a few seconds of unresponsive UI in WMC. But the main issue is that now, about once every couple days, when I turn on my TV, Win7 does not even detect it at all, so I just get stuck with a "No Signal" on my TV. I have resorted to hooking up a secondary DVI monitor just so I can use it to navigate to the "Screen Resolution" window and click the "Detect Monitors" button which then brings back the TV output. In XP, turning on/off the TV did not register any sort of event, so windows did not even know about it. That is what I would like to see again in Win7 somehow. Otherwise, I will have to downgrade back to XP and BeyondTV just to get my TV output to not go away, which sucks. I can't believe this issue is still around...seems to me to be a total deal-breaker for a lot of people wanting to use WMC as their primary DVR. Microsoft - seriously, if WMC is desgined as DVR software, who thought it would be a good idea to undetect/redetect an attached HDMI TV connection every time its turned off/on??! Or at the very least provide a way to turn it off! So what I am searching for now in the meantime is a way to create a macro or something to do the "Detect Monitors" function that I can activate from a remote control. Does anyone have an idea how to do something like that? Can I run a command line to detect the monitors? Thanks! Rob

I am also having this problem and it is becoming very annoying. I recently upgraded to Win7 on my HTPC box specifically to use Windows Media Center as my DVR/media software. I think WMC is a great piece of software and was excited to see how much smoother and feature packed it was than BeyondTV which I was using previously. It is quite annoying for me that it detects/undetects my TV when I turn it on or off. The detection process I think sometimes is even throwing some flak into any currently recording shows, which stinks. However, its not too bad when it works, because for me, no resolution changes occur..and it just adds a few seconds of unresponsive UI in WMC. But the main issue is that now, about once every couple days, when I turn on my TV, Win7 does not even detect it at all, so I just get stuck with a "No Signal" on my TV. I have resorted to hooking up a secondary DVI monitor just so I can use it to navigate to the "Screen Resolution" window and click the "Detect Monitors" button which then brings back the TV output. In XP, turning on/off the TV did not register any sort of event, so windows did not even know about it. That is what I would like to see again in Win7 somehow. Otherwise, I will have to downgrade back to XP and BeyondTV just to get my TV output to not go away, which sucks. I can't believe this issue is still around...seems to me to be a total deal-breaker for a lot of people wanting to use WMC as their primary DVR. Microsoft - seriously, if WMC is desgined as DVR software, who thought it would be a good idea to undetect/redetect an attached HDMI TV connection every time its turned off/on??! Or at the very least provide a way to turn it off! So what I am searching for now in the meantime is a way to create a macro or something to do the "Detect Monitors" function that I can activate from a remote control. Does anyone have an idea how to do something like that? Can I run a command line to detect the monitors? Thanks! Rob

Having same problem here. Dell monitor connected to DVI output is working fine, but Samsung TV connected to displayport output with a displayport->hdmi adapter is connecting/disconnecting every time the tv is shut down or computer goes in and out of power saving mode. And when this happens, all windows go back to the first monitor. This makes win7 completely unusable with dual monitors. The feature is nice to hook up an external monitor from time to time, but NOT if you want always to work with two monitors. We need a way to disable this.

Having same problem here. Dell monitor connected to DVI output is working fine, but Samsung TV connected to displayport output with a displayport->hdmi adapter is connecting/disconnecting every time the tv is shut down or computer goes in and out of power saving mode. And when this happens, all windows go back to the first monitor. This makes win7 completely unusable with dual monitors. The feature is nice to hook up an external monitor from time to time, but NOT if you want always to work with two monitors. We need a way to disable this.

Having same problem here. Dell monitor connected to DVI output is working fine, but Samsung TV connected to displayport output with a displayport->hdmi adapter is connecting/disconnecting every time the tv is shut down or computer goes in and out of power saving mode. And when this happens, all windows go back to the first monitor. This makes win7 completely unusable with dual monitors. The feature is nice to hook up an external monitor from time to time, but NOT if you want always to work with two monitors. We need a way to disable this.

WILL THERE EVER BE A FIX FOR THIS??? I have three monitors (via DVI) and one Samsung TV (via HDMI) connected to two ATI cards (5770 and 5570). I got it set where icons and taskbar were on one monitor. When I do a power shut down and restart, and when the TV is on while doing this, my icons move to the TV and my taskbar stays put. I have to keep changing which monitor is the main to get icons and taskbar on the primary monitor! Shutting off the TV, and sometimes my monitors all go to sleep! THIS IS COMPLETELY UNSTABLE! WINDOWS 7 IN TRYING TO BE SMART IS BEING COMPLETEY STUPID WITH MONITOR DETECTION AND RESHUFFLING ICONS AND TASKBARS! THIS NEEDS TO BE FIXED IMMEDIATELY!

WILL THERE EVER BE A FIX FOR THIS??? I have three monitors (via DVI) and one Samsung TV (via HDMI) connected to two ATI cards (5770 and 5570). I got it set where icons and taskbar were on one monitor. When I do a power shut down and restart, and when the TV is on while doing this, my icons move to the TV and my taskbar stays put. I have to keep changing which monitor is the main to get icons and taskbar on the primary monitor! Shutting off the TV, and sometimes my monitors all go to sleep! THIS IS COMPLETELY UNSTABLE! WINDOWS 7 IN TRYING TO BE SMART IS BEING COMPLETEY STUPID WITH MONITOR DETECTION AND RESHUFFLING ICONS AND TASKBARS! THIS NEEDS TO BE FIXED IMMEDIATELY!

WILL THERE EVER BE A FIX FOR THIS??? I have three monitors (via DVI) and one Samsung TV (via HDMI) connected to two ATI cards (5770 and 5570). I got it set where icons and taskbar were on one monitor. When I do a power shut down and restart, and when the TV is on while doing this, my icons move to the TV and my taskbar stays put. I have to keep changing which monitor is the main to get icons and taskbar on the primary monitor! Shutting off the TV, and sometimes my monitors all go to sleep! THIS IS COMPLETELY UNSTABLE! WINDOWS 7 IN TRYING TO BE SMART IS BEING COMPLETEY STUPID WITH MONITOR DETECTION AND RESHUFFLING ICONS AND TASKBARS! THIS NEEDS TO BE FIXED IMMEDIATELY!

Yep, same problem here too. Would appreciate if someone could find a solution... Br, Jari

Yep, same problem here too. Would appreciate if someone could find a solution... Br, Jari

Yep, same problem here too. Would appreciate if someone could find a solution... Br, Jari

Well, I was reading all of your posts, and I've to say that I'm not much confident on microsoft providing a solution... because they don't see the problem. In any case, my situation is the following Notebook with HDMI output connected to LCDTV HDMI input Everything goes fine, then, I decide to watch some tv. I change the HDMI source from HDMI1 to HDMI2 (where my DirectTV tuner is connected) I watch my thing, and when I try to go back to HDMI1 to continue surfin' the net, I found nothing. No signal. I have to actually open the lid of my notebook, go to properties.. bla bla, and switch the input to Digital Tuner again. Unbelievable. by the way, i'm using vista on that notebook... so, if they didn't fix this since vista was released, I don't think they will do it from now on. damn what a stupid bug!! Thanks mates Ale

Well, I was reading all of your posts, and I've to say that I'm not much confident on microsoft providing a solution... because they don't see the problem. In any case, my situation is the following Notebook with HDMI output connected to LCDTV HDMI input Everything goes fine, then, I decide to watch some tv. I change the HDMI source from HDMI1 to HDMI2 (where my DirectTV tuner is connected) I watch my thing, and when I try to go back to HDMI1 to continue surfin' the net, I found nothing. No signal. I have to actually open the lid of my notebook, go to properties.. bla bla, and switch the input to Digital Tuner again. Unbelievable. by the way, i'm using vista on that notebook... so, if they didn't fix this since vista was released, I don't think they will do it from now on. damn what a stupid bug!! Thanks mates Ale

Well, I was reading all of your posts, and I've to say that I'm not much confident on microsoft providing a solution... because they don't see the problem. In any case, my situation is the following Notebook with HDMI output connected to LCDTV HDMI input Everything goes fine, then, I decide to watch some tv. I change the HDMI source from HDMI1 to HDMI2 (where my DirectTV tuner is connected) I watch my thing, and when I try to go back to HDMI1 to continue surfin' the net, I found nothing. No signal. I have to actually open the lid of my notebook, go to properties.. bla bla, and switch the input to Digital Tuner again. Unbelievable. by the way, i'm using vista on that notebook... so, if they didn't fix this since vista was released, I don't think they will do it from now on. damn what a stupid bug!! Thanks mates Ale

Not sure how MS can't see the problem. And in fact, this problem will become more prevalent as more people switch to displayport, as I hear that displayport acts like a plug and play device much like an HDMI connected TV. I believe the problem will manifest itself 100% of the time under the following conditions: - Two or more monitors, with different resolutions, with at least one monitor connected via DisplayPort or HDMI

Not sure how MS can't see the problem. And in fact, this problem will become more prevalent as more people switch to displayport, as I hear that displayport acts like a plug and play device much like an HDMI connected TV. I believe the problem will manifest itself 100% of the time under the following conditions: - Two or more monitors, with different resolutions, with at least one monitor connected via DisplayPort or HDMI

Not sure how MS can't see the problem. And in fact, this problem will become more prevalent as more people switch to displayport, as I hear that displayport acts like a plug and play device much like an HDMI connected TV. I believe the problem will manifest itself 100% of the time under the following conditions: - Two or more monitors, with different resolutions, with at least one monitor connected via DisplayPort or HDMI

Just like to add my 2 cents, I also am running a x800 vga > 22" (in backroom) Dvi > dvi/hdmi > 42" HD TV (in livingroom) I have mediaportal running SOLELY on the the 42", that is all i will ever do. I cant get this set up fine but as soon as i switch inputs or turn the TV off it forces the mediaportal to the 22" screen which is in another room and used as the family computer. This stops my daugher doing any work and disrupts everything, which is a terrible feature. It shouldnt be hard to stop it detecting a switch off signal, ____, id be happy with wiring a resistor / battery into the hdmi cable to keep the connection live and display always on if i knew how to do so. This is getting extremely frustrating now and makes my choice of windows 7 a dealbreaker. no longer can i use a pc as a pc / htpc as ive got to go into the other room, disrupt whoevers on the pc, set the screens on - restart the software, none of this i can see as its in another room, go back into the other room, just to watch a tv programme. NOT WHAT I EXPECTED WHEN I SHELLED OUT £120

Just like to add my 2 cents, I also am running a x800 vga > 22" (in backroom) Dvi > dvi/hdmi > 42" HD TV (in livingroom) I have mediaportal running SOLELY on the the 42", that is all i will ever do. I cant get this set up fine but as soon as i switch inputs or turn the TV off it forces the mediaportal to the 22" screen which is in another room and used as the family computer. This stops my daugher doing any work and disrupts everything, which is a terrible feature. It shouldnt be hard to stop it detecting a switch off signal, ____, id be happy with wiring a resistor / battery into the hdmi cable to keep the connection live and display always on if i knew how to do so. This is getting extremely frustrating now and makes my choice of windows 7 a dealbreaker. no longer can i use a pc as a pc / htpc as ive got to go into the other room, disrupt whoevers on the pc, set the screens on - restart the software, none of this i can see as its in another room, go back into the other room, just to watch a tv programme. NOT WHAT I EXPECTED WHEN I SHELLED OUT £120

Just like to add my 2 cents, I also am running a x800 vga > 22" (in backroom) Dvi > dvi/hdmi > 42" HD TV (in livingroom) I have mediaportal running SOLELY on the the 42", that is all i will ever do. I cant get this set up fine but as soon as i switch inputs or turn the TV off it forces the mediaportal to the 22" screen which is in another room and used as the family computer. This stops my daugher doing any work and disrupts everything, which is a terrible feature. It shouldnt be hard to stop it detecting a switch off signal, ____, id be happy with wiring a resistor / battery into the hdmi cable to keep the connection live and display always on if i knew how to do so. This is getting extremely frustrating now and makes my choice of windows 7 a dealbreaker. no longer can i use a pc as a pc / htpc as ive got to go into the other room, disrupt whoevers on the pc, set the screens on - restart the software, none of this i can see as its in another room, go back into the other room, just to watch a tv programme. NOT WHAT I EXPECTED WHEN I SHELLED OUT £120

Come on guys at MS, just give us the option! I have a program that has a userinterface on one monitor and plays videoclips on the second (HDTV). If I switch channels or turn the TV off, the whole program gets messed up and I have to restart to get everything working ok again. By the way, this is XP, so it's definately not limited to Vista or 7. I just want windows to not react on turning a TV on or off. This is really, I mean REALLY REALLY annoying! Option: Doesn't anybody know what pin on the cable sends this signal so I can just fool WIN? Option: What I have noticed is that windows (luckily!!!) does not react on the main monitor being turned on or off or disconnected. So I was thinking about somehow switching the screens so that the always connected monitor is on the secondary output and my TV on the main one. Currenty I'm experimenting with this option.

Come on guys at MS, just give us the option! I have a program that has a userinterface on one monitor and plays videoclips on the second (HDTV). If I switch channels or turn the TV off, the whole program gets messed up and I have to restart to get everything working ok again. By the way, this is XP, so it's definately not limited to Vista or 7. I just want windows to not react on turning a TV on or off. This is really, I mean REALLY REALLY annoying! Option: Doesn't anybody know what pin on the cable sends this signal so I can just fool WIN? Option: What I have noticed is that windows (luckily!!!) does not react on the main monitor being turned on or off or disconnected. So I was thinking about somehow switching the screens so that the always connected monitor is on the secondary output and my TV on the main one. Currenty I'm experimenting with this option.

Come on guys at MS, just give us the option! I have a program that has a userinterface on one monitor and plays videoclips on the second (HDTV). If I switch channels or turn the TV off, the whole program gets messed up and I have to restart to get everything working ok again. By the way, this is XP, so it's definately not limited to Vista or 7. I just want windows to not react on turning a TV on or off. This is really, I mean REALLY REALLY annoying! Option: Doesn't anybody know what pin on the cable sends this signal so I can just fool WIN? Option: What I have noticed is that windows (luckily!!!) does not react on the main monitor being turned on or off or disconnected. So I was thinking about somehow switching the screens so that the always connected monitor is on the secondary output and my TV on the main one. Currenty I'm experimenting with this option.

Come on guys at MS, just give us the option! I have a program that has a userinterface on one monitor and plays videoclips on the second (HDTV). If I switch channels or turn the TV off, the whole program gets messed up and I have to restart to get everything working ok again. By the way, this is XP, so it's definately not limited to Vista or 7. I just want windows to not react on turning a TV on or off. This is really, I mean REALLY REALLY annoying! Option: Doesn't anybody know what pin on the cable sends this signal so I can just fool WIN? Option: What I have noticed is that windows (luckily!!!) does not react on the main monitor being turned on or off or disconnected. So I was thinking about somehow switching the screens so that the always connected monitor is on the secondary output and my TV on the main one. Currenty I'm experimenting with this option. I'm guessing that when you do this, turning off the tv will actually put your monitor to sleep!!!! You will only be able to wake it up by turning the tv back on!!! At least that was my experience. Post back and let us know. This is a real problem that MS needs to address.

Come on guys at MS, just give us the option! I have a program that has a userinterface on one monitor and plays videoclips on the second (HDTV). If I switch channels or turn the TV off, the whole program gets messed up and I have to restart to get everything working ok again. By the way, this is XP, so it's definately not limited to Vista or 7. I just want windows to not react on turning a TV on or off. This is really, I mean REALLY REALLY annoying! Option: Doesn't anybody know what pin on the cable sends this signal so I can just fool WIN? Option: What I have noticed is that windows (luckily!!!) does not react on the main monitor being turned on or off or disconnected. So I was thinking about somehow switching the screens so that the always connected monitor is on the secondary output and my TV on the main one. Currenty I'm experimenting with this option. I'm guessing that when you do this, turning off the tv will actually put your monitor to sleep!!!! You will only be able to wake it up by turning the tv back on!!! At least that was my experience. Post back and let us know. This is a real problem that MS needs to address.

Come on guys at MS, just give us the option! I have a program that has a userinterface on one monitor and plays videoclips on the second (HDTV). If I switch channels or turn the TV off, the whole program gets messed up and I have to restart to get everything working ok again. By the way, this is XP, so it's definately not limited to Vista or 7. I just want windows to not react on turning a TV on or off. This is really, I mean REALLY REALLY annoying! Option: Doesn't anybody know what pin on the cable sends this signal so I can just fool WIN? Option: What I have noticed is that windows (luckily!!!) does not react on the main monitor being turned on or off or disconnected. So I was thinking about somehow switching the screens so that the always connected monitor is on the secondary output and my TV on the main one. Currenty I'm experimenting with this option. I'm guessing that when you do this, turning off the tv will actually put your monitor to sleep!!!! You will only be able to wake it up by turning the tv back on!!! At least that was my experience. Post back and let us know. This is a real problem that MS needs to address.

I have only noticed this problem when the monitor is plugged in with HDMI or Display Port. At home I ahve a 37" LCD plugged in with HDMI on an nVidia 8400GS, if i boot the computer with the TV off, or have my HDMI switch set to another port, then i have to shut down the computer, switch things around, then boot the computer. That is on Windows Vista Ultimate 64. By the way, there is no second monitor installed here, just the TV. I also believe I had Windows 7 32bit installed here for a bit and saw the same problem, but can't be sure about that. My computer at work is still a Windows XP SP3 machine. It has a 30" plugged in Display port, and a pair of 20" plugged in DVI on an nVidia Quadro NVS 450. I pretty much never shut this computer off, in case I have to work from home, but if i let Windows shut off the monitors, or if i turn off the monitors, or anything that shuts down the 30", then I lose it, and can only get it back by rebooting the PC, playing with the monitor set up, switching plugs around, and eventually getting it back. I have another system at home, running Windows 7 Pro with an nVidia 265, two monitors, 24" and a 23", both connected DVI, and I never have this problem. This probably isn't a driver issue, because i have been dealing with this for over a year now, and stay up to date on drivers. This has also happened for multiple people where i work, and it's all Display Port monitors that do this, never DVI. I think it is specific to HDMI and Display Port.

I have only noticed this problem when the monitor is plugged in with HDMI or Display Port. At home I ahve a 37" LCD plugged in with HDMI on an nVidia 8400GS, if i boot the computer with the TV off, or have my HDMI switch set to another port, then i have to shut down the computer, switch things around, then boot the computer. That is on Windows Vista Ultimate 64. By the way, there is no second monitor installed here, just the TV. I also believe I had Windows 7 32bit installed here for a bit and saw the same problem, but can't be sure about that. My computer at work is still a Windows XP SP3 machine. It has a 30" plugged in Display port, and a pair of 20" plugged in DVI on an nVidia Quadro NVS 450. I pretty much never shut this computer off, in case I have to work from home, but if i let Windows shut off the monitors, or if i turn off the monitors, or anything that shuts down the 30", then I lose it, and can only get it back by rebooting the PC, playing with the monitor set up, switching plugs around, and eventually getting it back. I have another system at home, running Windows 7 Pro with an nVidia 265, two monitors, 24" and a 23", both connected DVI, and I never have this problem. This probably isn't a driver issue, because i have been dealing with this for over a year now, and stay up to date on drivers. This has also happened for multiple people where i work, and it's all Display Port monitors that do this, never DVI. I think it is specific to HDMI and Display Port.

Display port and HDMI are like PnP devices. DVI the comptuer retains a virtual screen even when the computer monitor (DVI) is shut off.

Display port and HDMI are like PnP devices. DVI the comptuer retains a virtual screen even when the computer monitor (DVI) is shut off.

I have only noticed this problem when the monitor is plugged in with HDMI or Display Port. At home I ahve a 37" LCD plugged in with HDMI on an nVidia 8400GS, if i boot the computer with the TV off, or have my HDMI switch set to another port, then i have to shut down the computer, switch things around, then boot the computer. That is on Windows Vista Ultimate 64. By the way, there is no second monitor installed here, just the TV. I also believe I had Windows 7 32bit installed here for a bit and saw the same problem, but can't be sure about that. My computer at work is still a Windows XP SP3 machine. It has a 30" plugged in Display port, and a pair of 20" plugged in DVI on an nVidia Quadro NVS 450. I pretty much never shut this computer off, in case I have to work from home, but if i let Windows shut off the monitors, or if i turn off the monitors, or anything that shuts down the 30", then I lose it, and can only get it back by rebooting the PC, playing with the monitor set up, switching plugs around, and eventually getting it back. I have another system at home, running Windows 7 Pro with an nVidia 265, two monitors, 24" and a 23", both connected DVI, and I never have this problem. This probably isn't a driver issue, because i have been dealing with this for over a year now, and stay up to date on drivers. This has also happened for multiple people where i work, and it's all Display Port monitors that do this, never DVI. I think it is specific to HDMI and Display Port.

Display port and HDMI are like PnP devices. DVI the comptuer retains a virtual screen even when the computer monitor (DVI) is shut off.

I have the same Issue. I have a KVM controlling one of my 2 monitors. I have 2 screens connected to my laptop - 1 directly and 1 through KVM. If I use my laptop, i see both desktops. Then I switch to another KVM screen and the second screen stays on my laptop as it should. I then switch back to my laptop KVM screen and the second (directly connected) screen goes to sleep/disconnects and sends all windows to the KVM connected screen. I then have to press Windows P or detect displays again for the 2nd (directly connected) screen to come back on. Windows must somehow detect me switching back to the KVM screen and disconnects the 2nd monitor for some 'feature' related reason. This is the 2nd 'feature' of Windows 7 I have come to dislike.

I have the same Issue. I have a KVM controlling one of my 2 monitors. I have 2 screens connected to my laptop - 1 directly and 1 through KVM. If I use my laptop, i see both desktops. Then I switch to another KVM screen and the second screen stays on my laptop as it should. I then switch back to my laptop KVM screen and the second (directly connected) screen goes to sleep/disconnects and sends all windows to the KVM connected screen. I then have to press Windows P or detect displays again for the 2nd (directly connected) screen to come back on. Windows must somehow detect me switching back to the KVM screen and disconnects the 2nd monitor for some 'feature' related reason. This is the 2nd 'feature' of Windows 7 I have come to dislike.

I have the same Issue. I have a KVM controlling one of my 2 monitors. I have 2 screens connected to my laptop - 1 directly and 1 through KVM. If I use my laptop, i see both desktops. Then I switch to another KVM screen and the second screen stays on my laptop as it should. I then switch back to my laptop KVM screen and the second (directly connected) screen goes to sleep/disconnects and sends all windows to the KVM connected screen. I then have to press Windows P or detect displays again for the 2nd (directly connected) screen to come back on. Windows must somehow detect me switching back to the KVM screen and disconnects the 2nd monitor for some 'feature' related reason. This is the 2nd 'feature' of Windows 7 I have come to dislike.

Ok, me too. I use my projector connected through my Onkyo receiver (via HDMI) as a 4th display. Every time I turn the receiver on or off, Windows goes crazy, switching the positioning of the displays, moving applications and icons, and even changing the resolution on one of my displays (to its "recommended" value). Then, turning on or off the projector itself also triggers a frenzy. Please make it stop!-G

Ok, me too. I use my projector connected through my Onkyo receiver (via HDMI) as a 4th display. Every time I turn the receiver on or off, Windows goes crazy, switching the positioning of the displays, moving applications and icons, and even changing the resolution on one of my displays (to its "recommended" value). Then, turning on or off the projector itself also triggers a frenzy. Please make it stop!-G

Ok, me too. I use my projector connected through my Onkyo receiver (via HDMI) as a 4th display. Every time I turn the receiver on or off, Windows goes crazy, switching the positioning of the displays, moving applications and icons, and even changing the resolution on one of my displays (to its "recommended" value). Then, turning on or off the projector itself also triggers a frenzy. Please make it stop!-G

Ok, me too. I use my projector connected through my Onkyo receiver (via HDMI) as a 4th display. Every time I turn the receiver on or off, Windows goes crazy, switching the positioning of the displays, moving applications and icons, and even changing the resolution on one of my displays (to its "recommended" value). Then, turning on or off the projector itself also triggers a frenzy. Please make it stop! -G G, I'm assuming you have two video cards, and your HDMI connected receiver comes off the primary card. Move it to the secondary card and you should get more stability - that is what worked for me with an identical setup to you. Post back!

Ok, me too. I use my projector connected through my Onkyo receiver (via HDMI) as a 4th display. Every time I turn the receiver on or off, Windows goes crazy, switching the positioning of the displays, moving applications and icons, and even changing the resolution on one of my displays (to its "recommended" value). Then, turning on or off the projector itself also triggers a frenzy. Please make it stop! -G G, I'm assuming you have two video cards, and your HDMI connected receiver comes off the primary card. Move it to the secondary card and you should get more stability - that is what worked for me with an identical setup to you. Post back!

Ok, me too. I use my projector connected through my Onkyo receiver (via HDMI) as a 4th display. Every time I turn the receiver on or off, Windows goes crazy, switching the positioning of the displays, moving applications and icons, and even changing the resolution on one of my displays (to its "recommended" value). Then, turning on or off the projector itself also triggers a frenzy. Please make it stop! -G G, I'm assuming you have two video cards, and your HDMI connected receiver comes off the primary card. Move it to the secondary card and you should get more stability - that is what worked for me with an identical setup to you. Post back!

I have this problem too, but I am more concerned with Audio As I detailed here, I have ATI HD6950 display and using both DisplayPort and HDMI at the same time: http://forums.amd.com/game/messageview.cfm?catid=279&threadid=145770&enterthread=y ATI's driver will react to Windows's detection of presence of Display port or HDMI and change the audio driver to ATI DP audio or ATI HDMI audio. I've been having problem forcing it to use HDMI audio. Now everytime I don't start PC with my AV receiver turn on, hell comes loose.

I have this problem too, but I am more concerned with Audio As I detailed here, I have ATI HD6950 display and using both DisplayPort and HDMI at the same time: http://forums.amd.com/game/messageview.cfm?catid=279&threadid=145770&enterthread=y ATI's driver will react to Windows's detection of presence of Display port or HDMI and change the audio driver to ATI DP audio or ATI HDMI audio. I've been having problem forcing it to use HDMI audio. Now everytime I don't start PC with my AV receiver turn on, hell comes loose.

I found one way to 'fix' this feature. This fixed both the KVM switch issue and the power-off issue in windows 7 but may only work for VGA monitors. Someone else will have to try this with DVI. Monitor: NEC1940CX connected with VGA through KVM as second monitor. Disconnect pin 12 of the VGA connector which is used to send DCC monitor serial (PNP) data. I used a VGA extender cable and cut pin 12 off the connector that plugs into video card. (looking into male connector, wide side up, pin 12 is bottom row 2nd from left). Hit ‘detect’ in screen resolution control panel. It will show up as ‘generic non PNP monitor’. Set resolution and enjoy. ben

I found one way to 'fix' this feature. This fixed both the KVM switch issue and the power-off issue in windows 7 but may only work for VGA monitors. Someone else will have to try this with DVI. Monitor: NEC1940CX connected with VGA through KVM as second monitor. Disconnect pin 12 of the VGA connector which is used to send DCC monitor serial (PNP) data. I used a VGA extender cable and cut pin 12 off the connector that plugs into video card. (looking into male connector, wide side up, pin 12 is bottom row 2nd from left). Hit ‘detect’ in screen resolution control panel. It will show up as ‘generic non PNP monitor’. Set resolution and enjoy. ben

I have this problem too, but I am more concerned with Audio As I detailed here, I have ATI HD6950 display and using both DisplayPort and HDMI at the same time: http://forums.amd.com/game/messageview.cfm?catid=279&threadid=145770&enterthread=y ATI's driver will react to Windows's detection of presence of Display port or HDMI and change the audio driver to ATI DP audio or ATI HDMI audio. I've been having problem forcing it to use HDMI audio. Now everytime I don't start PC with my AV receiver turn on, hell comes loose.

I found one way to 'fix' this feature. This fixed both the KVM switch issue and the power-off issue in windows 7 but may only work for VGA monitors. Someone else will have to try this with DVI. Monitor: NEC1940CX connected with VGA through KVM as second monitor. Disconnect pin 12 of the VGA connector which is used to send DCC monitor serial (PNP) data. I used a VGA extender cable and cut pin 12 off the connector that plugs into video card. (looking into male connector, wide side up, pin 12 is bottom row 2nd from left). Hit ‘detect’ in screen resolution control panel. It will show up as ‘generic non PNP monitor’. Set resolution and enjoy. ben

@sculpin: What the heck?!? :D How did you find this out?!? I guess, this could come in handy, but not in my case! I am just another annoyed Microshit User, being fascinated, how long Microsoft needs, to support a workaround for this problem. My configuration: - old CRT Monitor connected via VGA - HP 2510 connected via VGA with DVI Adapter AND connected via HDMI to - Yamaha RX-V667 Receiver connected via HDMI to PC Until now I did not find a way to passthrough the HDMI signal from the pc to the HP 2510 through the Yamaha Receiver (while the Receiver is in different mode than HDMI input). Therefore I sometimes have to use the VGA+DVI Adapter connection. Everytime I then turn off the Receiver: Everything's messed up, because in Standby Mode the Yamaha is able to passthroug HDMI and therefore is detected by Windows as HDMI device. Easy solution (as I thought earlier) should be to simply avoid Windows auto detecting Display Devices. Now I know for sure, I was so wrong ... (please excuse my bad english, not my mothertongue ..) Still believing in Microsoft auto detecting their foolness.

@sculpin: What the heck?!? :D How did you find this out?!? I guess, this could come in handy, but not in my case! I am just another annoyed Microshit User, being fascinated, how long Microsoft needs, to support a workaround for this problem. My configuration: - old CRT Monitor connected via VGA - HP 2510 connected via VGA with DVI Adapter AND connected via HDMI to - Yamaha RX-V667 Receiver connected via HDMI to PC Until now I did not find a way to passthrough the HDMI signal from the pc to the HP 2510 through the Yamaha Receiver (while the Receiver is in different mode than HDMI input). Therefore I sometimes have to use the VGA+DVI Adapter connection. Everytime I then turn off the Receiver: Everything's messed up, because in Standby Mode the Yamaha is able to passthroug HDMI and therefore is detected by Windows as HDMI device. Easy solution (as I thought earlier) should be to simply avoid Windows auto detecting Display Devices. Now I know for sure, I was so wrong ... (please excuse my bad english, not my mothertongue ..) Still believing in Microsoft auto detecting their foolness.

@sculpin: What the heck?!? :D How did you find this out?!? I guess, this could come in handy, but not in my case! I am just another annoyed Microshit User, being fascinated, how long Microsoft needs, to support a workaround for this problem. My configuration: - old CRT Monitor connected via VGA - HP 2510 connected via VGA with DVI Adapter AND connected via HDMI to - Yamaha RX-V667 Receiver connected via HDMI to PC Until now I did not find a way to passthrough the HDMI signal from the pc to the HP 2510 through the Yamaha Receiver (while the Receiver is in different mode than HDMI input). Therefore I sometimes have to use the VGA+DVI Adapter connection. Everytime I then turn off the Receiver: Everything's messed up, because in Standby Mode the Yamaha is able to passthroug HDMI and therefore is detected by Windows as HDMI device. Easy solution (as I thought earlier) should be to simply avoid Windows auto detecting Display Devices. Now I know for sure, I was so wrong ... (please excuse my bad english, not my mothertongue ..) Still believing in Microsoft auto detecting their foolness.

Same serious problem here. How can it be that Microsoft still does not react? The Company that want to be SO user friendly? With this "feature" Windows 7 is NOT a 100% working OS. That's not what i've payed for!

Same serious problem here. How can it be that Microsoft still does not react? The Company that want to be SO user friendly? With this "feature" Windows 7 is NOT a 100% working OS. That's not what i've payed for!

Same serious problem here. How can it be that Microsoft still does not react? The Company that want to be SO user friendly? With this "feature" Windows 7 is NOT a 100% working OS. That's not what i've payed for!

Same issue here, extremely annoying. I have two displays connected to my pc, a 17" directly and a 24' through a KVM. I need to startup with the monitor connected, set resolution to 192-x1280, then attach monitor to KVM anf attach KVM to PC. It will then displkay with the correct resolution. HOwever, once I switch the KVM to another computer andf back, the resultion is reset to 1024x768 and I need to physically unplug the kvm from the pc, reattach the original monitor cable, redetect display, set resolution and switch cables back. Extremely annoying. Using NVidia GTX 570. Would really prefer to have a method to stop Windows from automatiocally detecting displays and setting resolution, having to crawl under my desk every 10 minutes is enough for me to buy a third monitor!

Same issue here, extremely annoying. I have two displays connected to my pc, a 17" directly and a 24' through a KVM. I need to startup with the monitor connected, set resolution to 192-x1280, then attach monitor to KVM anf attach KVM to PC. It will then displkay with the correct resolution. HOwever, once I switch the KVM to another computer andf back, the resultion is reset to 1024x768 and I need to physically unplug the kvm from the pc, reattach the original monitor cable, redetect display, set resolution and switch cables back. Extremely annoying. Using NVidia GTX 570. Would really prefer to have a method to stop Windows from automatiocally detecting displays and setting resolution, having to crawl under my desk every 10 minutes is enough for me to buy a third monitor!

Same issue here, extremely annoying. I have two displays connected to my pc, a 17" directly and a 24' through a KVM. I need to startup with the monitor connected, set resolution to 192-x1280, then attach monitor to KVM anf attach KVM to PC. It will then displkay with the correct resolution. HOwever, once I switch the KVM to another computer andf back, the resultion is reset to 1024x768 and I need to physically unplug the kvm from the pc, reattach the original monitor cable, redetect display, set resolution and switch cables back. Extremely annoying. Using NVidia GTX 570. Would really prefer to have a method to stop Windows from automatiocally detecting displays and setting resolution, having to crawl under my desk every 10 minutes is enough for me to buy a third monitor!

I too am having this problem and am finding it ***MOST*** annoying. I leave my computer on all the time during the week and just turn off the monitors at night. When I turn them back on again, I find that Windows has shifted everything from my second monitor over onto my primary monitor. I've been living with this annoyance for a couple of months now. However today it went one stage further. It moved all the ICONS from my second screen too meaning I've lost all my icon positioning. This is absolutely unacceptable. Whoever at Microsoft came up with this new behaviour really needs disciplining. Microsoft... clearly from this thread there is a sizeable number of people with the same issue and you therefore need to look at this problem. Although since Mr Sinofsky took over the Windows division, listening to and pleasing your customers no longer seems to be one of your priorities. This is also evidenced by the elimination of organised Beta programs and the sacking of Wendy Stidmon who acted as a diligent (and highly effective) conduit to the thousands of customers testing the product. It's clear now that if an issue does not affect somebody at Microsoft, or if somebody at Microsoft deems it to be unimportant, then ZERO priority is attached to resolving that issue. Clearly Microsoft's own narrow internal vision is all the matters now. And that is sad.

