The Apr. 19 2011 update disables second monitor support for nvidia geforce 310

Discontinued Products UGA-2K-A
1

I use an HP Compaq 8100 system with a triple monitor set-up, 2 monitors from a dual head nVidia geForce 310 and a third monitor connected on UGA-2K-A.

A couple of days ago, I restarted the system after an displayed error related to no support for OpenGL 1+ (I think it was about OpenGL) on my third monitor (USB-DVI).

After I restarted the system, the second monitor connected to the geforce was not detected any longer. I uninstalled the DisplayLink driver and support software (with a restart) and then nVidia software, re-installed the nVidia software without being able to make the software to recognize the second monitor. Finally, I changed the nVidia video card and that solved the problem.

This morning I decided to give another try to the UGA-2K-A adapter and I downloaded and installed the latest software from DisplayLink. After the installation, the first and second monitor (geForce) started to cycle through a loop of video changes that included a temporary black out of the second monitor. When I identified the monitors, the USB connected monitor was identified as the second monitor and the former second monitor as the third monitor. After a system restart, the second monitor connected to the geForce was not detected any longer.

Now I have a system with 2 monitors working using two dual head nVidia geForce 310 cards that cannot detect the second monitor.

Based on my experience, and loss, I cannot recommend the usage of UGA-2K-A under any circumstances. Please advise! I don’t think that there is a an emoticon to descibe what I feel.

2

Thanks for posting and very sorry getting the three monitors up and running on your system has been frustrating!

We should be able to get all three monitors up and running.

Quick questions to start:

* What operating system is the HP running?
* If it’s Windows 7, can you open Windows’ Screen Resolution control panel and use the Windows “snipping tool” to take a picture of the window and post here? It should look roughly like this:

!](https://sslproxy.getsatisfaction.com/sslproxy/SWhAdDNLMG5zdGFuVGlWenmLbJDGd3CABhjZermgcystANA4T6nd0pzV0fSzBRRGOd17A4b8ZLwi6-HESbXI0u89nLlgTpcBzcEMG2gz9snljGpFsLIjXu_BpZm9cVRgUeICH7_CnADKQti6-5j5NnYfLpxPzBmeAgyNrZuenlk=.PNG)](http://s3.amazonaws.com/satisfaction-production/s3_images/481453/win7-screen-resolution-3-monitors.PNG)

Thanks for letting us know - again, I’m expecting this will be a solvable problem.

Thanks!
Bernie

3

I have a Windows XP Professional Version 2002 SP3

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!](https://sslproxy.getsatisfaction.com/sslproxy/SWhAdDNLMG5zdGFuVGlWenmLbJDGd3CABhjZermgcystANA4T6nd0pzV0fSzBRRGOd17A4b8ZLwi6-HESbXI0ijn66BrumbK9Bk7_LaMXewqEG_h5HZvEavh0nrruyNhU7ZLXo3D49Ja6cq_8wJY1Q==.JPG)](http://s3.amazonaws.com/satisfaction-production/s3_images/481631/nvidiacontrol.JPG)

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I removed one geForce video board - I have only one now - and the USB-DVI19 adapter, including the drivers. The snapshot above reflects the current state. The second monitor is still connected to the current geForce video board, powered on, but is not detected.

6

Thanks for clarifying that it’s on XP, that’s important!

Thanks for the panel screenshot - unfortunately nVidia’s proprietary control panel won’t see the other non-nVidia adapters on the system. You’ll want to use Windows’ own panel (called Display Properties on XP and Vista). It looks like this:

!](https://sslproxy.getsatisfaction.com/sslproxy/SWhAdDNLMG5zdGFuVGlWenmLbJDGd3CABhjZermgcystANA4T6nd0pzV0fSzBRRGOd17A4b8ZLwi6-HESbXI0pLwSNR8i1LaODOap8izgX01P7IbC7BlOZwfeW75QhmYUPdOw9-iH5BCsRxCR59EpdsG1XR0UAwF_eztZPS8pa7-Nct3TExNdep4-16YY1VP.PNG)](http://s3.amazonaws.com/satisfaction-production/s3_images/481671/windows-xp-display-properties-settings-1280x800.PNG)

Can you post that screenshot? Also, on Windows 7 everything can be done from the OS control panel, but on XP, for some mirror/extend options, you’ll need to use DisplayLink’s own menu, which is available on the system tray:

!](https://sslproxy.getsatisfaction.com/sslproxy/SWhAdDNLMG5zdGFuVGlWenmLbJDGd3CABhjZermgcystANA4T6nd0pzV0fSzBRRGOd17A4b8ZLwi6-HESbXI0kzIWqtQfgQPF1p7USqCOzVgGAEFWkLjkS_wwjtei7_g1LWYoXVCHYGd2R3Zsc4TMfu5OSBb_nrP4gBvmn7FcEhtTS7PLyJ7s9REJwxlORj5.PNG)](http://s3.amazonaws.com/satisfaction-production/s3_images/481677/winxp-displaylink-tray-applet-mirror.PNG)

As background for all this, check out the DisplayLink User guide. XP instructions start on page 14 here: http://displaylinkmanuals.s3.amazonaw…

A few things I’m confused about:

* Earlier you mentioned the main GPU was a dual head (the nVidia geForce 310), but then you mention removing one video board. Were you running dual head (two outputs on one adapter) or multi-adapter (multiple PCI cards)? It can make a difference for compatibility

* It sounds like you also have a second USB adapter other than a Plugable brand in the mix, is that right?

