Exotic problem: M11XR3 with HDMI and DisplayPort both being used at the same time

So, I dumped my desktop and using my M11XR3 (i7, max upgraded, 16GB RAM. 540M with 2GB VRAM, SSD, etc, etc.) as my main computer. Cool, but I need a connection to external monitor (DisplayPort) and also a connection to my home theatre (HDMI) for sound, as I do music production, so the regular sound-out jacks (analog) are not good enough.

When I first connected everything, the HDMI connection would show as a 'turned off' monitor in the WIndows 7 (Ultimate 64 bit) control panel. The sound would be routed to the receiver through HDMI just fine, and the picture would show on the external monitor connected through DisplayPort. When I would 'disable' the HDMI 'fake' monitor in the Windows Control Panel, though, the HDMI connection would STOP transmitting sound to the receiver. Ok, I thought, I will just leave the HDMI fake monitor on; it would look ugly in the control panel (plus my cursor goes into the non-existing HDMI monitor) but that's not that big of a deal.

Cool, but not cool. After a couple of days, I put my laptop to sleep by closing the lid, which I have done several times that day, but this time, when I opened the lid after a few hours I was greeting by blank screens. The laptop was working but BOTH the laptop LCD and the external monitor were BLANK. After lots of testing, I found out that when I unplug the HDMI cable, things go back to normal, my laptop LCD is working and so is the external monitor, but now I have to route the sound through the sound-out jack, inferior quality and no proper separation of 5.1 channels. When I plug in the HDMI, BOTH my laptop LCD and the external monitor go blank, as if the HDMI 'fake monitor' takes over both connections. The laptop doesn't even send signal to the external monitor (monitor says 'no DisplayPort signal detected), but only thought HDMI, both picture and sound!

I do not have a TV connected to the receiver, I just use it to amp my studio monitor speakers. There is no option on the receiver (Onkyo) to 'separate' HDMI sound from HDMI picture, i.e. there is no option to 'turn off picture and let only sound through the HDMI' as some have advised me. I don't think the Onkyo is 'setting back' the laptop display properties through a 'return link' on the HDMI, as nothing changed between the time I had separate display port and HDMI connections working fine and the time the HDMI started taking over as the main display when connected. The only event that happened in between was that I put the computer to sleep by closing the lid.

Of course, I've rebooted many times, reinstalled drivers, booted in safe mode, etc. etc. NOTHING helped. I just can't understand how come the dual HDMI/displayport worked for two full days fine and with no problems, and then after that doomed wake-up from sleep suddenly it is not working anymore and nothing helps.

Thoughts?

 

You can try cycling the displays with Function & F1. Another option is to get an HDMI to Displayport (assuming your monitor does not have an HDMI in) and run from laptop to Onkyo to monitor. Though that will likely only work if your monitor is 720 or 1080P

 

Does your home theatre system have HDMI video passthrough? Most of them do nowdays.

 

Yes, I tried cycling with F1 and with P, of course, I tried all the 'simple' solutions..

The montitor is not the problem, the monitor as 4 inputs, displayport, hdmi, dvi and vga. The problem is when I plug-in the HDMI cable into the laptop it 'takes over' the other displays, i.e. the graphics card itself just sends video signal to the HDMI port while it stops sending signal to the displayport AND the built-in display, as if it thinks that the HDMI has the only display connected. When I set it up initially I had the video to go through the displayport to the monitor, while the audio to go through the HDMI to the Onkyo receiver. That worked for days before the computer crashed and I want to go back there.

Yes, the receiver has 'hdmi through', thus if I buy another HDMI cable and forget I bought an expensive displayport cable, I could connect the laptop to the receiver and then the receiver to the monitor through the 'pass through' HDMI. I am aware of that option, but I don't want to buy another cable when this worked with the cables I already have.

 

Also, since my built-in LCD goes off when I plugin the HDMI cable, the pass-through solution would not be complete, since although it would allow me to use the external monitor with pass-through HDMI, it would still turn off my laptop's built-in LCD, which is not what I want.

 

So, I installed the latest 540M driver from nVidia (310) and it went back to how it originally was, video to displayport, audio to HDMI (fake monitor in Display Properties, but turned off).. This makes me a happy camper, but I really wonder if another crash is just a 'sleep' away?