I too am having this problem and am finding it ***MOST*** annoying. I leave my computer on all the time during the week and just turn off the monitors at night. When I turn them back on again, I find that Windows has shifted everything from my second monitor over onto my primary monitor. I've been living with this annoyance for a couple of months now. However today it went one stage further. It moved all the ICONS from my second screen too meaning I've lost all my icon positioning. This is absolutely unacceptable. Whoever at Microsoft came up with this new behaviour really needs disciplining. Microsoft... clearly from this thread there is a sizeable number of people with the same issue and you therefore need to look at this problem. Although since Mr Sinofsky took over the Windows division, listening to and pleasing your customers no longer seems to be one of your priorities. This is also evidenced by the elimination of organised Beta programs and the sacking of Wendy Stidmon who acted as a diligent (and highly effective) conduit to the thousands of customers testing the product. It's clear now that if an issue does not affect somebody at Microsoft, or if somebody at Microsoft deems it to be unimportant, then ZERO priority is attached to resolving that issue. Clearly Microsoft's own narrow internal vision is all the matters now. And that is sad.

Include me on the list - 3 monitors hooked to an ATI 5670. Two DVI, one display port. If I turn the display port monitor off it acts like its disconnected, so every morning I need to shuffle my windows around for a few minutes.

Include me on the list - 3 monitors hooked to an ATI 5670. Two DVI, one display port. If I turn the display port monitor off it acts like its disconnected, so every morning I need to shuffle my windows around for a few minutes.

I too am having this problem and am finding it ***MOST*** annoying. I leave my computer on all the time during the week and just turn off the monitors at night. When I turn them back on again, I find that Windows has shifted everything from my second monitor over onto my primary monitor. I've been living with this annoyance for a couple of months now. However today it went one stage further. It moved all the ICONS from my second screen too meaning I've lost all my icon positioning. This is absolutely unacceptable. Whoever at Microsoft came up with this new behaviour really needs disciplining. Microsoft... clearly from this thread there is a sizeable number of people with the same issue and you therefore need to look at this problem. Although since Mr Sinofsky took over the Windows division, listening to and pleasing your customers no longer seems to be one of your priorities. This is also evidenced by the elimination of organised Beta programs and the sacking of Wendy Stidmon who acted as a diligent (and highly effective) conduit to the thousands of customers testing the product. It's clear now that if an issue does not affect somebody at Microsoft, or if somebody at Microsoft deems it to be unimportant, then ZERO priority is attached to resolving that issue. Clearly Microsoft's own narrow internal vision is all the matters now. And that is sad.

Include me on the list - 3 monitors hooked to an ATI 5670. Two DVI, one display port. If I turn the display port monitor off it acts like its disconnected, so every morning I need to shuffle my windows around for a few minutes.

This started happening to me when I ran my monitors through a KVM switch. Turning off TMM did nothing for me. The solution for me was to swap out the DVI-to-SVGA adapter dongle. New ones are only 99 cents on ebay. The one that would make the monitor disconnect and reconnect every 60 seconds, had a bunch of pins missing. The one I replaced it with that fixed the problem, had all the pins everywhere. So check your DVI-to-VGA donggle on the the back of the video card, that leads to the monitor that keeps switching on and off, if it has pins missing.

This started happening to me when I ran my monitors through a KVM switch. Turning off TMM did nothing for me. The solution for me was to swap out the DVI-to-SVGA adapter dongle. New ones are only 99 cents on ebay. The one that would make the monitor disconnect and reconnect every 60 seconds, had a bunch of pins missing. The one I replaced it with that fixed the problem, had all the pins everywhere. So check your DVI-to-VGA donggle on the the back of the video card, that leads to the monitor that keeps switching on and off, if it has pins missing.

This started happening to me when I ran my monitors through a KVM switch. Turning off TMM did nothing for me. The solution for me was to swap out the DVI-to-SVGA adapter dongle. New ones are only 99 cents on ebay. The one that would make the monitor disconnect and reconnect every 60 seconds, had a bunch of pins missing. The one I replaced it with that fixed the problem, had all the pins everywhere. So check your DVI-to-VGA donggle on the the back of the video card, that leads to the monitor that keeps switching on and off, if it has pins missing.

I have a similar problem. I have my monitor connected with a VGA cable, and then I have an HDMI cable running to my HDTV. When I turn on my tv, if it is not set to the right input setting, my regular monitor constantly switches on and off, and the speakers make the sound of connecting/unconnecting a device, until I switch my HDTV to the correct input setting. Also, I have computer speakers running from my computer, as well as surround sound running off of my HDTV. Is there a way to have it set so when I connect my TV, the sound is automatically switched over to the HDMI out instead of the computer speakers? Right now I have to right click on my Volume Control, click Playback Devices, and continue to set the output that I want the sound to playback on as "Default". Any help would be appreciated. There must be an easier way.

I have a similar problem. I have my monitor connected with a VGA cable, and then I have an HDMI cable running to my HDTV. When I turn on my tv, if it is not set to the right input setting, my regular monitor constantly switches on and off, and the speakers make the sound of connecting/unconnecting a device, until I switch my HDTV to the correct input setting. Also, I have computer speakers running from my computer, as well as surround sound running off of my HDTV. Is there a way to have it set so when I connect my TV, the sound is automatically switched over to the HDMI out instead of the computer speakers? Right now I have to right click on my Volume Control, click Playback Devices, and continue to set the output that I want the sound to playback on as "Default". Any help would be appreciated. There must be an easier way.

I have a similar problem. I have my monitor connected with a VGA cable, and then I have an HDMI cable running to my HDTV. When I turn on my tv, if it is not set to the right input setting, my regular monitor constantly switches on and off, and the speakers make the sound of connecting/unconnecting a device, until I switch my HDTV to the correct input setting. Also, I have computer speakers running from my computer, as well as surround sound running off of my HDTV. Is there a way to have it set so when I connect my TV, the sound is automatically switched over to the HDMI out instead of the computer speakers? Right now I have to right click on my Volume Control, click Playback Devices, and continue to set the output that I want the sound to playback on as "Default". Any help would be appreciated. There must be an easier way.

FOR THOSE WITH KVM Problem (SOLVED FOR ME): Summary: Buy a cheap (ebay $4) VGA (or DVI) extender cable for each of your monitors, rip PIN 12 for VGA (or Pin 16 for DVI) out of the male end of the extender cable, place between your monitors and your KVM, and you're done. STEP BY STEP 1. Buy a VGA Extender Cable male to female, one for each of your monitors. VGA extender cables are only about $4 each on ebay, and you only need one per each of your monitors connected to KVM, not one for each computer. I.e., if you have one monitor going to your KVM, you only need to buy one VGA extender cable. If you have two monitors (dual view) going to your KVM, you need two cables, etc. Search for "vga extension cable male female": Ebay: http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_nkw=vga+extension+cable+male+female&_sacat=0&_sop=15&_odkw=vga+extension+cable&_osacat=0&_trksid=p3286.c0.m270.l1313 Froogle: http://www.google.com/search?q=vga+extension+cable+male+female&tbs=shop%3A1&aq=f#q=vga+extension+cable+male+female&hl=en&tbs=shop:1,p_ord:p&sa=X&ei=U5dxTeW6N4KUtwfxtriGDw&ved=0CAoQuw0oAQ&bav=on.2,or.&fp=563c33928d93abad Note: if you are a real cheapskate or can't wait, you can rip pin 12 out of your monitor cable male end, but I don't recommend this as its irreversible. That's the whole point of buying the VGA extender cable - if it doesn't work for you or you screw it up, its to a cheap $4 cable that you can toss away, and like me, you may already have them lying about your IT shop. My monitors are far away, so I already had two between my monitors and my KVM already, so I was set to go immediatly. 2. RIP PIN 12 out of the VGA extender cable male end with some needle nose electrical pliers)!!!! Takes all of 10 seconds To see where pin 12 is, look at this website already mentioned: http://nookkin.com/content/allowing-any-screen-resolution-on-vista.php http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_N66od8KlQks/TD-St9qyYEI/AAAAAAAAAVU/K5fH6O4jx-o/s1600/vga_pinout.jpg The above links have the correct view for the male end, where you you will be pulling out pin 12. Note that the female end, which you won't change, will have a mirror view of the pins. 3. Plug VGA extender cable in line in between your monitors and your KVM switch. You're done. That's it. 4. No more desktop resizes, flicker, flutter, window and gadet moving, USB disconnect reconnect sound 10 second waits heart attack night mares every time you switch screens. In fact, its now nicer than it was under XP, because the video card never shuts off or thinks the monitor has disappeared, so switching between screens has no black out or pause or flicker at all, period. Its instantaneous, like flipping between tabs on a webpage or a picture book, its that fast. You can also turn your monitors off when you walk away from your computer, and nothing happens. Bliss. For DVI monitors: If you have a DVI monitor, I imagine, using the same method... buying an extender cable, and ripping out the appropriate Hot Plug Detect pin 16 on a DVI extender cable may work for you as well. Note that I have not tried the DVI Pin 16 rip out myself, so read further through the posts here and verify someone else has tried it and it does / does not work before you proceed below... For DVI: instead by a DVI extender cable for each of your monitors, and rip out DVI pin 16 instead (of vga pin 12): DVI pinout diagram: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/03/DVI_pinout.png Ebay: http://shop.ebay.com/?_from=R40&_trksid=p5197.m570.l1313&_nkw=dvi+extension+cable+male+female&_sacat=See-All-Categories Froogle: http://www.google.com/search?q=vga+extension+cable+male+female&tbs=shop%3A1&aq=f#sclient=psy&hl=en&tbs=shop:1%2Cp_ord%3Ap&q=dvi+extension+cable+male+female&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.&fp=563c33928d93abad Oh, did I mention, you don't have to buy a new KVM ;-) BUMP THAT! If you lose a monitor right after reconnecting your cables back up, simply go into screen resolution in Windows and click the Detect button and you're golden. I'm tempted to make a video showing the difference between Windows 7 KVM monitor ****, and then back to the way it should be and should of been from the very start, by simply pulling this pin and killing the monitor query line and this 'smart' feature. If you do in the future need monitor auto detect again, simply remove the extender cable out of the loop and connect your monitor directly back up to your KVM. No mod or damage done to your expensive monitor or KVM at all, they retain their resale value.

We shouldn't have to be sabotaging our cables just because some moron at Microsoft thought it would be a great idea to move all your icons and windows if you turn you monitor off. More and more people leave their PC's turned on (or in standby) when not in use these days and just turn off the monitors. Leaving this behaviour "as is" is simply unacceptable and needs to be fixed.

We shouldn't have to be sabotaging our cables just because some moron at Microsoft thought it would be a great idea to move all your icons and windows if you turn you monitor off. More and more people leave their PC's turned on (or in standby) when not in use these days and just turn off the monitors. Leaving this behaviour "as is" is simply unacceptable and needs to be fixed.

I just tried Packageshop's suggestion, cutting DVI pin 16 (Hot plug detect) on a DVI to HDMI adapter. The "Detect" button on "Screen Resolution" still finds the monitors, but now when I use my HDMI switcher my main monitor doesn't get disabled - Windows 7 thinks it's still connected, and leaves the display settings as-is. Genius! To reiterate, DVI pinout diagram: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/03/DVI_pinout.png

We shouldn't have to be sabotaging our cables just because some moron at Microsoft thought it would be a great idea to move all your icons and windows if you turn you monitor off. More and more people leave their PC's turned on (or in standby) when not in use these days and just turn off the monitors. Leaving this behaviour "as is" is simply unacceptable and needs to be fixed.

Hey guys, I think disbling TMM will help you, it's in task scheduler. Only good for Windows 6+, if anyone knows how to do the same thing in XP please let me know!

Hey guys, I think disbling TMM will help you, it's in task scheduler. Only good for Windows 6+, if anyone knows how to do the same thing in XP please let me know!

Hey guys, I think disbling TMM will help you, it's in task scheduler. Only good for Windows 6+, if anyone knows how to do the same thing in XP please let me know!

I would like to add to this discussion that I am having the exact same problem as the OP and I agree that Microsoft should be able to provide a simple fix to address this problem. I'm using my Windows 7 system as a media server, connected to a standard LCD monitor (via DVI) in my media room as well as an LCD flat screen display in my theater room (different room) through my home theater receiver via HDMI. Everything works fine as long as I have my receiver turned on and set to the PC HDMI input when I turn on my computer. Windows duplicates the two displays and all is well. Problem is, if the receiver isn't turned on, or set to the PC HDMI input when the system is booted up, or if for some reason I switch inputs on the receiver while the system is on, Windows takes that to mean the flat screen display is turned off and the only way to correct it is to get up and go into my media room and into display properties, detect display. Microsoft - either provide a keyboard shortcut for the "detect display" functionality, or provide an option to have Windows disable the auto display detection feature so that the display settings we choose are saved and maintained until changed by the user.

I would like to add to this discussion that I am having the exact same problem as the OP and I agree that Microsoft should be able to provide a simple fix to address this problem. I'm using my Windows 7 system as a media server, connected to a standard LCD monitor (via DVI) in my media room as well as an LCD flat screen display in my theater room (different room) through my home theater receiver via HDMI. Everything works fine as long as I have my receiver turned on and set to the PC HDMI input when I turn on my computer. Windows duplicates the two displays and all is well. Problem is, if the receiver isn't turned on, or set to the PC HDMI input when the system is booted up, or if for some reason I switch inputs on the receiver while the system is on, Windows takes that to mean the flat screen display is turned off and the only way to correct it is to get up and go into my media room and into display properties, detect display. Microsoft - either provide a keyboard shortcut for the "detect display" functionality, or provide an option to have Windows disable the auto display detection feature so that the display settings we choose are saved and maintained until changed by the user.

I would like to add to this discussion that I am having the exact same problem as the OP and I agree that Microsoft should be able to provide a simple fix to address this problem. I'm using my Windows 7 system as a media server, connected to a standard LCD monitor (via DVI) in my media room as well as an LCD flat screen display in my theater room (different room) through my home theater receiver via HDMI. Everything works fine as long as I have my receiver turned on and set to the PC HDMI input when I turn on my computer. Windows duplicates the two displays and all is well. Problem is, if the receiver isn't turned on, or set to the PC HDMI input when the system is booted up, or if for some reason I switch inputs on the receiver while the system is on, Windows takes that to mean the flat screen display is turned off and the only way to correct it is to get up and go into my media room and into display properties, detect display. Microsoft - either provide a keyboard shortcut for the "detect display" functionality, or provide an option to have Windows disable the auto display detection feature so that the display settings we choose are saved and maintained until changed by the user.

I found a solution! I have a new Optiplex 380 (several) using the DVI output card to access the onboard video (Intel G41), running Windows 7 SP1. When I turn off the monitor off, or the monitor goes to sleep (Windows power settings), the tone is repeated as descibed in this post. I am only using one monitor. Solution: Change the monitor from Auto Detect to Digital (DVI) Input. That's it. The only time I get a sound is when the monitor comes back to life. A fix I can live with! Hope this helps. Brian Network / MIS Administrator

Unfortunately the MS support is right, it's not possible to turn off the monitor detection. It's by design. The WDDM (Windows Display Driver Model) which was introduced in Windows Vista includes a new concept called "Video Present Network" or VidPn (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff570543(v=vs.85).aspx). Each video adapter (when connected) declares the number of VidPn targets. The DMM (monitor manager) can follow the power state of the targets (monitors) by either polling the miniport driver or upon receiving hot-plug interrupt (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff568431(v=VS.85).aspx). Once the DMM has a "good" (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff565475(v=VS.85).aspx) VidPn source to target link, the CDD/DWM can use the display. Please note that most of the time when the screen is blank goes to finding a good VidPn link. I won't say how efficient it is, but it consumes a lot of time and CPU. When there's an available new target or when a target is removed the CDD or DWM check if they have a valid VidPn for the "primary" monitor. So there cannot be extended monitor without primary. You can ask Nvidia, Ati and Intel to add an option to their drivers which will "lie" to DMM about the monitor device status. Also AFAIK there's an application which feeds the system with the EDID of your monitor even when you disconnect it (never tried it though). Hope it helps.

Unfortunately the MS support is right, it's not possible to turn off the monitor detection. It's by design. The WDDM (Windows Display Driver Model) which was introduced in Windows Vista includes a new concept called "Video Present Network" or VidPn (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff570543(v=vs.85).aspx). Each video adapter (when connected) declares the number of VidPn targets. The DMM (monitor manager) can follow the power state of the targets (monitors) by either polling the miniport driver or upon receiving hot-plug interrupt (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff568431(v=VS.85).aspx). Once the DMM has a "good" (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff565475(v=VS.85).aspx) VidPn source to target link, the CDD/DWM can use the display. Please note that most of the time when the screen is blank goes to finding a good VidPn link. I won't say how efficient it is, but it consumes a lot of time and CPU. When there's an available new target or when a target is removed the CDD or DWM check if they have a valid VidPn for the "primary" monitor. So there cannot be extended monitor without primary. You can ask Nvidia, Ati and Intel to add an option to their drivers which will "lie" to DMM about the monitor device status. Also AFAIK there's an application which feeds the system with the EDID of your monitor even when you disconnect it (never tried it though). Hope it helps.

Unfortunately the MS support is right, it's not possible to turn off the monitor detection. It's by design. The WDDM (Windows Display Driver Model) which was introduced in Windows Vista includes a new concept called "Video Present Network" or VidPn (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff570543(v=vs.85).aspx). Each video adapter (when connected) declares the number of VidPn targets. The DMM (monitor manager) can follow the power state of the targets (monitors) by either polling the miniport driver or upon receiving hot-plug interrupt (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff568431(v=VS.85).aspx). Once the DMM has a "good" (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff565475(v=VS.85).aspx) VidPn source to target link, the CDD/DWM can use the display. Please note that most of the time when the screen is blank goes to finding a good VidPn link. I won't say how efficient it is, but it consumes a lot of time and CPU. When there's an available new target or when a target is removed the CDD or DWM check if they have a valid VidPn for the "primary" monitor. So there cannot be extended monitor without primary. You can ask Nvidia, Ati and Intel to add an option to their drivers which will "lie" to DMM about the monitor device status. Also AFAIK there's an application which feeds the system with the EDID of your monitor even when you disconnect it (never tried it though). Hope it helps.

Monitor detection is "by design"? Well the person that designed it is either an idiot or only has a single monitor connected to his computer. Like so many other features, Win7 has managed to take control from the user, and create new complications except for the most simple of setups. I believe that this problem WILL be fixed, but only after more and more individuals start hooking their computer to a second monitor (HDTV), and realizing that Win7 is seriously flawed in this department - one of many problem areas.

Monitor detection is "by design"? Well the person that designed it is either an idiot or only has a single monitor connected to his computer. Like so many other features, Win7 has managed to take control from the user, and create new complications except for the most simple of setups. I believe that this problem WILL be fixed, but only after more and more individuals start hooking their computer to a second monitor (HDTV), and realizing that Win7 is seriously flawed in this department - one of many problem areas.

Monitor detection is "by design"? Well the person that designed it is either an idiot or only has a single monitor connected to his computer. Like so many other features, Win7 has managed to take control from the user, and create new complications except for the most simple of setups. I believe that this problem WILL be fixed, but only after more and more individuals start hooking their computer to a second monitor (HDTV), and realizing that Win7 is seriously flawed in this department - one of many problem areas.

My two cents.... I have 1 HDMI connection to a 50" plasma TV, that is only sometimes on the PC input. Also, two VGA connections, one using a DVI-VGA adapter. Whenever the KVM is switched or the TV turns on or off, Windows 7 completely rearranges my monitor layout with no regard to how it's been in the past, or to which monitor now becomes the primary. While WIN+P does lessen the burden some, it still wreaks havoc on icon locations and window locations. Furthermore, the constant screen flickering and PnP detection sounds are brutally annoying. Please, Microsoft hear our plea. Keep the feature, but give us an option to only detect new displays on the user's cue. I am more than happy to let Windows 7 know when I'd like to swap around my primary/secondary monitors. It's input is neither beneficial, nor desired.

My two cents.... I have 1 HDMI connection to a 50" plasma TV, that is only sometimes on the PC input. Also, two VGA connections, one using a DVI-VGA adapter. Whenever the KVM is switched or the TV turns on or off, Windows 7 completely rearranges my monitor layout with no regard to how it's been in the past, or to which monitor now becomes the primary. While WIN+P does lessen the burden some, it still wreaks havoc on icon locations and window locations. Furthermore, the constant screen flickering and PnP detection sounds are brutally annoying. Please, Microsoft hear our plea. Keep the feature, but give us an option to only detect new displays on the user's cue. I am more than happy to let Windows 7 know when I'd like to swap around my primary/secondary monitors. It's input is neither beneficial, nor desired.

My two cents.... I have 1 HDMI connection to a 50" plasma TV, that is only sometimes on the PC input. Also, two VGA connections, one using a DVI-VGA adapter. Whenever the KVM is switched or the TV turns on or off, Windows 7 completely rearranges my monitor layout with no regard to how it's been in the past, or to which monitor now becomes the primary. While WIN+P does lessen the burden some, it still wreaks havoc on icon locations and window locations. Furthermore, the constant screen flickering and PnP detection sounds are brutally annoying. Please, Microsoft hear our plea. Keep the feature, but give us an option to only detect new displays on the user's cue. I am more than happy to let Windows 7 know when I'd like to swap around my primary/secondary monitors. It's input is neither beneficial, nor desired.

I'm having the same problem with DisplayPort: While using it, change to another port and go back to DisplayPort: "no-signal" Or while using the DisplayPort, press stand-by to turn off the monitor, then turn it back on: "no signal". - Of if I get a signal, all of the windows are resized to 1024x768 and moved to top-left corner of the screen.

I'm having the same problem with DisplayPort: While using it, change to another port and go back to DisplayPort: "no-signal" Or while using the DisplayPort, press stand-by to turn off the monitor, then turn it back on: "no signal". - Of if I get a signal, all of the windows are resized to 1024x768 and moved to top-left corner of the screen.

I'm having the same problem with DisplayPort: While using it, change to another port and go back to DisplayPort: "no-signal" Or while using the DisplayPort, press stand-by to turn off the monitor, then turn it back on: "no signal". - Of if I get a signal, all of the windows are resized to 1024x768 and moved to top-left corner of the screen.

Also having the same problem with hdmi using vizio LCD as a 3rd monitor

Also having the same problem with hdmi using vizio LCD as a 3rd monitor

Also having the same problem with hdmi using vizio LCD as a 3rd monitor

Well "WDDMExpert" makes it sound like there's no other way, but on the same system with dual monitors I also tried my old Windows XP SP2 and it works perfectly. No problem whatsoever. SO how come with win xp works like it should and in Windows 7 64 I have the same problem mentioned here ?

Well "WDDMExpert" makes it sound like there's no other way, but on the same system with dual monitors I also tried my old Windows XP SP2 and it works perfectly. No problem whatsoever. SO how come with win xp works like it should and in Windows 7 64 I have the same problem mentioned here ?

Well "WDDMExpert" makes it sound like there's no other way, but on the same system with dual monitors I also tried my old Windows XP SP2 and it works perfectly. No problem whatsoever. SO how come with win xp works like it should and in Windows 7 64 I have the same problem mentioned here ?

Same problem as the rest: Windows 7 Enterprise 64-bit Intel G41 on-board graphics. 2 24" LCD monitors connected, one on VGA one on DVI. If the (primary) VGA monitor is sent to sleep or turned off, nothing in Windows is changed (the programs stay on the turned-off monitor). If the (secondary) DVI monitor is sent to sleep or turned off, Windows gives the "device disconnected" sound and moves all the programs to the primary monitor. Very annoying. Considering the pin-removal method to stop it.

Same problem as the rest: Windows 7 Enterprise 64-bit Intel G41 on-board graphics. 2 24" LCD monitors connected, one on VGA one on DVI. If the (primary) VGA monitor is sent to sleep or turned off, nothing in Windows is changed (the programs stay on the turned-off monitor). If the (secondary) DVI monitor is sent to sleep or turned off, Windows gives the "device disconnected" sound and moves all the programs to the primary monitor. Very annoying. Considering the pin-removal method to stop it.

Same problem as the rest: Windows 7 Enterprise 64-bit Intel G41 on-board graphics. 2 24" LCD monitors connected, one on VGA one on DVI. If the (primary) VGA monitor is sent to sleep or turned off, nothing in Windows is changed (the programs stay on the turned-off monitor). If the (secondary) DVI monitor is sent to sleep or turned off, Windows gives the "device disconnected" sound and moves all the programs to the primary monitor. Very annoying. Considering the pin-removal method to stop it.

I suffer the same problem. Have a monitor hooked up by DVI, and an HDMI hookup to my TV out in the living room. The icon movement has gotten so tiring, that it's gotten to the point where I only extend the displays when using the TV, and usually just display the desktop on the DVI monitor for normal use. My problem has gotten even worse as of the other day. Check this out: After using the TV as the primary display for an evening, at the end of the night , I switch my primary display back to the monitor (show desktop on monitor 2 only), and go to bed. The next morning, I wake up and see no desktop on the monitor. Confused, I turn on the TV to see if I left the TV as the primary monitor, and boom, suddenly the monitor in my office becomes my primary display again. (The TV is blank, as it should be, because I have it set to display only on the monitor). So, I turn the TV off again and the desktop disappears from the monitor yet again. Presumably to the TV, which is turned off... This is mind boggling. Now I have to leave the TV unplugged, because when the TV is off I can't use the main monitor!!! So Windows 7 detects that my TV is off, and then makes it the primary display? I really can't wrap my mind around it. You can't even get any help from Microsoft, they want to charge me $60 to tell them that there OS is bugged and flawed. Really? I really can't believe I paid money for this OS, it was obviously developed by a team of idiots. Is there really never going to be a fix for this?

I suffer the same problem. Have a monitor hooked up by DVI, and an HDMI hookup to my TV out in the living room. The icon movement has gotten so tiring, that it's gotten to the point where I only extend the displays when using the TV, and usually just display the desktop on the DVI monitor for normal use. My problem has gotten even worse as of the other day. Check this out: After using the TV as the primary display for an evening, at the end of the night , I switch my primary display back to the monitor (show desktop on monitor 2 only), and go to bed. The next morning, I wake up and see no desktop on the monitor. Confused, I turn on the TV to see if I left the TV as the primary monitor, and boom, suddenly the monitor in my office becomes my primary display again. (The TV is blank, as it should be, because I have it set to display only on the monitor). So, I turn the TV off again and the desktop disappears from the monitor yet again. Presumably to the TV, which is turned off... This is mind boggling. Now I have to leave the TV unplugged, because when the TV is off I can't use the main monitor!!! So Windows 7 detects that my TV is off, and then makes it the primary display? I really can't wrap my mind around it. You can't even get any help from Microsoft, they want to charge me $60 to tell them that there OS is bugged and flawed. Really? I really can't believe I paid money for this OS, it was obviously developed by a team of idiots. Is there really never going to be a fix for this?

I suffer the same problem. Have a monitor hooked up by DVI, and an HDMI hookup to my TV out in the living room. The icon movement has gotten so tiring, that it's gotten to the point where I only extend the displays when using the TV, and usually just display the desktop on the DVI monitor for normal use. My problem has gotten even worse as of the other day. Check this out: After using the TV as the primary display for an evening, at the end of the night , I switch my primary display back to the monitor (show desktop on monitor 2 only), and go to bed. The next morning, I wake up and see no desktop on the monitor. Confused, I turn on the TV to see if I left the TV as the primary monitor, and boom, suddenly the monitor in my office becomes my primary display again. (The TV is blank, as it should be, because I have it set to display only on the monitor). So, I turn the TV off again and the desktop disappears from the monitor yet again. Presumably to the TV, which is turned off... This is mind boggling. Now I have to leave the TV unplugged, because when the TV is off I can't use the main monitor!!! So Windows 7 detects that my TV is off, and then makes it the primary display? I really can't wrap my mind around it. You can't even get any help from Microsoft, they want to charge me $60 to tell them that there OS is bugged and flawed. Really? I really can't believe I paid money for this OS, it was obviously developed by a team of idiots. Is there really never going to be a fix for this?

same issue here, with vista 64 ultimate radeon 6850, three monitors, two dvi, one display port dell 3007wfp set as main, one samsung 2433 and one benq bl2400 (lowest resolution of them) dell set as main, can't keep the taskbar on bl2400 for nothing how old is this thread?

same issue here, with vista 64 ultimate radeon 6850, three monitors, two dvi, one display port dell 3007wfp set as main, one samsung 2433 and one benq bl2400 (lowest resolution of them) dell set as main, can't keep the taskbar on bl2400 for nothing how old is this thread?

same issue here, with vista 64 ultimate radeon 6850, three monitors, two dvi, one display port dell 3007wfp set as main, one samsung 2433 and one benq bl2400 (lowest resolution of them) dell set as main, can't keep the taskbar on bl2400 for nothing how old is this thread?

Sadly, this thread goes back to January 2010. I'd love to tell microsoft about this issue, heck, in my mind, they're selling a broken OS, but they charge $50 to send them an email. How do they get away with this? Is there another company in the world that has such a putative "support" system? I don't think so.

Sadly, this thread goes back to January 2010. I'd love to tell microsoft about this issue, heck, in my mind, they're selling a broken OS, but they charge $50 to send them an email. How do they get away with this? Is there another company in the world that has such a putative "support" system? I don't think so.

Sadly, this thread goes back to January 2010. I'd love to tell microsoft about this issue, heck, in my mind, they're selling a broken OS, but they charge $50 to send them an email. How do they get away with this? Is there another company in the world that has such a putative "support" system? I don't think so.

I just did the removal of pin 16 on the DVI cable connectors to both my Windows 7 machine and Windows XP machine and now they stay on, even if I disconnect the HDMI cable in order to switch from one machine to the other. Works like magic. As long as the monitor is connected when the machine is powered on it will stay on! I guess this is a bit like the early days of Plug-and-Play, when it was still called 'plug and pray'. In this case, the 'green' OS discovers that a monitor gets disconnected and turns the video signal off, but when you re-connect it, it doesn't know what to do. This is just unfinished software. In my mind there should be an option in the video control panel that you can change from 'auto', meaning automatically detect monitor disconnect and reconnect, to 'ignore' monitor disconnect. I am thinking of modifying my monitor, to interrupt the 'Hot plug detect' pin with a switch and set it to 'off', so that I don't have to modify any more cables (I am currently connected to 5 machines.) And when the software works properly one day I can set the switch to 'on' again.

I just did the removal of pin 16 on the DVI cable connectors to both my Windows 7 machine and Windows XP machine and now they stay on, even if I disconnect the HDMI cable in order to switch from one machine to the other. Works like magic. As long as the monitor is connected when the machine is powered on it will stay on! I guess this is a bit like the early days of Plug-and-Play, when it was still called 'plug and pray'. In this case, the 'green' OS discovers that a monitor gets disconnected and turns the video signal off, but when you re-connect it, it doesn't know what to do. This is just unfinished software. In my mind there should be an option in the video control panel that you can change from 'auto', meaning automatically detect monitor disconnect and reconnect, to 'ignore' monitor disconnect. I am thinking of modifying my monitor, to interrupt the 'Hot plug detect' pin with a switch and set it to 'off', so that I don't have to modify any more cables (I am currently connected to 5 machines.) And when the software works properly one day I can set the switch to 'on' again.

I just did the removal of pin 16 on the DVI cable connectors to both my Windows 7 machine and Windows XP machine and now they stay on, even if I disconnect the HDMI cable in order to switch from one machine to the other. Works like magic. As long as the monitor is connected when the machine is powered on it will stay on! I guess this is a bit like the early days of Plug-and-Play, when it was still called 'plug and pray'. In this case, the 'green' OS discovers that a monitor gets disconnected and turns the video signal off, but when you re-connect it, it doesn't know what to do. This is just unfinished software. In my mind there should be an option in the video control panel that you can change from 'auto', meaning automatically detect monitor disconnect and reconnect, to 'ignore' monitor disconnect. I am thinking of modifying my monitor, to interrupt the 'Hot plug detect' pin with a switch and set it to 'off', so that I don't have to modify any more cables (I am currently connected to 5 machines.) And when the software works properly one day I can set the switch to 'on' again.

Hi! I've been searching for days now to find a solution to this problem and have so far been blaming ATI for this bug. Now after reading all the comments and looking at how long this issue has been known to Microsoft I'm absolutely stunned, I am myself a software engineer and if released a code with such a user-unfriendly behavior and did NOT respond to the customer complaints I'd been gone pretty fast. Microsoft should really get their stuff back together. Any normal user nowadays has multiple or at least a second monitors connected to their PC or laptop or why do they think low end graphic cards already have a minimum of two outputs and simply moving applications, windows and items without at least user confirmation is not acceptable! I'm really annoyed by this "feature" as you may can tell, but this great new bug not only screws up my local applications but also my virtual machines. How hard can it be to release a hot-fix for this to add an overwrite feature? Add another software layer before the auto-detect feature to trick the pc into thinking everything is connected and let the user decide when/for what devices to send the fake signal to the hardware layer?

Hello. I've managed to resolve this problem at my place. On my HP monitor, I've turned on an option to scan inputs while it's off.

Hello. I've managed to resolve this problem at my place. On my HP monitor, I've turned on an option to scan inputs while it's off.

Hello. I've managed to resolve this problem at my place. On my HP monitor, I've turned on an option to scan inputs while it's off.

Just another stupid issue that indicates how TOTALLY out of touch Microsoft is with its customers. Sadly, I get better use and support from the Linux community than Microsoft.... that is saying a lot because Linux can really be a pain. Think I might buy a Mac.If you're gonna be dumb, you better be tough!

Just another stupid issue that indicates how TOTALLY out of touch Microsoft is with its customers. Sadly, I get better use and support from the Linux community than Microsoft.... that is saying a lot because Linux can really be a pain. Think I might buy a Mac.If you're gonna be dumb, you better be tough!

Just another stupid issue that indicates how TOTALLY out of touch Microsoft is with its customers. Sadly, I get better use and support from the Linux community than Microsoft.... that is saying a lot because Linux can really be a pain. Think I might buy a Mac.If you're gonna be dumb, you better be tough!

Just to chime in on this thread, this "feature" is highly annoying and makes owning an HTPC nearly impossible. Ronnie is of no assistance here, and if there was a way I could disable this intentional bug, I would in a heartbeat.

Thank you for this simple solution to a ridiculous problem.

Thank you for this simple solution to a ridiculous problem.

Thank you for this simple solution to a ridiculous problem.

Its now July 2011 and microsoft still have done nothing to fix this issue... even after the volume of complaints here. Would anybody be interested in a class action law suit against them?.... they are selling a faulty product and not following up on it... I guess in the end we should rest in the comfort that a small group of individuals that we will never meet are making a nice profit from selling useless crap to us users. I mean really, Bill gates isnt going to have time to address this.... there MUCH more important things for him to be doing... such as his plan of population reduction throught the use of mandatory vaccinations. What a hero. (this will get deleted, under the guise of 'personal attack', but im just realying fact. It is true look it up)

Yes, it would be nice to see corrective action taken with this. I might have to end up buying new DVI video cards to replace the ATI display port one I have now which seems quite ridiculous... Could someone please tell me the location of where the DMMEnableDDCPolling key should be added?