Thanks for sending those extra details. But also do take a look at that DisplayLink manual linked to above - you may find that the problems so far have been from trying to configure through the nVidia control panel, which will ignore non-nVidia graphics devices on XP.

Thanks!
Bernie

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I attached the Display Properties screenshot. !](https://sslproxy.getsatisfaction.com/sslproxy/SWhAdDNLMG5zdGFuVGlWenmLbJDGd3CABhjZermgcystANA4T6nd0pzV0fSzBRRGOd17A4b8ZLwi6-HESbXI0uhtbkptbRm4pT-SOImpzaU0r8a5qSYNi80lZMX9KRRaKUd_l7HepqNd75vHVafI2A==.JPG)](http://s3.amazonaws.com/satisfaction-production/s3_images/482055/displayProperties.JPG)

Here is the chain of states after reboot (as I can remember it):

  1. one GPU (dual head geForce 310, 2 monitors connected). 2 monitors detected by nVidia Desktop Manager software, 2 monitors detected from XP Dispaly Properties.
  2. one GPU (dual head geForce 310, 2 monitors connected), plugable USB-DVI wiht 1 monitor connected, USB-DVI identified as monitor 2, 2 monitors manageable from nVidia manager, 3 monitors detected from XP. I got an error here about Open GL 1+ not supported.
  3. one GPU (dual head geForce 310, 2 monitors connected), plugable USB-DVI(1 monitor connected), 1 monitor detected from nVidia manager, 2 monitors detected from XP.
  4. one GPU (dual head geForce 310, 2 monitors connected), DisplayLink software removed, one monitor detected from nVidia manager, 1 monitor detected from XP.
  5. one GPU (dual head geForce 310, 2 monitors connected). nVidia software removed. One monitor detected from XP.
  6. one GPU (dual head geForce 310, 2 monitors connected). nVidia software re-installed. One monitor detected from nVidia or XP.
  7. one new(#2) GPU(dual head geForce 310, 2 monitors connected, old card replaced with same model). Two monitors detected from nVidia. Later, re-installed USB-DVI with the latest software (USB-DVI monitor identified as #2). Got the loop described in the first email (former monitor identified as #2 being blacked every couple of seconds).
  8. one (#2) GPU(dual head geForce 310, 2 monitors connected). One monitor detected by nVidia or XP. DisplayLink software not installed.
  9. two GPU(dual head geForce 310, 2 monitors connected to #1, 1 monitor connected to #2). One monitor detected by nVidia on each GPU regardless of the number of monitors connected to the card (I swapped the third monitor between GPUs).
  10. one GPU(dual head geForce 310, 2 monitors connected), Plugable USB-DVI connected(1 monitor connected). One monitor detected by nVidia, 2 monitors detected by XP (accesible from DisplayLink menu, see the screenshot).
8

Same geForce GPU works fine in another computer. The nVidia manager detects 2 monitors attached.

Also: I uninstalled nVidia software, removed USB-DVI adaptor and DisplayLink, restarted Windows in safe mode, run Driver Sweeper to remove any nVidia remnants, restarted, re-installed nVidia software and I still have the same problem.

DisplayLink seems to change something in Windows (registry?, drivers?) and I cannot restore the system as it was prior to the DisplayLink installation.

9

Thanks for your replies and detail here. This is frustrating!

Something unusual is happening (we’ve not seen this kind of problem on XP before), and we’ll get it figured out … starting with getting both GeForce outputs working.

First, to confirm, there are a lot of different GeForce 310 cards. Do you know the make and model of yours? The ones I’ve seen have 2 outputs, one of which is VGA and the other being HDMI. Is yours like that, and is there any correlation where the VGA or HDMI output is always the one going dark?

Also, in the state you’re in now (no DisplayLink adapter or driver installed; GeForce has only 1 output displaying)… when you open the “display properties” control panel, does Windows show both monitors? Does it have them enabled?

Mostly, want to rule out the chance that Windows is persisting a setting to leave a monitor unused.

Lastly, DisplayLink’s uninstaller is good in all recent versions, so I wouldn’t expect this to be needed, but DisplayLink also has a utility (separate from uninstall) that can clean out all registry entries and files, etc. Here is the link: http://www.displaylink.com/support/ti…

It is worth trying, and please let us know if it helps get the 2nd display back (if it does, it would point to the uninstaller not cleaning everything).

Thanks for looking into these three aspects of these problem, and posting answers to these questions. Our first goal is to understand what is causing the 2nd monitor not to come up, then we can decide whether to tackle the 3rd monitor.

Thanks again for your patience!
Bernie