Windows 10: When no monitor is connected or turned off, windows can't play game or video

Hi,


I notice that when ever I turn off my monitor, my game stops running. It just freeze and I won't be able to do anything, even if I close and reopen the game. When I turn on the monitor, everything comes back to normal. Same thing happens if you don't connect the monitor.


What problem would be the root cause of this issue? How to keep my game running even when the monitor is turn off? My guess is it has something to do video card but I can't find the solution anywhere.


Appreciate any help.


Thanks

:)

 

FPS drops when playing video in background

I am trying to understand why I experience FPS drops in demanding games when a video is playing in background and how to fix it. My particular setup (see the specs at the bottom): two monitors in extended desktop mode, the primary monitor connected via DisplayPort to an AMD R9 390 video card, the other via DVI alternatively to the on-die Intel HD 4600 graphics output or to the R9 390's DVI output.

I will demonstrate the problem with Witcher 3 game, but the same problem occurs with at least one other game that I tried - World of Tanks (which is where the issue actually matters, as sometimes I put on music from YouTube while in game). In all the experiments below I run Witcher 3 on my primary monitor in windowed full-screen mode and measure the FPS in it with FRAPS. To guarantee stable FPS, I put the game on pause (by pressing ESC). I also set affinity of the Witcher 3 process to the first 3 cores and set the affinity of other applications to the 4th core. The CPU load has remained stable on cores 1-3 throughout the tests at 45-50%.

Baseline test when the game is not running: CPU load is at ~0% on cores 1-3 and ~5% on core 4.
Baseline test when the game is running, but no video being played in parallel: stable 58 FPS, CPU load: ~10% on core 4.

First batch of tests: the secondary monitor is connected to the R9 390.

1. 1080p YouTube HTML5 video running on the secondary monitor (in
   Chrome or Firefox): ~48 FPS, CPU load: ~50% on core 4.
   
2. The same YouTube video running on the primary monitor on top of the game:
   same results as in (1).
   
3. SMPlayer playing a 1024x426 AVC video on the
   secondary monitor: ~48 FPS, CPU load: ~25% on core 4.
   

Second batch of tests: the secondary monitor is connected to HD 4600.

1. 1080p YouTube HTML5 video running on the secondary monitor (in Chrome or Firefox): ~44 FPS, CPU load: ~50% on core 4.
   
2. The same YouTube video running on the primary monitor on top of the game: ~48 FPS, CPU load: ~50% on core 4.
   
3. SMPlayer playing a 1024x426 AVC video on the secondary monitor: ~50 FPS, CPU load: ~25% on core 4.
   

Now, one thing I noticed is that performance varies depending on whether the game window is focused or not. The benchmarks above are given for the case when the game window is focused. If the game window is focused, I see clear choppiness in video playback (both in YouTube and in SMPlayer). If another window is focused, video playback is smooth, but game FPS drops more.

My specs: Windows 10 x64, Intel i5-4690K, Gigabyte Z97-D3H, 8Gb RAM, R9 390 video card. The primary monitor (connected to R9 390) runs at 1920x1200, the secondary at 1600x1200.

EDIT: I took a music-only YouTube and tried to play it in various resolutions from 240p to 1080p. The FPS dropped gradually from 58 to 48 FPS as I increased the resolution.

 

Windows 10 refuses to boot without the old monitor.

Hi,

To address your issue with connecting a new monitor, please perform these steps:

• Plug in the old monitor.
• Uninstall the video driver, go to Device Manager > right-click on the video driver >
  Uninstall.
  
• Unplug the old monitor, then connect the new one.
• Turn on the computer, and Windows will attempt to reinstall the driver.
  

Update us on the result.

 

Unable to play video games on Windows 10, black screen after log-in screen

Hi Natasha,

Thank you for posting in Microsoft Community, we appreciate your interest in Windows 10.

I understand the inconvenience you are facing with accessing the Windows 10 operating system, we will help you with this issue.

Do let us know the following to assist you better with this issue:

• From where are you trying to play the video games (downloaded/ from website)?
• If you are playing games from website which browser are you using?
• Were you able to see any error code/ error message when the game crashes?
• Are you able log-in to your computer?

This issue might have occurred due to corrupted/ outdated display drivers.

As you see black screen while logging to the desktop, I suggest you to refer to the below Microsoft article about this issue, try the troubleshooting steps and check if it helps.

Black screen after upgrading to Windows 10

Also, I suggest you to install all the pending updates on your device.

Steps:

• Connect to the internet.
• Press Windows key and type
  updates.
• Click on Check for updates.
• Under Windows Updates, click on
  Check for updates.
• Try to install the updates being shown.

Hope it helps. Kindly update the status of this issue and required information, we will be happy to help you further.