Yes, it would be nice to see corrective action taken with this. I might have to end up buying new DVI video cards to replace the ATI display port one I have now which seems quite ridiculous... Could someone please tell me the location of where the DMMEnableDDCPolling key should be added?

Hi ,all I think i found the solution but i dont know if it only works for me. You have to setup in display/screen resolution your monitors(plasma whatever) to be generic non-pnp monitor For example i started windows 7 with my monitor closed and plasma didnt get recognized And i didnt clicked on detect ,i leave greyed out display and just select option: multiple displays:extend these displays I also did that before with my main display sony crt monitor So now i can start windows with everything turn off and when win7 loads up and i turn on my plasma and sony crt everything is in place and doesnt get undetected. Btw if your generic non-pnp monitor doesnt give you resolutions you need you can create them(custom resolution) with nvidia control panel Let me know if it works

Hi ,all I think i found the solution but i dont know if it only works for me. You have to setup in display/screen resolution your monitors(plasma whatever) to be generic non-pnp monitor For example i started windows 7 with my monitor closed and plasma didnt get recognized And i didnt clicked on detect ,i leave greyed out display and just select option: multiple displays:extend these displays I also did that before with my main display sony crt monitor So now i can start windows with everything turn off and when win7 loads up and i turn on my plasma and sony crt everything is in place and doesnt get undetected. Btw if your generic non-pnp monitor doesnt give you resolutions you need you can create them(custom resolution) with nvidia control panel Let me know if it works

Yes, it would be nice to see corrective action taken with this. I might have to end up buying new DVI video cards to replace the ATI display port one I have now which seems quite ridiculous... Could someone please tell me the location of where the DMMEnableDDCPolling key should be added?

Hi ,all I think i found the solution but i dont know if it only works for me. You have to setup in display/screen resolution your monitors(plasma whatever) to be generic non-pnp monitor For example i started windows 7 with my monitor closed and plasma didnt get recognized And i didnt clicked on detect ,i leave greyed out display and just select option: multiple displays:extend these displays I also did that before with my main display sony crt monitor So now i can start windows with everything turn off and when win7 loads up and i turn on my plasma and sony crt everything is in place and doesnt get undetected. Btw if your generic non-pnp monitor doesnt give you resolutions you need you can create them(custom resolution) with nvidia control panel Let me know if it works

I find it disgusting that Microsoft does not follow-up on this issue. You're right, there is no assistance from Microsoft. Heck, there's no way to report problems to Microsoft whatsoever. It's like they're in a digital fortress. To try and tell them the problem I'm having, I was told I would have to pay $60 to speak to someone. They said they would provide tech support, but I already know there is nothing a support tech can do anyway, so what's the point? Yes, I still find that if I turn off my Plasma (whether my wife was watching cable, or I'm using it as a 2nd monitor makes no difference), my PC automatically detects that the plasma has turned off, and sets the Plasma to my primary. Solution: I have to unplug my TV when not using it as my 2nd monitor (for playing tunes in the living room, or gaming on the couch). In other words, I have no solution. So much for an HTPC. Don't blame NVidia or ATI, this flawed design is squarely on Microsoft, and all they can do is shrug.

I find it disgusting that Microsoft does not follow-up on this issue. You're right, there is no assistance from Microsoft. Heck, there's no way to report problems to Microsoft whatsoever. It's like they're in a digital fortress. To try and tell them the problem I'm having, I was told I would have to pay $60 to speak to someone. They said they would provide tech support, but I already know there is nothing a support tech can do anyway, so what's the point? Yes, I still find that if I turn off my Plasma (whether my wife was watching cable, or I'm using it as a 2nd monitor makes no difference), my PC automatically detects that the plasma has turned off, and sets the Plasma to my primary. Solution: I have to unplug my TV when not using it as my 2nd monitor (for playing tunes in the living room, or gaming on the couch). In other words, I have no solution. So much for an HTPC. Don't blame NVidia or ATI, this flawed design is squarely on Microsoft, and all they can do is shrug.

I find it disgusting that Microsoft does not follow-up on this issue. You're right, there is no assistance from Microsoft. Heck, there's no way to report problems to Microsoft whatsoever. It's like they're in a digital fortress. To try and tell them the problem I'm having, I was told I would have to pay $60 to speak to someone. They said they would provide tech support, but I already know there is nothing a support tech can do anyway, so what's the point? Yes, I still find that if I turn off my Plasma (whether my wife was watching cable, or I'm using it as a 2nd monitor makes no difference), my PC automatically detects that the plasma has turned off, and sets the Plasma to my primary. Solution: I have to unplug my TV when not using it as my 2nd monitor (for playing tunes in the living room, or gaming on the couch). In other words, I have no solution. So much for an HTPC. Don't blame NVidia or ATI, this flawed design is squarely on Microsoft, and all they can do is shrug.

I find it disgusting that Microsoft does not follow-up on this issue. You're right, there is no assistance from Microsoft. Heck, there's no way to report problems to Microsoft whatsoever. It's like they're in a digital fortress. To try and tell them the problem I'm having, I was told I would have to pay $60 to speak to someone. They said they would provide tech support, but I already know there is nothing a support tech can do anyway, so what's the point? Yes, I still find that if I turn off my Plasma (whether my wife was watching cable, or I'm using it as a 2nd monitor makes no difference), my PC automatically detects that the plasma has turned off, and sets the Plasma to my primary. Solution: I have to unplug my TV when not using it as my 2nd monitor (for playing tunes in the living room, or gaming on the couch). In other words, I have no solution. So much for an HTPC. Don't blame NVidia or ATI, this flawed design is squarely on Microsoft, and all they can do is shrug. I too just started having this issue, i run Win7 Professional 32bit, I use an LCD tv with VGA in for my default display connected to the DVI port using a VGA to DVI plug and have an old CRT display connected to the VGA port, I was not able to update the NVidia driver for quite some time as windows would not detect both monitors, in the past few days windows has updated this driver and it is now able to detect both displays in the configuration I use them. How can it be a Microsoft related issue when it works properly with old drivers and not with signed driver. It would be convenient to be able to save multiple configurations as now when I turn the CRT monitor off then back on, the display's are probed again, my LCD is disconnected (via software) and the primary display is set to the CRT. Could it be that windows is not probing for non-plug and play monitors, what tells windows the devices to probe, the driver files for said device. It must be a driver issue, something is now unsupported by the vendors, they are basically telling us to go buy the latest stuff and it will work again, simply not a good enough solution. There is no method in NVidia control panel to detect the displays when setting up multiple desktops but windows DOES provide this option, I simply click 'detect' and presto my LCD comes back to life. I could rollback the driver/windows updates to a previous version in which this did not occur however I would like to use the latest display driver and not the unsigned version. The most frustrating aspect of this is that as I often am gaming i move my task bar to the second display so I can see activity other applications, any time the displays are probed and reset every windows container is set back to monitor 1. This could be handy if you use a laptop and a docking station and possibly for cinema (allowing a monitor for preparation which can be deactivated while showing a movie) but these are not the main uses for computers. Microsoft could provide an option to save and reset all containers display area but seriously the NVidia control panel doesn't even detect the changes to the monitors where windows does. It's convenient to blame Microsoft however they are only providing the platform on which all devices and applications communicate with each other, some people may need to Google "What is an Operating System" before making judgements.

I find it disgusting that Microsoft does not follow-up on this issue. You're right, there is no assistance from Microsoft. Heck, there's no way to report problems to Microsoft whatsoever. It's like they're in a digital fortress. To try and tell them the problem I'm having, I was told I would have to pay $60 to speak to someone. They said they would provide tech support, but I already know there is nothing a support tech can do anyway, so what's the point? Yes, I still find that if I turn off my Plasma (whether my wife was watching cable, or I'm using it as a 2nd monitor makes no difference), my PC automatically detects that the plasma has turned off, and sets the Plasma to my primary. Solution: I have to unplug my TV when not using it as my 2nd monitor (for playing tunes in the living room, or gaming on the couch). In other words, I have no solution. So much for an HTPC. Don't blame NVidia or ATI, this flawed design is squarely on Microsoft, and all they can do is shrug. I too just started having this issue, i run Win7 Professional 32bit, I use an LCD tv with VGA in for my default display connected to the DVI port using a VGA to DVI plug and have an old CRT display connected to the VGA port, I was not able to update the NVidia driver for quite some time as windows would not detect both monitors, in the past few days windows has updated this driver and it is now able to detect both displays in the configuration I use them. How can it be a Microsoft related issue when it works properly with old drivers and not with signed driver. It would be convenient to be able to save multiple configurations as now when I turn the CRT monitor off then back on, the display's are probed again, my LCD is disconnected (via software) and the primary display is set to the CRT. Could it be that windows is not probing for non-plug and play monitors, what tells windows the devices to probe, the driver files for said device. It must be a driver issue, something is now unsupported by the vendors, they are basically telling us to go buy the latest stuff and it will work again, simply not a good enough solution. There is no method in NVidia control panel to detect the displays when setting up multiple desktops but windows DOES provide this option, I simply click 'detect' and presto my LCD comes back to life. I could rollback the driver/windows updates to a previous version in which this did not occur however I would like to use the latest display driver and not the unsigned version. The most frustrating aspect of this is that as I often am gaming i move my task bar to the second display so I can see activity other applications, any time the displays are probed and reset every windows container is set back to monitor 1. This could be handy if you use a laptop and a docking station and possibly for cinema (allowing a monitor for preparation which can be deactivated while showing a movie) but these are not the main uses for computers. Microsoft could provide an option to save and reset all containers display area but seriously the NVidia control panel doesn't even detect the changes to the monitors where windows does. It's convenient to blame Microsoft however they are only providing the platform on which all devices and applications communicate with each other, some people may need to Google "What is an Operating System" before making judgements.

I find it disgusting that Microsoft does not follow-up on this issue. You're right, there is no assistance from Microsoft. Heck, there's no way to report problems to Microsoft whatsoever. It's like they're in a digital fortress. To try and tell them the problem I'm having, I was told I would have to pay $60 to speak to someone. They said they would provide tech support, but I already know there is nothing a support tech can do anyway, so what's the point? Yes, I still find that if I turn off my Plasma (whether my wife was watching cable, or I'm using it as a 2nd monitor makes no difference), my PC automatically detects that the plasma has turned off, and sets the Plasma to my primary. Solution: I have to unplug my TV when not using it as my 2nd monitor (for playing tunes in the living room, or gaming on the couch). In other words, I have no solution. So much for an HTPC. Don't blame NVidia or ATI, this flawed design is squarely on Microsoft, and all they can do is shrug. I too just started having this issue, i run Win7 Professional 32bit, I use an LCD tv with VGA in for my default display connected to the DVI port using a VGA to DVI plug and have an old CRT display connected to the VGA port, I was not able to update the NVidia driver for quite some time as windows would not detect both monitors, in the past few days windows has updated this driver and it is now able to detect both displays in the configuration I use them. How can it be a Microsoft related issue when it works properly with old drivers and not with signed driver. It would be convenient to be able to save multiple configurations as now when I turn the CRT monitor off then back on, the display's are probed again, my LCD is disconnected (via software) and the primary display is set to the CRT. Could it be that windows is not probing for non-plug and play monitors, what tells windows the devices to probe, the driver files for said device. It must be a driver issue, something is now unsupported by the vendors, they are basically telling us to go buy the latest stuff and it will work again, simply not a good enough solution. There is no method in NVidia control panel to detect the displays when setting up multiple desktops but windows DOES provide this option, I simply click 'detect' and presto my LCD comes back to life. I could rollback the driver/windows updates to a previous version in which this did not occur however I would like to use the latest display driver and not the unsigned version. The most frustrating aspect of this is that as I often am gaming i move my task bar to the second display so I can see activity other applications, any time the displays are probed and reset every windows container is set back to monitor 1. This could be handy if you use a laptop and a docking station and possibly for cinema (allowing a monitor for preparation which can be deactivated while showing a movie) but these are not the main uses for computers. Microsoft could provide an option to save and reset all containers display area but seriously the NVidia control panel doesn't even detect the changes to the monitors where windows does. It's convenient to blame Microsoft however they are only providing the platform on which all devices and applications communicate with each other, some people may need to Google "What is an Operating System" before making judgements.

Unfortunately the MS support is right, it's not possible to turn off the monitor detection. It's by design. The WDDM (Windows Display Driver Model) which was introduced in Windows Vista includes a new concept called "Video Present Network" or VidPn (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff570543(v=vs.85).aspx). Each video adapter (when connected) declares the number of VidPn targets. The DMM (monitor manager) can follow the power state of the targets (monitors) by either polling the miniport driver or upon receiving hot-plug interrupt (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff568431(v=VS.85).aspx). Once the DMM has a "good" (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff565475(v=VS.85).aspx) VidPn source to target link, the CDD/DWM can use the display. Please note that most of the time when the screen is blank goes to finding a good VidPn link. I won't say how efficient it is, but it consumes a lot of time and CPU. When there's an available new target or when a target is removed the CDD or DWM check if they have a valid VidPn for the "primary" monitor. So there cannot be extended monitor without primary. You can ask Nvidia, Ati and Intel to add an option to their drivers which will "lie" to DMM about the monitor device status. Also AFAIK there's an application which feeds the system with the EDID of your monitor even when you disconnect it (never tried it though). Hope it helps. Why ask Ati etc. to "lie" when were asking Microsoft to change this behavior? It may work for some practical applications but not for everyone, and the number is growing as more and more people use displayport and hdmi. Sounds to me like they just missed the option when implementing displayport and didnt realize people cared about this... It's also weird that it has been more then a year without a solution. Well maybe not weird, just very very bad. And btw. : any help with finding said program? Would it be able to help these people?

Unfortunately the MS support is right, it's not possible to turn off the monitor detection. It's by design. The WDDM (Windows Display Driver Model) which was introduced in Windows Vista includes a new concept called "Video Present Network" or VidPn (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff570543(v=vs.85).aspx). Each video adapter (when connected) declares the number of VidPn targets. The DMM (monitor manager) can follow the power state of the targets (monitors) by either polling the miniport driver or upon receiving hot-plug interrupt (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff568431(v=VS.85).aspx). Once the DMM has a "good" (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff565475(v=VS.85).aspx) VidPn source to target link, the CDD/DWM can use the display. Please note that most of the time when the screen is blank goes to finding a good VidPn link. I won't say how efficient it is, but it consumes a lot of time and CPU. When there's an available new target or when a target is removed the CDD or DWM check if they have a valid VidPn for the "primary" monitor. So there cannot be extended monitor without primary. You can ask Nvidia, Ati and Intel to add an option to their drivers which will "lie" to DMM about the monitor device status. Also AFAIK there's an application which feeds the system with the EDID of your monitor even when you disconnect it (never tried it though). Hope it helps. Why ask Ati etc. to "lie" when were asking Microsoft to change this behavior? It may work for some practical applications but not for everyone, and the number is growing as more and more people use displayport and hdmi. Sounds to me like they just missed the option when implementing displayport and didnt realize people cared about this... It's also weird that it has been more then a year without a solution. Well maybe not weird, just very very bad. And btw. : any help with finding said program? Would it be able to help these people?

Unfortunately the MS support is right, it's not possible to turn off the monitor detection. It's by design. The WDDM (Windows Display Driver Model) which was introduced in Windows Vista includes a new concept called "Video Present Network" or VidPn (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff570543(v=vs.85).aspx). Each video adapter (when connected) declares the number of VidPn targets. The DMM (monitor manager) can follow the power state of the targets (monitors) by either polling the miniport driver or upon receiving hot-plug interrupt (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff568431(v=VS.85).aspx). Once the DMM has a "good" (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff565475(v=VS.85).aspx) VidPn source to target link, the CDD/DWM can use the display. Please note that most of the time when the screen is blank goes to finding a good VidPn link. I won't say how efficient it is, but it consumes a lot of time and CPU. When there's an available new target or when a target is removed the CDD or DWM check if they have a valid VidPn for the "primary" monitor. So there cannot be extended monitor without primary. You can ask Nvidia, Ati and Intel to add an option to their drivers which will "lie" to DMM about the monitor device status. Also AFAIK there's an application which feeds the system with the EDID of your monitor even when you disconnect it (never tried it though). Hope it helps. Why ask Ati etc. to "lie" when were asking Microsoft to change this behavior? It may work for some practical applications but not for everyone, and the number is growing as more and more people use displayport and hdmi. Sounds to me like they just missed the option when implementing displayport and didnt realize people cared about this... It's also weird that it has been more then a year without a solution. Well maybe not weird, just very very bad. And btw. : any help with finding said program? Would it be able to help these people?

I found a solution! Switch to Linux. :-) Seriously, this is the most annoying thing imaginable. I have a KVM and every time I switch from one machine to another ... the monitors reset themselves and all my icon positions and everything are lost. TRULY HORRIBLE DESIGN, MICROSOFT!

I found a solution! Switch to Linux. :-) Seriously, this is the most annoying thing imaginable. I have a KVM and every time I switch from one machine to another ... the monitors reset themselves and all my icon positions and everything are lost. TRULY HORRIBLE DESIGN, MICROSOFT!

I found a solution! Switch to Linux. :-) Seriously, this is the most annoying thing imaginable. I have a KVM and every time I switch from one machine to another ... the monitors reset themselves and all my icon positions and everything are lost. TRULY HORRIBLE DESIGN, MICROSOFT!

I am confused :) I had this issue, and reported on a different thread, a year ago when I moved to 7. Then, one day several months ago, no idea when, my set up worked as it should. Now this morning it doesn't. I thought it had been patched, evidently not. If I can recreate the "working config" I will post here.

I am confused :) I had this issue, and reported on a different thread, a year ago when I moved to 7. Then, one day several months ago, no idea when, my set up worked as it should. Now this morning it doesn't. I thought it had been patched, evidently not. If I can recreate the "working config" I will post here.

I am confused :) I had this issue, and reported on a different thread, a year ago when I moved to 7. Then, one day several months ago, no idea when, my set up worked as it should. Now this morning it doesn't. I thought it had been patched, evidently not. If I can recreate the "working config" I will post here.

I'm a sysadmin for a major university, responsible for 220 classrooms that have single or dual monitors and 1 to 3 projectors (plus video scalers and video switchers). I updated to W7 in May, found this issue, and am in the process of downgrading back to XP because of it. My need is to be able to set resolution (1024x768 is native for most of our projectors) and have it stay no matter what. That has been our experience with XP, but this 'feature' in W7 makes our classrooms unusable. Until this is fixed it is XP for us, and I'm looking at linux to see if I can run all of our required applications. I've been a Microsoft fan since Dos 1.0, but this is the issue that will make me move. And no, I'm not pulling a pin out of 250-300 video cables to work around Microsoft's bad design. I was a developer for 20 years before I came to the university, and I never left a bad design decision this long. If I had I'd have lost my house a long time ago.

I'm a sysadmin for a major university, responsible for 220 classrooms that have single or dual monitors and 1 to 3 projectors (plus video scalers and video switchers). I updated to W7 in May, found this issue, and am in the process of downgrading back to XP because of it. My need is to be able to set resolution (1024x768 is native for most of our projectors) and have it stay no matter what. That has been our experience with XP, but this 'feature' in W7 makes our classrooms unusable. Until this is fixed it is XP for us, and I'm looking at linux to see if I can run all of our required applications. I've been a Microsoft fan since Dos 1.0, but this is the issue that will make me move. And no, I'm not pulling a pin out of 250-300 video cables to work around Microsoft's bad design. I was a developer for 20 years before I came to the university, and I never left a bad design decision this long. If I had I'd have lost my house a long time ago.

I'm a sysadmin for a major university, responsible for 220 classrooms that have single or dual monitors and 1 to 3 projectors (plus video scalers and video switchers). I updated to W7 in May, found this issue, and am in the process of downgrading back to XP because of it. My need is to be able to set resolution (1024x768 is native for most of our projectors) and have it stay no matter what. That has been our experience with XP, but this 'feature' in W7 makes our classrooms unusable. Until this is fixed it is XP for us, and I'm looking at linux to see if I can run all of our required applications. I've been a Microsoft fan since Dos 1.0, but this is the issue that will make me move. And no, I'm not pulling a pin out of 250-300 video cables to work around Microsoft's bad design. I was a developer for 20 years before I came to the university, and I never left a bad design decision this long. If I had I'd have lost my house a long time ago.

I have a Windows 7 Mac Mini with the HDMI port going to a Panasonic TV and the MiniDisplayPort changing to DVI then connecting to a Dell monitor. If I load Windows Media Center on the TV (via the extended desktop) then subsequently turn off the TV, the Windows Media Center application moves from the TV to the Dell Monitor and the USB disconnect sound is played. When I turn on the TV, the USB reconnect sound is played and the extended desktop is displayed with no open programs. I am forced to return to the Mac Mini computer, turn on the Dell monitor, change Windows Media Center application from full-screen to windowed, move it to the TV (via the extended desktop), then maximize to full-screen. I previously had the same Dell monitor and Panasonic TV connected to a Dell computer. The output to the TV was DVI to HDMI (with audio out to RCA input). This worked perfectly. There's something about Windows 7 treating the HDMI port and MiniDisplayPort like a temporary connection rather than a permanent connection. One note, if I plug in the same DVI to HDMI cable (originally used with the Dell computer) into the DVI connector plugged into the MiniDisplayPort on the Mac Mini, the same anomaly occurs. That is, when the TV is turned off, Windows Media Center jumps to the Dell Monitor (even when the Dell monitor is turned off). Very frustrating!!!!

I have a Windows 7 Mac Mini with the HDMI port going to a Panasonic TV and the MiniDisplayPort changing to DVI then connecting to a Dell monitor. If I load Windows Media Center on the TV (via the extended desktop) then subsequently turn off the TV, the Windows Media Center application moves from the TV to the Dell Monitor and the USB disconnect sound is played. When I turn on the TV, the USB reconnect sound is played and the extended desktop is displayed with no open programs. I am forced to return to the Mac Mini computer, turn on the Dell monitor, change Windows Media Center application from full-screen to windowed, move it to the TV (via the extended desktop), then maximize to full-screen. I previously had the same Dell monitor and Panasonic TV connected to a Dell computer. The output to the TV was DVI to HDMI (with audio out to RCA input). This worked perfectly. There's something about Windows 7 treating the HDMI port and MiniDisplayPort like a temporary connection rather than a permanent connection. One note, if I plug in the same DVI to HDMI cable (originally used with the Dell computer) into the DVI connector plugged into the MiniDisplayPort on the Mac Mini, the same anomaly occurs. That is, when the TV is turned off, Windows Media Center jumps to the Dell Monitor (even when the Dell monitor is turned off). Very frustrating!!!!

I have a Windows 7 Mac Mini with the HDMI port going to a Panasonic TV and the MiniDisplayPort changing to DVI then connecting to a Dell monitor. If I load Windows Media Center on the TV (via the extended desktop) then subsequently turn off the TV, the Windows Media Center application moves from the TV to the Dell Monitor and the USB disconnect sound is played. When I turn on the TV, the USB reconnect sound is played and the extended desktop is displayed with no open programs. I am forced to return to the Mac Mini computer, turn on the Dell monitor, change Windows Media Center application from full-screen to windowed, move it to the TV (via the extended desktop), then maximize to full-screen. I previously had the same Dell monitor and Panasonic TV connected to a Dell computer. The output to the TV was DVI to HDMI (with audio out to RCA input). This worked perfectly. There's something about Windows 7 treating the HDMI port and MiniDisplayPort like a temporary connection rather than a permanent connection. One note, if I plug in the same DVI to HDMI cable (originally used with the Dell computer) into the DVI connector plugged into the MiniDisplayPort on the Mac Mini, the same anomaly occurs. That is, when the TV is turned off, Windows Media Center jumps to the Dell Monitor (even when the Dell monitor is turned off). Very frustrating!!!!

Im just relieved that i managed to find this thread amongst world wide haystack. I have been using dell monitor as primary and panasonic plasma as secondary through hdmi for 6 months without any display issues. i.e rearranged icons or secondary jumping on primary when switchhed off. But since i have upgraded my av equipment to a receiver which allows standby pass through, all hell has broken loose with this annoying bug. Everytime i intiate pass through or switch off the plasma the secondary screen jumps onto primary. Weirdly this has only started happening today, i have had the receiver for two days. Yesterday i was having unplugged connection issues whenever going into standby pass through, but seems like computer has escalated the problem as i cant work on the primary unless i have the secondary disabled from nvidia program. It is obvious from reading the posts here that pc is thinking of display being turned off when receiver turns off for a split second going into pass through. Please, please, please someone offer an answer to the real problem. Thanks.

Im just relieved that i managed to find this thread amongst world wide haystack. I have been using dell monitor as primary and panasonic plasma as secondary through hdmi for 6 months without any display issues. i.e rearranged icons or secondary jumping on primary when switchhed off. But since i have upgraded my av equipment to a receiver which allows standby pass through, all hell has broken loose with this annoying bug. Everytime i intiate pass through or switch off the plasma the secondary screen jumps onto primary. Weirdly this has only started happening today, i have had the receiver for two days. Yesterday i was having unplugged connection issues whenever going into standby pass through, but seems like computer has escalated the problem as i cant work on the primary unless i have the secondary disabled from nvidia program. It is obvious from reading the posts here that pc is thinking of display being turned off when receiver turns off for a split second going into pass through. Please, please, please someone offer an answer to the real problem. Thanks.

Im just relieved that i managed to find this thread amongst world wide haystack. I have been using dell monitor as primary and panasonic plasma as secondary through hdmi for 6 months without any display issues. i.e rearranged icons or secondary jumping on primary when switchhed off. But since i have upgraded my av equipment to a receiver which allows standby pass through, all hell has broken loose with this annoying bug. Everytime i intiate pass through or switch off the plasma the secondary screen jumps onto primary. Weirdly this has only started happening today, i have had the receiver for two days. Yesterday i was having unplugged connection issues whenever going into standby pass through, but seems like computer has escalated the problem as i cant work on the primary unless i have the secondary disabled from nvidia program. It is obvious from reading the posts here that pc is thinking of display being turned off when receiver turns off for a split second going into pass through. Please, please, please someone offer an answer to the real problem. Thanks.

For all those having problems, I know one quick solution that I found elsewhere is to use the Windows (logo) key + P (for projector) and then choose the EXTEND option to quickly re-enable the 2nd monitor. I've been using this for a few months now since I found that workaround. I'm using Win 7 pro and the TMM just simply is non existent on my system. // begin venting I have a Iogear KVM switch that I use to go back and forth between computers on my bench that I'm repairing. When I switch back to my computer, Windows 7 says "Oh I forgot what the monitor is over there!" and disables it. How stupid! "this feature is by design" REALLY?! REALLY?!!? Are you guys that BENT on pissing off your customers? Do you guys sit around and think and invent ways to be smart and stupid at the same time?! arrgh. //> end venting But yeah, Microsoft needs to wise up, grow up, and fix this issue.//There is no signature here

For all those having problems, I know one quick solution that I found elsewhere is to use the Windows (logo) key + P (for projector) and then choose the EXTEND option to quickly re-enable the 2nd monitor. I've been using this for a few months now since I found that workaround. I'm using Win 7 pro and the TMM just simply is non existent on my system. // begin venting I have a Iogear KVM switch that I use to go back and forth between computers on my bench that I'm repairing. When I switch back to my computer, Windows 7 says "Oh I forgot what the monitor is over there!" and disables it. How stupid! "this feature is by design" REALLY?! REALLY?!!? Are you guys that BENT on pissing off your customers? Do you guys sit around and think and invent ways to be smart and stupid at the same time?! arrgh. //> end venting But yeah, Microsoft needs to wise up, grow up, and fix this issue.//There is no signature here

For all those having problems, I know one quick solution that I found elsewhere is to use the Windows (logo) key + P (for projector) and then choose the EXTEND option to quickly re-enable the 2nd monitor. I've been using this for a few months now since I found that workaround. I'm using Win 7 pro and the TMM just simply is non existent on my system. // begin venting I have a Iogear KVM switch that I use to go back and forth between computers on my bench that I'm repairing. When I switch back to my computer, Windows 7 says "Oh I forgot what the monitor is over there!" and disables it. How stupid! "this feature is by design" REALLY?! REALLY?!!? Are you guys that BENT on pissing off your customers? Do you guys sit around and think and invent ways to be smart and stupid at the same time?! arrgh. //> end venting But yeah, Microsoft needs to wise up, grow up, and fix this issue.//There is no signature here

I have been using Vista and 7 for many years now and I just fixed the problem last week... I bought a new Macbook Pro and I LOVE IT!!!

I have been using Vista and 7 for many years now and I just fixed the problem last week... I bought a new Macbook Pro and I LOVE IT!!!

I have been using Vista and 7 for many years now and I just fixed the problem last week... I bought a new Macbook Pro and I LOVE IT!!!

I have the problem too. For context, I am the president of a small software development company (four employees) and am it's chief developer. We are a Microsoft partner. I recently replaced my main development platform (older XP-Pro) with a Win7-Ultimate platform, Core i7 CPU, 16 GB ram with ATI FirePro V7750 adapter powering dual Dell 3008WFP monitors (each running at 2560x1600 res) via DisplayPort connections. That's a "desktop" consisting of over 8 million pixels (5120x1600 total). I thought I'd be in "fat city." Then I encountered the feature/bug that is so lamented here. Dang! It's just not acceptable. FYI, I want both monitors to display in extended desktop mode all day every workday, and without exception. In other words, there is no switching around, back-and-forth. I just want to setup such a display, and have it stick -- without being lost/re-arranged every time I turn off my monitors at night. Surely, this cannot be too much to ask. I add my plea to Microsoft. Ronnie, this thread is marked as "Answered." Obviously, it is not answered. At best, your purported answer only re-states the actual problem. At the least, can't Microsoft be honest enough to change the status of the thread back to "Unanswered." My company has over 600 business clients running our software on some 5000 platforms. Our application is the most-used, most critical application on each such platform. It is looking more and more as though it's going to make sense in the future to migrate ourselves and our clients into a different platform. Overall, this situation makes it obvious why Apple recently overtook Microsoft in total market value. Come on guys.

I have the problem too. For context, I am the president of a small software development company (four employees) and am it's chief developer. We are a Microsoft partner. I recently replaced my main development platform (older XP-Pro) with a Win7-Ultimate platform, Core i7 CPU, 16 GB ram with ATI FirePro V7750 adapter powering dual Dell 3008WFP monitors (each running at 2560x1600 res) via DisplayPort connections. That's a "desktop" consisting of over 8 million pixels (5120x1600 total). I thought I'd be in "fat city." Then I encountered the feature/bug that is so lamented here. Dang! It's just not acceptable. FYI, I want both monitors to display in extended desktop mode all day every workday, and without exception. In other words, there is no switching around, back-and-forth. I just want to setup such a display, and have it stick -- without being lost/re-arranged every time I turn off my monitors at night. Surely, this cannot be too much to ask. I add my plea to Microsoft. Ronnie, this thread is marked as "Answered." Obviously, it is not answered. At best, your purported answer only re-states the actual problem. At the least, can't Microsoft be honest enough to change the status of the thread back to "Unanswered." My company has over 600 business clients running our software on some 5000 platforms. Our application is the most-used, most critical application on each such platform. It is looking more and more as though it's going to make sense in the future to migrate ourselves and our clients into a different platform. Overall, this situation makes it obvious why Apple recently overtook Microsoft in total market value. Come on guys.

For what it's worth, here is my present coping strategy: 1. Following the recommendation of poster Alejandro Orb (thanks bud), I've installed Deskisoft's "Monitor Off" utility (http://www.dekisoft.com/mou.php). It was a cinch to install, and so far works perfectly for me. One easy hotkey combo puts both monitors to sleep, yet without making Windows think that either is off or gone. By moving the mouse I wake them, right back into the state I expect. I'll simply use this instead of actually turning them off. 2. After trying a variety of utilities that are supposed remember where particular apps' windows were prior positioned and sized (so that when you re-open they automatically go back to same), and having found none satisfactory, I finally found WinSize2 (http://winsize2.sourceforge.net/en/index.html). So far, this utility is truly working for me, and working well. I don't always like to keep each of my regular apps open, but I like each to normally be in a particular place (across the broad expanse of my huge "desktop"), and sized in a particular way. This will make it much nicer every time each is re-opened. It will also make getting back to where I want to be somewhat easier for what will now be the fewer occasions when my monitors are truly de-powered.

For what it's worth, here is my present coping strategy: 1. Following the recommendation of poster Alejandro Orb (thanks bud), I've installed Deskisoft's "Monitor Off" utility (http://www.dekisoft.com/mou.php). It was a cinch to install, and so far works perfectly for me. One easy hotkey combo puts both monitors to sleep, yet without making Windows think that either is off or gone. By moving the mouse I wake them, right back into the state I expect. I'll simply use this instead of actually turning them off. 2. After trying a variety of utilities that are supposed remember where particular apps' windows were prior positioned and sized (so that when you re-open they automatically go back to same), and having found none satisfactory, I finally found WinSize2 (http://winsize2.sourceforge.net/en/index.html). So far, this utility is truly working for me, and working well. I don't always like to keep each of my regular apps open, but I like each to normally be in a particular place (across the broad expanse of my huge "desktop"), and sized in a particular way. This will make it much nicer every time each is re-opened. It will also make getting back to where I want to be somewhat easier for what will now be the fewer occasions when my monitors are truly de-powered.

I have the problem too. For context, I am the president of a small software development company (four employees) and am it's chief developer. We are a Microsoft partner. I recently replaced my main development platform (older XP-Pro) with a Win7-Ultimate platform, Core i7 CPU, 16 GB ram with ATI FirePro V7750 adapter powering dual Dell 3008WFP monitors (each running at 2560x1600 res) via DisplayPort connections. That's a "desktop" consisting of over 8 million pixels (5120x1600 total). I thought I'd be in "fat city." Then I encountered the feature/bug that is so lamented here. Dang! It's just not acceptable. FYI, I want both monitors to display in extended desktop mode all day every workday, and without exception. In other words, there is no switching around, back-and-forth. I just want to setup such a display, and have it stick -- without being lost/re-arranged every time I turn off my monitors at night. Surely, this cannot be too much to ask. I add my plea to Microsoft. Ronnie, this thread is marked as "Answered." Obviously, it is not answered. At best, your purported answer only re-states the actual problem. At the least, can't Microsoft be honest enough to change the status of the thread back to "Unanswered." My company has over 600 business clients running our software on some 5000 platforms. Our application is the most-used, most critical application on each such platform. It is looking more and more as though it's going to make sense in the future to migrate ourselves and our clients into a different platform. Overall, this situation makes it obvious why Apple recently overtook Microsoft in total market value. Come on guys.

