I have to boot Win 10 four times before the second screen will come up

[waynec_jagsnvettes]

Not sure what happened, but for about a month my second display does not come up when the computer is booted... all my icons are on the primary display and the second screen is not connected/operable.

If I power off the machine, then boot up 3 more times in succession (ie, 4 power-off/power-on bootups in a row), the computer comes up with the 2nd screen operating on the 4th bootup.

If I shut the computer down at any time, it always requires 4 complete power-on bootups to get the second screen operating.

Another symptom, I am not able to do a reboot of Win 10 without powering-down, Windows shuts down but then the machine freezes with the power on and nothing happens on the primary display.

 

[mtf1380]

I sometimes have an issue with one of my screens not coming on when booting up, or waking from a sleep state (using 3 screens in total, and happens to the same screen when it happens)...I am able to kick start the non-reactive screen by powering that screen off and then powering it back on; has worked every time so far for me.

 

[waynec_jagsnvettes]

Tried that, many times (and checked what source the display is using), also does not make any difference when or if the second display was powered-on, before or after the computer power button is pressed. I even played with taking all the startup programs off the startup list (msconfig, Startup-open Task Manager)... no effect. The strangest thing to me is the fact that it always takes 4 power-on button/Win 10 boots of the powered-down computer to bring up the second screen.

 

[waynec_jagsnvettes]

Today Windows automatically installed 2021-04 cumulative update when I powered the computer on in the morning ...as the Windows update was being applied I noted that my second display was active, and when the update was complete and Win 10 came up, I had full use of both screens. But as soon as I shut the machine down and rebooted, I was right back into the routine of having to power-up/reboot 4 times to get the second screen working.
Beats me!

 

[waynec_jagsnvettes]

Today Windows automatically installed 2021-04 cumulative update when I powered the computer on in the morning ...as the Windows update was being applied I noted that my second display was active, and when the update was complete and Win 10 came up, I had full use of both screens. But as soon as I shut the machine down and rebooted, I was right back into the routine of having to power-up/reboot 4 times to get the second screen working.
Beats me!

RESOLVED!!!! The issue turned out to be a bios setting on my MSI Z97 motherboard. I had re-flashed the motherboard due to a serious issue where I was not able to boot Win 10 at all; the re-flash had fixed the boot issue but apparently it also changed an obscure bios setting pertaining to graphics. I was so fixated on the boot issue that I did not notice the 2nd display issue until days later and didn't associate it with the bios re-flash... since I used an add-on display card rather than the MB display adapter alone, I did not suspect the MB bios.

 

[waynec_jagsnvettes]

RESOLVED!!!! The issue turned out to be a bios setting on my MSI Z97 motherboard.

Well, not quite, the issue came back again. I did more internet searches and came across an entry that pointed me to a Win 10 setting for fast boot... Control Panel\Power Options\Choose What the Power Buttons Do\Change Settings That are Currently Unavailable" ... untick "Turn on Fast Startup". My Win 10 was marked for fast boot, though I do not recall ever seeing that Windows setting before, so I assume an automatic Win 10 fix download must have changed the setting. Turning that option off appears to have fixed the problem.