Need help connecting PC to HDTV

[mnguy]

I have a Panasonic Viera 32" 720p LCD HDTV and I would like to use it to replace my computer monitor but I am having some problems. My computer has a spot to plug in an HDMI cable which I have connected directly from the computer to the HDMI port in the TV but unfortunately it doesn't display anything. My computer has Windows 7 and an HTI Radeon HD 4200. I have tried switching the monitor display mode to 1280x960 which I've read is the closest to 720p but it didn't help.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

 

[bkoop]

It is not clear from your post, but 720p is 1280x720, did you try that one?

Do you have to manually select the input on the TV menu?

 

[mclovits]

Go to Control Panel> Hardware & Sound> Display> Connect to an external display, and from here, try to see if your computer identifies your TV. If not, there may be a key on your keyboard that switches it when pressing CTRL or Function (On laptop).

 

[mnguy]

I tried setting resolution to 1280x720 but the tv still just showed static.

mclovits, I don't think it was clear in my post but this is a desktop computer.

 

[blackdragonx1186]

If your video card has multiple outputs, try using both the monitor that is known to work and show your desktop, and then try hooking the tv up on a second port. I had a similar issue with my 5 series card.

 

[bkoop]

You might have missed this question when I did the edit:

Do you have to manually select the input on the TV menu?

(ie Coax, VGA, HDMI, Composite)

 

[mnguy]

Yes, after doing the initial setup on the TV I've selected HDMI 1 (It has two HDMI inputs) so I know it is on the correct input.

blackdragonx, I was going to try plugging them both in at the same time since my PC does have multiple ports but they are two close together making it impossible to plug them both in at the same time.

 

[Niavlys77]

You may have to dig into the BIOS to enable the integrated graphics (assuming you're using the HDMI that's on your motherboard, not from a video card).

EDIT: I had this same issue when trying to hook my desktop to my TV via the onboard HDMI (this desktop also has a Quadro 2000 video card). I ended up going into the BIOS and found a setting where the iGPU or eGPU was disabled, or set to discreet graphics only. I enabled it and set it to Auto switch between the two. After that, everything worked perfectly.

 

[shanky887614]

best thing to do is turn pc off, unplug the vga cable and then plug the hdmi cable in and plug into tv and turn on.

without doing this it will probably defauly video to vga.


try changing source on the tv to hdmi 2

its not always very clear which port is which on the tv

 

[mnguy]

Hmm, I think maybe the HDMI port is part of the motherboard. I went into the BIOS to look around and found some settings regarding the display. Unfortunately I disabled the monitor display completely and now I cannot see what I'm doing in order to turn the display back on. Stupid mistake! Any ideas on how to change that back without being able to see what I'm doing?

Shaky, I tried both of those suggestions first without any luck. I think it probably has something to do with the computer itself since this computer was put together using various components.

 

[Niavlys77]

I think to reset those settings, you'll have to unplug the power and pull the CMOS battery from the motherboard for a few minutes (correct me if I'm wrong, people). Unless you have a motherboard that has a CMOS reset button.

 

[mnguy]

Ok, I pulled out the CMOS battery and was able to reset to default CMOS settings which brought back the screen display. Unfortunately now Windows fails to start properly! It starts up like normal but then gets an error message when Windows would normally start up, a screen that says Windows startup error recovery comes up and asks if you'd like to start Windows normally or launch startup repair. The startup repair always fails and says its unable to repair the computer automatically. If you choose to start windows normally it simply goes in a loop and again fails to startup.

I oncE selected to return to how it was to an earlier time that it said but that didn't help anything. anyone know how I can get Windows to start up again after takin out the CMOS battery?

On the Other hand though I got a VGA cord and plugged that into the t. And it worked just fine.

 

[Niavlys77]

Pulling the CMOS resets your BIOS settings...not sure what could cause that issue, but try getting whatever BIOS settings you had changed back to what it was previously. It could be your hard drive controller setting (AHCI or IDE?).

 

[hedwar2011]

If it's a newer computer, the BIOS Settings for the HDD will need to be set to AHCI. If it's set to IDE it will stop it dead every time.

As for the HDMI issue, if the screen is fuzzy (snowy) like a standard antenna signal would be that isn't on a station then the connection isn't correct. It will be a black screen entirely until the source is found due to it being digital and not analog. I would recommend switching it between both ports on the TV until one of them picks it up. It could take 30 seconds to 1 minute in order for it to pick up.

Let me know if this helps!