For what it's worth, here is my present coping strategy: 1. Following the recommendation of poster Alejandro Orb (thanks bud), I've installed Deskisoft's "Monitor Off" utility (http://www.dekisoft.com/mou.php). It was a cinch to install, and so far works perfectly for me. One easy hotkey combo puts both monitors to sleep, yet without making Windows think that either is off or gone. By moving the mouse I wake them, right back into the state I expect. I'll simply use this instead of actually turning them off. 2. After trying a variety of utilities that are supposed remember where particular apps' windows were prior positioned and sized (so that when you re-open they automatically go back to same), and having found none satisfactory, I finally found WinSize2 (http://winsize2.sourceforge.net/en/index.html). So far, this utility is truly working for me, and working well. I don't always like to keep each of my regular apps open, but I like each to normally be in a particular place (across the broad expanse of my huge "desktop"), and sized in a particular way. This will make it much nicer every time each is re-opened. It will also make getting back to where I want to be somewhat easier for what will now be the fewer occasions when my monitors are truly de-powered.

Amazing, I'm having the exact opposite problem. When I turn off my secondary display windows still opens windows on it and leaves open windows on the display where i cant get to them. This happens even if i completely unplug the vga cable from the monitor. Really annoying when I plug the second monitor into another computer then cant open internet explorer on my computer because the last time i closed it it was on the second monitor and now i cant see it.

Amazing, I'm having the exact opposite problem. When I turn off my secondary display windows still opens windows on it and leaves open windows on the display where i cant get to them. This happens even if i completely unplug the vga cable from the monitor. Really annoying when I plug the second monitor into another computer then cant open internet explorer on my computer because the last time i closed it it was on the second monitor and now i cant see it.

eLohr, Your problem is a pretty common one for me. The solution is the keyboard shortcut "WINDOWS-SHIFT-LEFT ARROW". For example, if IE is open on the secondary display that is turned off, try the following: single left click on the IE icon on the desktop. This will activate the IE window (which you can't see). Then use the above keystroke combination, and that will move the IE window onto your open monitor. You can use left or right arrow depending on which way you need to move the window. Let us know if this helps. Todd

eLohr, Your problem is a pretty common one for me. The solution is the keyboard shortcut "WINDOWS-SHIFT-LEFT ARROW". For example, if IE is open on the secondary display that is turned off, try the following: single left click on the IE icon on the desktop. This will activate the IE window (which you can't see). Then use the above keystroke combination, and that will move the IE window onto your open monitor. You can use left or right arrow depending on which way you need to move the window. Let us know if this helps. Todd

Amazing, I'm having the exact opposite problem. When I turn off my secondary display windows still opens windows on it and leaves open windows on the display where i cant get to them. This happens even if i completely unplug the vga cable from the monitor. Really annoying when I plug the second monitor into another computer then cant open internet explorer on my computer because the last time i closed it it was on the second monitor and now i cant see it.

eLohr, Your problem is a pretty common one for me. The solution is the keyboard shortcut "WINDOWS-SHIFT-LEFT ARROW". For example, if IE is open on the secondary display that is turned off, try the following: single left click on the IE icon on the desktop. This will activate the IE window (which you can't see). Then use the above keystroke combination, and that will move the IE window onto your open monitor. You can use left or right arrow depending on which way you need to move the window. Let us know if this helps. Todd

ok sorry for this being off topic guys but im at my wits end and i dont know where else to look anymore, i have a reasonably old samsung 720p LCD TV, when connecting a laptop to it, it worked fine duplicating the display, the laptop auto set its resolution to 1280x720 and the tv was auto detected, however i tried to make it so when connected it would only display on the TV and make the laptop blank to save my graphics card some load. Now when i connect the HDMI lead it correctly makes the laptop blank but TV says mode not supported, so i am left with no displays at all and cannot see the desktop to adjust screen resolution etc until i pull the hdmi lead back out. Please someone tell me how i make windows not do this and go back to duplicating the display as it means i now cannot use the laptop on this TV at all, it seems like these settings are set in stone as soon as the HDMI lead goes in no matter what resolution the laptop was in before it automatically stops displaying on the laptop and the TV says mode not supported. This is 2 laptops i have done this with now.

ok sorry for this being off topic guys but im at my wits end and i dont know where else to look anymore, i have a reasonably old samsung 720p LCD TV, when connecting a laptop to it, it worked fine duplicating the display, the laptop auto set its resolution to 1280x720 and the tv was auto detected, however i tried to make it so when connected it would only display on the TV and make the laptop blank to save my graphics card some load. Now when i connect the HDMI lead it correctly makes the laptop blank but TV says mode not supported, so i am left with no displays at all and cannot see the desktop to adjust screen resolution etc until i pull the hdmi lead back out. Please someone tell me how i make windows not do this and go back to duplicating the display as it means i now cannot use the laptop on this TV at all, it seems like these settings are set in stone as soon as the HDMI lead goes in no matter what resolution the laptop was in before it automatically stops displaying on the laptop and the TV says mode not supported. This is 2 laptops i have done this with now.

eLohr, I believe your situation is precisely what Microsoft sought to address by creating the "feature" everyone else here is complaining about. It raises the point that the feature was driven by perfectly good intentions. Regardless, you should note that the "feature" only comes into play when you are using a display connection method that feeds info back to the computer regarding what is connected (evidently, the two such "pass-back" methods are Display Port and HDMI). VGA is not such a method; hence, your computer does not know whether your VGA-ported monitors are connected/on, or not. But, back to the subject of Microsoft's virtue. We should all give people there credit for the fact they were seeking to ameliorate the frustration of folks involved with eLohrs' particular usage dynamic. As a developer, I've been in the situation myself a million times. When seeking to help users in one dynamic, I mess up things for users in another. It's very tough to avoid. However, when I discover I've done it, I redress, and quickly. It is not virtuous of Microsoft that they've been so horribly slow on this. So I again raise my plea.

eLohr, I believe your situation is precisely what Microsoft sought to address by creating the "feature" everyone else here is complaining about. It raises the point that the feature was driven by perfectly good intentions. Regardless, you should note that the "feature" only comes into play when you are using a display connection method that feeds info back to the computer regarding what is connected (evidently, the two such "pass-back" methods are Display Port and HDMI). VGA is not such a method; hence, your computer does not know whether your VGA-ported monitors are connected/on, or not. But, back to the subject of Microsoft's virtue. We should all give people there credit for the fact they were seeking to ameliorate the frustration of folks involved with eLohrs' particular usage dynamic. As a developer, I've been in the situation myself a million times. When seeking to help users in one dynamic, I mess up things for users in another. It's very tough to avoid. However, when I discover I've done it, I redress, and quickly. It is not virtuous of Microsoft that they've been so horribly slow on this. So I again raise my plea.

ok sorry for this being off topic guys but im at my wits end and i dont know where else to look anymore, i have a reasonably old samsung 720p LCD TV, when connecting a laptop to it, it worked fine duplicating the display, the laptop auto set its resolution to 1280x720 and the tv was auto detected, however i tried to make it so when connected it would only display on the TV and make the laptop blank to save my graphics card some load. Now when i connect the HDMI lead it correctly makes the laptop blank but TV says mode not supported, so i am left with no displays at all and cannot see the desktop to adjust screen resolution etc until i pull the hdmi lead back out. Please someone tell me how i make windows not do this and go back to duplicating the display as it means i now cannot use the laptop on this TV at all, it seems like these settings are set in stone as soon as the HDMI lead goes in no matter what resolution the laptop was in before it automatically stops displaying on the laptop and the TV says mode not supported. This is 2 laptops i have done this with now.

eLohr, I believe your situation is precisely what Microsoft sought to address by creating the "feature" everyone else here is complaining about. It raises the point that the feature was driven by perfectly good intentions. Regardless, you should note that the "feature" only comes into play when you are using a display connection method that feeds info back to the computer regarding what is connected (evidently, the two such "pass-back" methods are Display Port and HDMI). VGA is not such a method; hence, your computer does not know whether your VGA-ported monitors are connected/on, or not. But, back to the subject of Microsoft's virtue. We should all give people there credit for the fact they were seeking to ameliorate the frustration of folks involved with eLohrs' particular usage dynamic. As a developer, I've been in the situation myself a million times. When seeking to help users in one dynamic, I mess up things for users in another. It's very tough to avoid. However, when I discover I've done it, I redress, and quickly. It is not virtuous of Microsoft that they've been so horribly slow on this. So I again raise my plea.

Does anyone know if a mini displayport -> DVI adapter would bypass this issue? or mini displayport -> VGA? I'd rather not use VGA, but if it solves the problem, I would. Thanks

Does anyone know if a mini displayport -> DVI adapter would bypass this issue? or mini displayport -> VGA? I'd rather not use VGA, but if it solves the problem, I would. Thanks

Does anyone know if a mini displayport -> DVI adapter would bypass this issue? or mini displayport -> VGA? I'd rather not use VGA, but if it solves the problem, I would. Thanks

This is not a good answer, Ronnie! I've spent the better part of an hour researching what I can do to solve this. I have a VAIO VPCEE41FX, connected to a Sanyo LCD32XH4 with a VGA cable, which I used to connect to my XP desktop without problems. Now when I connect my laptop to the TV and Win+P to try to watch something there, the laptop screen starts turning on and off uncontrollably while Windows tries to autodetect the TV's resolution. If only I could manually pick a resolution as I used to in XP, this problem wouldn't exist. As usual, new Windows OS means less freedom for your users. To complicate the situation even more, my TV has autodetect that can't be switched off so both machines just sit there flickering for several minutes unless I unplug the VGA cable. So, Ronnie, please allow your paying customers to correctly connect their TVs or extra monitors to their computers. We need a "Disable auto-detect" feature or at least a registry fix. Let us manually set screens and resolutions, Microsoft.

This is not a good answer, Ronnie! I've spent the better part of an hour researching what I can do to solve this. I have a VAIO VPCEE41FX, connected to a Sanyo LCD32XH4 with a VGA cable, which I used to connect to my XP desktop without problems. Now when I connect my laptop to the TV and Win+P to try to watch something there, the laptop screen starts turning on and off uncontrollably while Windows tries to autodetect the TV's resolution. If only I could manually pick a resolution as I used to in XP, this problem wouldn't exist. As usual, new Windows OS means less freedom for your users. To complicate the situation even more, my TV has autodetect that can't be switched off so both machines just sit there flickering for several minutes unless I unplug the VGA cable. So, Ronnie, please allow your paying customers to correctly connect their TVs or extra monitors to their computers. We need a "Disable auto-detect" feature or at least a registry fix. Let us manually set screens and resolutions, Microsoft.

This is not a good answer, Ronnie! I've spent the better part of an hour researching what I can do to solve this. I have a VAIO VPCEE41FX, connected to a Sanyo LCD32XH4 with a VGA cable, which I used to connect to my XP desktop without problems. Now when I connect my laptop to the TV and Win+P to try to watch something there, the laptop screen starts turning on and off uncontrollably while Windows tries to autodetect the TV's resolution. If only I could manually pick a resolution as I used to in XP, this problem wouldn't exist. As usual, new Windows OS means less freedom for your users. To complicate the situation even more, my TV has autodetect that can't be switched off so both machines just sit there flickering for several minutes unless I unplug the VGA cable. So, Ronnie, please allow your paying customers to correctly connect their TVs or extra monitors to their computers. We need a "Disable auto-detect" feature or at least a registry fix. Let us manually set screens and resolutions, Microsoft.

I'm so glad I stumbled across this thread. I thought I was going nuts - I've been looking off and on for a solution for literally a couple of months. And now I know what the solution is: buy a Mac!

I'm so glad I stumbled across this thread. I thought I was going nuts - I've been looking off and on for a solution for literally a couple of months. And now I know what the solution is: buy a Mac!

I'm so glad I stumbled across this thread. I thought I was going nuts - I've been looking off and on for a solution for literally a couple of months. And now I know what the solution is: buy a Mac!

It's definitely a DVI thing. I have one DVI and one VGA with an integrated Intel graphics card. Whenever the DVI shuts off, Windows moves all windows to the VGA. SO frustrating. I want XP back. Grr. I also tried removing pin 16 on my DVI cable according to this mapping: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/03/DVI_pinout.png This did not work either.

Hello all, I would like to chime in on this issue, because it is affecting me as well and it is very frustrating. Normally I would never register for an account on a site that I'm only ever intending to use once, and most especially not on a Microsoft one, but since I am getting more into using Windows 7, I figure that I (unfortunately) might have to use this site more often than I expect since W7 is so new (compared to XP) and there definitely seems to be a very different design/implementation mentality behind it compared to older Windows versions, as if there are new/different people involved these days. (such was referenced in an earlier post here) First of all, this IS most definitely a REAL problem, and it desperately NEEDS a REAL solution. Secondly, I think that all of us here need to have a good understanding of what is going on and what we are facing, and then continue to press the issue until it is resolved. Despite what some people here seem to have found to not be the case, the graphics card manufactures ARE in fact involved. This overall issue represents a combination of smaller scale problems with BOTH windows, AND the graphics cards manufacturers. Here is some background: In the old days, when computers actually worked properly because there was no "advanced" digital anything that allowed programmers to incompetently screw them up, this problem didn't exist because there was no way that it could exist. VGA is an analog output. It simply outputs an analog signal. Nothing can know or care if a monitor is connected at the other end. (actually, electronically, it IS possible to monitor the draw on the signal and stipulate that something must be connected, but this is way too advanced and expensive to do in consumer products such as VGA cards, and would have been considered superfluous at the time, so nothing ever did this.) After awhile, the "Plug-and-Play pin" was introduced on the VGA connector using a previously-unused pin. This would allow digital communication to the monitor so the monitor could tell the system what was needed to output a properly constructed analog signal that would sync properly etc. This was most likely driven by the abundance of novice-users who were not able to read and interpret analog signal and sync specs and deal with setting things up properly on the sytsem to make the monitor work. And in fact, for smart people, this feature could be considered a pretty noble and convenient advancement. Usually that's how these things slip by. They are created to cater to the money-spending novices, and they have some merit so advanced users dont revolt too heavily about it. However, us experts saw the impending doom and would always talk and joke with each other about this "Plug and Pray" stuff and when the PNP pin was added to VGA, we would talk about cutting the pin. This restored the status quo, and once again made it so that the problem CANNOT happen. However, the concept of monitor auto-detection wasn't really very prevalent on PC's even with the PNP pin. Macs did it, which is why PC experts made fun of macs for the monitor autodetection feature. Because if you turned on the mac before your plugged in the monitor to the apple display port, the port would not be on and then you were screwed. plugging in the monitor resulted in nothing and you had to restart the machine WITH the monitor plugged in. This was one of the first bits of evidence that this monitor autodetection business was a bad idea. It's automagic. And automagic is always a bad thing. But on PC's, even with the VGA PNP pin in use, all that was done was to read the EDID info from the PNP monitor in order to make an already-good system "work better", instead of depending on an unreliable concept to make the system work "at all." That's the way things are supposed to be done. But eventually things changed. Nowadays, the old Mac monitor auto-detection is something that all the cards seem to do. But now they dont have the Mac monitor detection problem, it's plug in and out, autodetect and enable/disable on the fly. Which honestly, is even worse, because now you're not forced to solve the problem. Also, now that a Mac is nothing but a PC, it's no longer Apple's fault. You can put any video card in a mac just like you can with a PC - because "they're the same thing" - it's just that one is catered toward running Apple's software better than the other. Like i said earlier, the graphics card manufactures are indeed involved here. For those who have reported success with the solution of removing the hotplug detect pin from the DVI cable, this is essentially the same thing as in the VGA days. DVI is digital, so you can get a very nice crisp image to a modern high-res monitor via an information stream, without all the VGA/anlog problems of ghosting, signal degradation, etc. DVI is basically the "right thing" kind of interface, which will let the user do what they want to do properly, and it works. It's digital so it's good, and you can remove the hotplug detect pin as people have reported here, in order to stop the monitor autodetect from happening. No wonder the industry is moving away from DVI - they need a port that works for THEM, instead of for the USER! With HDMI and DisplayPort it is different. You dont have a zillion pins. You just have an information stream between the devices. There are no pins to cut. You would have to have a box that would listen to the commands being sent, and then intelligently interpret them and send different (better) commands to the actual monitor. That kind of thing is extremely difficult if not impossible for normal and even advanced users. Even if you could do this, it would not be worth the trouble. Unless you were going into the business of making and selling said boxes, Which raises another point: Nothing happens unless it's profitable. Enough history lesson, now for the actual problem. This is not completely Microsoft's fault. There are actually two parts here: the "display" and the "monitor". A "display" is something that the display device (usually a graphics card) makes available to windows, and windows chooses to use it. The prevailing convention is that a display eventually finds itself being painted on a monitor. The "monitor" is simply a physical rendering device that is used to, well, "monitor" the contents of a display. The display and the monitor are closely paired together in some cases, but windows works with the display, not necessarily the monitor. In fact, the more married the display and the monitor become, the worse the problem gets. In the old days of VGA the display and the monitor were truly separate. one did not know or care about the other, and not suprisingly, there were no problems. (just people who couldn't figure out how to do it right) Nowadays with the monitor being so closely maried to the display, with EDID and hotplug detection, pass-back communications channels, etc. It's no wonder that problems are abundant. With the advent of windows multi-monitor support, you could put multiple VGA cards in your computer, and windows would see and use all of them. Naturally, you would have a monitor connected to the vga output of these cards, but you might not... it doesnt matter, it just works anyway. windows is simply talking to 3 VGA cards, or rather "display devices". With dual-output VGA cards, you could put one graphcis card in your computer, but that graphics card would provide two display devices to windows. It was like you had put two VGA cards in, but it was only one VGA card. Nowadays every card out there seems to be dual-output cards. it's that prevalent. So your one graphics card can actually provide 2 display devices. But it's more complicated than that. Graphics cards can do all kinds of funky stuff. They can be 2 display devices, and you can extend your windows desktop onto both. Or they can be one display device, and whatever is on one output is simply duplicated to the second output. Or they can be one display device, that uses two monitor outputs, and creates one big display across both monitors, and then just looks to windows like one great big monitor that happens to be twice as wide as most common monitors it has seen before. Now, add in monitor autodetection. You will notice that the following happens regardless of your OS - even at the BIOS level! The Graphics Card is the thing that the monitor is connected to. regardless of what it tells windows, IT is the thing that has to actually make the autodetection work. Some graphics cards have a TV/HDMI output in addition to 2 DVI ports. The second DVI port can either connect to a monitor, OR you can use the HDMI output. Because the card is really only 2 display devices, not three. One of those display devices can output over DVI or HDMI, but not both. If you plug in a DVI monitor, it will work. If you plug in an HDMI monitor instead, IT will work too. If you plug in both, only one of them will work. It's one or the other, but there is still only one display device being offered to windows. Regardless of how the graphics card makes the decisions regarding monitor autodetection, it is still doing it. It may communicate back to the OS and/or driver for whatever reason to enable software based features, but it's still doing it. This is not windows seeing 3 monitors and then just deciding to use 1 and then the other one or the 3rd but not both 2 and 3. What seems to be happening with modern graphics cards is that they are autodetecting the presence of a monitor. If there is only 1 monitor connected, then the graphics card only offeres one display device to windows. If there are 2 monitors connected, then the graphics card offeres 2 display devices to windows. If you use a second card, then that card may offer 1 or more display devices to windows. If you plug in a usb display device, then windows gets another display device to use. But if you disconnect the usb connection, you have disconnected the ENTIRE display device, not just the monitor! This would be like reaching into your computer while it is on, and yanking out your secondary PCIe Graphics Card while you are in the middle of using windows on that computer! None of us would be so daring... But nowadays it seems that windows has to handle things as if that is exactly what you have done. And it makes sense, because a display device could be on a usb connection, or it could be on a graphics card that will just simply make the display device non-existant, even while the card is still plugged in. So windows really doesn't have much of a choice except to do something about it - if you yank a display device out from under windows' feet, such as a USB display, that it may never see again, what's it going to do with all the icons and application windows that are on that display? of course, it will move them to a remaining display. This really sucks in the case where you intend to plug that usb display back in to your computer later and want all your stuff to be the same and still be there. This is the kind of thing you would expect to do, because that's usually how it works with normal graphics cards and monitors. Unlike with usb devices, if you were tired of watching a movie on your tv, you would not then say "ok, i'm done with this" and then reach in to your computer and yank out the PCIe card! but that's what you're doing with a usb display, and with usb monitors that have the display device BUILT-IN to the monitor housing itself and then just connecting to the computer with a usb cable, it's no wonder that people dont understand the difference between a display and the monitor that is used to view it. Of course, Microsoft is not going to move very fast on this issue - They probably already feel that they fixed the problem, as was previously illustrated here, with the person who was reporting that they had the opposite problem of what this thread is about. Now, we're complaining about the solution. Microsoft probably just thinks that it is our own faults for so stupidly using their solution! But like I said, there is another component - the graphics card manufacturers. Obviously, if you fix one thing, you might break another. Instead of Microsoft choosing the lesser of two evils, they should indeed give us the ability to disable the automatic functionality. There will be a lot of debate internally about whether they should do this, i'm sure. If you have icons and apps on one display, and they dont get moved, then ya, you could plug that exact display back in and there they all are. But what if you get a usb display, put your icons and apps on it, and then unplug it and exchange it for a new one becuase there was a defect you didnt like, such as the stand not holding it up properly. Then you would get home, plug the new display in and it would be blank. because it's a new display! not the original one. it has a different device id. Now you're screwed, and it's your fault, but Microsoft will take the heat from this sort of thing. so then they will have to go add in all kinds of other features so that you can deal with icons and app windows that are on orphaned displays for no-longer existing display devices, etc. ya it will be a big deal to fix. But it has to be fixed. But like i said, there is another component here: The graphics card manufactures. And maybe Microsoft can work with the graphics card manufactures on resolving this issue. But we should pressure them as well. The graphics card is the thing that is seeing that you've unplugged your monitor or turned your monitor/TV off, and then metaphorically yanking itself out of the PCIe slot! The graphics card needs to not do this! It needs to let you unplug your monitor and then just leave the display device there, working normally, so you can plug the monitor back in and have it continue to work, JUST LIKE IT DID IN THE VGA DAYS! With the VGA PNP pin and the DVI hotplug detect pin, there might be a workaround, but with HDMI and display port, we have no such workaround, and are ENTIRELY at the mercy of how the graphics card chooses to react. In my case, when I turn off my TV, which is connected via HDMI, the graphics card sees that there is no longer a device connected, and reacts by no longer being a 2 display device card, but rather, being a single-ended card. I can no longer go into my display settings and see the second display, that just isn't currently being seen on a panel somewhere. I see only one display device. So of course, all my windows and icons become jumbled, becuase not only was the TV turned off, the whole display device was then subsequently yanked out from windows' feet as a result. And this is bad, because this is the computer on which i watch movies, do development work, and play Eve-Online. if i let someone switch inputs on the tv to watch tv while i'm working, or playing Eve, and then later when they're done they get up to go away and turn off the TV, my whole system gets screwed up and my main monitor goes black while it's happening. If i was playing even when this happened, that could translate to reall loss of actual money, because i pay for it, and in Eve, you can actually pay for ingame items that you can sell ingame for ingame money. So if spend a ton of ingame money to build a ship and am in the middle of a huge epic battle, and then i get blown up because some stupid feature that shouldn't even exist in the first place blanked out my screen and i couldnt fight momentarily, just long enough to get blown up, all that time and money that i put in to be able to participate in the battle is lost, and that's real US Dollars, not just some video game. I'm sure the risks are even more severe, such as with the day trader who posted here about the problem! They could incur big losses by missing an oportunity related to timing, and that would just be bad. in fact, maybe to solve the problem, someone is going to have to lose millions in this way and then sue all the companies that were involved in causing the problem to exist in the first place. This is just foolish. This is not how this kind of autodetection should work. there is probably a reason why autodetection should be done. And there is probably a way to do it right. Unfortunately in today's society, no one, probably not even Microsoft or any of the graphics card manufacturers are interested in doing things right, they are most likely only interested in doing things just enough so that they can say they did them. And then sell. Sell, sell sell more and more - whether the thing they're selling works or not is irrelevant. This comes back to what I said earlier: Nothing happens unless it's profitable. If multi-monitor is ever going to be as mature and usable as it was 10 years ago, then something HAS to be done. Microsoft is never going to fix the issue as long as they think we're just complaining about their solution to a different issue that we wanted fixed in the first place, and then, not unless it's profitable. The graphics card makers are never going to fix the issue as long as anyone can buy a graphics card and put it in any computer and then complain that it doesnt work, and then, not unless it's profitable. no one is going to do design work, spend time on R&D, implement a solution, and start selling new products just because a hundred or a thousand advanced users want it. being "profitable to do it" is the same as being "more expensive not to" I would be willing to pay 50 bucks easily to fix the problem. If microsoft released something that solved this problem once and for all and priced it at 49.95, i'd go buy that thing. right now. but that's not going to happen. it doesnt work that way. There's nothing i can do to offer profitability to graphics card manufactures except maybe to just pay more for a graphics card that doesnt behave so stupidly... unless they could make a firmware upgrade that you have to pay for to get... But we can certainly make it more expensive to not fix the problem. It has to start with the users - Cut your cable pins! Don't use display port! stay with DVI! return your graphics cards with hdmi outputs and buy cheper cards wtih DVI only, and EXPLAIN WHY you're doing it! then use adapters to get back to HDMI. Lets do whatever we can to make it more expensive for these companies to ignore the issue, and in the meantime, pressure the companies to FIX THE ISSUE! it will have to be a colaborative part on the Users, the OS makers, and the Card Manufactures to solve this! This thread is, in and of itself sufficient evidence that something needs to be done. I hope my rant here will help in some way. -Mike

I'm astonished that this has been a problem for so long. I've just found that I'm in the same situation - I have a fledgling HTPC and am planning to have a monitor and a TV driven from it, with the provision that I can turn off the TV and not screw things up. The only clues I've picked up are 1) that port type makes a difference, and 2) that there's a registry section at [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\HARDWARE\DEVICEMAP\VIDEO] which is apparently rebuilt on boot, and seems to have pointers to the graphic drivers in use. I haven't been able to track down anything else on it. So I've read this entire thread, nodding my head sadly in agreement at each familiar point, and the best that MS can do is ask for a "detailed list of conditions under which to replicate the issue". I haven't completed the new system, and am wondering about a few things. Does putting the TV into sleep mode cause the same issue? Also, if DVI is unaffected, does using DVI<->HDMI adapters help? There are dozens of sites where I've found the this same question being raised, with no solutions. Yes, WMC and WMP are now a lot nicer, but that is a bitter gain; perhaps aiming some questions at the Media Centre people would have more effect - essentially, their nice polished software is useless because the OS team can't respond to such a well voiced and easily replicable bug. The only other solution may be Ultramon - I used it years ago, and apparently the new version has on the fly monitor ID assignment. I guess that's not going to look pretty while it's sorting things out though. A $125 box from AC Ryan or Seagate looks a lot more professional than a new $500+ computer, which theoretically should be more versatile. (The PC itself brings a smile to my face; amazing how nice a little i3 2100 on a $100 motherboard is). Add my voice to the list of claimants.

I'm astonished that this has been a problem for so long. I've just found that I'm in the same situation - I have a fledgling HTPC and am planning to have a monitor and a TV driven from it, with the provision that I can turn off the TV and not screw things up. The only clues I've picked up are 1) that port type makes a difference, and 2) that there's a registry section at [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\HARDWARE\DEVICEMAP\VIDEO] which is apparently rebuilt on boot, and seems to have pointers to the graphic drivers in use. I haven't been able to track down anything else on it. So I've read this entire thread, nodding my head sadly in agreement at each familiar point, and the best that MS can do is ask for a "detailed list of conditions under which to replicate the issue". I haven't completed the new system, and am wondering about a few things. Does putting the TV into sleep mode cause the same issue? Also, if DVI is unaffected, does using DVI<->HDMI adapters help? There are dozens of sites where I've found the this same question being raised, with no solutions. Yes, WMC and WMP are now a lot nicer, but that is a bitter gain; perhaps aiming some questions at the Media Centre people would have more effect - essentially, their nice polished software is useless because the OS team can't respond to such a well voiced and easily replicable bug. The only other solution may be Ultramon - I used it years ago, and apparently the new version has on the fly monitor ID assignment. I guess that's not going to look pretty while it's sorting things out though. A $125 box from AC Ryan or Seagate looks a lot more professional than a new $500+ computer, which theoretically should be more versatile. (The PC itself brings a smile to my face; amazing how nice a little i3 2100 on a $100 motherboard is). Add my voice to the list of claimants.

I have a similar issue related to this topic. I have a Toshiba Satellite running Windows 7 Professional SP1. I tripped over the my laptop's carrying case and ended up cracking the screen. Now the only visible portion of the screen is a 1/4" strip at the top as well as a 1 1/2' square on the top left corner of the screen. Since it has VGA output, all I had to do was plug an external monitor in, turn it on, extend the desktop to the display, and I'm good to go. The problem is if something disrupts the VGA feed, I can't see enough of the screen on the laptop to turn the VGA output back on. Microsoft Security Essentials is notorious for drawing window focus to itself while running in the background, which triggers the VGA cutoff. Unplugging the VGA cable has the same effect. I'd like to be able to set a persistent display setting that automatically detects other displays as they're plugged in (or turned on, for that matter) which reverts the display to the user settings before the monitor was turned off or unplugged. I am planning on replacing the screen on my laptop when I get the funds (I know they're cheap but I'm an unemployed grad student whose college's financial aid department hasn't caught up to disbursing my financial aid yet). Until then, I'm stuck dealing with this frustrating design shortcoming.

I have a similar issue related to this topic. I have a Toshiba Satellite running Windows 7 Professional SP1. I tripped over the my laptop's carrying case and ended up cracking the screen. Now the only visible portion of the screen is a 1/4" strip at the top as well as a 1 1/2' square on the top left corner of the screen. Since it has VGA output, all I had to do was plug an external monitor in, turn it on, extend the desktop to the display, and I'm good to go. The problem is if something disrupts the VGA feed, I can't see enough of the screen on the laptop to turn the VGA output back on. Microsoft Security Essentials is notorious for drawing window focus to itself while running in the background, which triggers the VGA cutoff. Unplugging the VGA cable has the same effect. I'd like to be able to set a persistent display setting that automatically detects other displays as they're plugged in (or turned on, for that matter) which reverts the display to the user settings before the monitor was turned off or unplugged. I am planning on replacing the screen on my laptop when I get the funds (I know they're cheap but I'm an unemployed grad student whose college's financial aid department hasn't caught up to disbursing my financial aid yet). Until then, I'm stuck dealing with this frustrating design shortcoming.

I'm astonished that this has been a problem for so long. I've just found that I'm in the same situation - I have a fledgling HTPC and am planning to have a monitor and a TV driven from it, with the provision that I can turn off the TV and not screw things up. The only clues I've picked up are 1) that port type makes a difference, and 2) that there's a registry section at [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\HARDWARE\DEVICEMAP\VIDEO] which is apparently rebuilt on boot, and seems to have pointers to the graphic drivers in use. I haven't been able to track down anything else on it. So I've read this entire thread, nodding my head sadly in agreement at each familiar point, and the best that MS can do is ask for a "detailed list of conditions under which to replicate the issue". I haven't completed the new system, and am wondering about a few things. Does putting the TV into sleep mode cause the same issue? Also, if DVI is unaffected, does using DVI<->HDMI adapters help? There are dozens of sites where I've found the this same question being raised, with no solutions. Yes, WMC and WMP are now a lot nicer, but that is a bitter gain; perhaps aiming some questions at the Media Centre people would have more effect - essentially, their nice polished software is useless because the OS team can't respond to such a well voiced and easily replicable bug. The only other solution may be Ultramon - I used it years ago, and apparently the new version has on the fly monitor ID assignment. I guess that's not going to look pretty while it's sorting things out though. A $125 box from AC Ryan or Seagate looks a lot more professional than a new $500+ computer, which theoretically should be more versatile. (The PC itself brings a smile to my face; amazing how nice a little i3 2100 on a $100 motherboard is). Add my voice to the list of claimants.

I have a similar issue related to this topic. I have a Toshiba Satellite running Windows 7 Professional SP1. I tripped over the my laptop's carrying case and ended up cracking the screen. Now the only visible portion of the screen is a 1/4" strip at the top as well as a 1 1/2' square on the top left corner of the screen. Since it has VGA output, all I had to do was plug an external monitor in, turn it on, extend the desktop to the display, and I'm good to go. The problem is if something disrupts the VGA feed, I can't see enough of the screen on the laptop to turn the VGA output back on. Microsoft Security Essentials is notorious for drawing window focus to itself while running in the background, which triggers the VGA cutoff. Unplugging the VGA cable has the same effect. I'd like to be able to set a persistent display setting that automatically detects other displays as they're plugged in (or turned on, for that matter) which reverts the display to the user settings before the monitor was turned off or unplugged. I am planning on replacing the screen on my laptop when I get the funds (I know they're cheap but I'm an unemployed grad student whose college's financial aid department hasn't caught up to disbursing my financial aid yet). Until then, I'm stuck dealing with this frustrating design shortcoming.

@BriWi You might have some use for the Windows+Shift+Left Arrow and Windows+Shift+Right Arrow keyboard shortcuts - they move the window that has focus from one screen to the next / previous one respectively. I think most laptops also have a function key shortcut to switch between the laptop display and an external display while disabling the laptop screen - have a look in the manual, it'll be listed it the Fn key shortcut keys. This makes the external monitor your primary display, and force any program to open there. Nothing would get displayed on the laptop display, not really an issue if it's broken though.

