[jcauthen04]

This actually happened to me: Tuesday morning my PC started blacking the screen out about every 7 or 8 seconds, then stay dark for 3 or 4 seconds, then come back on. I updated my nvidia drivers (I've got a Geforce GTX 1070 8 GB) and it got worse in a hurry. After two more reboots, it wouldn't get past the bios splash screen before it would quit.

I went on a troubleshooting easter egg hunt that lasted a day and half. In desperation I hooked my PC up to the 32" 1080 HDTV that I use for TV viewing while I'm gaming. Lo and behold, the PC booted up just fine with it. I was then able to move the HDMI cable for the TV to my 55" HDTV to which it's normally connected... and it displayed and carried on just fine - no screen blackouts.

I then tried to restart my PC with it hooked up just like it was after switching the HDMI cable... wouldn't get past the bios splash screen. I hooked it back up to the 32" HDTV, and it was able to boot again!? I'm now working back on the 55" 4K TCL Series 6 display, after moving the HDMI cable back over to it.

I can't even explain how I got to the point where I swapped things around to arrive at this conclusion. Two different graphics cards yielded the same results. I can boot the PC up to the login screen if I just leave the HDMI cable disconnected. When I see the busy light has quit after bootup, I plug the cable back into the TCL and I can go from there. This is one of the most bizarre occurrences I've ever encountered in the gaming & display world! I've searched the internet for possible causes for this, but I'm coming up with nothing so far. Any of you guys have a clue on this?

[mebby]

Not sure I fully follow you but here's what I'm hearing:

You can't get the computer to boot up while connected to your normal computer monitor.

You CAN get it to boot up just fine while connected to your 32" TV.  No issues here at all right?

As long as you've booted up first you can move the cable to your 55" HDTV and everything works.  But if you try to boot up while connected to the 55" HDTV it hangs.  Is that right?

Sounds to me like you've got some sort of HDMI handshake issue with your motherboard and something is corrupted in your BIOS.  I'd look for a motherboard upgrade to see if you can flush out whatever went wrong.  Or check the diagnostics in your BIOS.

Something along those lines.  I'm guessing your 32" HDTV is old enough that it's not having the issue (meaning it's not really looking for the same sort of handshake or something).

I don't know but I'm thinking this is a BIOS issue either way.  Curious to hear what you find out.

[jcauthen04]

Not sure I fully follow you but here's what I'm hearing:

You can't get the computer to boot up while connected to your normal computer monitor.

You CAN get it to boot up just fine while connected to your 32" TV.  No issues here at all right?

You've got it... no issues booting up to the 32" TCL, which is actually a year younger than the 55" TCL, although it's a 1080p display.

This morning, I simply disconnected the HDMI cable from my PC, powered the PC up and could tell be the busy light that it was booting normally.  Three minutes later, I connected the HDMI cable to my 55" display, via my Onkyo AV Receiver, and it works fine.

I've tried booting up with the HDMI cable hooked directly to the HDTV and through one of the HDMI inputs on my AVR... it makes no difference, it won't boot either way from a cold start.  I even swapped out HDMI cables and two cables produce the same result.

I was going to try to update my motherboard bios, which will require a flash drive to accomplish from what I'm reading.  I have found a case now from someone else who was having this problem, and he was able to resolve it by installing a videoport to HDMI adapter and plugging it into the videoport on his graphics card and the HDMI cable into it.

He says there's something going on with his display device that was putting a constant current drain on one of the cable's lines, even when it was off, as evidenced by a busy LED light on his motherboard that went out when he disconnected the HDMI cable.  His theory is the videoport/HDMI adapter is doing something that somehow isolated that signal.

I don't know but I'm thinking this is a BIOS issue either way.  Curious to hear what you find out.

I'm going to figure out how to update the BIOS, as I don't think I've ever done it and the computer is four years old now.

[mebby]

Not sure I fully follow you but here's what I'm hearing:

You can't get the computer to boot up while connected to your normal computer monitor.

You CAN get it to boot up just fine while connected to your 32" TV.  No issues here at all right?

You've got it... no issues booting up to the 32" TCL, which is actually a year younger than the 55" TCL, although it's a 1080p display.

This morning, I simply disconnected the HDMI cable from my PC, powered the PC up and could tell be the busy light that it was booting normally.  Three minutes later, I connected the HDMI cable to my 55" display, via my Onkyo AV Receiver, and it works fine.

I've tried booting up with the HDMI cable hooked directly to the HDTV and through one of the HDMI inputs on my AVR... it makes no difference, it won't boot either way from a cold start.  I even swapped out HDMI cables and two cables produce the same result.

I was going to try to update my motherboard bios, which will require a flash drive to accomplish from what I'm reading.  I have found a case now from someone else who was having this problem, and he was able to resolve it by installing a videoport to HDMI adapter and plugging it into the videoport on his graphics card and the HDMI cable into it.

He says there's something going on with his display device that was putting a constant current drain on one of the cable's lines, even when it was off, as evidenced by a busy LED light on his motherboard that went out when he disconnected the HDMI cable.  His theory is the videoport/HDMI adapter is doing something that somehow isolated that signal.

