Resolution locked at 640x480

[colinzeal]

Hi All

I have a cheap gaming machine I knocked together with the following components:

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B75M-D3P
CPU: Intel i7 3770
GPU: GTX 1060 (3GB)

Without making any changes, I booted it up this morning and noticed the splash screen was squashed into a 4:3 ratio. Then when I got into Windows I lost the display completely.

Using a USB Windows 10 installer USB stick, I've been able to boot Windows 10 into safe mode using:

bcdedit /set {default} safeboot network

Windows setting confirms the resolution of 640x480 and is still locked.

The HDMI port does not work and I've bought a new HDMI v2.0 cable to test. It doesn't work.

I have a DVI to HDMI cable which is the cable that produces the 640x480 resolution. It only works in one of the two DVI ports.

I don't have a DP cable to test.

Any suggestions? I've read some stuff about the TV's EDID not being sent to the card and I've tried resetting my BIOS.

I just can't work out why this would start suddenly.

 

[Feartech]

installed latest drivers from nvidia site?

 

[colinzeal]

Yeah. And I did a fresh install of Windows 10.

 

[colinzeal]

I think it must be a hardware issue as the BIOS and splash screens appear in 640x480 4:3.

 

[colinzeal]

Managed to get a little bit further with this.

Firstly, I changed the setting on my TV to Wide 16:9. I'm aware this only stretches the image but upon reflection, it might have been all the time and I never noticed!

So the boot and the splash screen looks the same.

Did another fresh install of Windows 10 and this time unplugged my ethernet cable so the system does not have access to the internet.

I noticed that the system couldn't connect anywhere to download the drivers for the graphics card so the system booted ok however after installing the Nvidia GeForce Experience package (including drivers) the screen went off.

Will try earlier Nvidia Drivers.

This is becoming ridiculous.

 

[Going Bald]

Did your system just get one of MS Win10 "Feature Updates"? These are known to cause problems. Since you have already done a re-install it is too late to try it this time, but when you get the system working again to your satisfaction, and if it happens again, first thing to try is to go to Settings / Update & Security / Recovery and click Get started button under Go back to an earlier build. Then, once it goes back to the earlier build and the problem, hopefully, resolves itself, immediately disable the Windows Update Service:
press Win+R, type in services.msc and click OK
from the table that appears, find Windows Update and click on it - a Properties box will appear. About halfway down you will find Startup type: and a pick box. Click on the box to expand it and choose Manual or Disable,
To prevent the system from resetting itself when an update fails, in the same Windows Property box select the Recovery tab and click the box next to First failure: and set it for Take No Action
Click Apply then click OK. Restart the computer.

I would then press Win+R, type in gpedit.msc and click OK to launch the Group Policy Editor. Click on Computer Configuration in the left pane, then click on Administrative Templates in the right pane. Then in the right pane again in the Administrative Templates group select Windows Components. Under Windows Components select Windows Update.
Under Windows Updates select Configure Automatic Updates. You will get a new box - in the top section under Configure Automatic Updates select Enabled burger dot. Under Options: / Configure automatic updating click in the box to expand and select the 2nd option: Notify for download and notify for install. Click Apply and OK. Restart
To make sure your change has taken, go to Settings -> Updates & Security -> Windows Update -> Advanced Options and check that the Choose how updates are installed option says Notify to download and is greyed out and cannot be selected to change. Make sure your Defer Upgrades box is checked.

MS also has a bad habit of making its own hardware driver and overwriting the vendor's driver. You can stop this. Click in the search box next to the start button and type Device manager, then select the Device Manager to open it.
Expand Display adapters and select the Microsoft driver for your card or select your card if the MS driver is not present. Right click on it and select Properties. In the Properties window select the Details tab, You want the Hardware ID(s) of your card. Open a text editor and copy all of the IDs listed into a text file and save it to desktop.
Press Win+R, type in gpedit.msc and click OK to launch the Group Policy Editor.
Click on Computer Configuration in the left pane, then click on Administrative Templates in the right pane. Then in the right pane again in the Administrative Templates group select System then Device Installation and Device Installation Restrictions. Find "Prevent installation of devices that match any of these device IDs" and double click on it.
In the properties box that opens, click the Enabled burger dot and under Options select Show Contents. This will open another box with blank fields. One by one copy each of the device IDs from the text file you made into the blank form, then click OK to save the changes and close the box. Then click Apply and OK again and restart. Win10 updates will never again install a MS driver for that device ID. You can use this procedure to stop a MS update for ANY device you have installed.

 

[colinzeal]

Hi @Going Bald

Fantastic detail.

I managed to borrow a monitor to try with the computer. Everything appeared as expected.

It was clear that it was an issue with the TV itself.

I unplugged all other HDMI inputs into the TV and this seemed to nudge the TV in the right direction. It was now able to recognise a 4K input.

I've read so many articles about the complexities of communications between HDMI ports including letting the capacitors power down and the order in which things should be turned on.

It's like the TV got confused and couldn't understand that it was being sent a 4K input and therefore displayed nothing (or 680x480).

Finally, having plugged in other devices into the other inputs, they now no longer produce a picture at the correct resolution. E.g., Whenever I turn on my Apple TV, it displays at 720p as opposed to the 1080p display set. It changes back to 720p each time I change the input on the TV.

Again fantastic detail and a great guide.

Many thanks.