Have you tried disconnecting the second monitor and reinstalling the software? Then see if the monitor profile loads with only the main monitor connected and with both connected.
I had a problem with Monaco Optix with dual monitors where the profile wouldn’t load. They told me to disconnect the second monitor prior to installation of the software. After reconnecting the second monitor and rebooting, I have no trouble getting the profile to load properly.
Monaco has new software specifically for dual monitors to create independent profiles.
Larry Berman
Larry,
Here’s where I am:
Disable dual monitors in Matrox driver.
Shut down system.
Disconnect the second monitor (Dell).
Reboot.
Uninstall OptiCal.
Reboot.
Color Management tab now shows Sony as Current monitor and the Sony profile as the Default profile. (So far, so good.)
Reinstall Optical.
Reboot.
Conntect Spyder.
Run OptiCal.
OptiCal seems to be working perfectly. Changing color temp. on the fly works. When system boots, OptiCal makes small change to color and brightness when it loads.
Shut down.
Plug in second monitor (Dell).
Reboot.
Enable dual monitor support in Matrox driver.
Reboot.
Color Management tab now shows Dell as Current monitor and the Default profile now says ADL 12-29. I have no idea what that is. I suspect I’m in trouble again.
Reboot.
OptiCal loads and says Sony has changed, recalibrate.
Run OptiCal and recalibrate. When it gets to the end, it proposes a name for the new profile: Dell E771 12-20-03! (I now know I’m in trouble again.)
OptiCal no longer works correctly — no on the fly color temp. change, nothing when system boots and OptiCal loads.
Since the Spyder and OptiCal are working when only the Sony is plugged in, I’m suspecting that there is no problem with the Spyder. ColorVision’s tech person told me on the phone yesterday that the Spyder might be the problem, but I doubt it.
I am back to square one. The only thing I can do at this point is uninstall OptiCal again and use Adobe Gamma Loader until the new Spyder arrives. If the new Spyder doesn’t solve this, then what?
I’m hoping someone else here who has XP and Optical and uses two monitors will be able to offer some advice.
John
I have XP Pro and both calibration systems and couldn’t get the Colorvision software to work correctly. So I tried the Monaco system and had their tech support tell me the work around for the dual monitor system which is what I proposed to you.
It seems that your computer is seeing the wrong monitor as the main monitor. Try reversing the cables on your graphics card. I used to use a Matrox card with dual monitors on my older system and the inputs are labeled for monitor 1 and 2. You might have them reversed.
Larry Berman
Larry,
If I reverse the cables, then my desktop appears on the Dell, not the Sony. The Sony is correctly plugged into the card’s #1 outlet.
Out of curiosity, when you have your #1 monitor selected in Display Properties, then click Advanced, then Color Management, does the #1 monitor show up as the Current monitor? According to Matrox tech support, this is a Windows issue, so if the guy was right, I suspect your system might incorrectly report Current monitor.
John
I can’t answer about my current system as the Matrox card is now on an older single monitor system since I got a new computer three months ago.
But if you go on any of the digital fine art forums on Yahoo Groups, you’ll find many dual monitor Matrox card users.
Larry Berman
I have XP Pro, 64 bit graphics card, a high resolution LCD monitor on my Acer notebook,and a 21" crt external monitor. I do not have a color profiler, but chose a "Kodak Color Separation Guide and Gray Scale". If you scan this and then print, it should get you very close. Good enough for "government work"? Does anybody have any thoughts or is this as crazy and outlandish as it sounds?
Larry,
I asked about what your system reports for the Current monitor for the very reason that you don’t have a Matrox and aren’t using OptiCal, but you do have two monitors. I’m trying to see if this is indeed an XP issue, or something else. If you have a moment, and don’t mind checking the Color Management tab in Advanced Display Settings, I’d appreciate that.
I’ll look at Yahoo groups.
John
John:
Re "The Sony is correctly plugged into the card’s #1 outlet", being that the Sony is your main monitor, it should actually be plugged into outlet #2. Check your Matrox documentation, I have G400 and a G550, both work that way.
ID…
By God, I think I’ve got it! I’d just assumed that the #1 outlet was for the primary monitor and #2 for the second. It worked that way in Windows 98SE. Or, to be more accurate, in W98SE, I had the Sony plugged into #1 and everything seemed to work correctly, including OptiCal.
The Matrox manual didn’t say anything about which monitor to plug into which outlet — or I couldn’t find it anyway. Perhaps that’s why I’ve always done it the way I assumed was correct.
After switching #1 and #2, it took me a few minutes to get everything lined up correctly — I’d forgotten how to move the taskbar, for example. Now my taskbar and all desktop icons are on the Sony, my #2 monitor.
When I check Display Prop>Settings>Advanced>Color Mgmt, the Sony now shows as the Current monitor!
I am too tired this evening to load OptiCal again, but I’ll do it in the morning. I’m quite confident it will work. I’ll report back.
By the way, do you use OptiCal? Are you on XP?
Thanks so much… I’ve been pulling my hair out over this one.
Thanks to Larry Berman too!
John
You were wondering whether this might be an XP problem. Well, read this and you might have cause to wonder:
I’m running multiple monitors under XP (four monitors on two cards, one AGP, one PCI, NOT Matrox).
Everything was working fine until a month or two ago, XP issued one of their automatic updates where you just sit back and let them screw up your machine as the update zips in over the always-on cable modem. I’ve never had any trouble with the updates before, but this time, after the install, my monitor arrangements in terms of "default monitor" and the resolutions on each monitor were completely scrambled. I’ve tried nearly everything and I still can’t get "display properties" to give me a correct rendering of default monitor, nor can I get any setting I setup to endure for the next time I reboot. So for now, I never shut down…I just "hibernate"..
