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Forums -> Multiple monitors -> Setting default adapter for vista at boot (pre logon screen)
Brian   2009-02-22 08:13
Can I force Vista to use a particular adapter (and therefore physical output) regardless of how many monitors are hooked up etc..

Our problem is that our multi-monitor systems get moved around and are used with anything from 2 - 9 monitors and it changes on a hiven box day to day. Depending on how the system was left it may or may not bootup to the same primary monitor after being set back up. Often our monitors are not in the same room (or even close) so sorting this out takes a moment.

The bios will always default to a particular adapter (the top pciex16 card edge side).

Can I force vista to do this? If not in vista by default can I use funtions in the SDK to assign this prior to the logon screen?

Thanks,
Brian
Christian Studer   2009-02-22 11:43
I don't think that's possible, and with UltraMon this would only be possible if the monitor you want to use as primary has a distinct name (monitor or video card name), you could then use a script to look for that monitor based on the name, and set it as primary.

You can see monitor and video card names under UltraMon menu > About.

Using an UltraMon display profile for this won't work because monitors get identified by number, and the number changes depending on how the monitors get connected to the video cards.

Christian Studer - www.realtimesoft.com
Brian   2009-02-22 14:18
Does windows (vista) use a monitor ID or an adapter ID to remeber the primary display?

The primary display appears to follow the monitor and not the adaptor. For example if there are 10 DVI outputs and the primary is plugged into DVI out #2 and I swap DVI out #2 with #1 the primary follows to #1. What if all the monitors are the same type?

Previously when using differnt cards(quadro nvs) it appeared to follow the adaptor.

I'm now using 9800GTs (5 of them)for 10 monitors and it is frustrating how windows seems so inconsistent with its enumeration process.

The biggest problem is if this rig is set up for 10 displays and they are all attached - then I shut down, only connect 1 display - sometimes windows never finds it and even if I jump the cable from DVI out to DVI out I never get any visuals. I end up having to hook up multiple monitors to find the primary screen then move on.

Do you or anyone else have any experience solving this type of issue?

Thanks for your response.

Brian
Christian Studer   2009-02-23 10:42
I don't know how Vista handles this.

I doubt that UltraMon could help with the issue with only a single monitor connected, if this only occurs occasionally it's probably some issue with Windows or the video card driver.

Christian Studer - www.realtimesoft.com
Forums -> Multiple monitors -> Setting default adapter for vista at boot (pre logon screen)

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