I don't know but I'm thinking this is a BIOS issue either way.  Curious to hear what you find out.

I'm going to figure out how to update the BIOS, as I don't think I've ever done it and the computer is four years old now.

I'm sure you could fix it by swapping out your motherboard.  It's a fun little project but you'll need some patience.

[wirenut48]

Sounds like an issue with resolution timings. The Bios will be booting at a lower resolution than windows that the TV is having trouble switching from. I can't get video to pass though my Denon Receiver any more as I believe it is outputting a resolution that the TV is not compatible with (720i). So far haven't been able to figure that one out, scaling must be fubared, and even gave up trying. Now run HDMI straight to tv with ARC to receiver for sound.

[mebby]

Sounds like an issue with resolution timings. The Bios will be booting at a lower resolution than windows that the TV is having trouble switching from. I can't get video to pass though my Denon Receiver any more as I believe it is outputting a resolution that the TV is not compatible with (720i). So far haven't been able to figure that one out, scaling must be fubared, and even gave up trying. Now run HDMI straight to tv with ARC to receiver for sound.

I sold my Denon receiver.  It was awesome but they have some serious issues with HDMI handshake that they just won't fix.  I had all sorts of workarounds that I got tired of dealing with.  Now I've gone the simple route of just connecting everything directly to my TV and using a Sonos surround setup.  The surround quality is marginally degraded but the hassle free setup of it all is worth it!

[jcauthen04]

Thanks for the input on this guys.  I finally went with the HDMI splitter solution, as I already had an HDMI splitter that I wasn't using anymore.  I bought a 3 foot HDMI cable, installed it on the HDMI port on my Geforce GTX 1070, connected it to the input on the splitter and on splitter output A, the cable running to my AV receiver.

The 3 foot cable puts the HDMI splitter on the right rear corner of my entertainment center, just behind my HDTV and within easy reach, but out of sight.  It works great, and honestly, I don't have to reboot my PC very often, but unplugging the HDMI cable from the graphics card port was cumbersome, and probably not in the best interest of the integrity of the cable and to port, long term.

Still, just when I thought I'd seen everything in the AV world, this little gem rears its head!? 

[wirenut48]

Sounds like an issue with resolution timings. The Bios will be booting at a lower resolution than windows that the TV is having trouble switching from. I can't get video to pass though my Denon Receiver any more as I believe it is outputting a resolution that the TV is not compatible with (720i). So far haven't been able to figure that one out, scaling must be fubared, and even gave up trying. Now run HDMI straight to tv with ARC to receiver for sound.

I sold my Denon receiver.  It was awesome but they have some serious issues with HDMI handshake that they just won't fix.  I had all sorts of workarounds that I got tired of dealing with.  Now I've gone the simple route of just connecting everything directly to my TV and using a Sonos surround setup.  The surround quality is marginally degraded but the hassle free setup of it all is worth it!

Yea definitely having HDMI handshake issues with the Denon but luckily I can still get Atmos over ARC to the Receiver when playing movies from the TV VUDU app. My UHD player has a second HDMI audio out to connect to my 11.1 Atmos speaker setup on the Denon. So still getting all the proper audio formats to the receiver without using it as an A/V switching hub.

[jcauthen04]

I can put the final bow around the fix for my problem of not being able to boot my PC while connected to my TCL Series 6.  As it turns out, the HDMI splitter I put in series with my video card's output reports its own EDID (Extended Display Identification Data).  A technician on the AVS Forum offered that idea to me.  So I just left the splitter in the Port 1 position (the one that was connected to the TCL, port 2 was just floating) and rebooted my PC like that.  It booted to the desktop with no issues like this, so I guess now my PC is getting an EDID report via my splitter that says it's good to go... strange, but it works!

Now I won't even have to worry about switching the splitter during boot up!

[bob5453]

I have 2 monitors and I have an HDMI cable running to my TV. I only activate the TV or 2nd monitor when I need them. I now use the Nvidia settings software to do this and then click on Set up multiple displays and just tick the boxes I want and hit apply. If I don't do this, my system seems to find a new device and black out my monitor for a few seconds a couple of times a day. My pc is 1080, my TV is 4k and my 2nd monitor might be 720.  I can't remember which HDMI input I used on the TV, it is a struggle to move my TV and mess with wires as it is in a big cabinet.

I don't know if this will help, but I thought I would mention only using the monitor you want and deactivating the others.

[jcauthen04]

I've never actually tried multiple displays with my PC.  I do have a 32" 1080p HDTV about two feet to the left of my 55" entertainment center display, but I use it strictly as a TV, and occasional You Tube viewing.  It's great on football Saturdays and Sundays while I'm wanting to game while keeping up with the games.

[bob5453]

I have 2 football or basketball (college) games on quite often using tv for 1, streaming another and then using my pc for other stuff. I'm 67 and retirement is great with all this new tech stuff. I also have alexa in every room and 3 of them have video screens.