Saturday, May 12, 2012

LCD monitors stuck on "Generic Plug & Play" and wrong resolution with W7 x64 and FirePro v8800

Microsoft has an annoying habit of rebooting my machine.  Yes, I know why they do this.  It is still annoying.

I still use a VGA/PS2 KVM.  Old school, sure, but it has two great advantages - it lets me control all my PCs and it works.

When MS decides to push out a reboot, and my KVM is set to a PC other than my main workstation, the main workstation display settings get confused.  The KVM-ed monitor will sometimes get stuck as "Generic Plug & Play Monitor" at the wrong resolution.

Worse, the 'correct' resolution is not listed in the standard Windows 7 display settings.  There is no option to force that resolution.

Resetting the KVM and rebooting the workstation should fix it, but sometimes does not.  Pressing "Detect" in the W7 display settings also does not fix anything, although it really should.

In this situation, I have found that simply opening up the ATI Catalyst Control Center will automatically fix the problem.  This means going to the system tray, right-clicking on the ATI icon, and selecting "Catalyst Control Center".

When you do this, the ATI code will run through your displays and automatically re-detect the correct model and settings.  The ATI control panel will appear, but you don't even need it, as the problem is already fixed.  You can just close it any be on your way.

[Edit]:  OK, this has started to become more wonky over time.  It's possible my old PS/2/VGA KVM is getting in the way, although I do not know why it would be an issue now and not before.  Hitting "detect" on the Catalyst CC is now sometimes no longer adequate to get the display back from "Generic" to the right settings.  Still, messing with it enough seems to eventually get it to work.

I did find some info on the net about forcing resolutions, but my version of Catalyst doesn't seem to have that option.

[Edit]:  Worked maybe 2 times, now it doesn't work any more.  Damn.

No comments:

Post a Comment