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hdmiOn – a solution to loss of DVI video EDID signal on HD TVs

The last few days I have been pulling my hair out over my new HD TV not working with my Home Theatre PC, specifically when switching from HDMI input to TV and back again. The HDMI signal is lost and can only be reset by either rebooting the PC or unplugging and replugging the HDMI cable.

This problem seems to affect ATI video cards only, with NVIDEA updating their drivers to fix this. ATI states that Catalyst drivers at version 7.3 or higher have fixed this problem, but that wasn’t the case for me. A Google search for ati hdmi edid shows a number of users with the same problem.

Hence, I present to you my solution; hdmiOn.
hdmiOn is a tiny program that turns the monitor off and on, which resends the EDID data bringing back the TV to life. Suggested usage is to assign the program to a function or hotkey.

Program was tested on my Sony BRAVIA KDL46X3100 with a ATI HD 2400 PRO.

Download hdmiOn.exe

As requested, source code is as follows.

#include <windows.h>

int WINAPI WinMain(HINSTANCE hInstance, HINSTANCE hPrevInstance, LPSTR lpCmdLine, int nCmdShow)
{
	// Turn off monitor
	SendMessage(HWND_BROADCAST, WM_SYSCOMMAND, SC_MONITORPOWER, (LPARAM) 2);
	// Turn on monitor
	SendMessage(HWND_BROADCAST, WM_SYSCOMMAND, SC_MONITORPOWER, (LPARAM) -1);

	return 0;
}

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This entry was posted on Thursday, May 15th, 2008 at 9:29 pm and is filed under Random, Software. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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  • Anubis

    I am also having a problem with HDMION.exe staying open and refreshing every like 5 mins on windows 7 x64 RTM.

    I just want it to do it once then close automatically.

  • Ozturk

    This is a very nifty utility. Rather than bind it to a hot-key, you can create a Windows task that runs hdmiOn when the machine wakes from sleep. Utterly painless.

    Task scheduler can execute a task based on Windows Events. The event for wake up is in the System Log under Microsoft-Windows-Power-Troubleshooter. The event ID is 1.

  • flop

    Hey, good news! This problem has disappeared it seems with the latest round of drivers, at least for me on W7 RC. Has anyone noticed this as well?

  • TR

    I am having a similar problem but with HDMI audio. If I turn on the HTPC before the TV, the HDMI audio is disabled. I tried your utility and the problem is solved!! Somehow the hdmiOn reset also initializes the audio capabilities of the TV.

    Thanks.

  • Jason

    @flop I just installed Windows 7 32-bit (clean install) and still have the problem had in XP. Since it was a clean install, maybe I need to install the latest drivers from ATI as opposed to what Windows 7 used automatically (3d graphics are working fine, so I wasn’t planning on updating drivers).

  • gHoul

    I have a gigabyte motherboard with built in ATI 4200 HD card. I use it for my HTPC the HDMI port only! I notice when I turn on the pc without the TV on first audio doesn’t work, when I unplug the HDMI cable and plug it back in CCC says “HDMI to DVI detected!?!?!” running HDMIon doesn’t fix the issue either, I need to shut down the pc and restart it with the TV on first. then audio is fine. I’m going to upgrade it to Win7 hopefully that will fix this bizarre issue.

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  • Maarten

    Great little app, works like a charm! Thanks a lot :-)

  • Chris

    A quick note. I have sucessfully been runnning hdmiOn when my monitor won’t show the screen when I switch HDMI sources (xbox to pc). It works great. I am running win7 btw. I have since discovered that firing ctl-alt-delete has the same effect as hdmiOn. It’s possible that the task mgr menu screen that appears runs in a specific resolution and that is what brings the monitor back to life, whatever the cause, I just wanted to let people out there know that they can try a 3 finger salute as an alternative.

  • Paul

    Is there anyway to bind this tool to a key on my microsoft media center remote?

  • Mark

    Works a treat with my sony bravia / media portal setup. Switching between game console and media portal pc – to check the cricket score – now means I don’t need to reboot!

    Thanks mate! Appreciated.

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  • George

    The perfect fix for the TV not powering back on! I trigger this using EventGhost with a simple call to run HdmiOn.exe when I select “Watch TV” on my Harmony remote. Thanks so much for making this and fixing the issue ATI apparently doesn’t want to!

  • http://gettingoutalive.spaces.live.com/?_c02_vws=1 GettingOutAlive

    I’ve written a little app called HdmiYo that adds the hot key binding to application and automatically does the EDID when the machine wakes up. Hopefully other may find it helpful.

    HdmiYo 0.1.0

  • salvag

    thank you very much

  • Robin

    Thanks for this little and very usefull app.. I’d like to use it with my Harmony remote too ! Hello Georges, would you precise me the plugin and event that you used with EventGhost to do it ?

  • http://www.greenwireit.com Paul Rausch

    Holy Crap! This is golden, I’ve been battling with issue on my second panel for months now.

    Thank You!

  • Graeme

    LG32lx2r hd was working fine with w7 on cq61, then after a round of updates, I just can’t get the laptop to recognise the tv and wake it up.

    It does though still see the tv using dvi – hdmion didn’t work here unfortunately so am still looking for help – ati 4200hd card.

    Cheers tho

  • Jim

    THANK YOU!!!! I had the same HDMI problem. I searched all over and finally found this site. The program works GREAT!! thanks a TON!!!

  • jaggerwild

    You don’t know what your talking about, as Windows 7 has EDID issues no matter if it’s ATI or Nvidia. You got band aid surgery going on here. this is a BS program, don’t load it!!!!!!!!

  • http://protonus.ws Protonus

    Anyone got any advice for a very similar issue? See here:
    http://www.experts-exchange.com/Hardware/Components/Video_Cards/Q_25742055.html
    thanks in advance!

