I have a PC with dual monitors. It has an issue where only the first monitor that I plug into the video card works. Both my monitors work perfectly fine for a week or two, and then the issue pops up.
When the issue occurs:
- If I first plug monitor A into DVI port A, and then plug monitor B into DVI port B, then only Monitor A works. If I unplug monitor A from DVI port A and then plug monitor B into DVI port B, then only Monitor B works.
- I can't fix it by rebooting, reimaging, reinstalling video drivers, reinstalling Windows, etc.
- I have the same symptoms outside of Windows loads. Windows, Linux, and even my BIOS POST is displayed on only one monitor. (Normally, I see the POST on both monitors when things are working properly)
- Changing to a different video card does not fix the issue.
- Changing to a different motherboard temporarily fixes the issue, but it eventually returns.
- If I look in device manager, or the Catalyst drivers, it only lists 1 video display, not 2 like it should.
To get out of this state, I hooked up another computer up to both monitors and fiddled around a bit. The issue was there, but went away after some fiddling. I think hooked up the original PC with the problem and everything worked perfectly. This lasted about a week and then the issue came back.
Is there any way that the monitors could be remembering what state they are in? It is very strange that hooking another computer to them made this go away.
My PC is an Intel based system with a PCI-E ATI HD2600 Video card with dual DVI out. Monitors are both identical Acer AL2216W.