Hi All, I thought I'd add to this conversation with a different slant on the problem. As someone working in the IT field this one has me stumped! I have an ASUS EB1501 (or 1502 can't quite remember), which runs an ION NVIDIA video card, ATom processor, and realtek gigabit NIC. Connected solely to a plasma screen in the loungeroom. I have a perculiar issue, that only occurs when the yamaha reciever is off (ie HDMI is "dead") 1) All network file copies and general local networking ceases to function (ie copying a large amount of data over to another PC or NAS) ... YET, IP connectivity remains in a limited sense (downloading something P2P or HTTP download continues to work) ... it's only any "local" networking that stops. Can still ping it. 2) The machine will be "out of resources" error message when you eventually switch HDMI back on, yet the machine is totally fine. Have tried all manner of tweaking, drivers, firmwares and so forth. *Something* is upsetting parts of the networking layers on the machine, when the video card loses it's HDMI detection, weird! Tried using onboard wireless, same result ... so it's NOT the NIC itself. It's only when the yamaha is off (ie if i choose a different source, the HTPC remains happy as the yamaha must be keeping the HDMI alive even if not actively selected) Cheers brad

Hi All, I thought I'd add to this conversation with a different slant on the problem. As someone working in the IT field this one has me stumped! I have an ASUS EB1501 (or 1502 can't quite remember), which runs an ION NVIDIA video card, ATom processor, and realtek gigabit NIC. Connected solely to a plasma screen in the loungeroom. I have a perculiar issue, that only occurs when the yamaha reciever is off (ie HDMI is "dead") 1) All network file copies and general local networking ceases to function (ie copying a large amount of data over to another PC or NAS) ... YET, IP connectivity remains in a limited sense (downloading something P2P or HTTP download continues to work) ... it's only any "local" networking that stops. Can still ping it. 2) The machine will be "out of resources" error message when you eventually switch HDMI back on, yet the machine is totally fine. Have tried all manner of tweaking, drivers, firmwares and so forth. *Something* is upsetting parts of the networking layers on the machine, when the video card loses it's HDMI detection, weird! Tried using onboard wireless, same result ... so it's NOT the NIC itself. It's only when the yamaha is off (ie if i choose a different source, the HTPC remains happy as the yamaha must be keeping the HDMI alive even if not actively selected) Cheers brad

Hi All, I thought I'd add to this conversation with a different slant on the problem. As someone working in the IT field this one has me stumped! I have an ASUS EB1501 (or 1502 can't quite remember), which runs an ION NVIDIA video card, ATom processor, and realtek gigabit NIC. Connected solely to a plasma screen in the loungeroom. I have a perculiar issue, that only occurs when the yamaha reciever is off (ie HDMI is "dead") 1) All network file copies and general local networking ceases to function (ie copying a large amount of data over to another PC or NAS) ... YET, IP connectivity remains in a limited sense (downloading something P2P or HTTP download continues to work) ... it's only any "local" networking that stops. Can still ping it. 2) The machine will be "out of resources" error message when you eventually switch HDMI back on, yet the machine is totally fine. Have tried all manner of tweaking, drivers, firmwares and so forth. *Something* is upsetting parts of the networking layers on the machine, when the video card loses it's HDMI detection, weird! Tried using onboard wireless, same result ... so it's NOT the NIC itself. It's only when the yamaha is off (ie if i choose a different source, the HTPC remains happy as the yamaha must be keeping the HDMI alive even if not actively selected) Cheers brad

UPDATE TO MY PREVIOUS POST: I have some updated information, and corrections to some comments in my previous post. Further investigation into the pinouts of display connectors has revealed that my comment about hdmi and displayport only detecting throught information streams was incorrect. Both HDMI and DisplayPort do in fact have hotplug detection pins. I assume the hotplug detect pin is then meant to determine the physical connection of the plug, more so than the electrical connection to the monitor. if you physically plug the cable in and out, this will interrupt the hotplug, but a monitor can leave the hotplug line active even if the monitor gets turned off. It appears that the hotplug line gets connected to +5v in order to activate. I am contemplating then, that the folks who have posted here about shorting pins or using a resistor are more on target than the idea of cutting the pin. I would imagine that cutting the pin causing there to never be a hotplug signal, would leave the card and/or windows in a position to assume that the monitor does not support the feature and send signals out anyway. the system could detect the first instance of the hotplug line going active and realize there is in fact a hotplug capable monitor, so that when the hotplug line is removed, it is ok to disable, etc. Although since the hotplug line is activated by +5v, shorting would make the system think there is in fact a hotplug capable device plugged in. This seems to me the best solution to trick the system if a "real" option to "ignore hotplug" cannot be implemented. This tells me that cables and or adapters that allow such hotplug trickery would be profitable and therefore can/will happen. I am envisioning an adapter that is placed inline with the cable connection, and offers two switches - one on each end, that allow the hotplug line to be set to ON, OFF, or THRU.

UPDATE TO MY PREVIOUS POST: I have some updated information, and corrections to some comments in my previous post. Further investigation into the pinouts of display connectors has revealed that my comment about hdmi and displayport only detecting throught information streams was incorrect. Both HDMI and DisplayPort do in fact have hotplug detection pins. I assume the hotplug detect pin is then meant to determine the physical connection of the plug, more so than the electrical connection to the monitor. if you physically plug the cable in and out, this will interrupt the hotplug, but a monitor can leave the hotplug line active even if the monitor gets turned off. It appears that the hotplug line gets connected to +5v in order to activate. I am contemplating then, that the folks who have posted here about shorting pins or using a resistor are more on target than the idea of cutting the pin. I would imagine that cutting the pin causing there to never be a hotplug signal, would leave the card and/or windows in a position to assume that the monitor does not support the feature and send signals out anyway. the system could detect the first instance of the hotplug line going active and realize there is in fact a hotplug capable monitor, so that when the hotplug line is removed, it is ok to disable, etc. Although since the hotplug line is activated by +5v, shorting would make the system think there is in fact a hotplug capable device plugged in. This seems to me the best solution to trick the system if a "real" option to "ignore hotplug" cannot be implemented. This tells me that cables and or adapters that allow such hotplug trickery would be profitable and therefore can/will happen. I am envisioning an adapter that is placed inline with the cable connection, and offers two switches - one on each end, that allow the hotplug line to be set to ON, OFF, or THRU.

Another thing: EVGA has told me that the hotplug detection is a windows 7 feature and that using windows XP should avoid the issue. If the card is really doing as little as it can to participate in the operation of the hotplug feature then this might be true... and if xp doesnt diddle with the displays then that's great. I will have to try this to see if the theory of the graphics card becoming a single-ended card is correct. if it does not, then there may be a glimmer of hope for a non-hardware solution, as someone could possibly hack the driver to lobotomize the hotplug feature.

Another thing: EVGA has told me that the hotplug detection is a windows 7 feature and that using windows XP should avoid the issue. If the card is really doing as little as it can to participate in the operation of the hotplug feature then this might be true... and if xp doesnt diddle with the displays then that's great. I will have to try this to see if the theory of the graphics card becoming a single-ended card is correct. if it does not, then there may be a glimmer of hope for a non-hardware solution, as someone could possibly hack the driver to lobotomize the hotplug feature.

On my new HTPC I've got to unplug the HDMI cable, boot up, then plug it back in. Every time I boot. If I leave the HDMI cable plugged in, I never get a display.

On my new HTPC I've got to unplug the HDMI cable, boot up, then plug it back in. Every time I boot. If I leave the HDMI cable plugged in, I never get a display.

UPDATE TO MY PREVIOUS POST: I have some updated information, and corrections to some comments in my previous post. Further investigation into the pinouts of display connectors has revealed that my comment about hdmi and displayport only detecting throught information streams was incorrect. Both HDMI and DisplayPort do in fact have hotplug detection pins. I assume the hotplug detect pin is then meant to determine the physical connection of the plug, more so than the electrical connection to the monitor. if you physically plug the cable in and out, this will interrupt the hotplug, but a monitor can leave the hotplug line active even if the monitor gets turned off. It appears that the hotplug line gets connected to +5v in order to activate. I am contemplating then, that the folks who have posted here about shorting pins or using a resistor are more on target than the idea of cutting the pin. I would imagine that cutting the pin causing there to never be a hotplug signal, would leave the card and/or windows in a position to assume that the monitor does not support the feature and send signals out anyway. the system could detect the first instance of the hotplug line going active and realize there is in fact a hotplug capable monitor, so that when the hotplug line is removed, it is ok to disable, etc. Although since the hotplug line is activated by +5v, shorting would make the system think there is in fact a hotplug capable device plugged in. This seems to me the best solution to trick the system if a "real" option to "ignore hotplug" cannot be implemented. This tells me that cables and or adapters that allow such hotplug trickery would be profitable and therefore can/will happen. I am envisioning an adapter that is placed inline with the cable connection, and offers two switches - one on each end, that allow the hotplug line to be set to ON, OFF, or THRU.

Another thing: EVGA has told me that the hotplug detection is a windows 7 feature and that using windows XP should avoid the issue. If the card is really doing as little as it can to participate in the operation of the hotplug feature then this might be true... and if xp doesnt diddle with the displays then that's great. I will have to try this to see if the theory of the graphics card becoming a single-ended card is correct. if it does not, then there may be a glimmer of hope for a non-hardware solution, as someone could possibly hack the driver to lobotomize the hotplug feature.

On my new HTPC I've got to unplug the HDMI cable, boot up, then plug it back in. Every time I boot. If I leave the HDMI cable plugged in, I never get a display.

I have tested this on a NVIDIA Quadro card, I am not sure if it will work for consumer cards, Open the NVIDIA control panel, under workstation pick "view system topology" Hi-light your display port or hdmi port and pick Manage EDID Pick export EDID and save the text file to the desktop, "EDID.txt", Again, pick Manage EDID, this time click Load EDID, and load the text file that you just saved, "EDID.txt". This will force the connection and turn off the auto-detection feature on that port. Repeat this process for any other ports you want to force.

Matthew-55:thanks, that worked for me - good call, will be a workaround until this is fixed, if ever. ;-)

Matthew-55:thanks, that worked for me - good call, will be a workaround until this is fixed, if ever. ;-)

Hi, After searching the web for answers, I have found a workaround. To prevent the monitor from failing to display after a sleep, disable the monitor's DDC/CI on the monitor menu itself (mine's a BENQ monitor, bought this 2 months ago) - this would prevent windows from thinking it's gone away and shift the display to another monitor which was really annoying. Some guys proposed mutilating the DVI cable - which isn't great.. this simply solves my problem and both dual monitors wake up after sleeping.

Hi, After searching the web for answers, I have found a workaround. To prevent the monitor from failing to display after a sleep, disable the monitor's DDC/CI on the monitor menu itself (mine's a BENQ monitor, bought this 2 months ago) - this would prevent windows from thinking it's gone away and shift the display to another monitor which was really annoying. Some guys proposed mutilating the DVI cable - which isn't great.. this simply solves my problem and both dual monitors wake up after sleeping.

Matthew-55:thanks, that worked for me - good call, will be a workaround until this is fixed, if ever. ;-)

Hi, After searching the web for answers, I have found a workaround. To prevent the monitor from failing to display after a sleep, disable the monitor's DDC/CI on the monitor menu itself (mine's a BENQ monitor, bought this 2 months ago) - this would prevent windows from thinking it's gone away and shift the display to another monitor which was really annoying. Some guys proposed mutilating the DVI cable - which isn't great.. this simply solves my problem and both dual monitors wake up after sleeping.

Its Not a Solution ... but its better than Nothing ...8( It works .. http://www.midiox.com/index.htm?http://www.midiox.com/desktoprestore.htm

Its Not a Solution ... but its better than Nothing ...8( It works .. http://www.midiox.com/index.htm?http://www.midiox.com/desktoprestore.htm

I have same problem using hdmi output on a digital AV amplifier (yamaha), each time I switch audio source, I need to setup all again, monitors setup and audio setup... same if I switch my TV on or off, or switch channel on it..

I have same problem using hdmi output on a digital AV amplifier (yamaha), each time I switch audio source, I need to setup all again, monitors setup and audio setup... same if I switch my TV on or off, or switch channel on it..

Its Not a Solution ... but its better than Nothing ...8( It works .. http://www.midiox.com/index.htm?http://www.midiox.com/desktoprestore.htm

I have same problem using hdmi output on a digital AV amplifier (yamaha), each time I switch audio source, I need to setup all again, monitors setup and audio setup... same if I switch my TV on or off, or switch channel on it..

19 months and counting, This is certainly getting the attention it deserves! Though this post won't matter, I figure I'll chime in and explain that I'm having this same issue. In tandom with the fact that ATI doesn't support Windows XP anymore, I'm considering Linux for my home PC now. Here's the setup Windows XP SP3 ATI Radeon 6870 2x HP 24" monitor, DisplayPort 1x Samsung 17" monitor, VGA-DVI (Currently disabled due to no XP ATI drivers dupporting 3+ monitors). When I was running the HP monitors over DVI, I never had this issue. Now every time I turn them off when I'm leaving, everything re-arranges. No, this isn't just icons, I'm talking about the monitor identification numbers (1, 2) change, where the start button changes (that alone sucks completely), the virtual location changes (sometimes the right monitor is now on the left, etc). XP takes about 2 minutes of flashing to turn them back on. It's a different configuration each time. If I go back to DVI, I lose the 17" (which is inop anyway, thanks for the non-existent support ATI), the whole point of the new graphics card was to have 3 monitors. Windows 7 apparently fixes the ATI issue, but then I'm back to everything being crushed down to the single 17" when I turn the monitors off. It would sure be nice if Windows actually put the monitors to sleep - It's painful to wake up in the morning realizing that for some reason XP never put the monitors to sleep - that's why I turn them off when I leave. Long story short, my graphics card / monitor upgrade causes 10-15 minutes of pain daily. Ubuntu is running wonderfully on my dell right now - maybe it's time.

19 months and counting, This is certainly getting the attention it deserves! Though this post won't matter, I figure I'll chime in and explain that I'm having this same issue. In tandom with the fact that ATI doesn't support Windows XP anymore, I'm considering Linux for my home PC now. Here's the setup Windows XP SP3 ATI Radeon 6870 2x HP 24" monitor, DisplayPort 1x Samsung 17" monitor, VGA-DVI (Currently disabled due to no XP ATI drivers dupporting 3+ monitors). When I was running the HP monitors over DVI, I never had this issue. Now every time I turn them off when I'm leaving, everything re-arranges. No, this isn't just icons, I'm talking about the monitor identification numbers (1, 2) change, where the start button changes (that alone sucks completely), the virtual location changes (sometimes the right monitor is now on the left, etc). XP takes about 2 minutes of flashing to turn them back on. It's a different configuration each time. If I go back to DVI, I lose the 17" (which is inop anyway, thanks for the non-existent support ATI), the whole point of the new graphics card was to have 3 monitors. Windows 7 apparently fixes the ATI issue, but then I'm back to everything being crushed down to the single 17" when I turn the monitors off. It would sure be nice if Windows actually put the monitors to sleep - It's painful to wake up in the morning realizing that for some reason XP never put the monitors to sleep - that's why I turn them off when I leave. Long story short, my graphics card / monitor upgrade causes 10-15 minutes of pain daily. Ubuntu is running wonderfully on my dell right now - maybe it's time.

19 months and counting, This is certainly getting the attention it deserves! Though this post won't matter, I figure I'll chime in and explain that I'm having this same issue. In tandom with the fact that ATI doesn't support Windows XP anymore, I'm considering Linux for my home PC now. Here's the setup Windows XP SP3 ATI Radeon 6870 2x HP 24" monitor, DisplayPort 1x Samsung 17" monitor, VGA-DVI (Currently disabled due to no XP ATI drivers dupporting 3+ monitors). When I was running the HP monitors over DVI, I never had this issue. Now every time I turn them off when I'm leaving, everything re-arranges. No, this isn't just icons, I'm talking about the monitor identification numbers (1, 2) change, where the start button changes (that alone sucks completely), the virtual location changes (sometimes the right monitor is now on the left, etc). XP takes about 2 minutes of flashing to turn them back on. It's a different configuration each time. If I go back to DVI, I lose the 17" (which is inop anyway, thanks for the non-existent support ATI), the whole point of the new graphics card was to have 3 monitors. Windows 7 apparently fixes the ATI issue, but then I'm back to everything being crushed down to the single 17" when I turn the monitors off. It would sure be nice if Windows actually put the monitors to sleep - It's painful to wake up in the morning realizing that for some reason XP never put the monitors to sleep - that's why I turn them off when I leave. Long story short, my graphics card / monitor upgrade causes 10-15 minutes of pain daily. Ubuntu is running wonderfully on my dell right now - maybe it's time.

I am fortunate enough to be using an enterprise oriented monitor, so it has a bevvy of settings at my disposal, including the option to not power down source detection when the monitor is off. So I only had to deal with this problem for about 30 minutes while I tinkered with the on-screen controls. I can understand the use for autodetecting displays: if you regularly bring your computer (say, a laptop) to a fixed display like a TV or projector, you don't want the possibility of getting any content "orphanned" by accident when you walk off. But with all the problems it is causing regular desktop users, there has to be an option to disable autodetection, at least on a per-monitor basis. And if Win8 has this fix, that's not good enough. It has to be patched into current OSs as well.

I am fortunate enough to be using an enterprise oriented monitor, so it has a bevvy of settings at my disposal, including the option to not power down source detection when the monitor is off. So I only had to deal with this problem for about 30 minutes while I tinkered with the on-screen controls. I can understand the use for autodetecting displays: if you regularly bring your computer (say, a laptop) to a fixed display like a TV or projector, you don't want the possibility of getting any content "orphanned" by accident when you walk off. But with all the problems it is causing regular desktop users, there has to be an option to disable autodetection, at least on a per-monitor basis. And if Win8 has this fix, that's not good enough. It has to be patched into current OSs as well.

I am fortunate enough to be using an enterprise oriented monitor, so it has a bevvy of settings at my disposal, including the option to not power down source detection when the monitor is off. So I only had to deal with this problem for about 30 minutes while I tinkered with the on-screen controls. I can understand the use for autodetecting displays: if you regularly bring your computer (say, a laptop) to a fixed display like a TV or projector, you don't want the possibility of getting any content "orphanned" by accident when you walk off. But with all the problems it is causing regular desktop users, there has to be an option to disable autodetection, at least on a per-monitor basis. And if Win8 has this fix, that's not good enough. It has to be patched into current OSs as well.

The idiotic "answers" by MS Support: You were told repeatedly to stop advising people to update Drivers or whatever. The problem is a documented moronic feature of Windows7, having zilch todo with drivers !!! hOW MANY TIMES DO YOU NEED TO HEAR THAT YOU ARE DEAF & BLIND, MS SUPPORT GUY? There's a "feature" or should we say problem, whereby Windows7 detects any monitor connected via modern digital ports (DP, HDMI, TB) beign turned off, and forces moving entire desktop to monitor still being on, in multimonitor environment - which happens to be prevalent in our industry (Engineering e.g. CAD/Design), Graphics design, Medical, and MANY home users also, these days. Use brains when reading bug reports, dear MS idiot. Fix the bug and quit blaming nVidia, AMD (ATI), Intel HD, or "drivers". I hold MSEE degree, near-complete PhD and you tell me I forgot to update da** drivers? Read this line again, Microsoft idiot: This is a feature (by design) whereby PnP monitor connected via DP/HDMI/TB to Windows7 is being polled for powerOn/Off state, it may or may not use DDC signal by the way, we can't tell. YOU should know better than us, customers !! I tried to disable DDC in my high-end IPS $1000+ monitor, but no effect. I seroed Registry Keys used in nVidia or ATI monitor status polling - no effect. The stupid feature of WIndows7 which moves desktop to another display, when one is turned off in multimonitor setup - is more than retarded, it is actaully a showstopper for professional folks. Tired of rearranging desktop everytime one of the monitors is turned off, so tired I don't care to run spell check in this post. I am angry. WindowsXP developed by Microsoft in Israel, was the best OS in history, now that it aged & faded into history, there's no equally well-designed equivalent.

The idiotic "answers" by MS Support: You were told repeatedly to stop advising people to update Drivers or whatever. The problem is a documented moronic feature of Windows7, having zilch todo with drivers !!! hOW MANY TIMES DO YOU NEED TO HEAR THAT YOU ARE DEAF & BLIND, MS SUPPORT GUY? There's a "feature" or should we say problem, whereby Windows7 detects any monitor connected via modern digital ports (DP, HDMI, TB) beign turned off, and forces moving entire desktop to monitor still being on, in multimonitor environment - which happens to be prevalent in our industry (Engineering e.g. CAD/Design), Graphics design, Medical, and MANY home users also, these days. Use brains when reading bug reports, dear MS idiot. Fix the bug and quit blaming nVidia, AMD (ATI), Intel HD, or "drivers". I hold MSEE degree, near-complete PhD and you tell me I forgot to update da** drivers? Read this line again, Microsoft idiot: This is a feature (by design) whereby PnP monitor connected via DP/HDMI/TB to Windows7 is being polled for powerOn/Off state, it may or may not use DDC signal by the way, we can't tell. YOU should know better than us, customers !! I tried to disable DDC in my high-end IPS $1000+ monitor, but no effect. I seroed Registry Keys used in nVidia or ATI monitor status polling - no effect. The stupid feature of WIndows7 which moves desktop to another display, when one is turned off in multimonitor setup - is more than retarded, it is actaully a showstopper for professional folks. Tired of rearranging desktop everytime one of the monitors is turned off, so tired I don't care to run spell check in this post. I am angry. WindowsXP developed by Microsoft in Israel, was the best OS in history, now that it aged & faded into history, there's no equally well-designed equivalent.

The idiotic "answers" by MS Support: You were told repeatedly to stop advising people to update Drivers or whatever. The problem is a documented moronic feature of Windows7, having zilch todo with drivers !!! hOW MANY TIMES DO YOU NEED TO HEAR THAT YOU ARE DEAF & BLIND, MS SUPPORT GUY? There's a "feature" or should we say problem, whereby Windows7 detects any monitor connected via modern digital ports (DP, HDMI, TB) beign turned off, and forces moving entire desktop to monitor still being on, in multimonitor environment - which happens to be prevalent in our industry (Engineering e.g. CAD/Design), Graphics design, Medical, and MANY home users also, these days. Use brains when reading bug reports, dear MS idiot. Fix the bug and quit blaming nVidia, AMD (ATI), Intel HD, or "drivers". I hold MSEE degree, near-complete PhD and you tell me I forgot to update da** drivers? Read this line again, Microsoft idiot: This is a feature (by design) whereby PnP monitor connected via DP/HDMI/TB to Windows7 is being polled for powerOn/Off state, it may or may not use DDC signal by the way, we can't tell. YOU should know better than us, customers !! I tried to disable DDC in my high-end IPS $1000+ monitor, but no effect. I seroed Registry Keys used in nVidia or ATI monitor status polling - no effect. Disgusting feature of Windows7 which moves desktop to another display, when one is turned off in multimonitor setup - is Disgusting simply b/c user is deprived of ability to disable such behavior specifically for DP/HDMI-attached Monitor. Hot PnP is a necessity usually, but NOT always - in the case of monitors, anyone with braisn wants to turn them OFF for the night or leaving room for longer than e,.g. an hour. SLEEP/STANDBY is NOT equivalent to what we're asking to fix, we are asking (get a magnifying glass you Microsoft guy, if you can't read properly): To restore ability to TURN OFF [arbitrary] MONITORS, with a physical/hardware button in a multimonitor setup which is becoming prevalent - w/o fear of Windows7 autoswitchign desktop to a monitor reamining ON thereby WREACKING HAVOC w/windows sizes, locations, icons, you name it. Behavio ris due to a simple fact that movign desktop to different resolution ersizes windows previously drawn on that monitor, you just turned off ! Do you understand it is a terrible Productivity killer? Want a simple example where you always use multimonitor setup? Here: Suppose you're doing serious, professional grafix work on your laptop, which thankfully is adequate in both Processor & Video specs, e.g. my HP EliteBook8540w & Elitebook8740w, all you want is to attach an EXTERNAL professional (IPS) display, mostly for size reason (HP ELitebooks include internal LCD which is also pro IPS/"Dreamcolor" type but too small for full-scale work). What do you think you just got yourself?? Windows7 treats it as a MULTIMONITOR SETUP! So you canNOT turn off g0* da** external monitor w/o Windows7 autoswitching internal LCD ON. Next thing you know your desktop is messed up b/c internal LCD is obviously lower resolution! And finally, what adds to the pain, is my professional Videocard in this laptop, which alone costs many hundreds$$$, is configured to drive EXTERNAL display & via DPport, when Windows7 stubbornly invokes internal LCD after I turn off external Monitor, this same settings is almost damaging my internal LCD - too bright. B/c external IPS monitor is a professional, medical grade type that is much less bright than cheapo TN monitors. I rush to turn external back ON and leave it On wondering how long will this problem will remain unfixed ?? Even WindowsVista blamed for many issues comparing to WinXp, even Vista - convenient target of jokes, did not exhibit this stupid behavior. No tto mention WIndowsXpo which doesn't wreack your desktop when one display out fo multiple is turned OFF. More than retarded, it is actaully a showstopper for professional folks. Tired of rearranging desktop everytime one of the monitors is turned off, so tired I don't care to run spell check in this post. I am angry. WindowsXP developed by Microsoft in Israel, was the best OS in history, now that it aged & faded into history, there's no equally well-designed equivalent.

The idiotic "answers" by MS Support: You were told repeatedly to stop advising people to update Drivers or whatever. The problem is a documented moronic feature of Windows7, having zilch todo with drivers !!! hOW MANY TIMES DO YOU NEED TO HEAR THAT YOU ARE DEAF & BLIND, MS SUPPORT GUY? There's a "feature" or should we say problem, whereby Windows7 detects any monitor connected via modern digital ports (DP, HDMI, TB) beign turned off, and forces moving entire desktop to monitor still being on, in multimonitor environment - which happens to be prevalent in our industry (Engineering e.g. CAD/Design), Graphics design, Medical, and MANY home users also, these days. Use brains when reading bug reports, dear MS idiot. Fix the bug and quit blaming nVidia, AMD (ATI), Intel HD, or "drivers". I hold MSEE degree, near-complete PhD and you tell me I forgot to update da** drivers? Read this line again, Microsoft idiot: This is a feature (by design) whereby PnP monitor connected via DP/HDMI/TB to Windows7 is being polled for powerOn/Off state, it may or may not use DDC signal by the way, we can't tell. YOU should know better than us, customers !! I tried to disable DDC in my high-end IPS $1000+ monitor, but no effect. I seroed Registry Keys used in nVidia or ATI monitor status polling - no effect. Disgusting feature of Windows7 which moves desktop to another display, when one is turned off in multimonitor setup - is Disgusting simply b/c user is deprived of ability to disable such behavior specifically for DP/HDMI-attached Monitor. Hot PnP is a necessity usually, but NOT always - in the case of monitors, anyone with braisn wants to turn them OFF for the night or leaving room for longer than e,.g. an hour. SLEEP/STANDBY is NOT equivalent to what we're asking to fix, we are asking (get a magnifying glass you Microsoft guy, if you can't read properly): To restore ability to TURN OFF [arbitrary] MONITORS, with a physical/hardware button in a multimonitor setup which is becoming prevalent - w/o fear of Windows7 autoswitchign desktop to a monitor reamining ON thereby WREACKING HAVOC w/windows sizes, locations, icons, you name it. Behavio ris due to a simple fact that movign desktop to different resolution ersizes windows previously drawn on that monitor, you just turned off ! Do you understand it is a terrible Productivity killer? Want a simple example where you always use multimonitor setup? Here: Suppose you're doing serious, professional grafix work on your laptop, which thankfully is adequate in both Processor & Video specs, e.g. my HP EliteBook8540w & Elitebook8740w, all you want is to attach an EXTERNAL professional (IPS) display, mostly for size reason (HP ELitebooks include internal LCD which is also pro IPS/"Dreamcolor" type but too small for full-scale work). What do you think you just got yourself?? Windows7 treats it as a MULTIMONITOR SETUP! So you canNOT turn off g0* da** external monitor w/o Windows7 autoswitching internal LCD ON. Next thing you know your desktop is messed up b/c internal LCD is obviously lower resolution! And finally, what adds to the pain, is my professional Videocard in this laptop, which alone costs many hundreds$$$, is configured to drive EXTERNAL display & via DPport, when Windows7 stubbornly invokes internal LCD after I turn off external Monitor, this same settings is almost damaging my internal LCD - too bright. B/c external IPS monitor is a professional, medical grade type that is much less bright than cheapo TN monitors. I rush to turn external back ON and leave it On wondering how long will this problem will remain unfixed ?? Even WindowsVista blamed for many issues comparing to WinXp, even Vista - convenient target of jokes, did not exhibit this stupid behavior. No tto mention WIndowsXpo which doesn't wreack your desktop when one display out fo multiple is turned OFF. More than retarded, it is actaully a showstopper for professional folks. Tired of rearranging desktop everytime one of the monitors is turned off, so tired I don't care to run spell check in this post. I am angry. WindowsXP developed by Microsoft in Israel, was the best OS in history, now that it aged & faded into history, there's no equally well-designed equivalent.

The idiotic "answers" by MS Support: You were told repeatedly to stop advising people to update Drivers or whatever. The problem is a documented moronic feature of Windows7, having zilch todo with drivers !!! hOW MANY TIMES DO YOU NEED TO HEAR THAT YOU ARE DEAF & BLIND, MS SUPPORT GUY? There's a "feature" or should we say problem, whereby Windows7 detects any monitor connected via modern digital ports (DP, HDMI, TB) beign turned off, and forces moving entire desktop to monitor still being on, in multimonitor environment - which happens to be prevalent in our industry (Engineering e.g. CAD/Design), Graphics design, Medical, and MANY home users also, these days. Use brains when reading bug reports, dear MS idiot. Fix the bug and quit blaming nVidia, AMD (ATI), Intel HD, or "drivers". I hold MSEE degree, near-complete PhD and you tell me I forgot to update da** drivers? Read this line again, Microsoft idiot: This is a feature (by design) whereby PnP monitor connected via DP/HDMI/TB to Windows7 is being polled for powerOn/Off state, it may or may not use DDC signal by the way, we can't tell. YOU should know better than us, customers !! I tried to disable DDC in my high-end IPS $1000+ monitor, but no effect. I seroed Registry Keys used in nVidia or ATI monitor status polling - no effect. The stupid feature of WIndows7 which moves desktop to another display, when one is turned off in multimonitor setup - is more than retarded, it is actaully a showstopper for professional folks. Tired of rearranging desktop everytime one of the monitors is turned off, so tired I don't care to run spell check in this post. I am angry. WindowsXP developed by Microsoft in Israel, was the best OS in history, now that it aged & faded into history, there's no equally well-designed equivalent.

The idiotic "answers" by MS Support: You were told repeatedly to stop advising people to update Drivers or whatever. The problem is a documented moronic feature of Windows7, having zilch todo with drivers !!! hOW MANY TIMES DO YOU NEED TO HEAR THAT YOU ARE DEAF & BLIND, MS SUPPORT GUY? There's a "feature" or should we say problem, whereby Windows7 detects any monitor connected via modern digital ports (DP, HDMI, TB) beign turned off, and forces moving entire desktop to monitor still being on, in multimonitor environment - which happens to be prevalent in our industry (Engineering e.g. CAD/Design), Graphics design, Medical, and MANY home users also, these days. Use brains when reading bug reports, dear MS idiot. Fix the bug and quit blaming nVidia, AMD (ATI), Intel HD, or "drivers". I hold MSEE degree, near-complete PhD and you tell me I forgot to update da** drivers? Read this line again, Microsoft idiot: This is a feature (by design) whereby PnP monitor connected via DP/HDMI/TB to Windows7 is being polled for powerOn/Off state, it may or may not use DDC signal by the way, we can't tell. YOU should know better than us, customers !! I tried to disable DDC in my high-end IPS $1000+ monitor, but no effect. I seroed Registry Keys used in nVidia or ATI monitor status polling - no effect. Disgusting feature of Windows7 which moves desktop to another display, when one is turned off in multimonitor setup - is Disgusting simply b/c user is deprived of ability to disable such behavior specifically for DP/HDMI-attached Monitor. Hot PnP is a necessity usually, but NOT always - in the case of monitors, anyone with braisn wants to turn them OFF for the night or leaving room for longer than e,.g. an hour. SLEEP/STANDBY is NOT equivalent to what we're asking to fix, we are asking (get a magnifying glass you Microsoft guy, if you can't read properly): To restore ability to TURN OFF [arbitrary] MONITORS, with a physical/hardware button in a multimonitor setup which is becoming prevalent - w/o fear of Windows7 autoswitchign desktop to a monitor reamining ON thereby WREACKING HAVOC w/windows sizes, locations, icons, you name it. Behavio ris due to a simple fact that movign desktop to different resolution ersizes windows previously drawn on that monitor, you just turned off ! Do you understand it is a terrible Productivity killer? Want a simple example where you always use multimonitor setup? Here: Suppose you're doing serious, professional grafix work on your laptop, which thankfully is adequate in both Processor & Video specs, e.g. my HP EliteBook8540w & Elitebook8740w, all you want is to attach an EXTERNAL professional (IPS) display, mostly for size reason (HP ELitebooks include internal LCD which is also pro IPS/"Dreamcolor" type but too small for full-scale work). What do you think you just got yourself?? Windows7 treats it as a MULTIMONITOR SETUP! So you canNOT turn off g0* da** external monitor w/o Windows7 autoswitching internal LCD ON. Next thing you know your desktop is messed up b/c internal LCD is obviously lower resolution! And finally, what adds to the pain, is my professional Videocard in this laptop, which alone costs many hundreds$$$, is configured to drive EXTERNAL display & via DPport, when Windows7 stubbornly invokes internal LCD after I turn off external Monitor, this same settings is almost damaging my internal LCD - too bright. B/c external IPS monitor is a professional, medical grade type that is much less bright than cheapo TN monitors. I rush to turn external back ON and leave it On wondering how long will this problem will remain unfixed ?? Even WindowsVista blamed for many issues comparing to WinXp, even Vista - convenient target of jokes, did not exhibit this stupid behavior. No tto mention WIndowsXpo which doesn't wreack your desktop when one display out fo multiple is turned OFF. More than retarded, it is actaully a showstopper for professional folks. Tired of rearranging desktop everytime one of the monitors is turned off, so tired I don't care to run spell check in this post. I am angry. WindowsXP developed by Microsoft in Israel, was the best OS in history, now that it aged & faded into history, there's no equally well-designed equivalent.

This is nice hint, what "Packageshop" explained : Worked for me with 2-port USB-KVM ; Windows 7 with 2 LCD displays and Linux sharing one of them using VGA.

This is nice hint, what "Packageshop" explained : Worked for me with 2-port USB-KVM ; Windows 7 with 2 LCD displays and Linux sharing one of them using VGA.

This is nice hint, what "Packageshop" explained : Worked for me with 2-port USB-KVM ; Windows 7 with 2 LCD displays and Linux sharing one of them using VGA.

SOLUTION: I had the same issue and solved it by cutting the "Hot Plug Detect" pin in my HDMI cable. Setup: HTPC (and other devices) to receiver to TV all with HDMI cabling. What I did: Splice the wire and cut the wire associated with the "Hot Plug Detect" pin which is pin 19 of the HDMI connector. It was too hard to remove this pin from such a small connector so I just spiced the wire about an inch and used a continuity tester to determine the correct wire and cut it. For the cable I modified the wire associated with Pin 19, "Hot Plug Detect" was dark purple. (This is the cable between my computer and the receiver.) Result: Everything works great, the computer detects the tv/monitor through the EDID from the DDC, but the computer DOES NOT detect when my tv/monitor has been turned on/off. The computer acts as though the tv/monitor is always turned on. No resolution re-sizing, no moving windows, no icons changing location, music plays without the tv turned on, etc. The computer simply does not detect the power-on/off of the monitor. Commentary: While I agree cable/adapter mutilation should not be required, unfortunately it is. Alternatively you can buy a $40-$80 connector box that essentially does the same thing and manages the EDID as well. In my case I figured having a cable with this wire cut was worth it because I will always have a use for it, and my HDMI cables only cost $4 as opposed to $40. If you really want I'm sure you could put an inline switch rather than just cutting the wire. Summary: MS clearly has no intention of fixing this "feature". Modifying cables or connectors to remove the "Hot Plug Detect" connection is a very good and easy solution. This works for VGA, DVI, and HDMI connections and once done your computer will always assume your tv/monitor is turned on. This is the way to disable display auto-detection.

