Widescreen Gaming Forum

Hello everyone. I've been reading the forums for a while now, and I have not found an answer (even though I've found many similar problems.)

My specs are:
Core i7 920
6gb ddr3
2 XFX HD5770s, crossfired
3 23" Ativa monitors: http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/416907/Ativa-AT240HP-23-6-Widescreen-LCD/
Win 7 x64
CCC drivers 9.12 w/ hotfix.


Here is my problem. I just purchased the Sapphire displayport adapter:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814999025&Tpk=displayport%20sapphire

Obviously, I'm going for Eyefinity with one displayport adapter and two DVIs.

For whatever reason, I cannot get this to display my monitor's native resolution. When I plug the adapter in, I will get no signal from that monitor until I lower the resolution a lot. Currently I have that monitor at 800x600, but if I try to raise the resolution the monitor goes blank like I unplugged the cable. I've messed around with it for about 6 hours now, and it doesn't seem to matter what combination I do, nothing seems to work. Obviously I didn't buy the 3 monitors so I could use Eyefinity with only 800x600 on each monitor. It doesn't matter if I have crossfire off or on. It doesn't matter if I am cloning displays, using extended desktop, or Eyefinity.

The only other thing that seems to be worth noting is that when I plugged the adapter into another one of the monitors, I kept getting the displayport failure error. It's a little odd that on one monitor (all being the same monitors) it will display that error and another will not. The error seems to come up repeatedly while plugged into that monitor.

While the adapter (as many of you are familiar with) states that it can output 2560x1600, it doesn't seem to be able to do so. This is much more frustrating that it should be IMO. I understand that these adapters are "hit and miss", but does that mean I'm SOL because the adapter won't work?

I am currently downloading the 10.1 drivers, hoping it will work. Has no one any ideas on my predicament?

Man your right that's a tough one. Here's my advice

Have you looked into the thread about overriding EDID information?
http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=64&t=17635
also recommend doing a google search on modifying EDID as it appears that somehow the incorrect information is being passed by the adaptor or there's just some corruption of the EDID information in general as resolutions that should have no problem being displayed aren't working right?

Other than that can some more information might be helpful for instance what does this portion of the CCC look like on your system?

Use an EDID Mask.

Thread: http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=64&t=17635

Set the resolution to 1920x1080@60Hz and you should be fine. These adapters don't transfer the EDID information to the 5000-series cards, so you must mask them to your monitors settings.

_________________
System Core: | Intel Core i5-2500K + ASUS P8Z68-V + 16GB Corsair XMS3 DDR3 1333 MHz | Win7 x64 | MSI R7970 Lightning 3GB [1105/1400] |
Display: | 3 x Dell Ultrasharp 3007WFP-HC @ 7680x1600 | Dell u3011 |

Use an EDID Mask.

Thread: http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=64&t=17635

Set the resolution to 1920x1080@60Hz and you should be fine. These adapters don't transfer the EDID information to the 5000-series cards, so you must mask them to your monitors settings.

I tried following the directions there. I'm almost positive I did everything right, yet I am still having the same problem. Maybe I am just missing something. Am I supposed to replace all 3 of my monitors with the new driver, or is it for my adapter alone? I'm a novice when it comes down to this type of thing so I am really stuck. :(

Maybe if I told you what I did in Phoenix EDID you can point out my mistake:
On the Color/Established timings tab, I turned off all the options. In the standard timings tab, I did the same, 1-8. On the detailed timings tab, I left block 1 alone (already at 1920x1080), turned block 2 off (a second set of timings), and left 3 and 4 alone (3 is monitor range limits and 4 is monitor name). I also tried disabling block 3, but that didn't help. Am I supposed to edit block 1 or 3? If so, how do I know what values to input?

Ok. I've tried a few things, one being that I plugged my Sapphire adapter into a powered usb hub. I've also deleted my monitors and graphics card drivers, and did a fresh install, so no EDID at the moment. My monitor on the adapter has flickered on a couple of times, but really briefly.

This is my CCC on the monitor with the adapter:


One other monitor I have (using DVI) looks exactly the same. Yet, I have another DVI monitor that shows this:


Here is my monitor info:


And here are the 4 blocks I have when I extract the EDID from the registry:





I am not sure what I have to edit to make this work. With this info, would someone be able to guide me along?

I had a very similar problem to this when i had a bad adapter and the only way I was able to fix the problem was to manually add the 1920 x 1080 resolution to the monitor using CCC's HDTV support.