Really irritating. So now I’m scared to do any more of the XP updates for fear they’ll screw me up even worse.
Dharmamitra
John,
Disable Adobe Gamma completely (includes start-up folder) – it conflicts with OptiCal (or vice-versa). If you use OptiCal, you can only calibrate one monitor – in this case, your Sony – and there really is no need for Adobe Gamma, as OptiCal/Spyder has calibrated your monitor, anyway.
Fred.
John: Mea culpa, you are in fact right, my confusion came from the Device Manager where the first listed monitor is you secondary monitor and the second listed monitor is your primary.
Fred is right, you don’t need Adobe Gamma in your case.
Kalavinka… I just installed XP a couple of weeks ago and ran Windows update several times to apply all updates. Who knows if what I’m experiencing is related to what you are. I can’t even imagine trying to deal with four monitors. Are you using OptiCal?
Fred… I know about disabling Adobe Gamma when I’m using OptiCal. However, I tried to use Adobe Gamma again because of the problems I’ve had getting OptiCal to work. To disable Adobe Gamma, is there anything to do other than simply removing the shortcut from Startup?
ID… Now I’m really confused!! Are you now telling me that my Sony should indeed be plugged into outlet #1? I’m a little confused about exactly what you mean by "you are in fact right." What am I right about?
As I mentioned last night, I got the two monitors configured with the Sony in #2 and the Dell in #1. However, I couldn’t get Adobe Gamma to work on the Sony.
I will re-install OptiCal later today and see what happens. In the meantime, if it turns out that the Sony has to be plugged into outlet #1 (my original configuration), then I know OptiCal won’t work.
Ugh! Why is this stuff so difficult?
John
OK…
I’ve reinstalled OptiCal and it still does not work correctly. It goes through the motions of calibrating and profiling my main monitor. However, when I open OptiCal and try to change the color temp on the fly, nothing happens. In addition, when the computer boots up and OptiCal loads, there is not ever a slight shift in the screen color or brightness as the profile is applied. I use OptiCal’s PreCal, so that shift should not necessarily be significant, but in the past (W98SE) I could always saw the results of OptiCal loading the profile.
So… now I’m really back to square one. I’ve now tried upgrading to the newest Matrox driver and reversing which outlets the monitors are plugged into. I have the Sony showing in the Color Mgmt window as the Current monitor, but that obviously wasn’t the issue.
ColorVision said the Spyder still could be the cause of the problem, but I doubt it since the calibration and profiling process completes and a profile is written to the disk and is set as the default profile for the Sony.
That said, I will see what happens when the new Spyder arrives. In the meantime, I guess I can rely on PreCal having set my monitor to the temp and gamma that I use.
Should I decide to go back to Adobe Gamma, I’d be curious if anyone knows why I can’t get it to work on the Sony when it’s plugged into the #2 outlet, even though it’s selected as the primary monitor.
John
Follow-up…
Just opened PS CS to find the color in the FB all screwed up. Got rid of the profile OptiCal made and went back to the default Sony profile. Color in FB restored. This suggests that indeed the Spyder may not be working correctly.
I’m now going to disable OptiCal (take shortcut out of Startup) until the new Spyder arrives.
John
P.S. If you think I’m overly obsessive, you are right. If you question if I have a life… you are right to ask! There must be something better to do on the Sunday before Christmas. Cheers to all.
John,
No, I’m NOT using OptiCal but am having the inability to get correct setting and retaining of "default monitor" status. This after 8 months of no problems, all of which changed when running the XP updates. Didn’t know if this might help you isolate one of the sources of your difficulties, especially given the verdict of some that "it’s an XP issue."
Mitra
Mitra… thanks. All I can do now is wait for the replacement Spyder and hope that solves this.
John
Follow-up to previous postings:
ColorVision’s replacement Spyder arrived today. It did not solve my problem.
To recap: When running dual monitors, OptiCAL is not working correctly. When I disable dual monitors, all is well — OptiCAL makes a profile for the Sony (#1 monitor) and applies it on startup. If I re-enable dual monitors, the profile doesn’t load, the on-the-fly settings in OptiCAL don’t work and color in PS CS is displayed incorrectly.
I have e-mailed ColorVision and will call them on Monday. Who would have thought that installing XP would cause such havoc with color management?
John
John good-day, Re your emails from what I looked up using this user forum, is the only ones dealing with monitors that I have found thus far.
If you know a solution to or someone who does, I keep getting the following:
"The monitor profile "" appears to be defective Please return to calibration software". Ignore Profile or Use Anyway
I have a SycMaster 760 TFT, not that I can’t use same, I’m getting tried of the POP-UP window displaying the the aforementioned message each time I use PS#7,thks, James
PROBLEM RESOLVED… sort of…
I talked to ColorVision this morning… a live person! It turns out OptiCAL for Windows DOES NOT SUPPORT DUAL MONITORS! The fact that it worked for me under Windows 98SE is a fluke ColorVision could not explain — it wasn’t supposed to work.
The good news: Within the next two weeks, ColorVision will release a free upgrade to OptiCAL for Windows that will support dual monitors.
Why ColorVision’s tech support didn’t tell me this all along is a mystery, but then again, computers and software are a constant mystery, so why should this be anything different.
For now, I will use OptiCAL’s PreCal function to set my main monitor’s gamma and whitepoint and then use Adobe Gamma (with no change) to build a profile. I will hope this works.
John
