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    Can't get triple head or 3 monitor setup working. Tearing hair out with this.

    Hi can anyone please help with my 3 displays on Kubuntu. I've posted this on Ubuntu forum too just in case the community there can help too.

    I have three 2560x1440 Asus monitors (I know - very nice! At least they would be..!)

    I have an integrated intel gpu which I plugged all three monitors in to with dvi, hdmi and vga.

    I couldn't get the vga one past 1920x1200 though!!

    So I then added an nvidia graphics card and set my bios to use both. But even though the 3rd screen was now on hdmi on nvidia I still couldn't get full resolution so the result was two screens looking great and one looking terrible!

    What was weird was the 3rd screen now on nvidia (with the other two still on intel integrated) had the same resolution of 1920x1200 using hdmi as it did on integrated using vga!!!??

    So the extra nvidia GPU didn't help at all, so I've since removed that and plugged all three monitors back into the Intel integrated. But I'm back at the start again with two fulll res monitors and one lower res on vga port...

    Can anyone please help me to fix this?

    #2
    Output of xrandr with all screens active? Actual details like video card and screen models? VGA - Really? A 15-pin VGA cable? Or did you mean DVI? Specifics and details are required or no one will be able to help.

    Sounds to me like your ESID isn't coming through on the one monitor or you have the wrong cable. Resolutions higher than HD require a dual-link DVI connection and VGA ?, forget it. HDMI should allow it though.

    AFAIK, no video cards other than nVidia Quadro (I'm sure there are others but I could care less about AMD cards) run 3+ monitors by themselves. Just because a video card has three outputs doesn't mean you can use all of them simultaneously.

    Please Read Me

    Comment


      #3
      Originally posted by oshunluvr View Post
      Output of xrandr with all screens active?
      Hi thanks for helping me out. Here is the output:

      Code:
      Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 7040 x 1440, maximum 8192 x 8192
      HDMI-1 connected 2560x1440+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 527mm x 296mm
       2560x1440     59.95*+
       1920x1200     59.95  
       1920x1080     60.00    50.00    59.94    59.93  
       1920x1080i    60.00    50.00    59.94  
       1680x1050     59.88  
       1280x1024     75.02    60.02  
       1440x900      59.90  
       1280x960      60.00  
       1366x768      59.79  
       1152x864      75.00  
       1280x720      60.00    50.00    59.94  
       1024x768      75.03    70.07    60.00  
       832x624       74.55  
       800x600       72.19    75.00    60.32    56.25  
       720x576       50.00  
       720x480       60.00    59.94  
       640x480       75.00    72.81    66.67    60.00    59.94  
       720x400       70.08  
      HDMI-2 connected 2560x1440+2560+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 527mm x 296mm
       2560x1440     59.95*+
       1920x1200     59.95  
       1920x1080     60.00    50.00    59.94    59.93  
       1920x1080i    60.00    50.00    59.94  
       1680x1050     59.88  
       1280x1024     75.02    60.02  
       1440x900      59.90  
       1280x960      60.00  
       1366x768      59.79  
       1152x864      75.00  
       1280x720      60.00    50.00    59.94  
       1024x768      75.03    70.07    60.00  
       832x624       74.55  
       800x600       72.19    75.00    60.32    56.25  
       720x576       50.00  
       720x480       60.00    59.94  
       640x480       75.00    72.81    66.67    60.00    59.94  
       720x400       70.08  
      DP-1 connected 1920x1200+5120+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 160mm x 90mm                                                                                            
       1920x1200     59.95*+                                                                                                                                                           
       1920x1080     60.00                                                                                                                                                             
       1680x1050     59.95                                                                                                                                                             
       1280x1024     75.02    60.02                                                                                                                                                    
       1440x900      59.89                                                                                                                                                             
       1280x960      60.00                                                                                                                                                             
       1280x800      59.81                                                                                                                                                             
       1152x864      75.00                                                                                                                                                             
       1280x720      60.00                                                                                                                                                             
       1024x768      75.03    70.07    60.00                                                                                                                                           
       832x624       74.55                                                                                                                                                             
       800x600       72.19    75.00    60.32    56.25                                                                                                                                  
       640x480       75.00    72.81    66.67    59.94                                                                                                                                  
       720x400       70.08                                                                                                                                                             
       2560x1440_60  59.96
      Actual details like video card and screen models? VGA - Really? A 15-pin VGA cable? Or did you mean DVI? Specifics and details are required or no one will be able to help.
      This is the motherboard and integrated intel GPU: https://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z370M%20Pro4/

      and this is the monitor model of the 3 displays: https://www.asus.com/uk/Monitors/VX24AH/

