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Question

TV is black when switching from cable to PC

Sep 17, 2016 5:39AM PDT

I recently upgraded the video capabilities of the PC connected to my Sharp Aquos TV and I've encountered some perplexing issues:

1. When I switched the HDMI cord from the Intel built-in graphics to the AMD R7 240 card, the TV would become green when switching it from cable TV to PC. There were no problems going the other way (PC to TV). None of this was ever a problem with the built in Intel graphics.

2. When I would unplug the HDMI cord from the video card and plug it back in, PC graphics would return just fine.

3. I bought a new HDMI cord, updated to the latest standards, and plugged that into both the TV and PC card. Now, the monitor goes black (rather than green) when switching from TV to PC.

The only solution is to unplug the HDMI cable/cord from the back of the PC and plug it back in. Alternately, I can reboot the computer itself.

I am truly perplexed. BTW: I'm running all of this on a Dell Vostro 270 with Windows 10 Anniversary Edition.

Any help anyone could give would be greatly appreciated. I've searched the web and found nothing that really mirrors what I'm experiencing.

Discussion is locked

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Answer
This sounds like our old friend/bug. "HDMI HANDSHAKE"
Sep 17, 2016 10:59AM PDT
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Thanks for the follow up - Is this potentially an MSI issue?
Sep 18, 2016 4:14AM PDT

Thanks Bob. I doubt - in this case - that it's a TV issue. The Sharp HDTV is only 8 years old, and it has worked perfectly well with an Intel HD built-in chipset for years. So, I'm guessing it has something to do with the MSI card I put in the PC.

Any idea of how to address this with MSI? I've never really needed to contact a video card vendor before about a card issue. Short of dumping it and buying something else, I'm not sure how to proceed. Do card manufacturers, for example, sometimes offer flashes for their bioses? I've never seen it if so. Mercifully, it was only a $65 investment.

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No. But why?
Sep 18, 2016 7:20AM PDT

Because the HDMI chips and such are mostly an Intel (.com) part. MSI uses HDMI chips and the issue is rooted back in those chips.

And yes, some video cards have updates to the video BIOS. (Which is a shock to some as many never learned video cards have their own BIOS!) Worth some research (by you) but I haven't seen such fix the HDMI handshake as of yet. What might work is if your video card has a hotkey for video off/on. I don't own your card so I can't tell you if it does or what keys to press. For now, change the display to not sleep and hope.

Windows 10? Press Win+X, O and it's under Change when to turn off the display.