DMD only works sometimes on 2nd screen

I am running full screen tables on one monitor and active backglass on the other monitor.

My DMD display shows fine on the playfield monitor, when I drag it to the 2nd monitor it shuts off, when I drag it back to Playfield there it is again. However once ever 25 times or so of starting and shutting down
it will all of a sudden let me drag it to monitor 2 and it works perfect. Exit the game and now it doesnt show up when dragged to monitor 2. I am using pinmame cabinet 2.1 .dll and vp9

I don't understand how it just works occasionally on the second monitor. Wat could be causing this?

Edited by mrserv0n, 24 August 2009 - 06:26 PM.

Why do you have to keep dragging it between monitors? The position should be saved in the windows registry on a game to game basis. Are you fully closing VP after each table you play?

It does save the position, right where I want it, problem is the DMD screen is just blank on monitor 2 upon boot up of the table. If I grab the DMD from monitor 2 over to monitor 1 it shows up. So once in a while If I drag it back and forth it will all of a sudden show up and not blank out when drug to monitor 2.

Yes I fully close VP and reopen, Ive tried lots of things, reboot between tables etc, same results.

Edited by mrserv0n, 24 August 2009 - 07:24 PM.

You could try to remove/uninstall vpinmame, removing your registry entries, and then reinstall it and select the option to always use the second display for vpm to show up by default there instead. That should eliminate the problem.

ok, when I reinstalled and set my vpm to Monitor 2, Its just a black box, not even dotted on both monitors, If I switch to Monitor 1, It works on playfield monitor but when drug to monitor 2 it turns into a black box

If I put vpm to Default monitor it shows up on Monitor 2 as a dotted screen but with no animation to it, almost like its paused. Then if I drag it to monitor 1, there it is working perfectly. Drag it back to monitor 2, oops gone again lol. Its like it looses signal to the dmd when its on monitor 2, I just dont get it.

Edited by mrserv0n, 24 August 2009 - 07:44 PM.

Actually thats exactly what its doing is just pausing the DMD when its on the second monitor.

For example I start a Table lets say its showing high scores on the DMD . Well if its drug to the second monitor, it just locks on the screen that it was on monitor one, If drug to monitor one it continues to animate.

If I leave the DMD on Monitor 2, shutdown, restart the table the DMD is just blank lights cause its paused. If drug to monitor 1, its working fine. So something is stopping it from animating when on monitor 2, what could that be?

I have no idea. It doesn't happen on my machine.

I dont know if this will work, but have you tried putting the DMD back on the screen you use to display the table. You said it works fine there....

From there, while everything is working, exit the table, and VP.

Go to the folder where VPinMAME is kept and open the setup. Click on Setup Paths, and make sure your display is set to (default). Sometimes some setups dont function with a specific monitor being selected...

I dont know if this will work, but exit out and load up the same table...Drag the DMD onto the other screen and see if that fixes the problem.

You may have already tried that, but it was just a thought...

Timbo

Thanks for the suggestions, unfortunately same problem. When I get time I will make a little video of it to help describe it better.

Same problem exactly. any suggestions?

I recently picked up a second display - a 17" NEC LCD screen and I can't get the DMD to work either. The primary screen is an LG MW228 and I have an Nvidia 9800GT with the most recent drivers for Windows XP Pro installed. I can make the DMD work by switching to spanning mode, but then I have to find a way to rotate the second screen properly. re-installing vpinmame and selecting different displays didn't help either - in fact, the DMD stopped working all-together...

/drama_prince_mode_enabled
This is so frustrating with VP where-as this is so easy in Future Pinball where adding a command line parameter and a few mouse clicks on the video properties menu has it all working properly. /sigh I dream of the day that Randy and Nanotech put there heads together and come up with a solution for VP that matches the simplicity and ease of setup that is in Future Pinball... until then, I fear that much blood, sweat, and tears will be shed setting up a homebrew VP cab...
/drama_prince_mode_disabled

All joking aside, does anyone know if this is an nvidia driver version issue? For example, what happens if I try to load some of those old "8x.xx" series detonator drivers on a nvidia 9800GT? Will they work? (somehow I doubt it because there is no PCI hardware id to match up in the .INF file to a 9800GT card.)

Best Regards,
Todd.

There are a few key tables i really want to play. downloaded VP already scaled for cabinet tables from here
http://www.hyperspin...read.php?t=2778


1 gig ram
3.4ghz processor
8800GT video
24" playfield 1900x1280 not rotated
17" backbox 1280x1024 not rotated
.182 drivers
fresh windows xp install
nothing else loaded
VP 9.0 and pinmame
Primary monitor is the playfield secondary is backbox. backbox is located to the right of playfield in windows dual screen setup and extended not spanned.
Cabinet.dll has been replaced with the one downloaded specifically for cabs.

Problems:

#1 The backbox does not show on second monitor. just the windows walpaper.
I really want the backbox.
The DMD is on the main playfield located horizontally (i.e. the wrong way for a cabinet). Dont want the dmd on the primary playfield but..... when dragged to the second monitor creates problem #2

#2 if DMD is on second screen it is either all black or frozen. the table either slows to a literal CRAWL or ceases to accept inputs at all. Basically every thing quits working till i drag DMD back to primary.

#3 not really important but whne i quit VP it asks to go back to editor. i have no Q key on my cabinet.

please help.

if star trek next gen, T2 or Black knight we in FP i wouldnt even worry with this problem.