SOLUTION: I had the same issue and solved it by cutting the "Hot Plug Detect" pin in my HDMI cable. Setup: HTPC (and other devices) to receiver to TV all with HDMI cabling. What I did: Splice the wire and cut the wire associated with the "Hot Plug Detect" pin which is pin 19 of the HDMI connector. It was too hard to remove this pin from such a small connector so I just spiced the wire about an inch and used a continuity tester to determine the correct wire and cut it. For the cable I modified the wire associated with Pin 19, "Hot Plug Detect" was dark purple. (This is the cable between my computer and the receiver.) Result: Everything works great, the computer detects the tv/monitor through the EDID from the DDC, but the computer DOES NOT detect when my tv/monitor has been turned on/off. The computer acts as though the tv/monitor is always turned on. No resolution re-sizing, no moving windows, no icons changing location, music plays without the tv turned on, etc. The computer simply does not detect the power-on/off of the monitor. Commentary: While I agree cable/adapter mutilation should not be required, unfortunately it is. Alternatively you can buy a $40-$80 connector box that essentially does the same thing and manages the EDID as well. In my case I figured having a cable with this wire cut was worth it because I will always have a use for it, and my HDMI cables only cost $4 as opposed to $40. If you really want I'm sure you could put an inline switch rather than just cutting the wire. Summary: MS clearly has no intention of fixing this "feature". Modifying cables or connectors to remove the "Hot Plug Detect" connection is a very good and easy solution. This works for VGA, DVI, and HDMI connections and once done your computer will always assume your tv/monitor is turned on. This is the way to disable display auto-detection.

Similar problem but with 2 quick-and-dirty, low-cost solutions. Problem: I have an HTPC running Windows 7 X64 with an ATI Radeon 6870 connected through HDMI only to a single 1080p Sony EX500 TV. Every time I would turn the TV off and on again my full-screen apps & windows were resized and some desktop gadgets moved. It was behaving as if while the TV was off the resolution was lowered to something like 1280x768 ...and brought back to 1920x1080 when the TV was active again. Annoying! Solution #1: Microsoft says it's a hardware problem? Ok, here's a hardware solution then. My HDTV has a VGA port, so I connected a spare VGA cable to a DVI port on my Radeon 6870 using a cheap DVI-VGA adapter. *Note: I use a VGA cable because my Sony flat-screen doesn't have a DVI port, but a DVI cable should behave the same way if you have DVI connectors on both machines.* I then went to "Control Panel -> Display -> Screen Resolution", clicked "Detect" and setup the second display to be "duplicate these displays", making the output of VGA and HDMI identical. Now since VGA doesn't have the polling feature Windows assumes that the monitor is on as long as the VGA cable is physically connected to the TV, and thus keeps the resolution of the HDMI port in sync with the VGA one. While I leave the VGA cable connected, I only actually use the HDMI link for its audio signal and better video. Result is that my apps, windows and gadgets stay where I left them whenever I power-cycle my TV. Downside is one extra dummy cable to route. Easy-breezy! Solution #2: Untested, but same logic as above. Folding@Home folders and Bitcoin miners often use dummy VGA plugs to pretend that their cards are connected to a monitor. You can make such a dummy plug using only three resistors purchased from any electronics supply shop for pennies, and that DVI to VGA adapter I used previously (often comes free with video cards or available for under two bucks online). You first do as stated on this Overclock.net Tutorial and finally proceed with the screen cloning as in Solution #1 above. It should work similarly but without having to run a whole secondary VGA/DVI cable to your telly. Yay! René-Marc Simard Montréal, Canada

brianmartin192, thank you very much! I must say I find this to be a very slick solution. As all the rest I am quite disappointed with the multi monitor support in Windows. But, with this simple hack I am able to switch my TV from HDMI to cable, turn it off, back on etc and still keep XBMC running smoothly on my secondary display while using the primary as a normal PC. I humbly suggest a minor modification: I used a very thin piece of electrical tape to block pin 19 directly in the HDMI cable and then gently plugged it in. It worked beautifully and I imagine more people would be willing to try this than cutting through the cable. I am trying to post a picture, not sure if it'll stick: [img]http://s4.postimage.org/gmog0m7kf/HDMI_Blocked_Pin_19.jpg[/img] (http://postimage.org/image/2g8p5dwdg/) If the picture isn't there, pin 19 is on the top right when looking at the HDMI male plug. Look for the pinout in wikipedia and notice that it is the female plug there, so you need to flip horizontally for the male one. Thanks again!

brianmartin192, thank you very much! I must say I find this to be a very slick solution. As all the rest I am quite disappointed with the multi monitor support in Windows. But, with this simple hack I am able to switch my TV from HDMI to cable, turn it off, back on etc and still keep XBMC running smoothly on my secondary display while using the primary as a normal PC. I humbly suggest a minor modification: I used a very thin piece of electrical tape to block pin 19 directly in the HDMI cable and then gently plugged it in. It worked beautifully and I imagine more people would be willing to try this than cutting through the cable. I am trying to post a picture, not sure if it'll stick: [img]http://s4.postimage.org/gmog0m7kf/HDMI_Blocked_Pin_19.jpg[/img] (http://postimage.org/image/2g8p5dwdg/) If the picture isn't there, pin 19 is on the top right when looking at the HDMI male plug. Look for the pinout in wikipedia and notice that it is the female plug there, so you need to flip horizontally for the male one. Thanks again!

I am also VEXED by this problem. I have a touchscreen PC with Intel integrated graphics system. The system displays my automation system on the touchscreen display, and the HDMI port is connected to my AV Receiver which connects to my LCD TV. I want to play movies on my TV, but whenever the TV turns off, my movie player application is pushed back to my touchscreen where it gets lost behind my automation screen. What is worse, whenever the CableBox interrogates the TV, my touchscreen beeps and flashes. It is very annoying. I tried J CH and brianmartin192's solution of taping pin 19 on my HDMI connector, but when the tape is on, the touchscreen won't recognize the TV at all. I tried re-booting the touchscreen, and the tv and the receiver in various orders, but it never sees the TV when Pin 19 is disabled. I would be very happy if microsoft or intel would fix this problem. Arghhh. I could disable Plug-And-Play (I never change the devices on this system), but I don't think that would help. Maybe I'll install Windows XP to get back to the desired behavior. Arghhhh -- Bob

I am also VEXED by this problem. I have a touchscreen PC with Intel integrated graphics system. The system displays my automation system on the touchscreen display, and the HDMI port is connected to my AV Receiver which connects to my LCD TV. I want to play movies on my TV, but whenever the TV turns off, my movie player application is pushed back to my touchscreen where it gets lost behind my automation screen. What is worse, whenever the CableBox interrogates the TV, my touchscreen beeps and flashes. It is very annoying. I tried J CH and brianmartin192's solution of taping pin 19 on my HDMI connector, but when the tape is on, the touchscreen won't recognize the TV at all. I tried re-booting the touchscreen, and the tv and the receiver in various orders, but it never sees the TV when Pin 19 is disabled. I would be very happy if microsoft or intel would fix this problem. Arghhh. I could disable Plug-And-Play (I never change the devices on this system), but I don't think that would help. Maybe I'll install Windows XP to get back to the desired behavior. Arghhhh -- Bob

Not entirely Windows 7 problem, but drivers as well. I do not have such an issue using NVIDIA, yet it arises using INTEL graphics. Bought an extendion cable and tried the pin 12 rip out, but the issue persisted. My temporary fix is to have Intel graphics drivers disabled in Device Manager, then after reboot choose the preferred resolution for Default Monitor. This way, KVM switching does not mess up my chosen resolution. Still looking for a proper fix, whereby I can use Intel drivers rather than generic, and KVM switching does not pose a problem.

Not entirely Windows 7 problem, but drivers as well. I do not have such an issue using NVIDIA, yet it arises using INTEL graphics. Bought an extendion cable and tried the pin 12 rip out, but the issue persisted. My temporary fix is to have Intel graphics drivers disabled in Device Manager, then after reboot choose the preferred resolution for Default Monitor. This way, KVM switching does not mess up my chosen resolution. Still looking for a proper fix, whereby I can use Intel drivers rather than generic, and KVM switching does not pose a problem.

COOL - Just what I was looking for. My situation was a PC with a 2-way VGA splitter for a LifeSize Room 220 video conferencing solution. One VGA input went into the LifeSize unit so you can share out the desktop, the other VGA went direct to the 46" LG TV in case you just wanted to use the PC without the video conference system (as it looks much better then when piped through the LifeSize system.) The problem was that it kept detecting the LG TV as the monitor and for some reason the LifeSize system didn't like this and would scrunch up the display plus remote users only saw a black screen. If you booted the PC with the TV off, then the PC showed "Room 220" and all was good. Looked good through LifeSize and looked good via the RGB input of the TV. But this system will be used by many people and I didn't want some funky bootup order, I needed it fool proof. I pull out pin 12 of the VGA cable going from the VGA splitter to the TV and now life is good!! It now only detects "Room 220" as the monitor (I left that monitor cable alone so it would detect that). Thanks for the tip!!!! Made my day!

COOL - Just what I was looking for. My situation was a PC with a 2-way VGA splitter for a LifeSize Room 220 video conferencing solution. One VGA input went into the LifeSize unit so you can share out the desktop, the other VGA went direct to the 46" LG TV in case you just wanted to use the PC without the video conference system (as it looks much better then when piped through the LifeSize system.) The problem was that it kept detecting the LG TV as the monitor and for some reason the LifeSize system didn't like this and would scrunch up the display plus remote users only saw a black screen. If you booted the PC with the TV off, then the PC showed "Room 220" and all was good. Looked good through LifeSize and looked good via the RGB input of the TV. But this system will be used by many people and I didn't want some funky bootup order, I needed it fool proof. I pull out pin 12 of the VGA cable going from the VGA splitter to the TV and now life is good!! It now only detects "Room 220" as the monitor (I left that monitor cable alone so it would detect that). Thanks for the tip!!!! Made my day!

Thanks to everybody who has kept this thread alive and given it so much Google juice, I have managed to work around a related problem. I'm a school IT technician, and we're progressively cutting over from XP to Windows 7 as we replace old PCs. All our front-of-room PCs are attached to ceiling-mounted data projectors via very long VGA cables (5m in some rooms, 10m in others) and even though these are good enough to give us a crisp, clean 1280x800@85Hz display, they're somewhat susceptible to noise pickup on DDC. With Windows XP, this manifests as occasional non-detection of a projector, fixed on reboot; not ideal, but we could live with it. With Linux, all I need to do is configure X to ignore EDID and force 1280x800 on the VGA outputs and everything works perfectly every time. Tonight I installed Windows 7 natively on a box that was formerly running Linux hosting a couple of Windows 7 VMs, and ran into the same auto-detection "feature" that's been screwing up all your desktops. In my case, what it did was put Windows into fits of device rediscovery, complete with a cacophony of disconnection and reconnection chimes, turning the local DVI monitor on and off, flipping the desktop back and forth between that monitor and the data projector, cancelling active menus and redrawing open windows. The only way to make it stop was to unplug the VGA cable from the computer. Unplugging the projector end doesn't help - apparently 5 metres of cable generates enough crosstalk between DDC clock and data signals to make it detectable as some kind of "monitor". Breaking off pin 12 at the computer end of the VGA cable has calmed things down completely. The nVidia drivers now identify the projector as "Analog monitor" rather than "Seiko/Epson EMP400W" and needed something called "Rigorous device discovery" before letting me use it, but having done that all is now working well (and, incidentally, more controllable - I get a complete set of resolutions and refresh rates without having to ask for one). It's beyond belief that there is not a MS-defined (as opposed to graphics-driver-dependent) registry key to disable automatic device detection for any given display controller. I should not have to be breaking pins off my hardware just to stop Windows from looking at it.

Thanks to everybody who has kept this thread alive and given it so much Google juice, I have managed to work around a related problem. I'm a school IT technician, and we're progressively cutting over from XP to Windows 7 as we replace old PCs. All our front-of-room PCs are attached to ceiling-mounted data projectors via very long VGA cables (5m in some rooms, 10m in others) and even though these are good enough to give us a crisp, clean 1280x800@85Hz display, they're somewhat susceptible to noise pickup on DDC. With Windows XP, this manifests as occasional non-detection of a projector, fixed on reboot; not ideal, but we could live with it. With Linux, all I need to do is configure X to ignore EDID and force 1280x800 on the VGA outputs and everything works perfectly every time. Tonight I installed Windows 7 natively on a box that was formerly running Linux hosting a couple of Windows 7 VMs, and ran into the same auto-detection "feature" that's been screwing up all your desktops. In my case, what it did was put Windows into fits of device rediscovery, complete with a cacophony of disconnection and reconnection chimes, turning the local DVI monitor on and off, flipping the desktop back and forth between that monitor and the data projector, cancelling active menus and redrawing open windows. The only way to make it stop was to unplug the VGA cable from the computer. Unplugging the projector end doesn't help - apparently 5 metres of cable generates enough crosstalk between DDC clock and data signals to make it detectable as some kind of "monitor". Breaking off pin 12 at the computer end of the VGA cable has calmed things down completely. The nVidia drivers now identify the projector as "Analog monitor" rather than "Seiko/Epson EMP400W" and needed something called "Rigorous device discovery" before letting me use it, but having done that all is now working well (and, incidentally, more controllable - I get a complete set of resolutions and refresh rates without having to ask for one). It's beyond belief that there is not a MS-defined (as opposed to graphics-driver-dependent) registry key to disable automatic device detection for any given display controller. I should not have to be breaking pins off my hardware just to stop Windows from looking at it.

Being frustrated by this same issue but only using a single monitor. Every time I turn off my displayport connected 27" monitor it seems like it changes the resolution from 2650x1440 down to something like 800x600 which shoves all my open windows into the upper left corner and resizes them. Super annoying to have to resize my browser and other windows every time I turn off the monitor. I would try disabling the detection pin if I knew which one it was but the displayport one was not mentioned in the other posts and those pins are pretty small to try to tape over like the hdmi one. Interestingly it does not move my icons or open gadgets just resizes my windows even if they are minimized. Sigh.

Being frustrated by this same issue but only using a single monitor. Every time I turn off my displayport connected 27" monitor it seems like it changes the resolution from 2650x1440 down to something like 800x600 which shoves all my open windows into the upper left corner and resizes them. Super annoying to have to resize my browser and other windows every time I turn off the monitor. I would try disabling the detection pin if I knew which one it was but the displayport one was not mentioned in the other posts and those pins are pretty small to try to tape over like the hdmi one. Interestingly it does not move my icons or open gadgets just resizes my windows even if they are minimized. Sigh.

The only solution I found was to short the hot plug detect wire on the hdmi cable to the 5v wire at the pc end. On my cable the hot detect wire is purple and the 5v is red, neither one are in the pair shielding so don't cut into those. I disconnected the purple wire on the end of the cable that hooks in to the TV or receiver since I didn't want to send 5v back up the line. You may want to buy a cheap hdmi cable to try it on before hand. This beats buying a edid emulator box. Anyway the end result is I can turn off my receiver/tv and my htpc never sees it so I don't get any annoying error messages in media center nor any random blue screens from the resizing during hd video playback.

The only solution I found was to short the hot plug detect wire on the hdmi cable to the 5v wire at the pc end. On my cable the hot detect wire is purple and the 5v is red, neither one are in the pair shielding so don't cut into those. I disconnected the purple wire on the end of the cable that hooks in to the TV or receiver since I didn't want to send 5v back up the line. You may want to buy a cheap hdmi cable to try it on before hand. This beats buying a edid emulator box. Anyway the end result is I can turn off my receiver/tv and my htpc never sees it so I don't get any annoying error messages in media center nor any random blue screens from the resizing during hd video playback.

I have a 27" screen on an eyefinity card which only has 6 mini display ports in this kb article http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2625567 ms basically offers two workarounds "don't use display port" and "don't turn off the screen" this is borderline mockery I have no dual link display port dvi dongle so i need to use display port (to reach the native resolution of the screen) and I connect to the pc via teamviewer...which would turn it on all the time when I just let it go to sleep this windows behavior makes display port unusable and I will have to return the eyefinity card because of it the most ridiculess thing is that the change in resolution or whatever windows is doing occurs only when you turn the screen on again! and it will move around all windows on all screens (which are turned on all the time) so it it can not in any way be "sold" as a feature (it is just a bug) why on earth would you change something on one monitor when ANOTHER one is turned off and on to top it all of there are apps which are invisible completly after windows does its pointless shuffling...and all apps behave somehow different

I have a 27" screen on an eyefinity card which only has 6 mini display ports in this kb article http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2625567 ms basically offers two workarounds "don't use display port" and "don't turn off the screen" this is borderline mockery I have no dual link display port dvi dongle so i need to use display port (to reach the native resolution of the screen) and I connect to the pc via teamviewer...which would turn it on all the time when I just let it go to sleep this windows behavior makes display port unusable and I will have to return the eyefinity card because of it the most ridiculess thing is that the change in resolution or whatever windows is doing occurs only when you turn the screen on again! and it will move around all windows on all screens (which are turned on all the time) so it it can not in any way be "sold" as a feature (it is just a bug) why on earth would you change something on one monitor when ANOTHER one is turned off and on to top it all of there are apps which are invisible completly after windows does its pointless shuffling...and all apps behave somehow different

Not sure if this will help, but in Windows XP, you can go into msconfig.exe (from "Run" menu) and disable the hkcmd (hotkey command), igfxtray (intel integrated graphics system tray application) and igfxpers (intel integrated graphics ... something?) startup programs. I have a problem with a client's laptop that uses an IGP Intel GPU, and my KVM switch. If I plug directly to the monitor with a complete cable, the laptop can startup automatically on the VGA-connected screen. But if I go through the KVM switch, the laptop will act as if no VGA device is connected. So my normal startup process is this: 1) Connect direct cable (some people use an A/B switch to do this) between laptop and monitor 2) Boot up, and get into Windows 3) Switch cables connected to laptop and monitor to go through the KVM switch. Without turning off those 3 items, the laptop switches back to its internal display as soon as I unplug the VGA cable, and it won't let me reselect it. But with those turned off, it seems to work.

Not sure if this will help, but in Windows XP, you can go into msconfig.exe (from "Run" menu) and disable the hkcmd (hotkey command), igfxtray (intel integrated graphics system tray application) and igfxpers (intel integrated graphics ... something?) startup programs. I have a problem with a client's laptop that uses an IGP Intel GPU, and my KVM switch. If I plug directly to the monitor with a complete cable, the laptop can startup automatically on the VGA-connected screen. But if I go through the KVM switch, the laptop will act as if no VGA device is connected. So my normal startup process is this: 1) Connect direct cable (some people use an A/B switch to do this) between laptop and monitor 2) Boot up, and get into Windows 3) Switch cables connected to laptop and monitor to go through the KVM switch. Without turning off those 3 items, the laptop switches back to its internal display as soon as I unplug the VGA cable, and it won't let me reselect it. But with those turned off, it seems to work.

Ok guys, maybe not the final solution, but it worked for me. It is about the PCI Express Energy saving mode. If I turn it off, all the switching on and off things go away. (Win7 64 Ultimate, Nvidia chipset - GT 430) - an old VGA monitor and HDMI full hd tv as extension. I try to write a step by step method, but I have Hungarian language on my machine so I don't know the real English menu names. Let's see it: 1. Control panel 2. Energy saving things 3. Energy schema window->Edit scheme settings (a blue link on my machine) Next to the actual settings mode 4. You can see a window where you can set up the monitor autiomatic turn on and off. Here is a link Special energy settings thing... 5. A new window comes up, where you can see all the devices, such as USB, HDD and so on. 6. Find the PCI Express device, and turn the energy savings off It prevents to turn the monitors automatically on and off - at least on my machine. I hope it helps

Ok guys, maybe not the final solution, but it worked for me. It is about the PCI Express Energy saving mode. If I turn it off, all the switching on and off things go away. (Win7 64 Ultimate, Nvidia chipset - GT 430) - an old VGA monitor and HDMI full hd tv as extension. I try to write a step by step method, but I have Hungarian language on my machine so I don't know the real English menu names. Let's see it: 1. Control panel 2. Energy saving things 3. Energy schema window->Edit scheme settings (a blue link on my machine) Next to the actual settings mode 4. You can see a window where you can set up the monitor autiomatic turn on and off. Here is a link Special energy settings thing... 5. A new window comes up, where you can see all the devices, such as USB, HDD and so on. 6. Find the PCI Express device, and turn the energy savings off It prevents to turn the monitors automatically on and off - at least on my machine. I hope it helps

Look here first for the solution!!! This is by far the best resolution to any thing out there. I spent hours making modifications to regedit, display drivers, downloading programs that would 'restore' the desktop. Found the electrical tape solution and it took me more time to find the tape then to apply the 'fix'. I cut a little extra long piece with an exacto knife, (carpenter knife would work) because i was a little worried about having it get stuck in my equipment. Props to J CH for the image.

Look here first for the solution!!! This is by far the best resolution to any thing out there. I spent hours making modifications to regedit, display drivers, downloading programs that would 'restore' the desktop. Found the electrical tape solution and it took me more time to find the tape then to apply the 'fix'. I cut a little extra long piece with an exacto knife, (carpenter knife would work) because i was a little worried about having it get stuck in my equipment. Props to J CH for the image.

Hi This behavior is by design and I don't think there is a way to override this functionality except to make sure that both monitors are turned on when you start the system. As described in the article that you posted the link to, if a second monitor is not detected, everything will be displayed on the available monitor. Hope this helps. Thank You for using Windows 7 Ronnie Vernon MVP Hi Is there any chance Microsoft are going to change this? I have a wireless secondary monitor if it goes out of range it does the same thing. Surely there should be a flag when the secondary monitor is shut off to give you the option wether or not you want the windows moved or not??? I like Windows 7 a lot but this real bad design. I use Visual Studio also a great product, but configuring the Window placements again and again and again is annoying.

Hi This behavior is by design and I don't think there is a way to override this functionality except to make sure that both monitors are turned on when you start the system. As described in the article that you posted the link to, if a second monitor is not detected, everything will be displayed on the available monitor. Hope this helps. Thank You for using Windows 7 Ronnie Vernon MVP Hi Is there any chance Microsoft are going to change this? I have a wireless secondary monitor if it goes out of range it does the same thing. Surely there should be a flag when the secondary monitor is shut off to give you the option wether or not you want the windows moved or not??? I like Windows 7 a lot but this real bad design. I use Visual Studio also a great product, but configuring the Window placements again and again and again is annoying.

I recently picked up a Displayport monitor, and paired it with a DVI monitor for Visual Studio work. Sure enough, when I go to turn off my monitors at night - the computer detects the displayport removal, but not the DVI, forcing all my windows to the secondary monitor. First thing I did was google, and find this thread. Ouch. That said, I cobbled together a fix for my own uses because I was only running into this issue at the end of the night when turning off monitors. Application: http://www.i-py.com/sleepmon/v1/SleepMon.exe Source: http://www.i-py.com/sleepmon/v1/SleepMon.csproj ABOUT: All this application does is live in the background, and listen for a specific key combo, and then forces your monitors to sleep immediately. To use: Place the program in your startup directory if you want it to automatically run. To force your monitors to sleep press CTRL + ~ (the ` above the tab key). Pressing these two keys will force your monitor to sleep. Notes: Only tested in Windows 7. Requires .NET 3.5 Please let me know if this helps anyone, or if any changes/features are needed that could help someone else. edit: http://www.i-py.com/sleepmon/v1.1/SleepMon.exe - this change simply locks the workstation when triggered, as I realized some may prefer to lock the computer as well. http://www.i-py.com/sleepmon/v1.2/SleepMon.exe - updated with a system tray icon, nothing major. www.i-py.com - Blogging about various Powershell / AD happenings

Thanks to everybody who has kept this thread alive and given it so much Google juice, I have managed to work around a related problem. I'm a school IT technician, and we're progressively cutting over from XP to Windows 7 as we replace old PCs. All our front-of-room PCs are attached to ceiling-mounted data projectors via very long VGA cables (5m in some rooms, 10m in others) and even though these are good enough to give us a crisp, clean 1280x800@85Hz display, they're somewhat susceptible to noise pickup on DDC. With Windows XP, this manifests as occasional non-detection of a projector, fixed on reboot; not ideal, but we could live with it. With Linux, all I need to do is configure X to ignore EDID and force 1280x800 on the VGA outputs and everything works perfectly every time. Tonight I installed Windows 7 natively on a box that was formerly running Linux hosting a couple of Windows 7 VMs, and ran into the same auto-detection "feature" that's been screwing up all your desktops. In my case, what it did was put Windows into fits of device rediscovery, complete with a cacophony of disconnection and reconnection chimes, turning the local DVI monitor on and off, flipping the desktop back and forth between that monitor and the data projector, cancelling active menus and redrawing open windows. The only way to make it stop was to unplug the VGA cable from the computer. Unplugging the projector end doesn't help - apparently 5 metres of cable generates enough crosstalk between DDC clock and data signals to make it detectable as some kind of "monitor". Breaking off pin 12 at the computer end of the VGA cable has calmed things down completely. The nVidia drivers now identify the projector as "Analog monitor" rather than "Seiko/Epson EMP400W" and needed something called "Rigorous device discovery" before letting me use it, but having done that all is now working well (and, incidentally, more controllable - I get a complete set of resolutions and refresh rates without having to ask for one). It's beyond belief that there is not a MS-defined (as opposed to graphics-driver-dependent) registry key to disable automatic device detection for any given display controller. I should not have to be breaking pins off my hardware just to stop Windows from looking at it.

Not sure if this will help, but in Windows XP, you can go into msconfig.exe (from "Run" menu) and disable the hkcmd (hotkey command), igfxtray (intel integrated graphics system tray application) and igfxpers (intel integrated graphics ... something?) startup programs. I have a problem with a client's laptop that uses an IGP Intel GPU, and my KVM switch. If I plug directly to the monitor with a complete cable, the laptop can startup automatically on the VGA-connected screen. But if I go through the KVM switch, the laptop will act as if no VGA device is connected. So my normal startup process is this: 1) Connect direct cable (some people use an A/B switch to do this) between laptop and monitor 2) Boot up, and get into Windows 3) Switch cables connected to laptop and monitor to go through the KVM switch. Without turning off those 3 items, the laptop switches back to its internal display as soon as I unplug the VGA cable, and it won't let me reselect it. But with those turned off, it seems to work.

I recently picked up a Displayport monitor, and paired it with a DVI monitor for Visual Studio work. Sure enough, when I go to turn off my monitors at night - the computer detects the displayport removal, but not the DVI, forcing all my windows to the secondary monitor. First thing I did was google, and find this thread. Ouch. That said, I cobbled together a fix for my own uses because I was only running into this issue at the end of the night when turning off monitors. Application: http://www.i-py.com/sleepmon/v1/SleepMon.exe Source: http://www.i-py.com/sleepmon/v1/SleepMon.csproj ABOUT: All this application does is live in the background, and listen for a specific key combo, and then forces your monitors to sleep immediately. To use: Place the program in your startup directory if you want it to automatically run. To force your monitors to sleep press CTRL + ~ (the ` above the tab key). Pressing these two keys will force your monitor to sleep. Notes: Only tested in Windows 7. Requires .NET 3.5 Please let me know if this helps anyone, or if any changes/features are needed that could help someone else. edit: http://www.i-py.com/sleepmon/v1.1/SleepMon.exe - this change simply locks the workstation when triggered, as I realized some may prefer to lock the computer as well. www.i-py.com - Blogging about various Powershell / AD happenings

COOL - Just what I was looking for. My situation was a PC with a 2-way VGA splitter for a LifeSize Room 220 video conferencing solution. One VGA input went into the LifeSize unit so you can share out the desktop, the other VGA went direct to the 46" LG TV in case you just wanted to use the PC without the video conference system (as it looks much better then when piped through the LifeSize system.) The problem was that it kept detecting the LG TV as the monitor and for some reason the LifeSize system didn't like this and would scrunch up the display plus remote users only saw a black screen. If you booted the PC with the TV off, then the PC showed "Room 220" and all was good. Looked good through LifeSize and looked good via the RGB input of the TV. But this system will be used by many people and I didn't want some funky bootup order, I needed it fool proof. I pull out pin 12 of the VGA cable going from the VGA splitter to the TV and now life is good!! It now only detects "Room 220" as the monitor (I left that monitor cable alone so it would detect that). Thanks for the tip!!!! Made my day!

The only solution I found was to short the hot plug detect wire on the hdmi cable to the 5v wire at the pc end. On my cable the hot detect wire is purple and the 5v is red, neither one are in the pair shielding so don't cut into those. I disconnected the purple wire on the end of the cable that hooks in to the TV or receiver since I didn't want to send 5v back up the line. You may want to buy a cheap hdmi cable to try it on before hand. This beats buying a edid emulator box. Anyway the end result is I can turn off my receiver/tv and my htpc never sees it so I don't get any annoying error messages in media center nor any random blue screens from the resizing during hd video playback.

I have a 27" screen on an eyefinity card which only has 6 mini display ports in this kb article http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2625567 ms basically offers two workarounds "don't use display port" and "don't turn off the screen" this is borderline mockery I have no dual link display port dvi dongle so i need to use display port (to reach the native resolution of the screen) and I connect to the pc via teamviewer...which would turn it on all the time when I just let it go to sleep this windows behavior makes display port unusable and I will have to return the eyefinity card because of it the most ridiculess thing is that the change in resolution or whatever windows is doing occurs only when you turn the screen on again! and it will move around all windows on all screens (which are turned on all the time) so it it can not in any way be "sold" as a feature (it is just a bug) why on earth would you change something on one monitor when ANOTHER one is turned off and on to top it all of there are apps which are invisible completly after windows does its pointless shuffling...and all apps behave somehow different

I've got the same problem. I only got one screen(My TV) and it runs at 1080p over HDMI. When I turn off my TV, the HDMI connection is removed and windows thinks theres no monitor/screen connected. Therefor windows reverts to a failsafe resolution, and that failsafe resolution can only be adjusted to a max of 1600*1200(As far as I can remember, default is 1024*768). Based on others suggestions in this thread, I'm trying a dual HDMI cable setup in clone mode: PC HDMI out > HDMI Surround receiver > HDMI TV. (This is my main connection, as this gives me 5.1 uncompressed sound) PC DVI out > DVI > HDMI > HDMI TV. (This one is for keeping the connection open. I'm using a DVI to HDMI converter) So far so good... My main connection is still removed after I turn my TV off, but my backup connection is still detected and therefor my resolution is kept the same. The best workaround would be to have a virtual monitor set at 1080p, but I haven't found such a driver yet.

Ok guys, maybe not the final solution, but it worked for me. It is about the PCI Express Energy saving mode. If I turn it off, all the switching on and off things go away. (Win7 64 Ultimate, Nvidia chipset - GT 430) - an old VGA monitor and HDMI full hd tv as extension. I try to write a step by step method, but I have Hungarian language on my machine so I don't know the real English menu names. Let's see it: 1. Control panel 2. Energy saving things 3. Energy schema window->Edit scheme settings (a blue link on my machine) Next to the actual settings mode 4. You can see a window where you can set up the monitor autiomatic turn on and off. Here is a link Special energy settings thing... 5. A new window comes up, where you can see all the devices, such as USB, HDD and so on. 6. Find the PCI Express device, and turn the energy savings off It prevents to turn the monitors automatically on and off - at least on my machine. I hope it helps

I am also VEXED by this problem. I have a touchscreen PC with Intel integrated graphics system. The system displays my automation system on the touchscreen display, and the HDMI port is connected to my AV Receiver which connects to my LCD TV. I want to play movies on my TV, but whenever the TV turns off, my movie player application is pushed back to my touchscreen where it gets lost behind my automation screen. What is worse, whenever the CableBox interrogates the TV, my touchscreen beeps and flashes. It is very annoying. I tried J CH and brianmartin192's solution of taping pin 19 on my HDMI connector, but when the tape is on, the touchscreen won't recognize the TV at all. I tried re-booting the touchscreen, and the tv and the receiver in various orders, but it never sees the TV when Pin 19 is disabled. I would be very happy if microsoft or intel would fix this problem. Arghhh. I could disable Plug-And-Play (I never change the devices on this system), but I don't think that would help. Maybe I'll install Windows XP to get back to the desired behavior. Arghhhh -- Bob

Hi This behavior is by design and I don't think there is a way to override this functionality except to make sure that both monitors are turned on when you start the system. As described in the article that you posted the link to, if a second monitor is not detected, everything will be displayed on the available monitor. Hope this helps. Thank You for using Windows 7 Ronnie Vernon MVP Hi Is there any chance Microsoft are going to change this? I have a wireless secondary monitor if it goes out of range it does the same thing. Surely there should be a flag when the secondary monitor is shut off to give you the option wether or not you want the windows moved or not??? I like Windows 7 a lot but this real bad design. I use Visual Studio also a great product, but configuring the Window placements again and again and again is annoying.

Look here first for the solution!!! This is by far the best resolution to any thing out there. I spent hours making modifications to regedit, display drivers, downloading programs that would 'restore' the desktop. Found the electrical tape solution and it took me more time to find the tape then to apply the 'fix'. I cut a little extra long piece with an exacto knife, (carpenter knife would work) because i was a little worried about having it get stuck in my equipment. Props to J CH for the image.

Being frustrated by this same issue but only using a single monitor. Every time I turn off my displayport connected 27" monitor it seems like it changes the resolution from 2650x1440 down to something like 800x600 which shoves all my open windows into the upper left corner and resizes them. Super annoying to have to resize my browser and other windows every time I turn off the monitor. I would try disabling the detection pin if I knew which one it was but the displayport one was not mentioned in the other posts and those pins are pretty small to try to tape over like the hdmi one. Interestingly it does not move my icons or open gadgets just resizes my windows even if they are minimized. Sigh.

