"Generic Non-PnP Monitor" Acer S240HL Tri Monitor setup.

Hi all,

This issue really bugs me, every few months it'll happen, one of my three screens (9/10 times it's the Acer), will display as a "Generic Non-PnP Monitor", with this it'll only display in 640*480 (usually 1920*1080, same as the other 2 screens).

This set up works perfectly most of the time, and has done for the last few years, but as I said it comes and goes. I've done a lot of research online and the best advice I can find is that when it happens if I unplug it all, and let the capacitors drain in the monitor and GPU then when reconnecting everything it'll work fine. I've done this before and it's not worked, I've also done it and it's worked. I've also had it in the past where it's just reverted back to how it's supposed to be mid use.

My set up:
OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit SP1
CPU: Intel Core i7 3770 @ 3.40GHz
Motherboard: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. CM6330_CM6630_CM6730_CM6830
Display 1: SONY TV (1920x1080@60Hz)
Display 2: Samsung S24B300 (1920x1080@60Hz)
Display 3: Acer S240HL (1920x1080@60Hz) <--- Displaying as "Generic Non-PnP Monitor (640x480@59Hz)"
GPU: AMD Radeon HD 7800 Series

I've got the latest drivers for all the hardware, I've got the latest windows updates for everything. I've tried older versions of the drivers for the GPU, no difference with the issue.
I've been to the Acer website to download a driver specifically for the monitor, but they haven't got one on there for this montior on this OS, just for Windows Vista (which Windows 7 won't recognize as an install-able file).

Any help would be much appreciated, this is driving me up the damn wall!!!

How can I do this? The download gives me 2 files, I've tried to install them but it just says error and no further options.

Thanks

I'll go try now and get back to you!

Thanks a lot for the speedy reply :)

Right, I've tried what you said, followed it to the letter. The driver I downloaded from the Acer website had 2 files in it, S240HL.inf and S240HL.icm, I've ignored the icm file. I forced the install of the inf file for the "Generic Non-PnP Monitor", and now on the device manager it's changed the name to the model of the monitor (the others just say "Generic PnP Monitor"). It's still had no effect the running of the display.


Any more thoughts on this? I've tried the cold boot option, the pc has had hours of downtime and it's still not working for me.

I ran into a similar problem on my work laptop last night, with a Samsung monitor -- and cold booting everything, leaving the monitor unpowered overnight, etc. also didn't work; it still showed as "Generic Non-PnP monitor" and wouldn't let me use the native resolution.

This morning I tried plugging the monitor into a Linux machine, which lets me force the resolution even if the monitor isn't detected as PnP -- and it worked there. Then when I plugged it back in to the Windows laptop it was detected as plug & play again, and everything worked.

Thank you so much, this worked for me. Just bought the monitor and have been messing with it for quite a while and was thinking about returning it! I followed the steps above then went into my display settings and the monitor display was set to disconnected. I set it up as an extended display and works great.