. . . the desktop does NOT appear when I power ON the monitor

Hi,

I am running 3 separate PCs with a single LCD monitor, keyboard and mouse - using a 4 port switch.

My primary PC runs Windows XP Home, and the other two PCs run Windows XP Professional. The 3 PCs are networked with a 4 port hub for print sharing (a single printer) and one or two shared directories.

Having nothing to do with the shared network, 4 port switch or hub:

PC # 1 - if the monitor is powered OFF when I start my primary PC, running XP Home, waiting 30 seconds (or so) to allow it to settle into the desktop mode, and then power ON the monitor, the desktop does NOT appear - the screen remains blank. Obviously, I always power ON the monitor before starting this computer - I simply wanted to emphasize this issue as it pertains to my other PCs, noted below.

PC # 2 - with monitor powered OFF, when I start my 1st XP Professional PC, the desktop DOES appear when I power ON the monitor

PC # 3 - with monitor powered OFF, when I start my 2nd XP Professional PC, the desktop does NOT appear when I power ON the monitor

"... nothing to do with the shared network, 4 port switch or hub" because if the switch and hub are removed, the PCs all operate as described above - nothing changes.

This may seem trivial at first glance. I typically run PC # 1

The system.ini files, win.ini files, and LCD monitor drivers are identical for all PCs.

My objective is to configure PC # 1 and PC # 3 to operate as PC # 2 which displays the desktop whether the monitor is powered OFF or powered ON.

Any suggestions?

Thank you in advance.

Cheers,

CurlySue Martin

 

When I said that I am running 3 separate PCs with a single LCD monitor, keyboard and mouse - using a 4 port switch . . . I should have elaborated by adding the product type and or ID.

I have one LCD monitor connected to all three desktop utilizing an IOGear 4-Port USB Cable KVM Switch as shown here . . . http://www.iogear.com/product/GCS24U/

That being said, please note (as mentioned in my initial posting and paraphrased here), removing the 4 port KVM switch has no effect on the problem I have described for PC # 1 and PC # 3. Similar to the 4 port KVM switch, removing the 4 port hub, a Linksys BEFSR41, does not resolve the problem.

In short, with hardware installed or removed, the problem described remains - which, in my opinion strongly suggests that the problem must be a software (settings) issue - most likely Windows XP Home and or Professional.

I should also add that PC # 2 and PC # 3 are 100% identical in every regard - manufacturer, hardware (including HDD, RAM, new graphic cards, etc), as well as operating system (including MS updates), software, etc.

CurlySue

 

The desktop does NOT appear when I power ON the monitor . . . in other words, the Explorer Shell is not loading (no task bar, start button, systray, etc) - just a black or blank screen - nothing loading period.

CurlySue

 

Try a system restore or press F8 on boot and scroll down to ' Last Known Good Configuration ' which takes your PC back to a time when it was working ok !

 

Good suggestion, however that presumes that this PROBLEM did not exist at one time. Unfortunately, that is not the case.

Thanks anyway.

CurlySue

 

My suggestion was so that you could, after doing as i said, maybe just maybe run some scans i:e like open cmd as admin and run sfc /scannow to see if you had any bad files or not !

 

I am Administrator of all PCs, and I did run SFC and there were no problems found. I checked the System Info and confirmed that there are no conflicts present or reported. Each and every time I shut or power my system(s) down, I check my Event Viewer logs to see if there are any warnings or errors that need to be addressed - thus far, no warnings or errors have been recorded or reported.

I suppose I should have added the above statement in my initial post, and that is my bad. I could add, at minimum, fifty other things I have tried or investigated, but as a reasonably competent engineer, I thought brevity was a better approach to soliciting support - in contrast to sharing exhaustive detail that unambiguously detailed each and every aspect of the problem, as well as each and every detail employed to resolve the problem, to date.

CurlySue

 

Resolved . . . special thanks to W Gates.