Multi-Monitor DisplayPort Issues

from Stardock Forums

I'm not sure if this is the correct place to post this, please let me know.  I couldn't find any place to submit technical feedback or bug reports, so I'm putting this here, I'll gladly resubmit this via any proper channel/method.

I have 3 monitors.  Two of my monitors are HDMI, the primary monitor is connected via DisplayPort.  I have to have this monitor connected via DP because it is 144Hz, and neither HDMI nor DVI will support that refresh rate, along with g-sync/v-sync.

Whenever I turn off my primary display all the icons get shifted to the other two monitors, as one of them will become primary.  When I turn the monitor back on it becomes my primary display again, but the fences do NOT move back to the proper positions.  Restoring fence snapshots does not work either.  I've checked the JSON files, and it appears that the monitors are named something like display4, display5, etc.  Every time I turn off my DisplayPort monitor Windows detects it gone via PnP and removes it, then adds it again when powered back on.  So each time it power cycles it becomes the next highest integer.  Therefore if the backup/snapshot says a certain fence belongs on monitor 1, that monitor may end up being called display4 or display17 or whatever depending on how many times it's been turned on/off.

I don't know exactly what the solution is.  I think in the past (when I've had the time and patience to do so), restarting the computer would reset the counters and my primary display would return to being display_1 or whatever.  I haven't rebooted to fix it in a while, I simply stopped turning off my monitor.  I forgot about the issue after a while and I turned off my monitor last night, and this morning everything was messed up again.  I just dragged all the fences back and resized them.

I would really appreciate some kind of proper solution for this.

FYI:  My monitor does NOT have any kind of feature to disable PnP recognition to avoid the issue of Windows dropping/adding it when the monitor turns on and off.  I've looked into this already, some monitors have those settings, my doesn't.  After a windows update about a year or two ago (on Win10) my DP monitor will turn on/off every few minutes.  It turns on, says 'no signal', then goes back to sleep.  It does this every few minutes, forever while the computer is on but the screens are asleep.  This is why I turn this monitor off.  I did a clean install of Windows 11 about 2 weeks ago, and am running Fences 4 now, and the issue still exists.  Sometimes I have my computer running tasks overnight and I don't want the screen doing this crazy flashing/blinking nonsense, so I just turn it off.  Please, I don't want people offering any solutions related to why I turn my monitor off, I'm simply letting you know that the way Fences stores its layout data makes it less than ideal for people with PnP DisplayPort monitors.  I would think a program like Fences *should* be able to handle disconnecting & reconnecting DisplayPort monitors, and that's my concern.

Windows will identify my primary monitor as display 1 after it's reconnected, but the identifier in the fences JSON files (if I save the layouts again) will show a new incremental number (eg: display4, display5, etc).  I think if fences could detect the monitor identifiers the way windows display settings do, and it stored that info along with resolutions, etc, you could probably use that info to resolve this issue.

Thanks,

Keith

fences
6,610 views 4 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top

My recommendation is don't turn it off.   I never turn mine off.  I do shut down the PC every night, but never do I turn off a monitor.   I use a triple monitor system.  One is DP, one is HDMI, and one is DVI.

WindowBlinds - Free yourself of the default settings, customize your desktop.
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top

When I'm not actively using the computer, but it's performing other tasks, I don't want the DP monitor flickering or turning on and off repeatedly, etc.  Sometimes I have big batch jobs processing for work, maybe some long-running queries or I might simply want to AFK at a farm in Minecraft overnight.  My point is that sometimes I can't (or simply don't want to) turn off my PC at night.  Ultimately, my reason for wanting to leave my PC on, and turn off the monitor is completely beside the point.

What I've been doing is throwing a jacket over my monitor so it doesn't light up the room and wake me up in the middle of the night.  It's an analog solution to a digital problem.

I'm reporting this issue mainly for the benefit of others.  I would think the devs would want to fix this.  I'm a developer myself, and if someone came to me and said a program I developed stopped working properly whenever they turned off their monitor, that's a bug I would definitely want to fix.  I wouldn't tell them "oh well, just don't turn off your monitor".  I wouldn't want anyone to have to go through that hassle needlessly.  I would want to resolve that bug so my customers don't get annoyed if any of them ever did decide to turn off a DP monitor.  The ENTIRE purpose of Fences is to neatly organize your desktop icons, the ENTIRE purpose.  This bug does the EXACT OPPOSITE of that.  This bug takes all the user's hard work and ruins it, then goes a step farther and prevents the user from using the restore feature that was specifically built for scenarios like this. 

This is a bug, period.  Being able to turn a monitor off and on again is an extremely basic thing that any app should handle with ease.  They certainly didn't design Fences with the intention of annoying folks with DP monitors, so I'd think the devs would want to resolve this bug.

Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top

I see you did a clean install of Windows 11 two weeks ago. I do not have or use fences but had the same problem, let me try to explain.

I have a desktop computer with 2 feeds coming from my graphics card, one is DVI going to my Desktop Monitor, the other is HDMI going to my large screen Plasma TV.

I did a clean install of Windows 11 whilst both monitors were live and active although i was looking and using the desktop monitor, when i was finished i switched between the two and came upon the exactly the same problem, both monitors were set to duplicate the display. Every time i switched the TV monitor off all my icons would return to the correct place on my desktop, but when switched back on the icons on my pc monitor would vanish and only be visible on the Big screen TV, tried numerous setting changes with no luck. Then i did a re install of Win11 again on another Hard Drive but this time i disconnected the the TV before i started the work, worked through getting everything set up. When everything was complete i re connected the HDMI to the Big TV, set it up as a second Monitor with Duplicate displays and it was all how it should be.

Sorry i do not have all the answers for you, but when i read you were having the same issue as me after a clean re install of Win11 i thought i would share.

Maybe if you have a spare SSD or small Hard Drive, you could try doing the re install with all but one monitor connected then after it completes, try adding your other displays and see if like me this solved the problem. I know it is not a quick fix, but i did pull my hair out for hours trying to solve this and only after doing it the way above did it work well for me.