Had a weird issue occur today where booting into Windows XP resulted in no image displayed in the monitor. Initially the BIOS image and startup screen for Windows XP displayed fine. But the moment things switched to the Windows XP deskop, the monitor displayed a "no signal" message.

I am using an odd video connection setup. The GPU is connected via a Startech Active Displayport -> HDMI connector, which connects to an HDMI cable which connects to the monitor. The reason for this was to enable both a 75Hz refresh rate (which the monitor natively supports) and automatic aspect ratio switching between 16:10 and 4:3. Previously using either just HDMI or Displayport would fail to enable both of these features at the same time.

I tried removing the adapter and connecting directly to HDMI. This worked and the Windows XP desktop was now visible, albeit at only 60 Hz. But reconnecting the adapter once again produced a "no signal" on the monitor.

I tried removing and reconnecting everything, trying a couple different Displayport sockets on the GPU. Also tried setting things to different (lower) screen resolutions. Even booting in safe mode failed to display an image with the adapter, despite the BIOS and Windows XP start up screens still showing an image prior to reaching the desktop.

I was finally ready to give up after shutting everything down, but booted it up once more... and suddenly the adapter-with-HDMI cable was working again. Once again I could set 75Hz display. I tried out a number of games and confirmed that aspect ratio switching was also working properly.

I have no idea what happened. Could the adapter or cable potentially be failing in some way?

Shponglefan wrote on 2025-09-15, 22:39:

I am using an odd video connection setup. The GPU is connected via a Startech Active Displayport -> HDMI connector, which connects to an HDMI cable which connects to the monitor. The reason for this was to enable both a 75Hz refresh rate (which the monitor natively supports) and automatic aspect ratio switching between 16:10 and 4:3. Previously using either just HDMI or Displayport would fail to enable both of these features at the same time.

Don't think you need an adapter for that. I'm using a simple DisplayPort cable to connect my GTX 970 to the ProArt, and it scales 4:3 resolutions correctly. Also, I can select 75Hz for 1920x1200 just fine.

Things that might be relevant: I'm using Nvidia drivers 355.98 (modded) and a modified driver for the ProArt as described here.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-09-16, 04:24:

Don't think you need an adapter for that. I'm using a simple DisplayPort cable to connect my GTX 970 to the ProArt, and it scales 4:3 resolutions correctly. Also, I can select 75Hz for 1920x1200 just fine.

When I was originally setting things up, this was the only configuration I could get to work properly. I suspect it’s partially because the ProArt monitor is being detected as a television by Windows XP.

Things that might be relevant: I'm using Nvidia drivers 355.98 (modded) and a modified driver for the ProArt as described here.

I need to try the modified INF for the monitor and see if that works. It would be good to have the monitor properly recognized by XP.

Don’t remember which nVidia driver version I’m on, I’ll have to double check that.

Did a couple things today.

I first tried swapping out the HDMI cable + Displayport adapter for a regular Displayport cable. Upon testing, everything seem to work fine. I was still getting 75Hz refresh rate and aspect ratio switching seemed fine, as the monitor would correctly detect and go into 4:3 mode when appropriate.

I have no idea why this hadn't worked when I was originally setting up the machine with this monitor. Perhaps I had a faulty cable at the time or just hadn't set things up correctly. Regardless, I can now run it from a regular Displayport cable with no janky adapter setup.

Second, I installed the modified .INF file for the ProArt monitor. This worked fine as the monitor is now showing as the ProArt 24 as opposed to a generic Plug 'n Play monitor.

However, nVidia's graphics settings still seems to think this a TV for some reason.

I checked my driver version and I'm currently using 368.81, which I had modded to add support for the 980 Ti. Not sure if downgrading the drivers to an earlier version would make a difference here.

Shponglefan wrote on 2025-09-16, 21:47:

However, nVidia's graphics settings still seems to think this a TV for some reason.

