Windows 7 Slow Monitor activation...

VsUK

Senior Member
Hi, I've had this problem a while, well ever since i got windows 7 really but figured id ask here now i found you guys :D

I have windows 7 64bit with a XFX HD4870 Graphics card with a Flatron W2243S LCD monitor from LG.

The problem i have is this, when i shut down the computer overnight & boot it up for the first time in the morning, it takes forever for my monitor to activate. I press delete to go into cmos settings but even then i have a good 2,3 minute wait before my monitor shows my anything. I've had to delete my duel boot setup because of this because i was unable to select which OS to boot.

When ive had the computer running & i reboot, everything thing shows up fine & im able to see my GPU post screen just before my motherboard post screen.
I also sometimes get a lengthy delay when i minimize from a game, my monitor light starts to flash & i have a good minute or so before it activates again.

I've tested monitor on 2 other systems, 1 running windows 7 64bit & the other running windows xp & it works fine, also put my GPU into the other systems & again works fine.

Any idea's?
 
It may be that you have a lot of programs set to run on startup. Click on the orb and where it says "Search programs and files" enter: msonfig and press enter. On the msconfig screen select the startup tab and see what is listed. If your unsure of some items there you could post a copy of the list here.
 
It may be that you have a lot of programs set to run on startup. Click on the orb and where it says "Search programs and files" enter: msonfig and press enter. On the msconfig screen select the startup tab and see what is listed. If your unsure of some items there you could post a copy of the list here.

Well i only have 7 startup files..

My comodo firewall
Active Desktop Calender
MSN Messenger
Avast
Desktop Sidebar
Lightscribe software
& YIM

The very same stuff i always use on all my systems & i dont think they would effect anything when i first boot up the system & it fails to even activate on CMOS screen if i hit del key repeatedly in the hope it worked or even show my duel boot option screen.

TorrentG...

I usually got my drivers from Global Provider of Innovative Graphics, Processors and Media Solutions | AMD which directs me to Global Provider of Innovative Graphics, Processors and Media Solutions | AMD so im currently doing your url atm & ill let you know how it goes because i only know when i boot up from cold :D
 
OK, problem still persists. My monitor is a Analogue not digitial so i installed the Analogue driver & did the ATI drivers also which was already up to date anyways.

Here is what i did.

Turned on my monitor & the light flash's as normal.
Turned on my tower & my light stops flashing for about 5 seconds & then starts flashing.
Then after about 5 more seconds it stops flashing but still a blank screen.
I can hear my Win7 sound on speakers as it loads into desktop & still blank screen & its a good minute or 2 before it shows me anything.

When it stops flashing, it dosnt even change texture of black, where you can clearly see its not showing you any image what so ever to where its showing you an image but its a black image if you get what i mean, it just dosnt do anything. However if i reboot it will run perfect, its just from first boot of the day.

I thought it might be underpowered GPU? but i used to have 2 hard drives in my tower also & i removed them to external enclosures with there own power supply & it still happens so im completely confused why this happens.
 
When ive had the computer running & i reboot, everything thing shows up fine & im able to see my GPU post screen just before my motherboard post screen.

I've tested monitor on 2 other systems, 1 running windows 7 64bit & the other running windows xp & it works fine,
Then it is not the monitor.

also put my GPU into the other systems & again works fine.
Then it is not the card either.

I press delete to go into cmos settings but even then i have a good 2,3 minute wait before my monitor shows my anything.
And that has nothing to do with the driver or what is being loaded at boot because the HD has yet to be touched. So you need to try another monitor on that computer and see what happens. I would also want to know if the PSU is working fine, and I might try it with just one stick of RAM.
 
Well to my knowledge the PSU is working fine.. the one i have is umm.. Ezcool 800W Strada 14cm Fan PSU - 20+4pin 1x PCI-E 4x SATA. I used to have 3 IDE 500gb hard drives & 2x 500gig Sata hard drives, 2 case fans, amd athon x2 cpu, 2x dvd rw & 4gig ddr2 it all worked fine. I thought my PSU was the problem with underpowering my system but i took out my 3 IDE's & stuck them into externals to save electricity & prolong there life as i can use when i need & now when pc is just on.