Not entirely Windows 7 problem, but drivers as well. I do not have such an issue using NVIDIA, yet it arises using INTEL graphics. Bought an extendion cable and tried the pin 12 rip out, but the issue persisted. My temporary fix is to have Intel graphics drivers disabled in Device Manager, then after reboot choose the preferred resolution for Default Monitor. This way, KVM switching does not mess up my chosen resolution. Still looking for a proper fix, whereby I can use Intel drivers rather than generic, and KVM switching does not pose a problem.

brianmartin192, thank you very much! I must say I find this to be a very slick solution. As all the rest I am quite disappointed with the multi monitor support in Windows. But, with this simple hack I am able to switch my TV from HDMI to cable, turn it off, back on etc and still keep XBMC running smoothly on my secondary display while using the primary as a normal PC. I humbly suggest a minor modification: I used a very thin piece of electrical tape to block pin 19 directly in the HDMI cable and then gently plugged it in. It worked beautifully and I imagine more people would be willing to try this than cutting through the cable. I am trying to post a picture, not sure if it'll stick: [img]http://s4.postimage.org/gmog0m7kf/HDMI_Blocked_Pin_19.jpg[/img] (http://postimage.org/image/2g8p5dwdg/) If the picture isn't there, pin 19 is on the top right when looking at the HDMI male plug. Look for the pinout in wikipedia and notice that it is the female plug there, so you need to flip horizontally for the male one. Thanks again! This is almost unbelievable. Is was cursing this feature for ages. It's indeed resolved completely just by hiding this pin. Terrific!!

brianmartin192, thank you very much! I must say I find this to be a very slick solution. As all the rest I am quite disappointed with the multi monitor support in Windows. But, with this simple hack I am able to switch my TV from HDMI to cable, turn it off, back on etc and still keep XBMC running smoothly on my secondary display while using the primary as a normal PC. I humbly suggest a minor modification: I used a very thin piece of electrical tape to block pin 19 directly in the HDMI cable and then gently plugged it in. It worked beautifully and I imagine more people would be willing to try this than cutting through the cable. I am trying to post a picture, not sure if it'll stick: [img]http://s4.postimage.org/gmog0m7kf/HDMI_Blocked_Pin_19.jpg[/img] (http://postimage.org/image/2g8p5dwdg/) If the picture isn't there, pin 19 is on the top right when looking at the HDMI male plug. Look for the pinout in wikipedia and notice that it is the female plug there, so you need to flip horizontally for the male one. Thanks again! This is almost unbelievable. Is was cursing this feature for ages. It's indeed resolved completely just by hiding this pin. Terrific!!

brianmartin192, thank you very much! I must say I find this to be a very slick solution. As all the rest I am quite disappointed with the multi monitor support in Windows. But, with this simple hack I am able to switch my TV from HDMI to cable, turn it off, back on etc and still keep XBMC running smoothly on my secondary display while using the primary as a normal PC. I humbly suggest a minor modification: I used a very thin piece of electrical tape to block pin 19 directly in the HDMI cable and then gently plugged it in. It worked beautifully and I imagine more people would be willing to try this than cutting through the cable. I am trying to post a picture, not sure if it'll stick: [img]http://s4.postimage.org/gmog0m7kf/HDMI_Blocked_Pin_19.jpg[/img] (http://postimage.org/image/2g8p5dwdg/) If the picture isn't there, pin 19 is on the top right when looking at the HDMI male plug. Look for the pinout in wikipedia and notice that it is the female plug there, so you need to flip horizontally for the male one. Thanks again! This is almost unbelievable. Is was cursing this feature for ages. It's indeed resolved completely just by hiding this pin. Terrific!!

wow, nice thread. I will add my problem and my solution. I'm using an 5870 ATI graphics card with latest Catalyst driver. At first I had this constellation; anything working great - even without windows readjusting the screens switching on/off the tv. PC > HDMI > Sony HD TV \> DVI > pc monitor After I bought a a/v receiver I had the problems discussed in this thread: PC > HDMI > a/v receiver > HDMI > Sony HD TV \> DVI > pc monitor I could manage to negate the problems to the point that the hdmi cable was active and working while the tv was out. But windows kept recognizing both monitors switching on/off the tv. (For those you are interested in getting to this stage: Turn everything off, disconnect the tv, start the pc; set up your monitor in catalyst with the correct settings, make sure auto detect for displays is disabled in the catalyst settings, audio via hdmi should now work, this should persist even if you switch the tv on and off again but the readjustment time) After a little research I found this lonely sad thread about this problem. I don't like to fuss around with this cables, so I came to this conclusion: Windows wasn't readjusting the monitor settings while the tv had a direct connection to the pc. My a/v receiver had no other option I could try. So what happens if I have the tv connected to the pc and to the a/v receive at the same time! After a few research about some splitting methods for hdmi I found this promising little box: http://www.amazon.com/splitter-ports-swither-XBOX360-Blu-ray/dp/B003UYOEMI http://www.amazon.de/KanaaN-Splitter-Generation-Verteiler-Y-Adapter/dp/B003U0M3BQ Because of the cheap prize I just tried it and it worked like a charm. Windows does not recognize any change in my monitor setup if I switch the tv on or off. Also hdmi streaming to my receiver is on while the tv is off. My constellation now looks like this: PC > HDMI > Splitter > HDMI > a/v receiver > HDMI > Sony HD TV \ \> -----------HDMI-------------/ \> DVI > pc monitor SINCE I GOT NO TEXT FORMATTING WHATSOEVER WORKING: >>> http://codepaste.net/wc7b7k <<<

I have been using an ATEN CS1734B 4 port KVM switch to share a monitor, keyboard and mouse between Linux and Windows systems. I tired of Windows 7 problems but am somewhat disinclined to pull pins out of monitor cables. I've ditched one Windows 7 system in favour of Linux but I need to keep the other for the forseeable future. Can anyone recommend a KVM switch that works with Windows 7 and which can permit sharing of USB devices (webcam, printer, scanner) and audio devices (speakers and microphone)?

I have been using an ATEN CS1734B 4 port KVM switch to share a monitor, keyboard and mouse between Linux and Windows systems. I tired of Windows 7 problems but am somewhat disinclined to pull pins out of monitor cables. I've ditched one Windows 7 system in favour of Linux but I need to keep the other for the forseeable future. Can anyone recommend a KVM switch that works with Windows 7 and which can permit sharing of USB devices (webcam, printer, scanner) and audio devices (speakers and microphone)?

I have been using an ATEN CS1734B 4 port KVM switch to share a monitor, keyboard and mouse between Linux and Windows systems. I tired of Windows 7 problems but am somewhat disinclined to pull pins out of monitor cables. I've ditched one Windows 7 system in favour of Linux but I need to keep the other for the forseeable future. Can anyone recommend a KVM switch that works with Windows 7 and which can permit sharing of USB devices (webcam, printer, scanner) and audio devices (speakers and microphone)?

For the sake of completeness, and since everyone with this problem will end up here from Google. I had this problem until I got a new TV, which is to say with two Sharp AQUOS TVs using an HDMI splitter I had the problem but it is now resolved by swapping out one of the TVs. So it works with Windows 7 using: Monorprice HDMI Splitter Samsung UN55D6000 Sharp AQUOS LC-37GP1U I realize no one else is likely to have the exact same setup, but perhaps its helpful to know that certain setups do not suffer this problem.

For the sake of completeness, and since everyone with this problem will end up here from Google. I had this problem until I got a new TV, which is to say with two Sharp AQUOS TVs using an HDMI splitter I had the problem but it is now resolved by swapping out one of the TVs. So it works with Windows 7 using: Monorprice HDMI Splitter Samsung UN55D6000 Sharp AQUOS LC-37GP1U I realize no one else is likely to have the exact same setup, but perhaps its helpful to know that certain setups do not suffer this problem.

For the sake of completeness, and since everyone with this problem will end up here from Google. I had this problem until I got a new TV, which is to say with two Sharp AQUOS TVs using an HDMI splitter I had the problem but it is now resolved by swapping out one of the TVs. So it works with Windows 7 using: Monorprice HDMI Splitter Samsung UN55D6000 Sharp AQUOS LC-37GP1U I realize no one else is likely to have the exact same setup, but perhaps its helpful to know that certain setups do not suffer this problem.

my problem is that i remote to my machine while the screen is supposed to be off (while i am not home) would it be possible to only reactivate the screen with a specific action (another key combination) and not with all kinds of activity?

my problem is that i remote to my machine while the screen is supposed to be off (while i am not home) would it be possible to only reactivate the screen with a specific action (another key combination) and not with all kinds of activity?

my problem is that i remote to my machine while the screen is supposed to be off (while i am not home) would it be possible to only reactivate the screen with a specific action (another key combination) and not with all kinds of activity?

Thanks everybody, the "tape your hdmi-connector or slash your cable" -fix worked miracles for me. My problem was that ATI HDMI sound output was turned off whenever my lcd projector was off, even if my AV receiver between them was on.

Thanks everybody, the "tape your hdmi-connector or slash your cable" -fix worked miracles for me. My problem was that ATI HDMI sound output was turned off whenever my lcd projector was off, even if my AV receiver between them was on.

Thanks everybody, the "tape your hdmi-connector or slash your cable" -fix worked miracles for me. My problem was that ATI HDMI sound output was turned off whenever my lcd projector was off, even if my AV receiver between them was on.

Ahh, add one more to the list. 3 Monitors, 2 connected via DVI on an ATI 5850. 1 on the Onboard VGA. Sick and tired of seeing the VGA monitor 1, moved to position 3, so 2, 3, 1 instead of 1,2,3 and thus skewing my setup, flicking icons all over. Do not agree we should be hacking up our own cables, or purchasing cables to hack up just to remedy this. BUT do not expect an answer all ye faithful - they care not for anyone now, look at Windows 8. Just go check it on youtube. You think they give a crap about your pesky monitor problems? Well unless it's a touch screen monitor, they wont anymore. I'm just going to go to Ubuntu, and go without the 1 or 2 applications I felt I needed to stick with this atrocious OS. Microsoft, you're on the way out - your complete disregard for users, your complete lack of respect for your customer base, and your obvious direction to the kids tablet market complete with pathetic useless swipey games and an APP MARKET, will see you fall very hard against those markets already with a strong foothold in that genre. Can't happen too soon if you ask me, I just feel sorry for the peons in your employ who are told what to do even if they should not agree with it, they will see the unemployment line long before the fat cats pushing for all this rubbish do. bah, M$. Bah humbug,

Ahh, add one more to the list. 3 Monitors, 2 connected via DVI on an ATI 5850. 1 on the Onboard VGA. Sick and tired of seeing the VGA monitor 1, moved to position 3, so 2, 3, 1 instead of 1,2,3 and thus skewing my setup, flicking icons all over. Do not agree we should be hacking up our own cables, or purchasing cables to hack up just to remedy this. BUT do not expect an answer all ye faithful - they care not for anyone now, look at Windows 8. Just go check it on youtube. You think they give a crap about your pesky monitor problems? Well unless it's a touch screen monitor, they wont anymore. I'm just going to go to Ubuntu, and go without the 1 or 2 applications I felt I needed to stick with this atrocious OS. Microsoft, you're on the way out - your complete disregard for users, your complete lack of respect for your customer base, and your obvious direction to the kids tablet market complete with pathetic useless swipey games and an APP MARKET, will see you fall very hard against those markets already with a strong foothold in that genre. Can't happen too soon if you ask me, I just feel sorry for the peons in your employ who are told what to do even if they should not agree with it, they will see the unemployment line long before the fat cats pushing for all this rubbish do. bah, M$. Bah humbug,

Ahh, add one more to the list. 3 Monitors, 2 connected via DVI on an ATI 5850. 1 on the Onboard VGA. Sick and tired of seeing the VGA monitor 1, moved to position 3, so 2, 3, 1 instead of 1,2,3 and thus skewing my setup, flicking icons all over. Do not agree we should be hacking up our own cables, or purchasing cables to hack up just to remedy this. BUT do not expect an answer all ye faithful - they care not for anyone now, look at Windows 8. Just go check it on youtube. You think they give a crap about your pesky monitor problems? Well unless it's a touch screen monitor, they wont anymore. I'm just going to go to Ubuntu, and go without the 1 or 2 applications I felt I needed to stick with this atrocious OS. Microsoft, you're on the way out - your complete disregard for users, your complete lack of respect for your customer base, and your obvious direction to the kids tablet market complete with pathetic useless swipey games and an APP MARKET, will see you fall very hard against those markets already with a strong foothold in that genre. Can't happen too soon if you ask me, I just feel sorry for the peons in your employ who are told what to do even if they should not agree with it, they will see the unemployment line long before the fat cats pushing for all this rubbish do. bah, M$. Bah humbug,

VERY EASY SOLUTION: 1. open device manager 2. in "System devices" find "ACPI lid" 3. Open "ACPI lid" properties, and go to "Driver" tab. 4. Select "Update driver" 5. Choose "Browse my computer for driver software" and "Let me pick.." uncheck "Show compatible hardware" 6. And now...in "Manufacturer" select "(Standard system devices)" and model: "Volume manager" (yes, "Volume manager") 7. next, next, restart the system and it works! ON WINDOWS 7 x64 ( Post Found: http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1421975 )

A bit expensive, but it also helps: Gefen HDMI Detective plus. http://www.gefen.com/kvm/dproduct.jsp?prod_id=8005

A bit expensive, but it also helps: Gefen HDMI Detective plus. http://www.gefen.com/kvm/dproduct.jsp?prod_id=8005

A bit expensive, but it also helps: Gefen HDMI Detective plus. http://www.gefen.com/kvm/dproduct.jsp?prod_id=8005

VERY EASY SOLUTION: 1. open device manager 2. in "System devices" find "ACPI lid" 3. Open "ACPI lid" properties, and go to "Driver" tab. 4. Select "Update driver" 5. Choose "Browse my computer for driver software" and "Let me pick.." uncheck "Show compatible hardware" 6. And now...in "Manufacturer" select "(Standard system devices)" and model: "Volume manager" (yes, "Volume manager") 7. next, next, restart the system and it works! ON WINDOWS 7 x64 ( Post Found: http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1421975 ) Anyway to apply this with just two monitors on desk computer? I don't have a laptop.

VERY EASY SOLUTION: 1. open device manager 2. in "System devices" find "ACPI lid" 3. Open "ACPI lid" properties, and go to "Driver" tab. 4. Select "Update driver" 5. Choose "Browse my computer for driver software" and "Let me pick.." uncheck "Show compatible hardware" 6. And now...in "Manufacturer" select "(Standard system devices)" and model: "Volume manager" (yes, "Volume manager") 7. next, next, restart the system and it works! ON WINDOWS 7 x64 ( Post Found: http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1421975 ) Anyway to apply this with just two monitors on desk computer? I don't have a laptop.

VERY EASY SOLUTION: 1. open device manager 2. in "System devices" find "ACPI lid" 3. Open "ACPI lid" properties, and go to "Driver" tab. 4. Select "Update driver" 5. Choose "Browse my computer for driver software" and "Let me pick.." uncheck "Show compatible hardware" 6. And now...in "Manufacturer" select "(Standard system devices)" and model: "Volume manager" (yes, "Volume manager") 7. next, next, restart the system and it works! ON WINDOWS 7 x64 ( Post Found: http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1421975 ) Anyway to apply this with just two monitors on desk computer? I don't have a laptop.

What worked for me is pretty simple. Unsuccessfully was trying to block hdmi pin 19, windows just removed my LG 47LW6500 from available monitors after I removed hdmi from pc and didn't bring it back. So my fix is: disable monitors in the device manager. I have 2 monitors: TV and build-in into Silverstone computer case. Now I can turn off receiver Onkyo RC360, switch inputs on TV, etc, without loosing main display and applications on it, which is the TV. My explanation is that since they are disabled, windows, btw it's Vista, can't do much about them. Enjoy! (I did mess up with power settings, but that should not affect the result, to tired to put everything back right now)

All, Came across this discussion and may have a solution for AMD users. Be sure that "alternate DVI operational mode" is UNCHECKED in Catalyst. It's located in My Digital Flat Panels / Properties (Digital Flat Panel). I used to be able to turn off my TV and keep HDMI audio running through the receiver. One day it mysteriously stopped working, and I chased it down to this setting. Once you uncheck this mode and turn off the TV, Catalyst will prompt you with a warning about how the connection has now become a "DVI" connection instead of HDMI, but it is this changeover that keeps Windows from treating the display as unplugged and completely disabling the connection. It seems almost like a bug in the AMD driver, but it's a fortunate one that gets around this lovely "feature." Hope this is helpful, at least for the AMD guys.

All, Came across this discussion and may have a solution for AMD users. Be sure that "alternate DVI operational mode" is UNCHECKED in Catalyst. It's located in My Digital Flat Panels / Properties (Digital Flat Panel). I used to be able to turn off my TV and keep HDMI audio running through the receiver. One day it mysteriously stopped working, and I chased it down to this setting. Once you uncheck this mode and turn off the TV, Catalyst will prompt you with a warning about how the connection has now become a "DVI" connection instead of HDMI, but it is this changeover that keeps Windows from treating the display as unplugged and completely disabling the connection. It seems almost like a bug in the AMD driver, but it's a fortunate one that gets around this lovely "feature." Hope this is helpful, at least for the AMD guys.

All, Came across this discussion and may have a solution for AMD users. Be sure that "alternate DVI operational mode" is UNCHECKED in Catalyst. It's located in My Digital Flat Panels / Properties (Digital Flat Panel). I used to be able to turn off my TV and keep HDMI audio running through the receiver. One day it mysteriously stopped working, and I chased it down to this setting. Once you uncheck this mode and turn off the TV, Catalyst will prompt you with a warning about how the connection has now become a "DVI" connection instead of HDMI, but it is this changeover that keeps Windows from treating the display as unplugged and completely disabling the connection. It seems almost like a bug in the AMD driver, but it's a fortunate one that gets around this lovely "feature." Hope this is helpful, at least for the AMD guys.

Microsoft's position on this issue seems to be that since the graphics driver controls the hardware, it needs to decide wether to auto-detect the status of the HDMI port or not. Some driver writers have provided this option. I talked to Intel Support, and they do not currently provide this option for their graphics drivers. They said they might send my request to the development team. Seems like we are stuck with this problem. I wonder if Windows 8 will change the situation at all. --Bob

Microsoft's position on this issue seems to be that since the graphics driver controls the hardware, it needs to decide wether to auto-detect the status of the HDMI port or not. Some driver writers have provided this option. I talked to Intel Support, and they do not currently provide this option for their graphics drivers. They said they might send my request to the development team. Seems like we are stuck with this problem. I wonder if Windows 8 will change the situation at all. --Bob

Microsoft's position on this issue seems to be that since the graphics driver controls the hardware, it needs to decide wether to auto-detect the status of the HDMI port or not. Some driver writers have provided this option. I talked to Intel Support, and they do not currently provide this option for their graphics drivers. They said they might send my request to the development team. Seems like we are stuck with this problem. I wonder if Windows 8 will change the situation at all. --Bob

Hi, not sure if you have already resolved the problem. This is a work-around not a solution, but it resolved my problem, maybe it will be helpful for you - In the Display settings, I changed which monitor is considered my "main" monitor, that fixed some of the issues, then when I use the projector I Fn-7 to bring up the monitors and change from "Expanded" to "Duplicate" which gives me the same picture (movie) on both of the monitors and the projector. The only annoying feature I am left with is that when I turn off the projector and revert back to Extend view from Duplicate, it leaves the resolution on my 2nd monitor dropped down (my projector is old) and I have to manually bump my resolution back up. Hope that helps.

Hi, not sure if you have already resolved the problem. This is a work-around not a solution, but it resolved my problem, maybe it will be helpful for you - In the Display settings, I changed which monitor is considered my "main" monitor, that fixed some of the issues, then when I use the projector I Fn-7 to bring up the monitors and change from "Expanded" to "Duplicate" which gives me the same picture (movie) on both of the monitors and the projector. The only annoying feature I am left with is that when I turn off the projector and revert back to Extend view from Duplicate, it leaves the resolution on my 2nd monitor dropped down (my projector is old) and I have to manually bump my resolution back up. Hope that helps.

Hi, not sure if you have already resolved the problem. This is a work-around not a solution, but it resolved my problem, maybe it will be helpful for you - In the Display settings, I changed which monitor is considered my "main" monitor, that fixed some of the issues, then when I use the projector I Fn-7 to bring up the monitors and change from "Expanded" to "Duplicate" which gives me the same picture (movie) on both of the monitors and the projector. The only annoying feature I am left with is that when I turn off the projector and revert back to Extend view from Duplicate, it leaves the resolution on my 2nd monitor dropped down (my projector is old) and I have to manually bump my resolution back up. Hope that helps.

I thought this would work, but it prevented the machine from outputting on HDMI at all. Solution (to stop rescaling to 800x600) was to use VNC to adjust the display settings with the TV off. Ive changed that default VGA resolution to 1920x1080, and when I switch the monitor on and off the VNC window no-longer rescales either.

I thought this would work, but it prevented the machine from outputting on HDMI at all. Solution (to stop rescaling to 800x600) was to use VNC to adjust the display settings with the TV off. Ive changed that default VGA resolution to 1920x1080, and when I switch the monitor on and off the VNC window no-longer rescales either.

I thought this would work, but it prevented the machine from outputting on HDMI at all. Solution (to stop rescaling to 800x600) was to use VNC to adjust the display settings with the TV off. Ive changed that default VGA resolution to 1920x1080, and when I switch the monitor on and off the VNC window no-longer rescales either.

THE TAPE TRICK WORKED FOR ME!! Solution: Block HDMI pin 19 with a thin strip of electrical tape! --- Anyone from the future reading this, please note, the pictures Ryan B. _ posted are wrong, he's actually blocking HDMI pin 1! Google "HDMI pins" and you'll find that the hot swap pin is actually the top leftmost pin! It worked for me when I put tape on that pin all the way inside the HDMI female connector. I'm using a mini-HDMI-to-HDMI adapter (my GTX570 has a mini-HDMI output). --- I already messed up a DVI-to-HDMI adapter by breaking off pin 16 (the hotplug adapter), that DID NOT WORK! If you don't want to waste a $30 nVidia adapter like I did, just go with the tape trick. It's really, really unfortunate that Windows forces us to rely on the graphics card manufacturer and does not provide us with an override for this. Shame on you Microsoft!

I have tested this on a NVIDIA Quadro card, I am not sure if it will work for consumer cards, Open the NVIDIA control panel, under workstation pick "view system topology" Hi-light your display port or hdmi port and pick Manage EDID Pick export EDID and save the text file to the desktop, "EDID.txt", Again, pick Manage EDID, this time click Load EDID, and load the text file that you just saved, "EDID.txt". This will force the connection and turn off the auto-detection feature on that port. Repeat this process for any other ports you want to force. This worked great for me. I am running an Nvidia Quadro FX 350.

I have tested this on a NVIDIA Quadro card, I am not sure if it will work for consumer cards, Open the NVIDIA control panel, under workstation pick "view system topology" Hi-light your display port or hdmi port and pick Manage EDID Pick export EDID and save the text file to the desktop, "EDID.txt", Again, pick Manage EDID, this time click Load EDID, and load the text file that you just saved, "EDID.txt". This will force the connection and turn off the auto-detection feature on that port. Repeat this process for any other ports you want to force. This worked great for me. I am running an Nvidia Quadro FX 350.

I have tested this on a NVIDIA Quadro card, I am not sure if it will work for consumer cards, Open the NVIDIA control panel, under workstation pick "view system topology" Hi-light your display port or hdmi port and pick Manage EDID Pick export EDID and save the text file to the desktop, "EDID.txt", Again, pick Manage EDID, this time click Load EDID, and load the text file that you just saved, "EDID.txt". This will force the connection and turn off the auto-detection feature on that port. Repeat this process for any other ports you want to force. This worked great for me. I am running an Nvidia Quadro FX 350.

I have the final solution to this problem. You won't like it though. You have to open your window and toss the disk for windows out and swear to never use it again. C'mon someone, anyone and get us an user-friendly alternative to the bucket of scum that is every version of Windows ever made. I had all of these output to TV/Monitor problems and more with my last laptop (hp dv6000, Windows Vista 32 bit). Took me about a month to get it working right eventually - by reinstalling Windows! My current laptop, MSI fx 600 Win 7 Home Premium 64, had an insoluble windows registry problem two weeks ago (another 'FEATURE' of windows) so I had to completely wipe the hard drive and reinstall. Took the opportunity to install a newer faster HD. Got it all going great. 2 days ago it just decided it wouldn't output through HDMI to my TV (nothing only the usual churning HD caused by yet another Windows bug) There was no activity on my part that may have caused this. I've been looking into this, trying every conceivable solution and researching online for 2 days now. It appears the only solution for my particular problem is to do another complete reinstall of Windows - yet another day I have to spend reinstalling all the software I need to do my job. Windows is a hopelessly failed product in countless ways. Microsoft staff will not give an answer because, like almost all operating problems with Windows of any version, there is no solution because it was not produced by competent people in the first place. I would like to collect all of the 'features' incorporated into Windows place them into a big bag and shove said bag up the posterior of Microsoft. I cannot find the time to do this however as every minute I live after pressing the power button on my computer involves trying to get Windows 'FEATURES' working. Goddamn you Microsoft and your Windows garbage.

I have the final solution to this problem. You won't like it though. You have to open your window and toss the disk for windows out and swear to never use it again. C'mon someone, anyone and get us an user-friendly alternative to the bucket of scum that is every version of Windows ever made. I had all of these output to TV/Monitor problems and more with my last laptop (hp dv6000, Windows Vista 32 bit). Took me about a month to get it working right eventually - by reinstalling Windows! My current laptop, MSI fx 600 Win 7 Home Premium 64, had an insoluble windows registry problem two weeks ago (another 'FEATURE' of windows) so I had to completely wipe the hard drive and reinstall. Took the opportunity to install a newer faster HD. Got it all going great. 2 days ago it just decided it wouldn't output through HDMI to my TV (nothing only the usual churning HD caused by yet another Windows bug) There was no activity on my part that may have caused this. I've been looking into this, trying every conceivable solution and researching online for 2 days now. It appears the only solution for my particular problem is to do another complete reinstall of Windows - yet another day I have to spend reinstalling all the software I need to do my job. Windows is a hopelessly failed product in countless ways. Microsoft staff will not give an answer because, like almost all operating problems with Windows of any version, there is no solution because it was not produced by competent people in the first place. I would like to collect all of the 'features' incorporated into Windows place them into a big bag and shove said bag up the posterior of Microsoft. I cannot find the time to do this however as every minute I live after pressing the power button on my computer involves trying to get Windows 'FEATURES' working. Goddamn you Microsoft and your Windows garbage.

I have the final solution to this problem. You won't like it though. You have to open your window and toss the disk for windows out and swear to never use it again. C'mon someone, anyone and get us an user-friendly alternative to the bucket of scum that is every version of Windows ever made. I had all of these output to TV/Monitor problems and more with my last laptop (hp dv6000, Windows Vista 32 bit). Took me about a month to get it working right eventually - by reinstalling Windows! My current laptop, MSI fx 600 Win 7 Home Premium 64, had an insoluble windows registry problem two weeks ago (another 'FEATURE' of windows) so I had to completely wipe the hard drive and reinstall. Took the opportunity to install a newer faster HD. Got it all going great. 2 days ago it just decided it wouldn't output through HDMI to my TV (nothing only the usual churning HD caused by yet another Windows bug) There was no activity on my part that may have caused this. I've been looking into this, trying every conceivable solution and researching online for 2 days now. It appears the only solution for my particular problem is to do another complete reinstall of Windows - yet another day I have to spend reinstalling all the software I need to do my job. Windows is a hopelessly failed product in countless ways. Microsoft staff will not give an answer because, like almost all operating problems with Windows of any version, there is no solution because it was not produced by competent people in the first place. I would like to collect all of the 'features' incorporated into Windows place them into a big bag and shove said bag up the posterior of Microsoft. I cannot find the time to do this however as every minute I live after pressing the power button on my computer involves trying to get Windows 'FEATURES' working. Goddamn you Microsoft and your Windows garbage.

THE TAPE TRICK WORKED FOR ME!! Solution: Block HDMI pin 19 with a thin strip of electrical tape! --- Anyone from the future reading this, please note, the pictures Ryan B. _ posted are wrong, he's actually blocking HDMI pin 1! Google "HDMI pins" and you'll find that the hot swap pin is actually the top leftmost pin! It worked for me when I put tape on that pin all the way inside the HDMI female connector. I'm using a mini-HDMI-to-HDMI adapter (my GTX570 has a mini-HDMI output). --- I already messed up a DVI-to-HDMI adapter by breaking off pin 16 (the hotplug adapter), that DID NOT WORK! If you don't want to waste a $30 nVidia adapter like I did, just go with the tape trick. It's really, really unfortunate that Windows forces us to rely on the graphics card manufacturer and does not provide us with an override for this. Shame on you Microsoft! This worked perfectly for me. I'm running a signal through an av receiver to my tv.Computer always recognize the tv is plugged in when the tv is on or off.

THE TAPE TRICK WORKED FOR ME!! Solution: Block HDMI pin 19 with a thin strip of electrical tape! --- Anyone from the future reading this, please note, the pictures Ryan B. _ posted are wrong, he's actually blocking HDMI pin 1! Google "HDMI pins" and you'll find that the hot swap pin is actually the top leftmost pin! It worked for me when I put tape on that pin all the way inside the HDMI female connector. I'm using a mini-HDMI-to-HDMI adapter (my GTX570 has a mini-HDMI output). --- I already messed up a DVI-to-HDMI adapter by breaking off pin 16 (the hotplug adapter), that DID NOT WORK! If you don't want to waste a $30 nVidia adapter like I did, just go with the tape trick. It's really, really unfortunate that Windows forces us to rely on the graphics card manufacturer and does not provide us with an override for this. Shame on you Microsoft! This worked perfectly for me. I'm running a signal through an av receiver to my tv.Computer always recognize the tv is plugged in when the tv is on or off.

THE TAPE TRICK WORKED FOR ME!! Solution: Block HDMI pin 19 with a thin strip of electrical tape! --- Anyone from the future reading this, please note, the pictures Ryan B. _ posted are wrong, he's actually blocking HDMI pin 1! Google "HDMI pins" and you'll find that the hot swap pin is actually the top leftmost pin! It worked for me when I put tape on that pin all the way inside the HDMI female connector. I'm using a mini-HDMI-to-HDMI adapter (my GTX570 has a mini-HDMI output). --- I already messed up a DVI-to-HDMI adapter by breaking off pin 16 (the hotplug adapter), that DID NOT WORK! If you don't want to waste a $30 nVidia adapter like I did, just go with the tape trick. It's really, really unfortunate that Windows forces us to rely on the graphics card manufacturer and does not provide us with an override for this. Shame on you Microsoft! This worked perfectly for me. I'm running a signal through an av receiver to my tv.Computer always recognize the tv is plugged in when the tv is on or off.

RyanB's original picture of which pin to block is completely correct! Please ignore yampyankee's post where he tries to show that RyanB was actually blocking Pin 1. To Yampyyankee: you are getting confused with the male and female parts!. RyanB was showing the male end, and he is correct. Also, if you went to the wiki article on HDMI, you will see that they provide the pin locations for a FEMALE aka "receptacle" and perhaps that was your source of confusion. An HDMI cable only has male ends.

Removing pin 12 from a $5 vga male-female adapter worked well for me. The whole process - from removing the pin to detecting and testing my KVM setup - took 5 or so minutes. The pin comes out really easy (I used scissors) and I just attached the adapter to the output of my KVM that leads to my Win 7 Enterprise laptop. No more shifting and shuffling displays! Why make us go through such minor annoyances Microsoft?!

Removing pin 12 from a $5 vga male-female adapter worked well for me. The whole process - from removing the pin to detecting and testing my KVM setup - took 5 or so minutes. The pin comes out really easy (I used scissors) and I just attached the adapter to the output of my KVM that leads to my Win 7 Enterprise laptop. No more shifting and shuffling displays! Why make us go through such minor annoyances Microsoft?!

Removing pin 12 from a $5 vga male-female adapter worked well for me. The whole process - from removing the pin to detecting and testing my KVM setup - took 5 or so minutes. The pin comes out really easy (I used scissors) and I just attached the adapter to the output of my KVM that leads to my Win 7 Enterprise laptop. No more shifting and shuffling displays! Why make us go through such minor annoyances Microsoft?!

2 years waiting for a response from MS. The only solution provided by them is "change the hardware" when the real solution is "to change the OS". It couldn''t be so difficult!!! if XP and Vista does not have this issue, Why can't MS think two minutes in a solution and create an update? Maybe MS is not reading their own forums!!! Unbelievable!!!

2 years waiting for a response from MS. The only solution provided by them is "change the hardware" when the real solution is "to change the OS". It couldn''t be so difficult!!! if XP and Vista does not have this issue, Why can't MS think two minutes in a solution and create an update? Maybe MS is not reading their own forums!!! Unbelievable!!!

2 years waiting for a response from MS. The only solution provided by them is "change the hardware" when the real solution is "to change the OS". It couldn''t be so difficult!!! if XP and Vista does not have this issue, Why can't MS think two minutes in a solution and create an update? Maybe MS is not reading their own forums!!! Unbelievable!!!

After years of troublefree use I suddenly, probably after the first Nvidia driver update since the 250s, had the problem on an older Vista 32 Laptop with HDMI out that I use as a HTPC. It connects to a Sony EX series 1080p hdtv via HDMI. Today suddenly if I close the lid while hdtv runs all the icons etc are switched to the hdtv. Before today this didn't happen (well it did, rarely, but read on). It sucks hard. Formerly the problem had occasionally happened, but a reboot with connected and running hdtv always fixed it. Now this didn't work anymore. I tried disabling TMM as suggested here and elsewhere but it didn't help. On another Forum I found the tip to stop and deactivate the Nvidia Display Driver Service. This immediately brought back the "normal" behaviour. If I close the lid, the hdtv keeps just showing the extended part of the desktop and does not become primary display. I did not notice any ill effects except that the try icon wont work anymore, big deal :) If you use your PC for gaming, this might cause problems, I didn't try. Hope this helps someone.

After years of troublefree use I suddenly, probably after the first Nvidia driver update since the 250s, had the problem on an older Vista 32 Laptop with HDMI out that I use as a HTPC. It connects to a Sony EX series 1080p hdtv via HDMI. Today suddenly if I close the lid while hdtv runs all the icons etc are switched to the hdtv. Before today this didn't happen (well it did, rarely, but read on). It sucks hard. Formerly the problem had occasionally happened, but a reboot with connected and running hdtv always fixed it. Now this didn't work anymore. I tried disabling TMM as suggested here and elsewhere but it didn't help. On another Forum I found the tip to stop and deactivate the Nvidia Display Driver Service. This immediately brought back the "normal" behaviour. If I close the lid, the hdtv keeps just showing the extended part of the desktop and does not become primary display. I did not notice any ill effects except that the try icon wont work anymore, big deal :) If you use your PC for gaming, this might cause problems, I didn't try. Hope this helps someone.

After years of troublefree use I suddenly, probably after the first Nvidia driver update since the 250s, had the problem on an older Vista 32 Laptop with HDMI out that I use as a HTPC. It connects to a Sony EX series 1080p hdtv via HDMI. Today suddenly if I close the lid while hdtv runs all the icons etc are switched to the hdtv. Before today this didn't happen (well it did, rarely, but read on). It sucks hard. Formerly the problem had occasionally happened, but a reboot with connected and running hdtv always fixed it. Now this didn't work anymore. I tried disabling TMM as suggested here and elsewhere but it didn't help. On another Forum I found the tip to stop and deactivate the Nvidia Display Driver Service. This immediately brought back the "normal" behaviour. If I close the lid, the hdtv keeps just showing the extended part of the desktop and does not become primary display. I did not notice any ill effects except that the try icon wont work anymore, big deal :) If you use your PC for gaming, this might cause problems, I didn't try. Hope this helps someone.

I have the same inconvenience on Windows 7 [How to] KEEP MP on the same screen (TV) always? | MediaPortal Forum Does Windows 8 has this problem?