If this doesn't solve your problem, I would look into sending the adapter back to newegg and getting another. The chances of getting one that works is 50 / 50. Most likely if it doesn't pick up the proper settings on a reboot then it's the adapter.

I spent a countless amount of time working with a bad adapter over the course of a week. Working with it several hours out of each day, trying EDID masks, bios updates, CCC changes and formatting my system several times. If you have an adapter that works the way it is intended, then you will have almost 0 problems setting it up.

The adapters themselves are still in a very infantile state, so it's not surprising that we are all having this much trouble with faulty adapters.



-Tanshin

I had a very similar problem to this when i had a bad adapter and the only way I was able to fix the problem was to manually add the 1920 x 1080 resolution to the monitor using CCC's HDTV support.

If this doesn't solve your problem, I would look into sending the adapter back to newegg and getting another. The chances of getting one that works is 50 / 50. Most likely if it doesn't pick up the proper settings on a reboot then it's the adapter.

I spent a countless amount of time working with a bad adapter over the course of a week. Working with it several hours out of each day, trying EDID masks, bios updates, CCC changes and formatting my system several times. If you have an adapter that works the way it is intended, then you will have almost 0 problems setting it up.

The adapters themselves are still in a very infantile state, so it's not surprising that we are all having this much trouble with faulty adapters.



-Tanshin

Thanks for the advice. I might have guessed that I had a faulty adapter, but there was nothing to have tested it against. So if I get a good adapter I shouldn't need to do the EDID mask, etc? Did your good adapter just work once you plugged it in? Also, do I need to use a powered usb hub, or is that just necessary when there is alot of flickering?

EDID Masks are really only for custom resolutions. A work around for unsupported resolutions, I had to use an EDID mask to get my Eyefinity to scale 3840 x 720, because CCC would only let me run 3840 x 1024 (not good on a 16:9 screen).

You should not otherwise need the EDID mask. Depending on the card you have or the severity of your adapters problem will determine weather or not you need any other tweaks. I assume the adapter itself will need a USB hub only if you are running low PSU on a lot of USB connected peripherals. The new bios changes voltage on the DP bridge of the card providing more power to the port. In my case this wasn't even needed with the adapter I ended up with. After 6 hours of my pc being in native resolution, I have not seen a single flicker or blackout. from what I can tell, all the adapters have different levels of problems, but displaying common issues. That being resolution limits, white lines, black outs signal loss and flickering.

On my bad adapter I was only allowed to use 1280 x 1024, anything higher and I would flicker constantly and loose signal almost instantaneously. If I ran lower then that resolution, I saw flickering.

If your card does everything right while on two DVI, the only thing I can think of after so much trouble shooting would be the adapter. Unfortunately it's expensive and hard to trouble shoot the adapter itself, also there is no way to upgrade the firmware of an adapter. If its bad, it's bad.

As for plugging the adapter in and having it work right away. Yes and no, The adapter when plugged in right away gave me a max resolution of 1600 x 1200, I assume it has a set max resolution before it picks up the specific monitor information. On the other hand, I could set the monitor to 1600 x 1200 with no flickering or white lines and it was stable. After a quick reboot, the computer picked up the monitor and gave me my native resolution on 1920 x 1080.

I think the main reason ATI has to release new Bios updates for their chipsets and so on, is to compensate for the sheer amount of bad adapters there are. Some of these adapters are incredibly good, while others need a boost to work effectively. Some of these adapters simply do not work regardless of any attempts we make to help them.

The reason that DELL, Accell, Sapphire and whatever other company will not admit that it is their products problem is simply because it's too much money for those companies acting as third party from the manufacture "Bizlink" to force a recall of bad adapters. Unfortunately ATI is getting flak for it, and they have to focus valuable time to address the issue. This is why we haven't seen bezel management.


Most of this is arguable and only really my .02 on the matter. But in all I hope it gives you a better understanding of the problem you are having, and the reasons why it's the most likely cause for your issue. Besides, not having eyefinity up and running for a few days while you wait for the adapter replacement gives you time to work on other things, right?

Haha. Sorry for my incessant ranting. ;)



-Tanshin

Haha. Sorry for my incessant ranting. ;)

No need to be sorry. Actually, this was exactly the information I needed. This cleared up so much and clarrified some misconptions I had.

In other words, I can't thank you enough. If I could give you all the internetz I would. You have literally made me :D .