I'm a little unsure how i would know if my PSU would be faulty because my system dosnt crash, hang or have poor performance in games. On the win7 performance tests i get 7.1 - 7.5, only my cpu lets me down at 5.1 & 5.4 for my hard drive.

Anyways, i will report in tomo as it only happens from a cold boot & not when i just reboot or turn off & on again, although it does stick a little on the power off & on again but comes on in time for cmos...
 
OK.. i took out all my memory & put in a new stick i know works because its never been opened from when i purchased it & made sure all connections are sorted on my motherboard & so forth. Turned on my tower & it does exactly the same thing. I even put another monitor on my system & it worked fine & my monitor works fine on others, its like my monitor is saying F**k you to my GPU lol
 
Well, that's an odd one then, for sure. If your monitor works fine on other computers, and other monitors work fine on your computer, then I don't know what's happening and you may be right - the two just don't play well together. I guess suppose you could try your graphics card and that monitor in a second computer but even if it works fine there, I am not sure why they would not work in your computer.

If your card works fine in your computer with other monitors, that would eliminate the PSU, RAM, and motherboard.

How new is this LG monitor? Did it ever work on this system with that card?
 
its about 4 months old now & it worked fine when i ran xp on a duel boot & my second OS as windows 7 which as you can tell, i had problems switching to :p so i got rid of xp & stuck with 7 as xp was for compatibility problems which i havent had so all is well.

I cant be 100% sure but when i installed win7 & went to the gigabyte website for updated drivers i was prompted to download latest bios firmware for win7 & then i have updated it twice since to newer versions & I'm sure it did work on windows 7 but i cant remember if it started to happen after bios update & if so which one it was.

Would it be safe to install a old version of bios to test this out?
 
Yes, it's safe to install older bios but very much not recommended. I sincerely doubt it will help with the issue at hand. If you're set on trying it though, good luck and more power to ya! :)

Just make sure the system can not lose power for any reason while doing so.
 
I cant be 100% sure but when i installed win7 & went to the gigabyte website for updated drivers i was prompted to download latest bios firmware for win7
The BIOS has nothing to do with the operating system. Remember, the OS is not even touched until way after the POST and the boot drive is accessed. The BIOS provides the initial ("basic") instructions for communications between the major components of the motherboard, the CPU, and RAM.

I agree you can roll back the BIOS, but I would not recommend it.
 
Well i did do a roll back & win7 seemed to of loaded quicker lol as i heard the win7 sound quicker than usual lol but still no picture. I'm going to try sticking a different GPU in my system & see if that has any effect. I know this has nothing to do with windows because when you go into cmos settings nothing is loaded before hand but even that dosnt work.

I've never had a problem like this before & it's got to be GPU issue as its that which sends the image signals so ima try that & see what happens. The card is 8months old & still can send it back but i cant if there's nothing actually wrong with it & i cant really say after 8 months the problem is that it just dosnt like my monitor lol.
 
Update...

This morning i put my monitor on another system using win7 64bit & that systems monitor on my system with win7 64bit & booted them both on at same time, My system with the other monitor worked spot on & the other system with my monitor worked spot on also, now....

I left the systems on & i unplugged monitors by unplugging the leads from back of monitor & power lead, swapped them back & fitted the leads back in whilst the comps still on. Turned the other system on & monitor showed desktop instantly after the monitor logo had shown. However my monitor showed its logo & then went into power saving mode (flashing light) for about 2 minutes before showing my desktop.

Its a analogue Monitor i presume because it uses a VGA connection & my XFX HD 4870 has 2 DVI out so i used a DVI to VGA converter.

Anyone with any ideas?
 
Swapping monitors while live is dangerous and I would advise against doing that again. With so many pins in such close proximity, it would not take much to short one to ground or two together and permanently damage the monitor, or the card.

Its a analogue Monitor i presume because it uses a VGA connection
Yes, if it uses a 15-pin D-Sub connector (sometimes called VGA) then you are right, that is analog.

And the 2nd monitor, what type is it? I am starting to suspect your card is having problems supporting analog, since your monitor worked fine on the 2nd computer.
 