Hi Ronnie, Wow, this thread really is testament to how useless Microsoft 'Support' really is!! I notice this is your last message here, dated April 04, 2010, that obviously your intent to 'escalate this to get some attention' has had no effect whatsoever. Since your post, this thread has had a massive amount of posts from users like myself, continuing until now, Feb 2012. So, two years of Windows users complaining and no move by Microsoft to do anything at all to rectify this problem. Of course, as we all know, Microsoft doesn't give a shit about its users, or about improving their product, but we all try in vain to complain, and nobody is listening. I bought a HDMI extension cable so that I could try and remove the pin that detects hot-plugging or whatever, but sadly I damaged another pin in the process, back to square one. Infuriating that we are all driven to cannibalizing cables to try fix a problem that could easily be done in the software, but nobody in Microsoft cares so this is what it comes to. Will I buy another cable and try again? Probably, because it really is such an annoying 'feature'... ha! what a joke! Windows is full of such features, like when I pug in an external drive, how come browsing the drive is last on the list, when it's the most obvious choice? Ridiculous! Anyone who has any say in the functionality of Microsoft Windows should be ashamed of themselves, for being responsible for such a nuisance to so many. How do you sleep at night?

Hi Ronnie, Wow, this thread really is testament to how useless Microsoft 'Support' really is!! I notice this is your last message here, dated April 04, 2010, that obviously your intent to 'escalate this to get some attention' has had no effect whatsoever. Since your post, this thread has had a massive amount of posts from users like myself, continuing until now, Feb 2012. So, two years of Windows users complaining and no move by Microsoft to do anything at all to rectify this problem. Of course, as we all know, Microsoft doesn't give a shit about its users, or about improving their product, but we all try in vain to complain, and nobody is listening. I bought a HDMI extension cable so that I could try and remove the pin that detects hot-plugging or whatever, but sadly I damaged another pin in the process, back to square one. Infuriating that we are all driven to cannibalizing cables to try fix a problem that could easily be done in the software, but nobody in Microsoft cares so this is what it comes to. Will I buy another cable and try again? Probably, because it really is such an annoying 'feature'... ha! what a joke! Windows is full of such features, like when I pug in an external drive, how come browsing the drive is last on the list, when it's the most obvious choice? Ridiculous! Anyone who has any say in the functionality of Microsoft Windows should be ashamed of themselves, for being responsible for such a nuisance to so many. How do you sleep at night?

Hi Ronnie, Wow, this thread really is testament to how useless Microsoft 'Support' really is!! I notice this is your last message here, dated April 04, 2010, that obviously your intent to 'escalate this to get some attention' has had no effect whatsoever. Since your post, this thread has had a massive amount of posts from users like myself, continuing until now, Feb 2012. So, two years of Windows users complaining and no move by Microsoft to do anything at all to rectify this problem. Of course, as we all know, Microsoft doesn't give a shit about its users, or about improving their product, but we all try in vain to complain, and nobody is listening. I bought a HDMI extension cable so that I could try and remove the pin that detects hot-plugging or whatever, but sadly I damaged another pin in the process, back to square one. Infuriating that we are all driven to cannibalizing cables to try fix a problem that could easily be done in the software, but nobody in Microsoft cares so this is what it comes to. Will I buy another cable and try again? Probably, because it really is such an annoying 'feature'... ha! what a joke! Windows is full of such features, like when I pug in an external drive, how come browsing the drive is last on the list, when it's the most obvious choice? Ridiculous! Anyone who has any say in the functionality of Microsoft Windows should be ashamed of themselves, for being responsible for such a nuisance to so many. How do you sleep at night?

Wow, this thread really is testament to how useless Microsoft 'Support' really is!! I notice that Ronnie's last message here (Microsoft Suppot guy), dated April 04, 2010, where he intends to 'escalate this to get some attention' has had no effect whatsoever. Since that post, this thread has had a massive amount of posts from users like myself, continuing until now, Feb 2012. So, two years of Windows users complaining and no move by Microsoft to do anything at all to rectify this problem. Of course, as we all know, Microsoft doesn't give a shit about its users, or about improving their product, but we all try in vain to complain, and nobody is listening. I bought a HDMI extension cable so that I could try and remove the pin that detects hot-plugging or whatever, but sadly I damaged another pin in the process, back to square one. Infuriating that we are all driven to cannibalizing cables to try fix a problem that could easily be done in the software, but nobody in Microsoft cares so this is what it comes to. Will I buy another cable and try again? Probably, because it really is such an annoying 'feature'... ha! what a joke! Windows is full of such features, like when I pug in an external drive, how come browsing the drive is last on the list, when it's the most obvious choice? Ridiculous! Anyone who has any say in the functionality of Microsoft Windows should be ashamed of themselves, for being responsible for such a nuisance to so many. How do you sleep at night?

I'm not as technically advanced as most of you, but I tried ripping out the pin 16 out of the DVI cable and it worked!!! I just have a small home theater setup. I'm using Windows 7 w/ an ATI video card. I have my computer hooked up to a monitor that I'm using now via VGA. And I have a DVI -> HDMI that is connected to an Onkyo A/V Receiver which is connected via HDMI to my television. When I would have them both on and the display extended, everything was great. I tried turning the television off, and both displays would disappear. I would have to have the television on to see anything on the computer monitor. The DVI "pin 16" trick worked FLAWLESSLY. Grab a pair of needle nose pliers and rip this out. It worked for me. http://www.gefen.com/kvm/support/faq/ P.S. I agree Windows 7 kind of destroyed my love for Windows, I'd much rather have my XP again.

Thanks a lot! The pin 19 blocking method did the trick. Below is a picture as a testimony. I was struggling with this for almost a year now, connecting an nvidia card through my receiver to a TV. Every time I switched the TV off, sound on the receiver stopped or Windows Media Center would crash altogether. Shame on Microsoft..... It can happen that the first time after blocking the pin, you get no picture at all! To resolve this, use another screen (if you have multiple outputs on your card) or a remote session, and then go to the nvidia control panel. Go to the "setup multiple displays" section and select "my screen is not shown". Then perform rigorous display detection once and all should be fine.

Thanks a lot! The pin 19 blocking method did the trick. Below is a picture as a testimony. I was struggling with this for almost a year now, connecting an nvidia card through my receiver to a TV. Every time I switched the TV off, sound on the receiver stopped or Windows Media Center would crash altogether. Shame on Microsoft..... It can happen that the first time after blocking the pin, you get no picture at all! To resolve this, use another screen (if you have multiple outputs on your card) or a remote session, and then go to the nvidia control panel. Go to the "setup multiple displays" section and select "my screen is not shown". Then perform rigorous display detection once and all should be fine.

Thanks a lot! The pin 19 blocking method did the trick. Below is a picture as a testimony. I was struggling with this for almost a year now, connecting an nvidia card through my receiver to a TV. Every time I switched the TV off, sound on the receiver stopped or Windows Media Center would crash altogether. Shame on Microsoft..... It can happen that the first time after blocking the pin, you get no picture at all! To resolve this, use another screen (if you have multiple outputs on your card) or a remote session, and then go to the nvidia control panel. Go to the "setup multiple displays" section and select "my screen is not shown". Then perform rigorous display detection once and all should be fine.

I'd just like to add that I've been having this issue as well, however I was able to solve it. My problem was having a television hooked up through HDMI via an Onkyo receiver. Whenever anyone turned the receiver off, I would lose the display on my main monitor which was on a desk next to the A/V equipment. How I got around the problem, which may or may not be available to those of you with a receiver, was to enable the "pass through HDMI" option, which leaves an HDMI port of your choosing powered up (PC) and passed to the output even when your receiver is off. This fools Windows into thinking that the second monitor is powered up.

Glad to find this thread. I have been searching for a resolution to a similar problem / bug. Thought that I might as well add my comments. I have a work setup with one laptop and two external monitors. I set one of the external monitors as my main display and extend to the laptop monitor and the other external monitor. When sitting at my desk, I normally use only the two external monitors. However, when I close the lid on my laptop it detects that the display has been disconnected. Fine, I assume that if I did have any window on that display, it would be OK to move that window to my main display. However, the silly thing is that every window I have open the second monitor, where I extend the desktop and it's till connected, are also moved to the main display. Why? I can't believe that is "by design". Seems like a bug where someone was too lazy to detect which windows had to be moved.

Glad to find this thread. I have been searching for a resolution to a similar problem / bug. Thought that I might as well add my comments. I have a work setup with one laptop and two external monitors. I set one of the external monitors as my main display and extend to the laptop monitor and the other external monitor. When sitting at my desk, I normally use only the two external monitors. However, when I close the lid on my laptop it detects that the display has been disconnected. Fine, I assume that if I did have any window on that display, it would be OK to move that window to my main display. However, the silly thing is that every window I have open the second monitor, where I extend the desktop and it's till connected, are also moved to the main display. Why? I can't believe that is "by design". Seems like a bug where someone was too lazy to detect which windows had to be moved.

Glad to find this thread. I have been searching for a resolution to a similar problem / bug. Thought that I might as well add my comments. I have a work setup with one laptop and two external monitors. I set one of the external monitors as my main display and extend to the laptop monitor and the other external monitor. When sitting at my desk, I normally use only the two external monitors. However, when I close the lid on my laptop it detects that the display has been disconnected. Fine, I assume that if I did have any window on that display, it would be OK to move that window to my main display. However, the silly thing is that every window I have open the second monitor, where I extend the desktop and it's till connected, are also moved to the main display. Why? I can't believe that is "by design". Seems like a bug where someone was too lazy to detect which windows had to be moved.

I believe that this solution is basically disabling the driver that is used to detect lid closing and possibly other features (ACPI). I've seen a similar solution discussed elsewhere when people wish to avoid the movement of windows and desktops (often for tv/entertainment viewing). Perhaps MS has addressed this misfeature in windows 8.

I believe that this solution is basically disabling the driver that is used to detect lid closing and possibly other features (ACPI). I've seen a similar solution discussed elsewhere when people wish to avoid the movement of windows and desktops (often for tv/entertainment viewing). Perhaps MS has addressed this misfeature in windows 8.

I believe that this solution is basically disabling the driver that is used to detect lid closing and possibly other features (ACPI). I've seen a similar solution discussed elsewhere when people wish to avoid the movement of windows and desktops (often for tv/entertainment viewing). Perhaps MS has addressed this misfeature in windows 8.

Guys, glad to found this thread, 'cause i've the same issue here. As some of my fellows described, same situation here: a desktop computer(Nvidia GPU(with updated driver)), connected an Asus LCD display and a Bang and Olufsen LCD TV through an Onkyo receiver with HDMI cable. I just want to share my experience, sorry if it was written before. My opinion is the most important thing is turning on order. If i turn on the computer first and then the receiver and TV the Windows is not going crazy. Then i easily can switch on/off the second output of Nvidia card(with official driver) and the main desktop stays on the main display(Asus). On the contrary if i reverse the order, ex. i turn on the PC after the receiver and TV, the main desktop jumps to the TV and i don't see anything on the Asus until i turn off the receiver and TV. I'm not sure if it's operating system or VGA driver problem but a final solution would be appreciate. Sorry for my poor english. Kirby

Guys, glad to found this thread, 'cause i've the same issue here. As some of my fellows described, same situation here: a desktop computer(Nvidia GPU(with updated driver)), connected an Asus LCD display and a Bang and Olufsen LCD TV through an Onkyo receiver with HDMI cable. I just want to share my experience, sorry if it was written before. My opinion is the most important thing is turning on order. If i turn on the computer first and then the receiver and TV the Windows is not going crazy. Then i easily can switch on/off the second output of Nvidia card(with official driver) and the main desktop stays on the main display(Asus). On the contrary if i reverse the order, ex. i turn on the PC after the receiver and TV, the main desktop jumps to the TV and i don't see anything on the Asus until i turn off the receiver and TV. I'm not sure if it's operating system or VGA driver problem but a final solution would be appreciate. Sorry for my poor english. Kirby

Guys, glad to found this thread, 'cause i've the same issue here. As some of my fellows described, same situation here: a desktop computer(Nvidia GPU(with updated driver)), connected an Asus LCD display and a Bang and Olufsen LCD TV through an Onkyo receiver with HDMI cable. I just want to share my experience, sorry if it was written before. My opinion is the most important thing is turning on order. If i turn on the computer first and then the receiver and TV the Windows is not going crazy. Then i easily can switch on/off the second output of Nvidia card(with official driver) and the main desktop stays on the main display(Asus). On the contrary if i reverse the order, ex. i turn on the PC after the receiver and TV, the main desktop jumps to the TV and i don't see anything on the Asus until i turn off the receiver and TV. I'm not sure if it's operating system or VGA driver problem but a final solution would be appreciate. Sorry for my poor english. Kirby

Birdbrain, what kind of tape did you use there? Could you possibly tell me? When I tried that the tape kept shifting when I would plug it in and come off when plugged out. I stopped trying cause I was afraid the tape would get stuck in the socket of the TV and then I'd be really screwed! ... how do you get it to stick on the inside? What kind of tools do you use to press the tape firmly down on the inside? I really want to get this working!

Birdbrain, what kind of tape did you use there? Could you possibly tell me? When I tried that the tape kept shifting when I would plug it in and come off when plugged out. I stopped trying cause I was afraid the tape would get stuck in the socket of the TV and then I'd be really screwed! ... how do you get it to stick on the inside? What kind of tools do you use to press the tape firmly down on the inside? I really want to get this working!

Birdbrain, what kind of tape did you use there? Could you possibly tell me? When I tried that the tape kept shifting when I would plug it in and come off when plugged out. I stopped trying cause I was afraid the tape would get stuck in the socket of the TV and then I'd be really screwed! ... how do you get it to stick on the inside? What kind of tools do you use to press the tape firmly down on the inside? I really want to get this working!

Same issue but different set of values. Laptop = ThinkPad OS = Win 7 Extenal Monitor VGA port Once I plugged in external monitor (using laptop in home docking station mode), now when I hit the road with laptop, screen on laptop stays black. And only when I plug in an external screen can I see laptop screen turn on. ( Iam in a hotel now, in data center - pulled VGA cord off their monitor to cheat my laptop into displaying) And yes I know my way around any and all display settings areas. And have disconnected cables and rebooted to no avail. I would have to agree it looks like a Windows user too "helpfull" bug. My next fix will be to cut off and old monitor cable and pin out the plug to fake out laptop into thinking an external is there. This does not help any of the above people's issues, but could help others out with this kinda' issue. Hopefully someone from Microsoft will hear the cries of the peeps, and "let the monitor controls go back to the poeple". L8r

Same issue but different set of values. Laptop = ThinkPad OS = Win 7 Extenal Monitor VGA port Once I plugged in external monitor (using laptop in home docking station mode), now when I hit the road with laptop, screen on laptop stays black. And only when I plug in an external screen can I see laptop screen turn on. ( Iam in a hotel now, in data center - pulled VGA cord off their monitor to cheat my laptop into displaying) And yes I know my way around any and all display settings areas. And have disconnected cables and rebooted to no avail. I would have to agree it looks like a Windows user too "helpfull" bug. My next fix will be to cut off and old monitor cable and pin out the plug to fake out laptop into thinking an external is there. This does not help any of the above people's issues, but could help others out with this kinda' issue. Hopefully someone from Microsoft will hear the cries of the peeps, and "let the monitor controls go back to the poeple". L8r

Same issue but different set of values. Laptop = ThinkPad OS = Win 7 Extenal Monitor VGA port Once I plugged in external monitor (using laptop in home docking station mode), now when I hit the road with laptop, screen on laptop stays black. And only when I plug in an external screen can I see laptop screen turn on. ( Iam in a hotel now, in data center - pulled VGA cord off their monitor to cheat my laptop into displaying) And yes I know my way around any and all display settings areas. And have disconnected cables and rebooted to no avail. I would have to agree it looks like a Windows user too "helpfull" bug. My next fix will be to cut off and old monitor cable and pin out the plug to fake out laptop into thinking an external is there. This does not help any of the above people's issues, but could help others out with this kinda' issue. Hopefully someone from Microsoft will hear the cries of the peeps, and "let the monitor controls go back to the poeple". L8r

I found a special solution for my problem, which is that my monitor often stays dark when switching input or simply turning it on too late. And.. sadly, nothing I have read here worked for me (like ripping pin 16 out of my DVI->HDMI adapter). My solution was a little free program called hdmiOn (http://thydzik.com/tag/hdmion/) which you simply run when you have the correct HDMI input selected but don't get an image. Easiest way to run it is through a shortcut on your desktop and then assigning it a keyboard-command (since typically you don't see anything..). So.. then you can change channels and simply reactivate your display. Not great, but at least it works. Further German description here http://www.andreas-reiff.de/2012/03/wenn-der-hdmi-monitor-beim-an-und-umschalten-dunkel-bleibt/ but all you need you can get from this post and the hdmiOn site. Hope this helps you.. I got kind of tense on this issue trying different workarounds for something that should work out of the box.

I found a special solution for my problem, which is that my monitor often stays dark when switching input or simply turning it on too late. And.. sadly, nothing I have read here worked for me (like ripping pin 16 out of my DVI->HDMI adapter). My solution was a little free program called hdmiOn (http://thydzik.com/tag/hdmion/) which you simply run when you have the correct HDMI input selected but don't get an image. Easiest way to run it is through a shortcut on your desktop and then assigning it a keyboard-command (since typically you don't see anything..). So.. then you can change channels and simply reactivate your display. Not great, but at least it works. Further German description here http://www.andreas-reiff.de/2012/03/wenn-der-hdmi-monitor-beim-an-und-umschalten-dunkel-bleibt/ but all you need you can get from this post and the hdmiOn site. Hope this helps you.. I got kind of tense on this issue trying different workarounds for something that should work out of the box.

I found a special solution for my problem, which is that my monitor often stays dark when switching input or simply turning it on too late. And.. sadly, nothing I have read here worked for me (like ripping pin 16 out of my DVI->HDMI adapter). My solution was a little free program called hdmiOn (http://thydzik.com/tag/hdmion/) which you simply run when you have the correct HDMI input selected but don't get an image. Easiest way to run it is through a shortcut on your desktop and then assigning it a keyboard-command (since typically you don't see anything..). So.. then you can change channels and simply reactivate your display. Not great, but at least it works. Further German description here http://www.andreas-reiff.de/2012/03/wenn-der-hdmi-monitor-beim-an-und-umschalten-dunkel-bleibt/ but all you need you can get from this post and the hdmiOn site. Hope this helps you.. I got kind of tense on this issue trying different workarounds for something that should work out of the box.

Scratch what I said earlier, it seemed like it worked at first, but this is still being absolutely the most annoying "feature" I've ever seen. I'm not hacking cables or downloading goofy software, this is absolutely asinine. I mean, who would ever unplug their secondary screen and be expecting their primary display to become secondary, thus losing their primary display? Why would it even occur to someone to make this happen, and then go to the effort to code it into an operating system? I should be able to turn off my 400 watt television and keep my primary display, right? Why does Windows assume that if there are two displays and you turn one of them off that the correct place for the windows desktop and taskbar is on the monitor you just turned off? This is patently absurd that this issue has been allowed to remain alive as long as it has.

Scratch what I said earlier, it seemed like it worked at first, but this is still being absolutely the most annoying "feature" I've ever seen. I'm not hacking cables or downloading goofy software, this is absolutely asinine. I mean, who would ever unplug their secondary screen and be expecting their primary display to become secondary, thus losing their primary display? Why would it even occur to someone to make this happen, and then go to the effort to code it into an operating system? I should be able to turn off my 400 watt television and keep my primary display, right? Why does Windows assume that if there are two displays and you turn one of them off that the correct place for the windows desktop and taskbar is on the monitor you just turned off? This is patently absurd that this issue has been allowed to remain alive as long as it has.

Scratch what I said earlier, it seemed like it worked at first, but this is still being absolutely the most annoying "feature" I've ever seen. I'm not hacking cables or downloading goofy software, this is absolutely asinine. I mean, who would ever unplug their secondary screen and be expecting their primary display to become secondary, thus losing their primary display? Why would it even occur to someone to make this happen, and then go to the effort to code it into an operating system? I should be able to turn off my 400 watt television and keep my primary display, right? Why does Windows assume that if there are two displays and you turn one of them off that the correct place for the windows desktop and taskbar is on the monitor you just turned off? This is patently absurd that this issue has been allowed to remain alive as long as it has.

Based on gmit's response, I finally resolved this problem on my HP ZR24w by setting the monitor's Source Detection to Always Active (in the panel interface for the HP ZR24w, this is available at Main Menu | Source Control... | Source Detection | Always Active). Unfortunately, this will waste power, but it is the only thing that has worked for me so far (I didn't try removing/covering pins from the cable). I don't know whether other monitors have this option, but I would definitely check for similar options. Hello. I've managed to resolve this problem at my place. On my HP monitor, I've turned on an option to scan inputs while it's off.

Based on gmit's response, I finally resolved this problem on my HP ZR24w by setting the monitor's Source Detection to Always Active (in the panel interface for the HP ZR24w, this is available at Main Menu | Source Control... | Source Detection | Always Active). Unfortunately, this will waste power, but it is the only thing that has worked for me so far (I didn't try removing/covering pins from the cable). I don't know whether other monitors have this option, but I would definitely check for similar options. Hello. I've managed to resolve this problem at my place. On my HP monitor, I've turned on an option to scan inputs while it's off.

Based on gmit's response, I finally resolved this problem on my HP ZR24w by setting the monitor's Source Detection to Always Active (in the panel interface for the HP ZR24w, this is available at Main Menu | Source Control... | Source Detection | Always Active). Unfortunately, this will waste power, but it is the only thing that has worked for me so far (I didn't try removing/covering pins from the cable). I don't know whether other monitors have this option, but I would definitely check for similar options. Hello. I've managed to resolve this problem at my place. On my HP monitor, I've turned on an option to scan inputs while it's off.

I have a similar problem. After switching my DVI projector to a HDMI projector on my HTPC the projector display switches to the primary (control) VGA display. The switch does not happen with the power off of the projector, rather during the power on sequence of the projector. The HTPC is never switched off, never sleeps. When I switch on the the projector I hear the Windows device recognition sound. After this the content from the projector display switches over the the VGA. It did not do that with the DVI (dual link) projector.

I have a similar problem. After switching my DVI projector to a HDMI projector on my HTPC the projector display switches to the primary (control) VGA display. The switch does not happen with the power off of the projector, rather during the power on sequence of the projector. The HTPC is never switched off, never sleeps. When I switch on the the projector I hear the Windows device recognition sound. After this the content from the projector display switches over the the VGA. It did not do that with the DVI (dual link) projector.

I have a similar problem. After switching my DVI projector to a HDMI projector on my HTPC the projector display switches to the primary (control) VGA display. The switch does not happen with the power off of the projector, rather during the power on sequence of the projector. The HTPC is never switched off, never sleeps. When I switch on the the projector I hear the Windows device recognition sound. After this the content from the projector display switches over the the VGA. It did not do that with the DVI (dual link) projector.

Thanks a lot! The pin 19 blocking method did the trick. Below is a picture as a testimony. I was struggling with this for almost a year now, connecting an nvidia card through my receiver to a TV. Every time I switched the TV off, sound on the receiver stopped or Windows Media Center would crash altogether. Shame on Microsoft..... It can happen that the first time after blocking the pin, you get no picture at all! To resolve this, use another screen (if you have multiple outputs on your card) or a remote session, and then go to the nvidia control panel. Go to the "setup multiple displays" section and select "my screen is not shown". Then perform rigorous display detection once and all should be fine. Add another for whom this solution worked. The image above is great. I used a slightly thinner strip of black electrical tape. My setup is HDTV (Samsung) and VGA monitor. I had the issues many of the other folks had: windows disappearing when the TV was switched to a different input or turned off, things opening on the TV when it wasn't on or the input selected, etc. After applying this fix, flawless. No more of the primary display flickering when the input is selected or the TV is turned on, even. Audio and video all working perfectly on the receiver/TV end. I also had the black screen on my TV after first connecting: I have an ATI card, running on an HP machine with AMD CPUs. In the AMD Vision control panel, I 'detected displays' and the issue was immediately solved. Thanks for all who added input to this thread! Sad that it's still happening after what, two, three years? Well done, Microsoft. There's obviously a software solution to the above hardware hack. It's not even a difficult one. How about putting someone on it? Don't you folks think it's about time? -G

Thanks a lot! The pin 19 blocking method did the trick. Below is a picture as a testimony. I was struggling with this for almost a year now, connecting an nvidia card through my receiver to a TV. Every time I switched the TV off, sound on the receiver stopped or Windows Media Center would crash altogether. Shame on Microsoft..... It can happen that the first time after blocking the pin, you get no picture at all! To resolve this, use another screen (if you have multiple outputs on your card) or a remote session, and then go to the nvidia control panel. Go to the "setup multiple displays" section and select "my screen is not shown". Then perform rigorous display detection once and all should be fine. Add another for whom this solution worked. The image above is great. I used a slightly thinner strip of black electrical tape. My setup is HDTV (Samsung) and VGA monitor. I had the issues many of the other folks had: windows disappearing when the TV was switched to a different input or turned off, things opening on the TV when it wasn't on or the input selected, etc. After applying this fix, flawless. No more of the primary display flickering when the input is selected or the TV is turned on, even. Audio and video all working perfectly on the receiver/TV end. I also had the black screen on my TV after first connecting: I have an ATI card, running on an HP machine with AMD CPUs. In the AMD Vision control panel, I 'detected displays' and the issue was immediately solved. Thanks for all who added input to this thread! Sad that it's still happening after what, two, three years? Well done, Microsoft. There's obviously a software solution to the above hardware hack. It's not even a difficult one. How about putting someone on it? Don't you folks think it's about time? -G

Thanks a lot! The pin 19 blocking method did the trick. Below is a picture as a testimony. I was struggling with this for almost a year now, connecting an nvidia card through my receiver to a TV. Every time I switched the TV off, sound on the receiver stopped or Windows Media Center would crash altogether. Shame on Microsoft..... It can happen that the first time after blocking the pin, you get no picture at all! To resolve this, use another screen (if you have multiple outputs on your card) or a remote session, and then go to the nvidia control panel. Go to the "setup multiple displays" section and select "my screen is not shown". Then perform rigorous display detection once and all should be fine. Add another for whom this solution worked. The image above is great. I used a slightly thinner strip of black electrical tape. My setup is HDTV (Samsung) and VGA monitor. I had the issues many of the other folks had: windows disappearing when the TV was switched to a different input or turned off, things opening on the TV when it wasn't on or the input selected, etc. After applying this fix, flawless. No more of the primary display flickering when the input is selected or the TV is turned on, even. Audio and video all working perfectly on the receiver/TV end. I also had the black screen on my TV after first connecting: I have an ATI card, running on an HP machine with AMD CPUs. In the AMD Vision control panel, I 'detected displays' and the issue was immediately solved. Thanks for all who added input to this thread! Sad that it's still happening after what, two, three years? Well done, Microsoft. There's obviously a software solution to the above hardware hack. It's not even a difficult one. How about putting someone on it? Don't you folks think it's about time? -G

I used black electrical tape. Try cutting your tape long enough that you can insert it into the connector at pin 19, and so that it reaches the base of the metal part of the connector. Press it down at 19 and along the metal of the connector, and it should stay in place as long as you're gentle and put it in slow. ;)

I used black electrical tape. Try cutting your tape long enough that you can insert it into the connector at pin 19, and so that it reaches the base of the metal part of the connector. Press it down at 19 and along the metal of the connector, and it should stay in place as long as you're gentle and put it in slow. ;)

I used black electrical tape. Try cutting your tape long enough that you can insert it into the connector at pin 19, and so that it reaches the base of the metal part of the connector. Press it down at 19 and along the metal of the connector, and it should stay in place as long as you're gentle and put it in slow. ;)

I'm gonna try disabling pin19 on an HDMI cable soon. Does anyone know whether this fixes HDMI audio detection too? Just wondering as I have an HDMI receiver with TV connected, I want this to show as having HDMI audio constantly and not disabling itself.

I'm gonna try disabling pin19 on an HDMI cable soon. Does anyone know whether this fixes HDMI audio detection too? Just wondering as I have an HDMI receiver with TV connected, I want this to show as having HDMI audio constantly and not disabling itself.

I'm gonna try disabling pin19 on an HDMI cable soon. Does anyone know whether this fixes HDMI audio detection too? Just wondering as I have an HDMI receiver with TV connected, I want this to show as having HDMI audio constantly and not disabling itself.

Thanks a lot! The pin 19 blocking method did the trick. Below is a picture as a testimony. I was struggling with this for almost a year now, connecting an nvidia card through my receiver to a TV. Every time I switched the TV off, sound on the receiver stopped or Windows Media Center would crash altogether. Shame on Microsoft..... It can happen that the first time after blocking the pin, you get no picture at all! To resolve this, use another screen (if you have multiple outputs on your card) or a remote session, and then go to the nvidia control panel. Go to the "setup multiple displays" section and select "my screen is not shown". Then perform rigorous display detection once and all should be fine. This also worked for me. DVI to HDMI converter > HDMI to Cat5 convertor > Cat5 to HDMI > 42 TV. These connections are needed for a digital signage. Thank you very much for this 'fix'.

Thanks a lot! The pin 19 blocking method did the trick. Below is a picture as a testimony. I was struggling with this for almost a year now, connecting an nvidia card through my receiver to a TV. Every time I switched the TV off, sound on the receiver stopped or Windows Media Center would crash altogether. Shame on Microsoft..... It can happen that the first time after blocking the pin, you get no picture at all! To resolve this, use another screen (if you have multiple outputs on your card) or a remote session, and then go to the nvidia control panel. Go to the "setup multiple displays" section and select "my screen is not shown". Then perform rigorous display detection once and all should be fine. This also worked for me. DVI to HDMI converter > HDMI to Cat5 convertor > Cat5 to HDMI > 42 TV. These connections are needed for a digital signage. Thank you very much for this 'fix'.

Thanks a lot! The pin 19 blocking method did the trick. Below is a picture as a testimony. I was struggling with this for almost a year now, connecting an nvidia card through my receiver to a TV. Every time I switched the TV off, sound on the receiver stopped or Windows Media Center would crash altogether. Shame on Microsoft..... It can happen that the first time after blocking the pin, you get no picture at all! To resolve this, use another screen (if you have multiple outputs on your card) or a remote session, and then go to the nvidia control panel. Go to the "setup multiple displays" section and select "my screen is not shown". Then perform rigorous display detection once and all should be fine. This also worked for me. DVI to HDMI converter > HDMI to Cat5 convertor > Cat5 to HDMI > 42 TV. These connections are needed for a digital signage. Thank you very much for this 'fix'.

A BIG Thumbs up to the man who came up with the "blocking pin" fix, I was very close to going insane over this issue. My setup is a DVI monitor as primary and tv connected via HDMI as secondary, every time I shut off the tv or wanted to watch another input it made my primary monitor secondary and removed everything from it, seems prefectly logical doesn't it........ Thanks again.

A BIG Thumbs up to the man who came up with the "blocking pin" fix, I was very close to going insane over this issue. My setup is a DVI monitor as primary and tv connected via HDMI as secondary, every time I shut off the tv or wanted to watch another input it made my primary monitor secondary and removed everything from it, seems prefectly logical doesn't it........ Thanks again.

A BIG Thumbs up to the man who came up with the "blocking pin" fix, I was very close to going insane over this issue. My setup is a DVI monitor as primary and tv connected via HDMI as secondary, every time I shut off the tv or wanted to watch another input it made my primary monitor secondary and removed everything from it, seems prefectly logical doesn't it........ Thanks again.

I have tested this on a NVIDIA Quadro card, I am not sure if it will work for consumer cards, Open the NVIDIA control panel, under workstation pick "view system topology" Hi-light your display port or hdmi port and pick Manage EDID Pick export EDID and save the text file to the desktop, "EDID.txt", Again, pick Manage EDID, this time click Load EDID, and load the text file that you just saved, "EDID.txt". This will force the connection and turn off the auto-detection feature on that port. Repeat this process for any other ports you want to force. I thought I'd tried everything, including rebuilding my machine to no avail. Then I found this and it's fixed.

I have tested this on a NVIDIA Quadro card, I am not sure if it will work for consumer cards, Open the NVIDIA control panel, under workstation pick "view system topology" Hi-light your display port or hdmi port and pick Manage EDID Pick export EDID and save the text file to the desktop, "EDID.txt", Again, pick Manage EDID, this time click Load EDID, and load the text file that you just saved, "EDID.txt". This will force the connection and turn off the auto-detection feature on that port. Repeat this process for any other ports you want to force. I thought I'd tried everything, including rebuilding my machine to no avail. Then I found this and it's fixed.

I have tested this on a NVIDIA Quadro card, I am not sure if it will work for consumer cards, Open the NVIDIA control panel, under workstation pick "view system topology" Hi-light your display port or hdmi port and pick Manage EDID Pick export EDID and save the text file to the desktop, "EDID.txt", Again, pick Manage EDID, this time click Load EDID, and load the text file that you just saved, "EDID.txt". This will force the connection and turn off the auto-detection feature on that port. Repeat this process for any other ports you want to force. I thought I'd tried everything, including rebuilding my machine to no avail. Then I found this and it's fixed.

So it seems this is the only solution? This is great! BUT.... can anyone tell me how to do this with a minidisplay port adapter (not HDMI?) My monitor (cinema display) plugs into the back of the computer via minidisplay.... I think pin2 is 'Hot Plug Detect'..... am I on the right track here? THANKS!

So it seems this is the only solution? This is great! BUT.... can anyone tell me how to do this with a minidisplay port adapter (not HDMI?) My monitor (cinema display) plugs into the back of the computer via minidisplay.... I think pin2 is 'Hot Plug Detect'..... am I on the right track here? THANKS!

So, I figured it out. Go to Power Options in your control panel under Hardware and Sound. Once there, you want to click "Change advanced power settings" after the window is open click the + to open USB Settings, click the + again to open USB Selective Suspend Setting and disable it.

Here is my solution about this problem, which is an extend version of pin 19 block (for advanced users). After I saw the solution with the 19 pin block and try it out, I found that my integrated video card can't detect in any way the connected monitor if this pin was blocked. Also, there are no any extended options or anything to force the detection of the monitor. So, after a little digging, I saw that usually, wen a device is plugged in the HDMI port, this pin gets a +5V signal, which comes from another pin in the HDMI cable, and this is the 18 pin. So, in short. If you have a low cost video card without any settings to force the monitor detection, you well need an 1K Ohm resistor (from any junk electronics), flexible HDMI adapter and a little soldering skills. Open the HDMI adapter and from the female side, disconnect the wire to pin 19. Then solder the 1k Ohm resistor to the disconnected wire and the wire on pin 18. Be sure that the pin 18 wire is still connected to it's place and not shorted with any other pins! Wrap some isolation on the resistor and the wire, and you are ready. Use the adapter from the computer side. First plug the adapter to the cable, and then to the computer. Once the cable with the adapter is connected, the monitor will be detected and will not dispersal until you unplug the cable/adapter.