# No video through HDMI without 2nd monitor connected



## bodine465 (Oct 5, 2010)

My system: home built AMD quad core system running Windows 7 32bit, using an ATI HD4800 video card. Connected to an Onkyo TX-SR607 AV receiver via HDMI, then into a Philips 42" HDTV. Setup had been running fine, with the exception of a thin (1") black bar on either side, where the screen wasn't extending to the edge. Had been running the refresh at 59 Hz because 60 Hz caused the screen to extend beyond the edges of the TV screen.

Got bored (always a bad thing) and tried playing with the settings to remove the black bars. When I set the refresh to 30 Hz, which was one of the choices, the screen went black. The Onkyo began searching for a signal, with the HDMI symbol flashing, then briefly stopping, with the PCM & DSP symbols showing, then back to flashing. Repeat. Sound through HDMI is working because I can hear the Windows "bonk" sound as it seems to be finding, then losing, new hardware. Couldn't get any video to come up on the screen and the graphics setting apparently didn't revert back to the last setting after the countdown clock ended.

Hooked up an old 19" LCD monitor I had to the VGA port to see if I could change the refresh to the Onkyo back. When I did, not only did the monitor work, but the TV came back on. Shows both monitors in the "screen resolution" window, with the TV display listed as "TX-SR607". Corrected the refresh, unhooked the old monitor, then rebooted. TV went black again as Windows began to load. Onkyo does the search thing again. Connect the old monitor and both come on again. Confirmed settings were same in ATI Catalyst control center. Even tried uninstalling, then reinstalling ATI drivers. Without the ATI drivers, TV comes on without monitor attached, but as soon as drivers install, back to black. Tried plugging HDMI alone into an Infocus projector, which worked fine.

Seems to be an issue between the ATI card/drivers and the Onkyo receiver. Any ideas how to correct? Had a similar issue a long time back, when I first build this system, but for the life of me, I can't remember what I did to wean it off the old monitor.


----------



## Infrasonic (Sep 28, 2010)

I've had some funkyness with Vista in the past with my nVidia card and a Denon. If I were you I would try this:

1. Disconnect the HDMI cable going to the Onkyo from the video card leaving only the 19" connected
2. Load windows and make sure you have downloaded the latest ATI drivers
3. Go to Add/Remove programs and uninstall the ATI display driver (do not run the driver installer)
4. After uninstalling when it prompts you to restart shut down the computer and connect only the HDMI cable going to the Onkyo (unplug the 19")
5. Start the computer and you should get into windows when it detects the Onkyo and sets a default resolution
6. After the windows driver installer is done run the ATI driver installer
7. Restart and be sure to set the proper resolution for your TV (1920*1080 or 1280*720 @ 60hz)

Hopefully this works, if not let us know.

Good luck!


----------



## bodine465 (Oct 5, 2010)

I did try uninstalling the ATI drivers while on the TV and even had to uninstall the driver in the video properties after the install, but before the reboot, to get to the Windows drivers. That switched it over to 640 x 480 mode, which looks really cool on a 42" screen. Rebooted without the 2nd monitor and it booted up into Windows, in 640 x 480 mode. Cool. Re-installed the ATI drivers fresh from a download, hoping it would be a brand new setting, but back to the same old when it started back up. 

Don't know if there was still some old settings left behind when I uninstalled. Back in the bad ol' days of flakey Win 98 drivers, there used to be scrubber programs that removed ALL traces of the old drivers. Gotta check if there's something like that available now.


----------



## Infrasonic (Sep 28, 2010)

Finding a 3rd party uninstaller is a good idea - I took a very quick look and I couldn't find one that was for Win7. But here are a couple more things to try.

With the 42" connected get into safe mode, go to the display properties and change the resolution or color depth to anything you can then restart. (This sounds weird but it has worked for me in the past)

If that doesn't work try downloading and installing an older driver - this may overwrite the bad setting.

Good luck!


----------



## bodine465 (Oct 5, 2010)

I was able to uninstall the drivers, disconnected the 19" monitor, then rebooted into safe mode and ran "Drive Sweeper" from Guru3d. That removed a ton of files & registry settings that ATI's uninstall setup left behind. Rebooted again and Windows 7 booted up fine on the TV, without the 19" monitor, using the Windows drivers. Installed the ATI drivers again, rebooted, and back to black. 

This is ridiculous. Thank God I have the drive backed up on my Windows Home Server. Would rather figure out the problem before reverting to reinstalling the drive from an earlier backup, but might not have a choice.


----------



## Infrasonic (Sep 28, 2010)

Very strange, ATI had been known for having bad driver support but I thought they had improved in the last couple years.

I would still try to install older drivers (go back a couple months).

Is there any way to connect the computer directly to the TV and eliminate the Onkyo from the equation?


----------

