Ugh, display issue

[Craig234]

On my backup PC, I was sitting there and the screen went black like a screensaver. I moved the mouse to activate it, and it changed the resolution from 1920x1080 to 1024x768.

What the heck happened - so I figured maybe rebooting would help. Nope.

I went into the device manager and it says the graphics card has a problem. It doesn't even have an option for resetting it to 1920x1024. In the 'events' section for the graphics card, it says:

"Device PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_9440&SUBSYS_0851174B&REV_00\4&2ace1b05&0&0010 requires further installation."

This is an old card - a 4890 on Windows 10 Pro. Any ideas?

 

[VirtualLarry]

Yeah, get a newer video card that actually runs OK (Edit: Read that as "Supported") with Windows 10.

Also, make sure that "VGA initialize on S3 Resume" is set in BIOS.

Edit: This is why you don't run older hardware, with newer OSes. (Stuff like: Parallel printers, other than maybe HP laserjets, which probably still have "Universal drivers" available, knowing HP., stuff like pre-GCN AMD/ATI graphics cards, pre-Fermi graphics cards on the NV side, Sandy Bridge or older iGPUs, stuff like that.)

 

[Craig234]

Yeah, get a newer video card that actually runs OK (Edit: Read that as "Supported") with Windows 10.

Also, make sure that "VGA initialize on S3 Resume" is set in BIOS.

C'mon, the card has run on this PC with Windows 10 for years, so unless the card has broken there's a better answer than upgrade. As I said, it's a backup PC - I'm heading to pick up my replacement MB (the fourth) to fix the main PC today.

I'll check the BIOS setting you mention, though I haven't messed with the BIOS that should cause any problem.

 

[VirtualLarry]

C'mon, the card has run on this PC with Windows 10 for years, so unless the card has broken there's a better answer than upgrade. As I said, it's a backup PC

Well, if it's compatible, then maybe it "broke". (Or maybe, that PC recently got the 1803 Upgrade, which rendered a bunch of older hardware "not supported".)

Edit: And you should have known that you were on borrowed time with that GPU, given that I don't think that it ever was "fully supported" by Windows 10. More like, based on a wing and a prayer, it worked at initial install time with Windows 10, with an out-of-the-box driver, but given time and Windows 10 Upgrades, it's ... time to move on.

Or, maybe it just broke.

Have you tried booting a Linux Mint LiveUSB distro? That might tell you something, if Linux can still utilize it at 1920x1080, or if Linux is also telling you that it's 1024x768.

Something else might have happened too... like an electrical glitch to the monitor, which caused it to lose the EDID data that it sends to the PC upon initialization. If that glitches, then even rebooting or powering-down the PC WON'T help, you have to FULLY remove power from the monitor electronics too. (UNPLUG from BOTH the wall, AND the PC, and let it sit for an hour, or press the power button repeatedly after unplugging it completely.)

Yes, that happened to me one time, and that's what fixed it. Windows will only report the resolutions that the EDID data supports.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Basically, Boot Linux LiveUSB, if it boots to 1080P -> points to Windows 10 driver issue.

If Linux also is limited to 768P, then possibly the card is fried, or possibly, the display EDID isn't reporting correctly.

Power down the PC and then unplug the monitor completely, let it reset for a half hour at least, then plug in monitor and power up PC.

If it then works OK, in both Windows 10 and Linux, then it indeed was a monitor EDID glitch, else, SUSPECT CARD IS DEAD / DYING.

 

[Craig234]

i'm not familiar with the Linux approach.

Tried an hour+ poweroff, but unfortunately, no change.

 

[Craig234]

For some reason it won't boot the BIOS. I tried holding F2 with and without the function key on. And other keys.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I guess my simplified instructions weren't totally clear. I wasn't talking about unplugging the PC completely, I was talking about the monitor.

When you say "Won't boot BIOS", do you mean that you can't get to BIOS setup via a hotkey (difficult, if BIOS is set to UEFI mode and Fast Boot is set to any sort of Enabled setting, with Windows 10 installed), or that you don't get any POST display at all, nothing?

If nothing, that's another good point in favor of the card being dead / fried.

Do you have another graphics card that you can try out in this rig in question?

 

[Craig234]

I guess my simplified instructions weren't totally clear. I wasn't talking about unplugging the PC completely, I was talking about the monitor.

When you say "Won't boot BIOS", do you mean that you can't get to BIOS setup via a hotkey (difficult, if BIOS is set to UEFI mode and Fast Boot is set to any sort of Enabled setting, with Windows 10 installed), or that you don't get any POST display at all, nothing?

If nothing, that's another good point in favor of the card being dead / fried.

Do you have another graphics card that you can try out in this rig in question?

Well, unplugging everything should still test the theory.

It boots - it just won't go to the BIOS.

Ya, I have another graphics card I can try. Just something of a hassle to swap them.

 

[Craig234]

I'm seeing threads saying that others have seen the same issue and that running a program to remove all the card drivers from the system and then reinstalling a new driver in a particular manner fixed it.

I'm a little concerned about trying that if uninstalling all the drivers might make the system unusable.

 

[RLGL]

I'm a little concerned about trying that if uninstalling all the drivers might make the system unusable

DL the new driver ,Run DDU, Remove the old driver, set it to not automatically install new driver, boot to windoze, install new driver. System will not be unuseable. Win can run without a video driver

 

[Craig234]

Not sure why I'd dl the new driver first or what DDU is, but I tried running their driver uninstall utility.

It said it'll run in the background - but it's run several hours and is still 'in progress' something not working.

 

[Craig234]

Well this is interesting.

I actually have another 4870 card (still new) for no good reason and thought I'd try swapping it in.

I started to do it, and quickly saw that the logistics made it more hassle than I want to do right now.

So I abandoned the idea after just unplugging the monitor cable, and plugged it back in.

Rebooted to continue in 1024x768... and now it's working in 1920x1080 again.