      The motherboard has three display ports which are DVI, VGA and HDMI. So I'm using a DVI to HDMI cable for one monitor which works fine, HDMI on another and VGA on last. With my old monitors which displayed 2048x1152 ok I used VGA, HDMI to VGA and DVI to VGA as the old monitors were all VGA only!! (Samsung 2243NW.)

      Sounds to me like your ESID isn't coming through on the one monitor or you have the wrong cable. Resolutions higher than HD require a dual-link DVI connection and VGA ?, forget it. HDMI should allow it though.
      Now I would of suspected the resolution of this motherboard on vga couldn't support past 1920x1200 at 60 but I know it does as I swapped the monitors out and the ones I used to use were Samsung 2048x1152 and they worked fine - 3 monitors still... I used xrandr to set them.

      As you say though I ended up adding this Nvidia card also just for one monitor on hdmi: https://www.simulant.uk/shop/compute...d-hdmi-vga-dvi

      and the monitor was still at 1920x1200. Also I tried swapping the 3 monitors on different cables and ports just to make sure it wasn't just one that was a bit dodgy.

      So I also suspect the EDID, but I don't know how EDIDs work and how you go about swapping or updating them/replacing them etc.

      AFAIK, no video cards other than nVidia Quadro (I'm sure there are others but I could care less about AMD cards) run 3+ monitors by themselves. Just because a video card has three outputs doesn't mean you can use all of them simultaneously.
      That's fair enough but it just seems odd that such a new motherboard with 4k and latest coffee lake cpu etc which did used to run 3 screens - also it is 1gb integrated which isn't bad and I've added that other nvidia with the hdmi (which I've since removed because it help.

      Let me know if I can provide more info etc for anyone to help get this working. Thanks again
      Last edited by jonah1980; Feb 01, 2018, 01:29 PM.

      Comment


        #4
        Originally posted by jonah1980 View Post
        The motherboard has three display ports which are DVI, VGA and HDMI. So I'm using a DVI to HDMI cable for one monitor which works fine, HDMI on another and VGA on last. With my old monitors which displayed 2048x1152 ok I used VGA, HDMI to VGA and DVI to VGA as the old monitors were all VGA only!! (Samsung 2243NW.)

        Now I would of suspected the resolution of this motherboard on vga couldn't support past 1920x1200 at 60 but I know it does as I swapped the monitors out and the ones I used to use were Samsung 2048x1152 and they worked fine - 3 monitors still... I used xrandr to set them.
        From Wiki: The same VGA cable can be used with a variety of supported VGA resolutions, ranging from 640×350px @70 Hz (24 MHz of signal bandwidth) to 1280×1024px (SXGA) @85 Hz (160 MHz) and up to 2048×1536px (QXGA) @85 Hz (388 MHz).

        Which reads to me like your old monitor of 2048x1152 is OK but 2560x1440 is obviously out-of-range.

        As you say though I ended up adding this Nvidia card also just for one monitor on hdmi: https://www.simulant.uk/shop/compute...d-hdmi-vga-dvi

        and the monitor was still at 1920x1200. Also I tried swapping the 3 monitors on different cables and ports just to make sure it wasn't just one that was a bit dodgy.

        So I also suspect the EDID, but I don't know how EDIDs work and how you go about swapping or updating them/replacing them etc.
        To be clear; You swapped the monitors around and had the same results every time, so the port or connection is the issue and not the monitor. IF that is the case, then the EDID isn't the issue. It's either the cable itself or the port in use not supporting the higher resolution. I'd be interested to know if you get the full resolution from that port using that cable as a single monitor.


