Help! Trying to setup VmMaker wih WG9400

[joelbob]

I have a HD6450 that I just installed CRT Emudriver 2.0 and everything seemed to go okay. I was following the installation guide http://geedorah.com/eiusdemmodi/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=1052#p1052  when I got to the point of enabling the EDID emulation. In the guide it says to enable the emulation then unplug your second monitor and when I plug in my d9400 I should have a working monitor. I currently have a lcd monitor plugged into the dvi port of my HD6450 and when I unplug it and plug my d9400 into the VGA port I still see NO SIGNAL IN on the d9400 but my windows screens is actually scrolling really fast from right to left on the screen. What am I doing wrong? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Here is a link to a quick youtube video I made showing the problem. Thanks again.

[joelbob]

Here is a link to a quick youtube video I made showing the problem. Thanks again.

[Killakaze]

Try plugging your crt into the same port your lcd was in via a dvi to vga adapter.

[joelbob]

My HD6450 didn't have the Analog pins of I can't try that option. I actually just bought a HD5450 and are trying to get that to work but I currently have no signal at all. I may have taken a step backwards with that card. 

[Calamity]

Notice that in my guide both monitors are connected by VGA to the same port, that's why I need to switch cables at some point.

Your setup, is different, you shouldn't unplug your LCD the way you do in your video. I'd start with the VGA cable already connected to the arcade monitor and the DVI one to the LCD.

[joelbob]

With the 5450 I can not plug in both the lcd via dvi and the d9400 without the lcd going black and the d9400 still displaying no signal. I will switch back to the 6450 tomorrow and try again. Should I go ahead and try to do the Atom-15 flash to the card even if the signal still looks like I showed in the video?

Am I doing something wrong or out of order or could it be the cards, or Windows 7?

[Calamity]

With the 5450 I can not plug in both the lcd via dvi and the d9400 without the lcd going black and the d9400 still displaying no signal.

That's probably because you're not pointing to the right analog output with VMMaker. Your HD 5450 probably has 2 analog outputs. If you select analog_0 you'll be targeting the DVI output, so your LCD will go black as soon as you enable EDID emulation.

You'll need to leave your LCD monitor connected to DVI by now, and the D9400 to the VGA, and select analog_1. The Windows display properties dialog should show two monitors connected after doing this.

If you have issues with the D9400, try using the arcade_15 preset until you figure out the problem. If you still have problems with the arcade_15 preset, start focusing on the cable and connection method, specifically how the sync signals are being managed and whether your monitor can deal with that or not.

I will switch back to the 6450 tomorrow and try again. Should I go ahead and try to do the Atom-15 flash to the card even if the signal still looks like I showed in the video?

No, leave ATOM-15 alone until you figure out VMMaker.

Am I doing something wrong or out of order or could it be the cards, or Windows 7?

It's the process you're following that's probably wrong. You can't follow my guides blindly, you need to understand the logic behind each step and see if it applies to your case.

E.g.: in your video, when you unplug the DVI and then plug the VGA, VMMaker's window suddenly appears on the arcade monitor, true? This shouldn't be the case: that window was showing through the other output! Windows must have re-arranged things automatically when noticing your messing with the cables. You need to avoid that happening.

[joelbob]

Calamity,

Thank you for the help.

I replaced the HD "5450" back into my computer and am still getting similar results. No matter what I do, or what order I do it in when I connect my d9400 to the card with the LCD still plugged in the LCD goes black and the d9400 displays like in the video I posted. The arcade_15 preset made no change. I can not have both screens plugged in at the same time period.

You said if I still have problems with arcade_15 start focusing on the cable and connection method, what do you mean by that?
How do I check how the sync signals are being managed and whether I can deal with it?

What is strange is if I remove the graphics card completely I can plug my LCD into my motherboard with DVI and my d9400 with VGA and they can both display perfectly if I set the resolution for the d9400 to 600x800. I just can't simulate anything close to this with either of my graphics cards.

Thanks again for the help but I'm really struggling here.

[Calamity]

The issue with Windows 7 is it holds a memory of previous display configurations. When W7 detects a new display configuration (e.g. when you hot-plug the arcade monitor) it looks up in this memory to check if that display hardware has ever been used in the past, and if so, it automatically sets the last known configuration, even if that was a screwed-up configuration. This got me crazy at the beginning, because it means you get different results doing the same steps. The drastic solution is to start from scratch with a new Windows installation (this is what I do in my guides), however you can always get things back on track by navigating through the Windows display settings dialog, once you figure out how to do it in the situations where you loose the video output completely.

Have you tried installing the driver with both cables connected already? From your post my understanding is you're still connecting the VGA cable later. Have you tried "analog_1"? Are you able to access the Windows display settings dialog to see how monitors are being detected after EDID emulation, and whether you can modify the resolution being sent to the arcade one?

By the sync signals thing I mean how the cable actually goes into the monitor. Does it have a VGA connector? Does it support separate or composite sync or both? You're not giving details about this fundamental part.

I know it may be frustrating, when you have experience there's a lot of things you can test to guess where the issue is, e.g. check your monitor's osd if it has one to see what frequency it's being fed with, etc. There's probably a very simple thing you're missing that's preventing this from working.

[joelbob]

It was my freaking cord...

When I got this monitor I replaced the cord that came with it with a new VGA cable. After banging my head against the wall for a while I decided to start from scratch and swapped my VGA cable back for the Dsub cable that came with the monitor knowing that the guy before me had this monitor running with that specific cable. All I know about the cable is that out of 15 pins, one is missing. I don't understand why swapping the cable now makes the monitor work but it does.

Thanks for your help Calamity! Sorry to that is seems that I was headed down the wrong direction the entire time!