Displayport sleep repositioning windows

beatle

Diamond Member
Apr 2, 2001
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I'm afraid I'm asking about something that does not have a fix, but here goes.

Running Windows 10, I have an Asus R9 390 connected to an Asus MG279Q via DP and an old NEC 90GX2 connected via DVI. The monitors go to sleep just fine after 15 minutes of inactivity on the computer, but when they are awoken, the windows are all rearranged. I see the NEC power on first, and all the windows are moved to it. A second or two later, the Asus fires up and some of its windows move back, though they are the wrong size. Other windows that were on the NEC also move to the Asus for some reason.

I've tried the registry hack to set the resolution, but I think that only works for single displays. I've tried the "Persistent Monitors" application that supposedly fixes this, but it does not.

I could probably alleviate this by not using Displayport, but unfortunately I would lose Freesync on this monitor as well so that's not really an option. This seems like a pretty terrible shortcoming with DP, disconnecting its displays from the OS during sleep states. Any ideas on this?
 

postmortemIA

Diamond Member
Jul 11, 2006
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whenever I use DP, and monitor goes to sleep, my Radeon 7850 goes nuts and resets resolution, etc.
 

Dice144

Senior member
Oct 22, 2010
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This appears to be a displayport issue. I have read on various forums about this bug.
 

beatle

Diamond Member
Apr 2, 2001
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As much as it pains me to consider it, would replacing my secondary monitor with one possessing a displayport connection resolve this disconnect issue?
 

96Firebird

Diamond Member
Nov 8, 2010
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This may not be the best solution, but if you turn off the seconday monitor (I'm assuming your old NEC is the secondary) before you walk away from the PC, you can probably avoid the issue you're having. Win+P is the shortcut for multi-monitor options. Not the perfect solution, but it is an option you can try....
 

beatle

Diamond Member
Apr 2, 2001
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We'll see. Not sure what the monitor options shortcut is for. I intend to always keep the setting at "extend."
 

96Firebird

Diamond Member
Nov 8, 2010
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The options, at least when I had a secondary monitor hooked up (it was a TV), were extended, mirrored, secondary (projector) only, and computer only. I only used extended and computer only, basically just to use my TV to watch movies. This was back when my GTX 460 wouldn't go to idle clocks with mixed multi-monitors, so I always had to disable the secondary monitor.
 

gorobei

Diamond Member
Jan 7, 2007
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the main problem with DP is when a dp monitor is shut down the interface loses handshake and the system stops seeing the monitor. windows then shuffles all the open programs and desktop shortcuts to the one active screen to avoid having them be unreachable by the cursor.

dvi is always on as far as the system is concerned. so even if the monitor is powered off, win will still keep outputting a signal and maintain the desktop res.

you might have to play with making the DP monitor primary and the dvi the secondary or vice-versa.
 

beatle

Diamond Member
Apr 2, 2001
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Actually had a new HP Envy 32 monitor on order - the new one with Freesync. It has a setting in its "DP Hot-Plug Detection" menu called "Always Active." This apparently keeps the DP connection live with the OS and still allows the monitor to go to sleep. With this set, everything remains right where it should.

It's silly that this is not an option in all DP capable monitors as I am obviously not the first person to experience this.
 

beatle

Diamond Member
Apr 2, 2001
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Just for experimentation purposes, I set the HP's hot plug detection to "Low Power" which I assume would make it like other DP monitors, then I attached the Asus via a second DP connection and tested the power saving. Same result as DVI. So it's not the "legacy" issue as much as it is using DP in the first place.

Also amazing that Windows has not addressed this shortcoming even after all these years.
 

Spicedaddy

Platinum Member
Apr 18, 2002
2,305
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Horrible problem... LOL

I'd been running dual monitors (both DVI) for 5 years, going to sleep after an hour, and never had a problem with moving windows and icons.

I upgraded to a Z170 system and it has Displayport 1.2, DVI and HDMI connections. I used the DVI and HDMI for my 2 old 1080p monitors and it was working fine until I added a 4K LG 27UD68 to the DisplayPort connection. The 4K is the main monitor of course, but I can't have it sleep without windows being moved to a secondary monitor. Even turning off the 2 secondary monitors first, then the main, and making sure to turn on the main monitor first doesn't work.

Every DisplayPort monitor should have an option to keep the signal alive when sleeping!
 

Bacon1

Diamond Member
Feb 14, 2016
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Yeah it is terribly annoying, no idea why windows tries to "help" you out there...
 