Thanks in advance!
Any help no matter how small is helpful

As per the VP 9.0.2 Release Notes.pdf, pages 8 - 10:


nVidia Display Drivers & 16:9 full screen, multimonitor setup

nVidia has several variations of drivers available. I did try out the 175 beta drivers, the 169 official current drivers, and the 84.21 drivers. The drivers that default on the machine do NOT display emreels correctly for the
16:9 format games I work on. The 169 and 175 drivers generating annoying flickering in the main playfield display on my machines.

The 84.21 drivers provided the best results for compatibility and speed. So if you have already done this before, there is no need to do it again unless you change video drivers or reimage the machine.

Before creating or changing display profiles, I'd recommend loading the 84.21 forceware drivers.

• Right click the desktop on the large main display and left click on Properties.
• Left Click the Settings Tab
• The Primary display should be set to 1360x768 32Bit
• The Seondary display should be set to 1280x1024 32bit
• The Secondary display should have the box checked to "Extend the Windows Desktop onto this monitor"

• Click on the Advanced Button
• Click GeForce7600GS Tab
• Click nView display settings
• Make sure the nview display mode is set to "Dual View"

• Click the + to the left of desktop management
• Click profiles
• Click New
• Name this profile "Original" without quotes. This name is case sensitive.
• Click Save

• Now go back to nview display settings
• For the nview display mode, select VERTICAL SPAN
• Click OK
• One display will now be 1360x1536 32bit
• The other display will be 1280x1024 32bit

If the resolutions for the displays AREN'T the above - 1360x1536 and 1280x1024 then you need to add a custom resolution.


To add a custom resolution with the 84.21 drivers... (different driver revisions will do this differently)

• Click Screen Resolutions & Refresh Rates
• Click Add
• from top to bottom, type in
• 1360
• 1536
• 32bit
• 60hz
• Click Add
• Click OK

If it says the display resolution can't be added, do it again until you don't get the error message. If there is a box that says "hide resolutions that monitor can't support" uncheck it. Then you should be able to drag the resolution slider to the far right to 1360x1536

• Click ok

Allow all changes and click ok and yes to all dialog boxes

• Right click the desktop on the large main display and left click on Properties.
• Left Click the Settings Tab
• Click Advanced
• Click GeForce 7600GS Tab
• Click the + to the left of Desktop Management
• Click Profiles
• Click New
• Name this profile "16-9" without quotes
• Click save
• Click OK
• Click OK

Note : To get better frame rate if needed, you can make the DMD smaller. The DMD is about half as big. It is consistent, but I personally prefer the larger DMD.


Individual Game Settings
You can change the size for their games individually if you would like.

• Click Start
• Click Run
• Type in "Regedit" without quotes
• Click Ok
• Click on the + to the left of HKey Current User
• Click on the + to the left of Software
• Click on the + to the left of Freeware
• Click on the + to the left of Visual PinMame
• Click on the desired Romset name to change.

To make the DMD full size:

• Right-Click on ddraw
• Left click Modify
• Type 1 and click OK
• Right Click on Direct3D
• Left click Modify
• Type 0 and click OK


To make the DMD halfsize:

• Right-Click on ddraw
• Left click Modify
• Type 0 and click OK
• Right Click on Direct3D
• Left click Modify
• Type 1 and click OK
• Click the X in the top right corner to close the Registry Editor when all changes are complete

I'm having this exact same problem now on the pc I built for my cabinet. Noone seems to know the answer to this problem. Screen one the dmd displays properly.....screen two or three it freezes. Drug back to screen one it's working again. I'm not using spanned tables so the setup pdf isn't of any use. If I find an answer or a fix I'll post it here. Has anyone else found a solution? It worked fine on my test machine running vista 64. Now I have this faster new machine running XP 32 bit and it shows up. Probably not the issue but.....

Again, if anyone has found a solution please let me know!

I've got a workaround solution for this with a small anomilie with hyperpin that I'm attempting to get resolved (Just affects how hyperpin loads up) but otherwise table loads fine and DMD will always show.

See here: http://www.hyperspin...47841#post47841

Using old 182.46 drivers fixes the problem so that you can use it in normal extended mode (So Hyperpin is ok also). Problem is these are old drivers and may not be the best for other games. HOpefully a later driver release will include the compatibility that these old 182.46 drivers had. Clearly they broke the driver somewhere along the way.

Cheers.

I was having the same exact problem even after installing the older 182.46 drivers. When I set the monitor for the DMD to "DEFAULT" instead of display 1 or display 2, the problem disappeared immediately and has been working perfectly ever since.

I have a brand new setup and get this exact problem. Went to 182.46 drivers and set the DMD to default and it is still happening. The second it touches the spanned area I get lines through the box.

XP Pro SP3, 7950GX2, 182.46 and 192.06, VPM 2.2 cab edition. 24" 1920x1200 primary and 19" 1280x1024 secondary. FP works fine.

Those that have worked through it, any suggestions?

OK...here is how I got through it. I had it installed as default monitor. Tried it in VPM test window. Didn't work. Set it to monitor 1. Tried didn't work. Set to monitor 2. Tried didn't work. Set to default again. Now it works in test program! Played in VP9 no problem. No idea, just glad it is going.

Thanks for documenting this stuff here!

Edited by volley, 04 February 2010 - 07:44 PM.

I am having the same problem with DMD pausing, plus a ton of other gltiches. Can someone please make a version of Visual Pinball with dual monitor setup, where you don't have to have a degree in computer programming to run it! Future Pinball was so easy to setup, unfortunately they don't have as many tables available