TV monitor

[Excalibur]

I have a Panasonic Viera TV and a PC, both of unknown history, or if they even work well.

Connected eveything up with HDMI cable, fans spin, mobo lights flash, TV displays size? then shows video for about 1 second before going blank.
I discovered bios battery holding just 0.5v but a replacement did not fix.
During the 1 second of video, I can see it displays either:

Megatrends splash screen.
BIOS.
Windows desktop.

My thought is a config issue but I didn't have at hand a regular monitor to swap to.

Going back to this Thursday so hope to have a way forward by then.
Thanks for any help.
   
   
   

[psycik]

Maybe try safe mode. The 1 second of video is that actually playing a video. Or windows starting up? If starting up, could be video driver kicking in finally (why you lose picture).

But if windows is ok and it does just when playing a video. Maybe video card not happy…or panel.

[zqwerty]

Try to figure out by substituting known good monitor or computer and see which sub section or both are faulty, at the moment you are not sure whether you have two or one faulty sections.

[Bryan]

Just some rambling thoughts from me. Firstly, does the TV play on its own? Is the problem with the PC and you have your problem when trying to connect the PC to the TV?

Is the TV set to receive a PC signal?

[king1]

you could also try connecting them via a VGA cable, but I second trying a standard monitor as well.

[Excalibur]

Great thoughts, thanks.

When I said "video", I meant the video feed from the PC. With subsequent restarts, I see Windows at various stages, the typical logo, the desktop, splash etc. Also if I tap del/F2, the display shows BIOS. All this for 1 second only. The video driver incompatible was my thought too, but at the time there was no way to check the configuration settings.

Safe mode was one thing I didn't try. Very good thought. Mmmm... can't remember which F key, F8 or F10... haven't used safe mode for a while.

Plan ATM is to take a regular monitor on Thurs.

Re does TV play on its' own. Not I can find so far. I've just downloaded a manual and are wading through. There's a lot to digest. I do need to verify the model number. Source is NZ Panasonic website, 2013 PDF.

There's no VGA option on the graphics card, only DVI and HDMI. No on board graphics either, if I understand the ports correctly. 

A good sign is the TV is displaying some graphics so it's not totally dead. It does show "16:9" before it shows a 1 second view of Windows. It's tantalizing isn't it...

Lucky I like a puzzle. Got some good leads to follow now. Thanks!

[nzoomed]

If you dont have another monitor to test with, try unplugging the screen from the computer and then connect back and see if it gives an image on the screen.
Sometimes when a screen fails, it will briefly come on with an image and then go blank, you could also try powering off the monitor and then turn back on.

[Excalibur]

If you dont have another monitor to test with, try unplugging the screen from the computer and then connect back and see if it gives an image on the screen.
Sometimes when a screen fails, it will briefly come on with an image and then go blank, you could also try powering off the monitor and then turn back on.

Tried unplugging, rebooting, power off/on and at various times. Might have to concede screen has failed if that's a common way they go.

Found my spare monitor but it's VGA only. Am borrowing the one from my workstation which is DVI with a double ended DVI lead.

[Excalibur]

Update: The PC booted right up with my spare monitor, however it quickly ran into trouble with fatal errors. I kept the PSU and a fan then scrapped the rest. The TV monitor made the scrap pile too. Thanks to all who helped. I learnt a lot and was reacquainted with a number of procedures not done in a while.

[zqwerty]

Ok, so you're saying both of the sub-sections turned out to be faulty, the worst possible scenario.

It's hard to logically fault find with more than one fault in a system, hence your difficulties at the start.

It worries me a bit that you have identified both as faulty in the end.

I suppose if they were just picked at random out of a pile of potential goers but were both not viable in final judgement then that explains it.

[Excalibur]

Exactly. Decided to not invest more time. Plenty more good prospects will come my way.

[Agent_24]

TVs aren't always great at handling the video modes that PCs output, and PCs don't always support modes that TVs expect. HDMI *should* work but it's possible there is an issue with TV or Video card that the system can't read the EDID from the display, and so there's a confusion over what video mode to use.