No video with arcade monitor connection

[JL13]

I have an older AMD K6 computer with windows 98 and an FX5200 graphics card. I want to connect my arcade monitor to the computer and start up without switching over from my standard computer monitor. The problem is that windows is not recognizing the arcade monitor and no video is output. Even when I have the arcade monitor connected, I can not get video on the standard monitor after switching out the cables without restarting the computer.

Scenarios:
The arcade monitor works fine if I start up with the standard monitor connected and then switch over after windows boots up to run Arcade OS.

I get video on the arcade monitor before windows starts when connected before computer boot.

I get no video when trying to connect standard monitor after starting windows with arcade monitor connected.

If I restart the computer after attempting to start with arcade monitor, windows finds new hardware (plug and play monitor) and installs a driver for the standard monitor.

Has anyone had this problem?

[JL13]

Is there a way to load a driver in autexec to avoid windows loading a driver? It seems like windows is not recognizing the arcade monitor as a plug and play monitor and therefore not loading a driver or disabling the video?

[Hiub1]

That is because you modified the drivers for your plug and play monitor, not the Arcade monitor which in this case would be a windows default monitor. Here is what I did to fix it.

1.Remove the drivers for the video card, uninstall powerstrip if you had it installed, *IMPORTANT* when you reboot the machine, do so with NO monitor plugged in. Just wait until you are sure that the computer has finished loading, and then you can plug it in. This way it does not install any drivers for the monitor, and uses the default ones.

2. Reinstall the videocard drivers, and powerstrip if you need it. Go ahead and add the resolutions in powerstrip, and when it prompts you to restart, remember again to unplug your monitor.

3. When it boots up, go into the powerstrip preferences and uncheck the box to start with windows. Now close powerstrip, and use Ultimarc's Quickres tool to switch to that resolution. If it works, go ahead and reboot windows with the arcade monitor plugged in and it should boot right back up into that resolution.

Remember, don't let windows see that plug and play monitor and you should be fine!

[MonMotha]

If you're having trouble with Windows seeing a monitor that you don't want it to, building a dongle that removes the DDC lines is trivial.  Heck, you could even just yank the pin out of the connector if you wanted to be really permanent.

The pins are 12 and 15 on the HD15 connector.  Removing either one will make the DDC subchannel (and the "plug and play" aspect of the monitor) go away.

Alternatively, and I'm surprised nobody has done this, you can make your arcade monitor show up as a plug and play monitor.  You just need to wire up an I2C EEPROM to the DDC subchannel with the appropriate data in it.  How windows will handle being told that it can only do 480 line interlace is beyond me, though.

If you run Linux, you can also use the NoDDC option on most video drivers in your X config file.  Then specify a horizontal and veritcal range and that will override everything.

[Hiub1]

That's good stuff on removing the pin, I thought about it, but didn't want to hack up my cable anymore than it was. My ATI catalyst drivers have an option to remove the DDC conection, but the catalyst software screws with the 15khz output and switches it to something else when it turns on.

[venom3x]

I

[miles2912]

The problem is that your OS does not know what resolution the monitor supports so it will send out a wrong one.  You need to force the resolution to 60Hz and delete the others.  There are a few tools that will do this.  I would suggest reading this article...

http://www.retroblast.com/articles/monitor.html

It should be manditory for anyone who wants an arcade monitor.

D-

[venom3x]

that

[Thenasty]

I dunno how WINdows recognises/detectec it as NEW MONITOR/Hardware. Pins 12/15 is not being use at all in standard arcade monitor.

Do you have your Vga Breakout cable setup correctly ?
You should only be using pins 1,2,3,5,6,7,8,10,13,14 on the DB15.

[venom3x]

yes the vga cable it