Other monitor is a VGA also, a Acer X201 & i have another one a Samsung Syncmaster with same results. I agree swapping monitors live was risky but i made sure i swapped them over carefully :D

I just dont get it, something has to be causing it to have difficulty activating & i thought maybe its because im using 1280x1024 desktop resolution but that isnt even taken into account if it fails to activate in cmos for a long period of time so im at a loss. Asked LG support this & still waiting for a reply :/ <u LG Flatron is wifescreen & the others aint.
 
In my old radio maintenance days, we used to call stuff like that "FM" not for frequency modulation, but for a certain kind of magic! ;)

Sometimes things just don't play well together. RAM is perfect example. Two sticks can test and work perfectly by themselves or with other sticks. But put the two together and the system crashes.

Maybe LG can help. Keep us posted.
 
Ok, i got a reply back from LG support & they basically said 2 things, to download the monitors drivers from there site & kindly provided a link to it, even though i clearly stated i already have done so & cant be nothing to do with drivers because it dosnt bloody work from the moment you turn the system on or in cmos. The second is faulty lead.

Now i never thought about a faulty lead DVI to VGA & apparently theres different types of DVI- & from what i understand of the different types of leads;
DVI-D - True Digital Video is Digital only so having a DVI-D to VGA is kinda stupid.
DVI-A - High-Res Analog is Digital to Analog specifically for GPU DVI to VGA Monitors.
DVI-I - Basically does both of what the above 2 do.

So could this be a issue with the DVI to VGA converter & the monitor having problems with it where as others may not? I presumed all DVI to VGA converters would be suitable but if one should be faulty may this be the cause? As at the moment i have a DVI to VGA converter & then a VGA lead into that & into my monitor, well i say Monitor it goes via a KVM then my monitor but ive done all the tests i have said before with it & without with same issue, but switching over to the other system with KVM it runs flawless. So I've ordered a DVI-I lead gold to VGA to cut out the extra addition to convert & see where that takes me & if that doesn't do anything, i guess the only thing i can do is just live with a few minute wait to view cmos or my desktop.
:(

Btw i dont know if this is related or not but today i went into my ATI Catalyst & wanted to change my resolution a little higher from 1280x1024 as from reading other forum users of monitors of my size they use 1680x1050 & my monitor supports higher resolutions than this, but when i change it, it went out of sync & it refuses to allow me to set the refresh rate higher & keep the resolution i want. I set it to 1680x1050 it jumps down to 30hz but clearly my monitor wont support this & want to set it at 60hz but when i do it changes my resolution back.

Also when i left it at 1280x1024, i went with 75hz refresh in staid of what i had at 60hz it accepted, but when i rebooted my monitor refused to activate period & had to reboot into safe mode but i didnt change a thing as it loaded up in 1280x1024 so i rebooted & it worked like it usually does with the wait but it puzzled me :/
 
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So could this be a issue with the DVI to VGA converter & the monitor having problems with it where as others may not?
One of my first thoughts was a faulty cable but I dismissed that when you said the monitor worked fine on another computer. But, if the signal from the card on the second monitor was stronger and able to overcome the resistance caused by a poor connection in the cable, then I suppose it could be the cable. But it seems like a stretch to me - but certainly no harm to check it out. You new cable may tell.

DVI-A does not convert the "signal" from digital to analog. That cannot be done inside a "passive" (not active or no "intelligent" circuitry) cable. DVI-A carries both digital and analog so a connector adaptor can be used.

it goes via a KVM
KVM? That is something your should have mentioned in your opening post! Any time you add a splice, connection or a switch to any circuit, you add resistance and possibly capacitance, and/or inductance that can certainly adversely affect the signal. You need to remove the KVM from the circuit and see what happens.

Oddly, I cannot find that LG model number on LG's website, even in discontinued models, but I found it here and it shows that your LG's native resolution is 1920 x 1080. You need to set it there and leave it.
 
Hi, if you was looking for it on the American LG site you wont find it, i had that problem when searching for it on the wrong one, but it is listed Here & your right about the native resolution been 1920x1080 however it wont have it, it goes out of sync, well i say goes out of sync, the picture seriously distorts & looks like its overlapping excessively. Like the good old days of windows 98 or xp when the comp freezes up waiting for something to load & you move the window that's open & it keeps a ghost image of its last location, well its like that & worse.

I will try without KVM like you said however if other monitors cope why not a newer model?
 
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