resized windows after monitor sleep

[unifex]

Hi,

after running Windows 7 for years without any issue, I have experienced a problem that apparently is all over the Internet - when my new monitor wakes up from sleep, all windows become very small and sit at the top left corner of the screen.

Now, I found numerous threads on all kinds of forums and support sites, but unfortunately nothing I read so far works and so I decided to ask here: is there any way to control either the default resolution of the dummy monitor or the time which Windows allows for the monitor to wake up?

Background: this being a holiday shopping season and all, I decided to buy myself a new 4K monitor (specifically, Samsung U32J590, the German version of it). My old video card did not support 4K and so I had to upgrade this as well, choosing Nvidia GTX 1650 from Asus. The video card has two Displayport and 2 HDMI outputs, the monitor one Displayport and two HDMI inputs. I am using a Displayport cord.

The "power plan" on my system has always been such that the monitor is turned off after some minutes of inactivity, while the system never sleeps (I also don't do hibernation). My previous setup involved a 24" HD monitor connected via a DVI cord. This worked without any problems. Now, whenever the monitor wakes up, all windows are resized to be very small and are bunched into the top left corner.

Searching for a solution, I found out that this problem has been around for years, is not specific to a particular monitor or graphics card. Apparently it is not present for DVI connections, but this is incompatible with 4K.

The following suggestions are floating around the Internet:

a. set the monitor not to look for active input (auto input -> off)
b. find the registry entry for the simulated monitor and set the resolution to 4K
c. change the monitor frequency to 30Hz
d. reinstall drivers, etc.

The first two don't work at all, the last one is an idiotic canned advice that is almost always useless. What remains is the method c (suggested among others by the official Dell support for their 4K monitors - again, the issue is not specific to any monitor), but this is not a solution in my view, since this will degrade the image defeating the purpose of getting a new monitor. My previous monitor worked well at 60 Hz (at HD of course, not 4K).

The most reasonable description of the problem that I found is that 4K monitors wake up slower than Windows can tolerate so for some time Windows thinks there is no monitor and then creates a dummy monitor where all windows are pushed. As the actual monitor comes online, the windows are shifted back there but now they are resized simply because the dummy monitor has some ancient default resolution of 640 by I don't know which small number. This seems ridiculous since all those screens are long gone, but apparently there is some legacy code that controls that behavior.

Moreover, this description is apparently not a bug but a feature designed to keep windows accessible after one disconnects a beamer (or an external monitor) from a laptop. Incidentally, this "feature" never worked for me before on my desktop (on the laptop it certainly works) - when I had two monitors, main on DVI and secondary on VGA, then Windows would remember which program was last opened on the second monitor and still open it there even if the monitor was off. To see that window I would have to turn on the second monitor. Now, with Displayport this is sort of "reversed" and made worse - I have connected only one monitor for now and still the windows are being resized.

Finally, I realize that this is a rather long post and so I repeat my question: is there any way to control either the default resolution of the dummy monitor or the time which Windows allows for the monitor to wake up?

Thanks in advance!

 

[iko22]

Hello unifex,

I had read the entirity of your post, but lacking in experience of 4k screens, this is the only place where I can contribute

Finally, I realize that this is a rather long post and so I repeat my question: is there any way to control either the default resolution of the dummy monitor or the time which Windows allows for the monitor to wake up?

Thanks in advance!

Here: Windows 7 moves/resizes windows on a monitor power cycle | Microsoft Community seems to have a "workaround" solution to your dummy monitor (simulated monitor) screen sizes.

 

[torchwood]

Hi
this provides a bit of insight, although HP the considerations should be the same




http://h20331.www2.hp.com/hpsub/downloads/HP-DisplayPort-setup.pdf

Roy

 

[unifex]

Thanks guys, but unfortunately these references do not help. What I did find is that the latest Windows 10 build doesn't suffer from this problem. I'll report back if I find out anything new.

 

[TechnoMage2016]

A bit of History: Since MS invented "Sleep" it's been subject to all sorts of failures. Some folks have experienced those failures and some have not. Sounds like you're on the affirmative list.
One sure fire FIX for any problem involving "Sleep" is to just shut it OFF.

Back in the day when the old CRT's would BURN if left on with a menu or icon on the screen, sleep was valuable. But our monitors today do not burn, so the sleep feature has really lost its importance.


So I repeat, "if sleep is causing you problems, just shut it off".



Merry Christmas, Mates

 

[wither 2]

Since you have a NVIDIA card, I assume there's a NVIDIA Control Panel in Control Panel. I don't have 4k and I have an old card but in the NVIDIA Control Panel, there's a setting called Adjust desktop size and position. In the Size tab, there is one that I'm not familiar with and I don't know if it would help called Enable Desktop Resizing. I don't know if it's a one time application or if it runs continuously. Just tossing this out as a possible solution.

 

[unifex]

A bit of History: Since MS invented "Sleep" it's been subject to all sorts of failures. Some folks have experienced those failures and some have not. Sounds like you're on the affirmative list.
One sure fire FIX for any problem involving "Sleep" is to just shut it OFF.

It's not the "computer sleep", it's the "monitor sleep". Either you simply turn off the monitor without doing anything to the PC, or you activate "turn off monitor" setting in the power options and then if you step away from the computer for a while, the screen is turned off. The computer itself is running undisturbed, or so one would assume.

 

[iko22]

I found a different kind of solution (DisplayPort Blanking / Screen Autodetect Problems) where the user had multiple-monitors connected to a Nvidia card via Display Port. He suggests that, while the feature cannot be disabled, it is possible to force the EDID information via a .txt file.
In his example, he has to repeat the procedure for multiple monitors. As you have only one monitor connected to a Nvidia card, then you may only need apply the procedure once.
Basically, in 2013, he went into
NVIDIA control panel > Workstation > view system topology > EDID status
Exported the EDID into a text file, then re-loaded EDID from txt file, to override the default EDID.
Whether NVIDIA control panel has the option for all graphics cards today, I am not sure, but it is worth a try.
He claims it works, but I do not know of anyone who has verified his result.

 

[unifex]

Unfortunately, this is not an option for consumer cards: the Workstation options in the Nvidia control panel are (or were?) available for the "business" cards, such as Quadro. GeForce cards don't have such options.

 

[iko22]

I have another idea. Have you heard of an "EDID Connector", or, "EDID Emulator Adapter"? They are designed to work seamlessly in conjunction with KVM switches or AudioVisual extenders; no interruption on performance. For example Display Port (DP) EDID emulator. Alas, I have not tried myself, but this Poster (post #4) on Windows are resized and moved after waking PC | Windows 10 Forums suggests that such a Connector provides the required fix.

 

[unifex]

Thanks for the suggestion. I am not sure I understand what this does, I actually asked on the tenforums about this , hopefully someone will reply.