Ask an IT Pro

[mikey287]

Ok so, my desktop (noted throughout this thread) is hooked up to my TV through a DisplayPort to HDMI adapter. Looks good. Works well. Except...

Computer turns on. No signal says the TV. So long so that the TV generally wants to turn itself off. Then after about 10 minutes (though, I just roughly timed it, I believe it's exactly ten minutes), I'll get about 60 seconds of flickering (that is, the TV goes from the blue screen of no signal-dom to showing my desktop briefly) and then it will just...work fine.

The only thing that I do notice is that when the TV goes on or off, the computer makes that noise like you're unplugging or plugging in a device.

So, I thought, all right...I'll just have my computer not go to sleep or whatever...come home, turn on the TV, same deal...ten minutes, then flickering, then presto...

TV issue? TV isn't so quick to pick up the adapter or what?

[dodint]

Is it any better when you turn the TV on last?

[mikey287]

I did that this last time when the computer never slept. The only state change that I made was turning the TV on...same deal.

[dodint]

I know it's a handshake problem between the TV and card, but I don't know how to go about fixing it in any concrete way. I don't use the HDMI switching on my receiver because of a handshake issue. The noise is the PC working on its part of the handshake by reconnecting.

Another faster workaround is to right click on your desktop, click on Screen Resolution, then:
a. If your TV is there and grayed out, click on it. Where it says "Multiple Display" drop that down and "Extend Desktop to this Display" and hit Apply.
b. If your TV is there and not grayed out, and you don't have a display, where it says "Multiple Display" drop that down and hit "Disconnect this display" and hit Apply. Then go back to "a." above and try again.

Even faster, hit the Windows button on your keyboard and "P" at the same time and cycle through those to see if it does anything. Extend is the option that should work.

Let me dig deeper and see if I can come up with anything. On my own setup, when I have this problem (rarely), I reboot the PC and then when it gets to the login screen turn on the TV (or switch the input to it). Power on PC, then TV.

[dodint]

Really cool stat site about browser market share. Very customizable and accounts for geographic diversity. I'm genuinely shocked that FireFox mobile is so low. I might be the only one using it.

Chrome is bigger globally and in the US than I thought, even on desktops. Which is a shame because it's awful.

[Factorial]

Really cool stat site about browser market share. Very customizable and accounts for geographic diversity. I'm genuinely shocked that FireFox mobile is so low. I might be the only one using it.

Chrome is bigger globally and in the US than I thought, even on desktops. Which is a shame because it's awful.

Chrome is much faster on the desktop than FF. Even ie11 is faster than FF.

[bh]

I bought a $200 dollar HP stream laptop and I am really impressed by it. However, I installed Firefox and Chrome and of course IE was already there. Since this little guy only has 2GB of RAM I can say without a doubt that Chorme is the worst performer of the browsers by far. I hate it. I agree with you dodint.

The newest IE is actually really nice and Firefox runs great too.

[shmenguin]

Really cool stat site about browser market share. Very customizable and accounts for geographic diversity. I'm genuinely shocked that FireFox mobile is so low. I might be the only one using it.

Chrome is bigger globally and in the US than I thought, even on desktops. Which is a shame because it's awful.

Chrome is much faster on the desktop than FF. Even ie11 is faster than FF.

Yeah, FF has gone from first to last in my browser rankings for the big 3

[skullman80]

I only use IE at work because I have to, and even then i don't use it much.

FF/CHrome both work fine for me and I will use either without much hesitation.

[Avyran]

Not necessarily an IT question, but not a general question either - anyone hear anything or have opinions about the Alienware Alpha or similar game-focused PCs? The super-small size concerns me, but it seems like a cheap & size-efficient alternative to building a PC.

[dodint]

The Army is moving away from FF and rolling out Chrome as the alternate browser to Internet Explorer 11. So I've started using it a little myself so I can show my users how to use it. So of them begged for it, I honestly don't get it. It's so not intuitive.

Not necessarily an IT question, but not a general question either - anyone hear anything or have opinions about the Alienware Alpha or similar game-focused PCs? The super-small size concerns me, but it seems like a cheap & size-efficient alternative to building a PC.

I don't know specifically, I just bought a decent Dell XPS and swapped everything out. I do know that friends I have with Alienware products swear by them, not sure if it's brand loyalty/self-reassurance or what but they seem really happy. Alienware is a wholly owned subsidiary of Dell, for what that's worth.