2is

Diamond Member
Apr 8, 2012
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I have a Dell monitor connected using DP, I didn't have your issue but I had another where when the monitor goes to sleep, it won't wake back up. I disabled the "deep sleep" option on the monitor and it resolved the issue. Might want to look for something similar on your monitor and see if that solves the issue.
 

fleshconsumed

Diamond Member
Feb 21, 2002
6,483
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Yeah it is terribly annoying, no idea why windows tries to "help" you out there...
As has been pointed out this is what Windows is supposed to do. If the system detects the monitor has been disconnected, which it has in this case, it should move all your windows to remaining display. It's a hardware problem, it's silly to blame operating system for hardware design flaws.
 

nerp

Diamond Member
Dec 31, 2005
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I used to have this issue, but only with Intel graphics. My situation went away when I went from the Skylake HD 530 gfx to a discrete card.

I've also heard that getting the system set up with a single monitor and getting things working nicely and only then adding the second monitor can help for some reason.
 

Bacon1

Diamond Member
Feb 14, 2016
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As has been pointed out this is what Windows is supposed to do. If the system detects the monitor has been disconnected, which it has in this case, it should move all your windows to remaining display. It's a hardware problem, it's silly to blame operating system for hardware design flaws.

Except it happens with all display port monitors and gpus from all brands where more than one monitor is detected. The problem is windows doesn't have a "buffer" period when waking from sleep. All it needs is a few second delay before shifting things around and the problem would be gone.
 

exar333

Diamond Member
Feb 7, 2004
8,518
8
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Not a plug, but the application by Stardock called 'Fences' can work great for this because it will allow you to group your icons and it will 'remember' the positioning. I used this in the past for instances like this and it was great. That said, I haven't reinstalled it (yet) on Win10, but they recently added compatibility. I might suggest trying that....

-from someone who also sees this on DP connections. I don't have the option to NOT use DP as it is required for 100hz use for my display...
 

wpcoe

Senior member
Nov 13, 2007
586
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I hadn't been aware of this thread when I started a new one about icons being repositioned when using DisplayPort, which I think is related to windows being repositioned.

On my previous system, i3-3225 with Radeon R7 370 graphics card using DisplayPort, every time the monitors would revive from deep sleep (hardware setting), the desktop icons would re-position themselves.

HOWEVER, I built a new system from scratch (see sig) and using DisplayPort off the Skylake iGPU (HD Graphics 530) the icons do NOT re-position themselves. I installed the Radeon R7 370 in the new system, and even then, the icons do not re-position themselves.

I still don't know what was the deciding factor, but I suspect it was something with the Anniversary Update to Win10?
 

Spicedaddy

Platinum Member
Apr 18, 2002
2,305
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I hadn't been aware of this thread when I started a new one about icons being repositioned when using DisplayPort, which I think is related to windows being repositioned.

On my previous system, i3-3225 with Radeon R7 370 graphics card using DisplayPort, every time the monitors would revive from deep sleep (hardware setting), the desktop icons would re-position themselves.

HOWEVER, I built a new system from scratch (see sig) and using DisplayPort off the Skylake iGPU (HD Graphics 530) the icons do NOT re-position themselves. I installed the Radeon R7 370 in the new system, and even then, the icons do not re-position themselves.

I still don't know what was the deciding factor, but I suspect it was something with the Anniversary Update to Win10?

I'm using Intel HD530 and Windows 10-1607 (latest Intel Graphics drivers .4474) and the icons are randomly repositioned when my 4K Displayport main monitor wakes from sleep. People say it's normal behavior (maybe it is for the windows moving to another monitor), but the icons moving seems like a bug in the drivers to me.

I don't game so I'm trying to avoid adding a video card. This new build is so quiet... Only 2 fans, the PSU one doesn't even spin and the CPU is a Noctua around 650rpm.
 

wpcoe

Senior member
Nov 13, 2007
586
2
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I'm using Intel HD530 and Windows 10-1607 (latest Intel Graphics drivers .4474) and the icons are randomly repositioned when my 4K Displayport main monitor wakes from sleep. People say it's normal behavior (maybe it is for the windows moving to another monitor), but the icons moving seems like a bug in the drivers to me.

I don't game so I'm trying to avoid adding a video card. This new build is so quiet... Only 2 fans, the PSU one doesn't even spin and the CPU is a Noctua around 650rpm.

On my previous Ivy Bridge system, I added a Display Port video card just to support a 4K monitor at 60hz and that's when the icon rearranging occurred.

I wish I could determine the critical part of the equation that changed, but using the same Intel HD530 that you are my desktop icons no longer rearrange. As a test, I even installed the old video card in the new (current) system and the desktop icons still didn't rearrange.

I didn't run my new system without Windows 10 Anniversary Update longer than the time it took to download and update the system, so not sure if it's something in the Anniversary Update that fixed my system.
 

ElFenix

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Mar 20, 2000
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one thing i found with windows 10 is that by default it turns on a scaling factor for high res displays. moving the slider to change the scaling factor doesn't completely override this default scaling factor. so, when the display is slept (turned off) windows goes back to applying the default scaling factor, moving windows and icons around to fit it.

see here:
https://forums.anandtech.com/thread...ver-with-new-gpu.2476600/page-2#post-38401957