HDMI / 2nd monitor issue

Bugs and Support
1

I installed Zwift a few days ago, and everything worked fine. Then the next time I went to open it, it would just sit on a black screen. After some trouble-shooting, I realized that it was having issues opening onto my secondary monitor. It’s identical to my primary monitor, except it’s plugged in with HDMI versus Display Port. Once I unplugged the secondary monitor to force Zwift back onto the primary monitor, it opened no problem, and continued without problem even with the secondary monitor plugged in again (though not launching onto it).

Running Windows 10, Intel i9-11900K, GeForce RTX 3070Ti, 128GB RAM

2

I’m pretty sure that I’ve seen a recent thread on this being a known issue.

3

Have you set it to extend the display or mirror it?

Also have you tried changing to or from full screen mode?

4

We had an issue ages back, pre-release of home screen (I was using a beta version) where the game wouldn’t load properly when a second monitor was used as an extended display. Mirrored was fine. That was fixed before it was released to the public but it sounds a bit similar.

5

I’m sure I’ve seen something recently on this. Let’s see if I can find it …

6

Sorry, the 2nd monitor issue that I was thinking of wasn’t a black screen issue and was to do with video recording - Video Screenshots - Windows Release [July 2023] - #69 by evan-zwift

7

Monitor is set to extended display, and game set to full-screen. I’ll play with those settings later and see if they make a difference.

8

Can you use HDMI and Display Port at the same time? Will the GPU deal with that?

9

Easily. That’s a basic function of graphics cards. Especially for the 3070ti

10

Oh, ok. I’ve learned something…:+1:

11

Hi @Kyle_Owen welcome to Zwift forums.

Shuji at Zwift HQ here. I peeked at your recent server logs and noticed that your graphics drivers were updates twice is the past two days. Was that something you did manually, or was it an automatic update via Windows Update or GeForce Experience?

Your August 14 Zwift session you were using Nvidia’s driver v 531.79.
August 15 you logged in / out three times but did no actual riding - does that sound right?

  • The first session the driver had already been updated to v 536.23
  • The second session the driver had been updated to v 536.99, which is the latest version on Nvidia’s site.

Generally speaking - it’s good practice to use the latest drivers directly from Nvidia (as opposed to Microsoft Update). But sometimes, new drivers can create problems. I’d suggest you try two things:

  1. Nvidia has two driver sets depending on your primary use for
    that computer: Nvidia Studio for professional applications like photo / video editing, and 3D creative tools. GeForce Game Ready drivers are for playing games. Confirm which one you installed, and try the other?

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    0011381×469 76.3 KB

  2. If #1 didn’t help - try rolling back to the last known good driver, which in your case sounds llike v 531.79.

Would you try that and let us know how it pans out?

12

I did a manual driver update as part of my trouble-shooting, as my driver appeared to have last been updated two years ago. The driver I downloaded was 536.99. I’m thinking maybe it automatically updated to 536.23 as part of the process?

I’ve tried all the different combinations of extended display vs. duplicated display, display 1 vs. 2, and full screen vs. windowed screen. The only combination that gives me problems is extended display, full screen, 2nd display.

It’s a bit of a mute point for me now, since I’ve decided I prefer Zwift windowed.

13

I had similar problems, about 2 years ago. Using extended display, windowed and Borderless Gaming app solved the issue.