If it helps, here's how that screen looks like on my system with 355.98 drivers:

I've read on this forum and elsewhere that drivers newer than that can cause issues under WinXP. There are some notes on that in this thread. And while I have limited experience with later driver versions, at least one game (Risen 2) had problems with those, which were solved by downgrading to 355.98. For reference, that version works fine with GTX 980 Ti cards as well.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-09-16, 22:03:

If it helps, here's how that screen looks like on my system with 355.98 drivers:

The attachment Nvidia_Resolution_Settings.png is no longer available

Can you post what the "adjust desktop size and position" tab looks like please?

Barley wrote on 2025-09-17, 00:47:

Can you post what the "adjust desktop size and position" tab looks like please?

Sure thing, here you go:

I imagine you're curious about the scaling options, and there are none when the card is connected via DisplayPort. In comparison, this post shows that screen with the same 355.98 driver, but I was using a native DVI monitor (LG Flatron L1753HR) connected with a normal DVI cable. In that case, all the relevant scaling options were there.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-09-17, 06:46:

I imagine you're curious about the scaling options, and there are none when the card is connected via DisplayPort. In comparison, this post shows that screen with the same 355.98 driver, but I was using a native DVI monitor (LG Flatron L1753HR) connected with a normal DVI cable. In that case, all the relevant scaling options were there.

Yes, I wanted to see the scaling options. I have the same experience as you. Unfortunately, neither of my two 1920x1200 monitors have a DVI port, so if I want scaling on a Nvidia card in Windows XP, if HAVE to use the ProArt (not interested in trying VGA). Thanks for confirming.

Downgraded to the 355.98 nVidia driver.

The change resolution screen no longer thinks this monitor as a television set.

Barley wrote on 2025-09-17, 15:26:

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-09-17, 06:46:

I imagine you're curious about the scaling options, and there are none when the card is connected via DisplayPort. In comparison, this post shows that screen with the same 355.98 driver, but I was using a native DVI monitor (LG Flatron L1753HR) connected with a normal DVI cable. In that case, all the relevant scaling options were there.

Yes, I wanted to see the scaling options. I have the same experience as you. Unfortunately, neither of my two 1920x1200 monitors have a DVI port, so if I want scaling on a Nvidia card in Windows XP, if HAVE to use the ProArt (not interested in trying VGA). Thanks for confirming.

I retract my statement. After running the command listed in this post (Re: Building a Retro PC for the 21st century - please advise on what I missed), I was able to activate GPU scaling on the driver, which should work on any 1920x1200 monitor.

Barley wrote on 2025-09-23, 01:19:

I retract my statement. After running the command listed in this post (Re: Building a Retro PC for the 21st century - please advise on what I missed), I was able to activate GPU scaling on the driver, which should work on any 1920x1200 monitor.

I remember seeing that mentioned here, and I too have tried it in the past. It did work... for a while, but then I ran into some issues.

For example, when running Splinter Cell at 1600x1200 the aspect ratio was correct, until the game dropped down to something like 640x480 while playing a cutscene movie between missions. After the movie was finished, the scaling was reset to "stretch to fit" forcing me to run the command again. It also didn't always persist after rebooting the machine.

Might have been a local issue on my system, possibly dependent on the monitor that I used at the time, but it annoyed me enough that I bought the ProArt just to avoid dealing with it.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-09-23, 02:59:

I remember seeing that mentioned here, and I too have tried it in the past. It did work... for a while, but then I ran into some […]
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Barley wrote on 2025-09-23, 01:19:

I retract my statement. After running the command listed in this post (Re: Building a Retro PC for the 21st century - please advise on what I missed), I was able to activate GPU scaling on the driver, which should work on any 1920x1200 monitor.

I remember seeing that mentioned here, and I too have tried it in the past. It did work... for a while, but then I ran into some issues.

For example, when running Splinter Cell at 1600x1200 the aspect ratio was correct, until the game dropped down to something like 640x480 while playing a cutscene movie between missions. After the movie was finished, the scaling was reset to "stretch to fit" forcing me to run the command again. It also didn't always persist after rebooting the machine.

Might have been a local issue on my system, possibly dependent on the monitor that I used at the time, but it annoyed me enough that I bought the ProArt just to avoid dealing with it.

If I run into similar issues down the road, I will gladly retract my retraction.