        That's fair enough but it just seems odd that such a new motherboard with 4k and latest coffee lake cpu etc which did used to run 3 screens - also it is 1gb integrated which isn't bad and I've added that other nvidia with the hdmi
        If it ran three screens before then it should now. Frankly, if you got the same results after adding the nVidia card, I suspect something other than the hardware. Doing some research...

        Please Read Me

        Comment


          #5
          Awesome looking Mobo, but this is what the ASRock site says:

          - Three graphics output options: D-Sub, DVI-D and HDMI
          - Supports Triple Monitor
          - Supports HDMI with max. resolution up to 4K x 2K (4096x2160) @ 30Hz
          - Supports DVI-D with max. resolution up to 1920x1200 @ 60Hz
          - Supports D-Sub with max. resolution up to 1920x1200 @ 60Hz
          - Supports Auto Lip Sync, Deep Color (12bpc), xvYCC and HBR (High Bit Rate Audio) with HDMI Port (Compliant HDMI monitor is required)
          - Supports HDCP with DVI-D and HDMI Ports
          - Supports 4K Ultra HD (UHD) playback with HDMI Port
          Which reads to me like you can't get 2560x1440 on all three monitors. But if I read your posts above correctly, you got the higher res on 2 of them. Weird. In any case, with the nvidia card your should be able to get it done if the nvidia card will support 2 monitors at the higher res.

          Please Read Me

          Comment


            #6
            I also just re-read and noticed you added a new 2560x1440 mode to xrandr ? Did you try to use it with the third monitor?

            Please Read Me

            Comment


              #7
              Hi thanks for the replies.

              Well even though I did read those "max" res specs on the motherboard site, I still thought I'd be able to set the 3 monitors at full 2560x1440 just as I'd already had two running it and a third at 2048x1152 which is higher anyway than what their specs say.

              But even with JUST the vga monitor plugged in and no others it gives 1920x1200...

              So it's confusing to say the least. OK so there I was again thinking, well maybe the vga port maxes out at 1920x1200, but I'd already had that 2560x1440 monitor running on it perfectly well at full res!

              And then there is the matter of me adding in that second Nvidia GPU and using the HDMI port on it to the 3rd monitor again only gives me 2560x1440. This is why I'm wondering if Kubuntu is somehow being fooled into thinking the edid is a different screen or maybe it still gets confused and thinks that old 2048x1152 monitor is the new 2560x1440 or something like that?

              I'll report back again when I've tried it. Thanks again,

              Jonah
              Nothing seems to add up. I might install a fresh kubuntu on a new sata drive and swap them out to see what happens. The live distro doesn't give me full res anyway as intel microcode isn't installed...

              Comment


                #8
                Hi just reporting back.

                Ok I pulled the Hard drive and installed Kubuntu on another one, booted with just two monitors plugged in (one on hdmi and one on vga) to see if it would give me 2560x1440 on both.

                No dice

                So the vga with a fresh install was still 1920x1200 which kinda proves the vga won't handle max res on these monitors for me. I tried xrandr too and it wouldn't set.

                Still what I can't figure out is why the second 1gb hdmi nvidia gpu I added still only gave 1920x1200 via hdmi on that 3rd monitor...

                Comment


                  #9
                  May simply be the cabling? See http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id...ort-1080p.html
                  Using Kubuntu Linux since March 23, 2007
                  "It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data." - Sherlock Holmes

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Hi after a bit more research I think it is down to that old GeForce card having hdmi version 1.2 or lower. So even though that second GPU can do 2560x1440 it must of just been dvi only and still maxes out on the hdmi port.

                    I've now ordered a cheap GT710 nvidia card instead: https://www.msi.com/Graphics-card/GT.../Specification

                    This says on the specs page it does hdmi at Max Resolution: 4096x2160 @24 Hz

                    So hopefully it should easily do 2560x1440 at 60hz. I'll update the forum if it doesn't fix things for me. Fingers crossed! Thanks again for the help.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      According to this article, you should be good-to-go. See the table about half-way down. It took a while to find this for some reason...

                      BTW, if HDMI is needed for a monitor, I've had very good luck with dual-DVI-to-HDMI cables.

                      Please Read Me

                      Comment

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