  • Jack

    Hi there,
    it only will turn off and on my main screen not the secondary that plays up, unfortunately.

  • Longbow

    Hey, I’ve got a Pioneer VSX1019AH and the problem isn’t that the video drops out and doesn’t come back but the audio drops out of the Sounds and Audio Devices default device and will not return without a reset of the PC. Unfortunately this program does not help with my problem. :(

  • Sinister9

    I tried HDMIon and it did not work. I didn’t have this problem until I installed the nvidia drivers (nvidia has NOT fixed this issue in their drivers). Any other suggestions?

  • Longbow

    Out of interest, is there a way to reset the audio devices list?

  • yao

    I have the same video loss issue on my Bravia and ATI MX550 card.
    However the issue disappeared after I installed an LG BD player to Bravia.
    For weeks I used the PC on Bravia happily. Until one day I accidentally unpluged the DVI/HDMI cable and re-plugged in.
    The issue appeared again and I cannot get it good again….

  • jeff

    Onkyo tx-sr506, Gateway fpd2185w monitor, gigabyte gah57m-usb3 mother board = no fix. :(

  • jeff

    NOTHING HELPS MY PROBLEM. ive tried for months now. i dont get how there is no solution to this. withoiut my fucking ati drivers it doesnt happen, but after sleep mode i cant get a signal back to my fucking tv. FUCK/ email underground_tactics87@hotmail.com if you know an answer and ill toss you a few bucks on paypal

  • http://matthewi30@yahoo.fr majohnson

    ok

  • T0TTE

    I have the same issue with my Asus EeeBox EB1501U with nVidia ION.

    Unfortunately neither HDMIONn nor HDMIYo, solves the problem.

    HDMI Detective? (pretty expensive though, and yet another gadget…)

  • David

    Thank you ! Fantastic solution.
    This solved a very annoying problem when running an HDMI TV. If you turned off the TV, or switched inputs the video card went to sleep and it required a full reboot with the TV left on to bring it back.

    Windows XP Pro, VGA Monitor on motherboard, HDMI TV from ATI Radion 7000 secondary video-card

  • Alex Kintner

    You, my friend, are a gawd-dam genius. Where is your Donate button? You saved me weeks of googling and probably $100+ for an unnecessary hardware connector. Thanks for this kool tool. It works like a champ.

    Notes:

    Helpful hint for other Muggles. To assign the hdmiOn to a Windows shortcut hotkey, make sure the shortcut is CREATED ON THE WINDOWS DESKTOP. The hotkey will not work if the shortcut sits in some arbitrary folder (learned this the hard way).

    I have a ATI Radeon X300. I installed ATI Catalyst 9.3.1 drivers which is the latest version for this card (now legacy support only). DVI port gets turned off when the display LCD power is turned off, then I had to reboot. ATI is full of it when they say they fixed this in drivers 7.3 or higher.

  • ex

    Cant get it to work with Sony Bravia KDL-32W5800 and NVIDIA GTX 460. I have to reboot the PC.

    -.-

  • Alain

    Same problem : black screen when i leave hdmi2 (PC) to another source (hdmi1,..).
    win7 / radeon 4850 /Sony KDL37W5720 / Samsung 23″
    Interim solution: “windows key”+ P

  • Alain

    Try “windows key” + “P” and cycle.

  • ex

    Doesn´t work.

  • Alex

    Guys, can anyone help with the following issue?
    I got Dell Studio 1535 laptop and ATI 340o series in it. It alwasy worked fine with my HDTV Phillips, yesterday I plugged it into friend’s Samsung Blue ray player hdmi port to watch a movie in his home through my computer and the when I got home my computer will not have its display on.. I can only work through my HDTV’s display.. my laptop’s display is in either sleep mode or just black/blank… How do I turn it back on? thanks in advance…

  • faazers

    why my Anti-virus say its a malware ?? n removes it ?? any idea ?? isnt is scary ?

  • http://thydzik.com thydzik
  • Don

    I have been going nuts trying to solve this problem, and “hdmion” is the answer. It took me a little while to figure out how to make the shortcut, but now I can turn off my tv while the computer is on, then come back minutes or hours later, turn on the tv, hit “ctrl-f7″ and I’m back in business. No more hard resets!
    Thank you!

  • pionyrek

    Hi everyone, I have a problem consisting in flickering and some “snow” from time to time. The PC is connected to the LCD panel through a Pioneer A/V. I’m using an ATI 5450 card. Do you think this pieces of software could help to solve this handshaking problem?
    Thanks

  • Melraidin

    Any chance this might resolve the same sort of issues under Linux, specifically Ubuntu/Mythbuntu? If so, any chance of a port?

  • Chacha

    Try “windows key” + “P” and cycle with TAB.

    Ok for me.
    W7 + ATI 4850 + Sony Bravia KDL-37W5720

    AMD & M$: shame on you.

  • http://www.va3ep.net Eric Pierce

    I had the “video goes blank when sources switched awaym then back with ATI card feeding Flat Screen TV via DVI => HDMI” problem too.

    Your hdmiOn.exe works like a charm!

    Thanks!

  • Samir Shah

    For me it was working well when I had Vista – as soon as I upgraded to Windows 7 it stopped working – any thoughts?

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  • http://bimma.me.uk Joe90

    Thanks for this little program. I used it on my Car PC (Acer Aspire One / W7) to bring the screen back to life after waking from sleep. So not just for hdmi ;)
    Great stuff :)

  • http://www.charlesconway.com Charles

    Brilliant! Thanks for this tool. I built an HTPC from older components, and this blank screen problem was driving me nuts…

  • Gfhg

    This works very nice! shortkey assigned via properties from a shortcut to the program. ctr-alt+left arrow. thanks a lot

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