Raspberry Pi 3 B Black Screen on Dell Monitor

Zachariel

Pi Model or other hardware: B and Dell u3014 via HDMI to HDMI
RetroPie Version Used: v4.3

Hey all, I'm mostly just wondering if anyone has any info on whether or not this combination has ever worked. Two days of reading every forum post under the sun, and fiddling with the config.txt for hours has yielded nothing but a black screen, and I can find no info on anyone every using this setup. I'm just wondering if I'm barking up the wrong tree.

Thanks!

rbaker

@zachariel said in Raspberry Pi 3 B Black Screen on Dell Monitor:

config.txt

Post a copy for us to see

Zachariel

It's simply the base config.txt that I tried every different combination of force HDMI hotplug, HDMI groups and modes, and HDMI boost that I could think of.

rbaker

@zachariel said in Raspberry Pi 3 B Black Screen on Dell Monitor:

I tried every different combination of force HDMI hotplug, HDMI groups and modes, and HDMI boost that I could think of

post a copy for us to see how you tried and what you typed.....

https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first

mitu

@zachariel Normally there is no need to modify the config.txt and HDMI output should work out-of-the-box. Have you tried a different monitor/tv or a different cable ?

Zachariel

@rbaker I've probably tried fifty different combinations by now, and each time I go back to the default, which is what it is right now. There's no way I can list, or remember, every single thing I tried, and I've even tried just safe HDMI.

@mitu Normals all well and good, but no tech I've ever owned has worked like "normal". I have tried it on a TV with the same cable and it works fine. The overscan needed to be adjusted but at least I had a picture. It's just on this monitor that it will not work, and the monitor knows something is connected because it isn't showing the "no signal, power save" message.

mitu

@zachariel Ok, so it's not the cable. Use a keyboard and play with thetvservice utility to find out the optimal settings for the display to use in the config.txt file.

Zachariel

@mitu Yes, I've SSHed into it and tried that. The edid comes back with CEA mode 16 prefered, which is what it sets itself to when there's no changes to the config file (it doesn't work). I found a forum post by someone who had a similar monitor to mine (u3011), and they were having "no signal" issues when using an HDMI to DVI. They said the fix they finally found was to set it to group 2, mode 69, which worked perfectly for them. Even though it was a slightly different model, and he was using HDMI to DVI instead of HDMI to HDMI, I tried it anyway and that was also a no go. The extended edid data has listed group 2, mode 69 in standard timing 2. Might I also need to write in a line to change to that timing? I had assumed the timing was part of the mode.

rbaker

@zachariel said in Raspberry Pi 3 B Black Screen on Dell Monitor:

I've probably tried fifty different combinations by now

Just wanted to check your syntax.

Zachariel

@rbaker I get it, but I merely used the commented code they provide for you, I'm fairly confident I didn't screw it up.

I really appreciate everyone attempting to help, so if anyone else has any knowledge, information, or thoughts on the matter, that would be wonderful. It's amazing, whenever I have a problem with something, I'm always the only one with that same problem! :-D

Salaman64

Hi, I had issues too with my PC monitor, in the end and after lots of trial and error this is my config file. Please be aware that there are probably unnecassary lines in there, but it worked so I didn't want to mess around with it anymore. Some of it was cut and pasted from various sources as I made more progress each day and discovered new discussion threads about it.

My monitor has no HDMI support, so I have an DVI adaptor. And 3.5 mm plug for my speaker sound

hdmi_force_unplug=1
config_hdmi_boost=4

hdmi_force_edid_audio=1
hdmi_drive=1
hdmi_group=2
hdmi_mode=35
gpu_mem=256
gpu_mem_256=128
gpu_mem_512=256
gpu_mem_1024=256
overscan_scale=1

dtparam=audio=on
disable_audio_dither=1

audio_pwm_mode=2

Zachariel

Folks, I seem to have finagled it into working. Thanks for the support!

mitu

@zachariel Great ! Can you post the solution, so future users will find it when searching the forums ?

av999

@Zachariel
Hi, i wonder if you can help me. I am having exactly the same issue with my monitor dell1905fp. Can you tell me how did you sorted out? I have try everything, still not signal. Thanks in advance

av999

@mitu hi, any ideas how to solve the dell monitor black screen problem posted here? I have tried all options but can't get it to work. Thanks

mitu

@av999 You already have a topic opened - why barging in on another one ?

raohmaru

@av999
I had a similar issue with a Philips monitor. I solved it by commenting the following line in /boot/config.txt:

# uncomment if hdmi display is not detected and composite is being output
#hdmi_force_hotplug=1

nasonjo

@Zachariel did you ever post the solution? I would like to try it... having the same issue

pitaru

@Salaman64 thank you, the solution you posted worked for my samsung monitor with no HDMI input.