Strange Issue with Multiple Monitors

[Polar Bear Dog]

Hey all, I have searched around the internet for anyone else with this issue and have not been able to find anything related.

Basically, I have an ASUS N53SV-EH72 laptop. Connected to it, I have a 23" ASUS display, connected through HDMI. What my issue is, is that when I have the two monitors set to Extended Display mode, the original laptop screen lags. I have my 23" monitor, at 1920x1080, set to be the primary monitor, since I like playing games on the larger screen. The 1366x768 of the laptop is then used for internet browsing, Skype, etc.. I notice this lag, for example, when I am on my desktop with nothing running. Dragging an Explorer window, for example around the large monitor, it moves perfectly smooth and there are no problems. However when I drag said window to the smaller laptop display, it begins lagging, almost moving at half the FPS of the larger display. Basically, the smaller monitor has choppy playback on everything (for example, watching a 60fps video on the small monitor, it only goes at about 30, while the large monitor is still going perfectly smoothly). In the Intel Control Panel, both are set to native resolution and 60p hertz.

There are two strange things I noticed:
1. When Aero is turned off (I have desktop composition disabled for all my games, since I run them in windowed fullscreen), both monitors are perfectly smooth. I have been using the Windows Basic theme to avoid the choppiness, but I'd much rather have Aero.

2. When the built-in laptop monitor is set to the main display, there is no choppiness problems. However, the reason I cannot do this is that this will force games to run in said laptop display, rather than the large external monitor.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Sardonicus]

Hello. I assume you're using the laptop with the power cord plugged in. The first thing that comes to mind is the power scheme. If you haven't done so, already, change the power scheme to "High performance".

 

[Polar Bear Dog]

Thanks for the quick reply.
The power cord is plugged in, and the power scheme is set to High Performance.

EDIT: Also, forgot to add this. I went into Control Panel > Appearance > Display > Screen Resolution, and clicking on Advanced settings and then going into driver and updating it, the problem fixed itself after rebooting the computer due to that being required by the driver update. However, after I shut down the computer for the night and turned it back on, the problem was back. Attempting to do the same thing again results in Windows telling me that the drivers are already up to date.

 

[Polar Bear Dog]

Unfortunately, after I put the monitor to sleep, the issue seems to have returned. What I have noticed is that, on my laptop's screen, if I drag a selection box, it will lag. If I then try to drag a selection box on the larger HDMI monitor, it will lag for a few seconds, and then snap back to its original FPS. Very weird and annoying issue, and I would love to get it fixed.

 

[Sarris]

Two thoughts;

1. If your machine is sharing RAM for video (mine did and had no dedicated video ram) you may need more memory
2. Try the free version of Display Fusion for the multi-monitor support

I had these issues on my old Gateway lappie, and between the two things noted above, the issue disappeared.

Not a professional recommendation, just my 2 cents.

Good Luck;

Sarris

 

[Polar Bear Dog]

Thanks for the help Sarris, but my RAM is showing, in Resource Monitor, that it has a solid 2 GB free. Installing the free version of DisplayFusion just gave me options that I already have, not helping my problem at all.

ALSO: setting the laptop monitor as the primary one no longer fixes the problem... I really don't know what is going on anymore.

EDIT: But wait, it gets stranger. In a stroke of desperate hope, I swapped the larger HDMI monitor back to the primary, and lo and behold, the issue is gone. It's only a matter of time, I assume, before it comes back, though.