markm75

I'm having a really odd issue with my card.. or perhaps its what i'm trying to do with it...

I have 2 westinghouse 24" widescreens in my one office.. but running into the living room i have a dvi to hdmi cable so i can output one of the two ports to my Samsung 6187 tv..

I'm basically pulling out one port that goes to one LCD and swapping it for the samsung one..

When i do this.. if i leave the system in dual screen mode.. things so far seem fine, switching back and forth..

When i change in the nvidia control panel to single screen mode.. even on my LCDs.. i get this very darkened look to the screen.. the start menu has no contrast etc..

**Also.. if i try to save then load a profile in nvidia panel.. it will say something like "profile load failed".. i've run the nfr utiltiy to remove the drivers.. started fresh.. same deal overall..

So i'm not sure if this is a problem with the card or the drivers.. or Vista x64.

Thanks

markm75

Update.. this problem seems to occur even if i just switch resolutions.. it doesnt matter if i have the output going to the tv or the lcd.. a reboot fixes things.. or.. if i launch a game.. say flight simulator X.. the brightness/contrast is fine at first.. then when i exit the game .. it reverts back to the dark look

markm75

Also.. when i plug the LCD back in.. it still thinks its the samsung tv.. as the max resolution wont go to 19~x1200.. it maxes at the tv max of 1080..

Interestingly.. my secondary lcd is at normal brightness through all this..

(I have tried both ports.. so i know its not a "port" issue though)


its definitely driver related (latest driver and the one before it)..

True.. if i switch resolutions.. i get the darkening effect.. on either the tv or the lcd.. i also get "error loading profile" when trying to load nvidia profiles..

If i up the gammo to say 80% or higher... It looks more normal.. or i can just reboot (very annoying).. but if i up the gamma then reboot.. i'm sure it would be too bright.

So even though the gamma isnt actually changing.. it appears to be changing.. I'm still leaning towards crappy drivers for x64 Vista perhaps.)

markm75

I've tried both the newest driver and the one before this.. as well as "cleaning" the drivers out in Vista.. but if i try to load profiles.. i get "error loading profile"..

Has anyone run into this and fixed it?

Thanks

FreoHeaveho

I am afraid I may not be too much help, but to be honest the 8600 is one of the worst cards nVidia has made. I really think you will find running 2 x 24" screens with it is just too much for it. Cards, when stressed do weird things.

edit: i will look into this for you man, and let you know.

markm75

At $130 for the card.. it was hard to pass up at the time :) I'm waiting for the price of a 8800gtx 512mb card to come down .. so i can fully or close to fully max out FSX with sp1.

BTW.. i dont get bad performance with this card, in fact its quite good.. 3d mark numbers were in range for the card, either single or dual mode.. it didnt go up a lot in single screen mode either.

Actually in working with this in the last week, it appears its a gamma issue.. just swapping the hdmi cable from the tv to the lcd doesnt cause the issue, in fact, lowering the resolution on the one lcd screen was enough to cause this "darkness" to appear on the lcd.. i found that if i went into the settings and increased gamma from 0, it brought up the brightness to normal levels..

The other, easier fix.. though ridiculous.. was to switch to standby mode.. then bring it out of stand by.

The other thing that irks me with nvidia.. is there is no hot key switching of profiles possible now.. so if i'm in the living room and want to switch the resolution down to 1080, i must goto the other room where the pc is.. i cant just hit the appropriate hot key on my remote keyboard.. very annoying.. i havent found any 3rd party ways around this either.

FreoHeaveho

Markm, i believe this is a double post and will be closed. I think (according to you other post) that your card is underpowered for 2 x 24" lcds. Please don't double post in future.

markm75

This is actually a seperate / "glitch" with the nvidia software and possible x64 vista.. not so much hardware related..

FreoHeaveho

ok i apologise, it is just that you refer to the problem in both threads.

FreoHeaveho

Mark, you know your system well it is obvious. The 8600 is still a weak card and I wouldn't recommend it to my cat, but if it works for you now i am (truly) happy. Let me know how you go. Cheers mate.