Problem with Dual Screen Setup (Recent)

I have been a dual screen set up for the past 2 weeks now, with my HP Pavilion dv9000 notebook and a 22" Hyundai BlueH HM22W. Everything has been absolutely great, until that is the Extra monitor has taken on a small quirk: a very annoying flickering heh.

At first I was worried that it may be a hardware issue, however I have checked the connection between the monitor and my notebook; also the scart input works fine with the monitor, no flickering apparent.

I have an inkling that it may have something to do with my recent Windows Update (a few days ago, as the problem began the same time.) I have been checking drivers, for instance rolling back to my previous driver for my GPU (nVidia Geforce Go 7600) as well as updating the drivers again. Tried the same thing for the 'Generic pnp Monitor' section under the Device Manager in Vista. I think tried playing with refresh rates, but I am only able to select 59/60 hertz refresh rate and both are the same.

So far nothing has rectified the problem. Any help would be much appreciated.

N.B my notebook display is fine.

 

hi SamODJ,

try to use the nvidia control panel to make adjustments as opposed to using the Windows display properties. see if doing that helps w/ your problem.

also, have you installed the LCD drivers for the Hyundai?

 

The nvidia control panel doesn't allow me any greater customization (in fact less if anything) that Vista's display control panel. As for the drivers: I don't recall installing any when it came, and looking on the internet I can find none that resemble the code/product number of the model of monitor.

 

I'm having the same problem with my external monitor (HP L2045w) with my nw8440. I only seem to notice it when both displays are on, and it only seems to happen occasionally. Also, the flickering was very noticeable when I hooked it up to my dad's Dell 2007wfp monitor. I know it's not the monitor nor the cable, since my Dad's Latitude D820 doesn't suffer from the flickering issues on that 2007wfp.

I've heard that it might have to do with some electrical interference when plugged into the same surge protector, and while the flickering did reduce when I unplugged my notebook (on the surge's end), it did not completely go away.

The other thing is, I have an ATi graphics card, not an nVidia one.

Can anyone else figure this out??

 

Ok, think I have solved the problem. After actually just reading through some dual monitor stuff on wikipedia (heh) I came across the fact that the VRAM is split between the two monitors. Obviously seeing as the VRAM is diskspace, I went about freeing some up, and voila the problem is solved.

Simply in my case it was a disk space issue.

 

That's odd. I have roughly 2/3 of my HD free, and my GPU has 256MB of dedicated VRAM. How is VRAM diskspace, then?

Also, I have an external hooked up right now (another HP L2045w), and guess what? No flickering! Then again, I'm on a docking station (with the monitor connected to the dock, but still through VGA), so that might be making a difference.

EDIT: There is still some flickering, but it is *very* minor, and can only be noticed on darker backgrounds.

 

Yeh slight correction, I was referring to virtual memory not VRAM >< doh. Still, not sure as to the cause of your flickering, but still, at least its minor now. Have you always had flickering since you started using it?

 

Yes, it seems like I've always had the flicker to some extent. I think it also depends on the monitor, because it was really bad on my dad's Dell 2007WFP (which happens to be an IPS-LCD panel), but it's usually not too bad on my HP L2045w (Which is just a standard TN-LCD panel). I'll try adjusting the virtual memory sometime and see what that does. I'm typically using up ~320-340MB RAM on idle, and I have 2Gb RAM.

 

Hmm yeh, I have 2gb RAM but run vista so at least half of it is used whilst on idle; also I use Photoshop alot for work, so the extra virtual mem (think i have it set at about 3gb) helps.