Turning off the F-18 MIPS displays physically

[Hammer1-1]

Other than directly unplugging these monitors, is there a way to turn these monitors off? For some reason or other, not sure why...but Ive been having issues with rebooting with these monitors turned on. My boot always pauses at the Windows logo screen (as if there was one in Win11) and go no further unless I reboot again with these MIPS unplugged. Im not even sure if this is a widespread issue, but at this moment I have no less than 5 monitors attached to this PC now with no less than 20 external peripherals, 8 of them being the MIPS.

If there isnt, I would absolutely like to see this become a feature in the SimApp software if possible. Im getting kind of old, and crawling around under desks just to disconnect my USB hub isnt exactly good on the knees or back.

Edited January 3, 2024 by Hammer1-1

[Rainmaker]

I use a USB HUB that has on/off buttons just beside the ports. Its not a perfect solution, but it works well for when I dont want to use them or have some other game that they cause issues with.  Mine is a 7 port so it works for the displays and the controller side as well. 

[Hammer1-1]

Thats not ideal for the most part. Every monitor Ive ever owned had an on/off button; these things constantly run. On top of that, DCS keeps loading up on a ghost monitor that doesnt exist when these monitors are turned on. To fix that, I have to unplug these monitors to get it to show up on the correct desktop monitor, not to mention they reposition themselves every single time you turn them off. These absolutely should have an on/off switch.

 

Edited January 3, 2024 by Hammer1-1

[MustangSally]

56 minutes ago, Hammer1-1 said:

Thats not ideal for the most part. Every monitor Ive ever owned had an on/off button; these things constantly run. On top of that, DCS keeps loading up on a ghost monitor that doesnt exist when these monitors are turned on. To fix that, I have to unplug these monitors to get it to show up on the correct desktop monitor, not to mention they reposition themselves every single time you turn them off. These absolutely should have an on/off switch.

 

 

I have never seen small USB only monitors with an off/on switches. If your system is doing this, I'd say you have a hardware issue with your PC

[Hammer1-1]

27 minutes ago, MustangSally said:

I have never seen small USB only monitors with an off/on switches. If your system is doing this, I'd say you have a hardware issue with your PC

I assure you I dont. Just reinstalled from scratch DCS and solved 95% of my problems. Ive had nothing but problems with my computer not wanting to boot since I put these MFDs up, and yes Ive narrowed it right down to the actual monitor causing me problems (my left MFD). Id still like to see a way to turn these things off without the need to physically unplug these monitors. My monitors being relocated every single time I turn a monitor off in some random space...thats a Windows 11 issue, and to solve that I need to go to Windows 10 (and believe me, that sounds very tempting).

Edited January 3, 2024 by Hammer1-1

[Wostg]

This is not an endorsement as it causes its own issues from letting 3rd party software control UI things that in a sane world Windows would do natively but:

DisplayFusion is currently on sale on Steam. It can:

• Save monitor layouts in custom profiles so when you reboot your pc and windows has thrown all your monitors to the winds it will put them straight back into exactly where simapppro expects them to be.
• Disable monitors so they give the appearance of being 'off' and out of your monitor layout
• create virtual monitors that might be good for sticking DCS Maps or the 4th F-15e panel or whatever in a discrete space

As above, not an unqualified endorsement as it takes over Explorer and may do all sorts of unexpected or unwanted things that give you grief but the above are useful.

[Hammer1-1]

9 hours ago, Wostg said:

This is not an endorsement as it causes its own issues from letting 3rd party software control UI things that in a sane world Windows would do natively but:

DisplayFusion is currently on sale on Steam. It can:

• Save monitor layouts in custom profiles so when you reboot your pc and windows has thrown all your monitors to the winds it will put them straight back into exactly where simapppro expects them to be.
• Disable monitors so they give the appearance of being 'off' and out of your monitor layout
• create virtual monitors that might be good for sticking DCS Maps or the 4th F-15e panel or whatever in a discrete space

As above, not an unqualified endorsement as it takes over Explorer and may do all sorts of unexpected or unwanted things that give you grief but the above are useful.

Ill give it a look and report back, thanks.

Edit: would you know a way to A) save my monitor positions indefinitely regardless of monitors being powered on, B) removing taskbars from the MIPS only, and C) prevent the mouse from traveling to the smaller monitors?

Edited January 3, 2024 by Hammer1-1

[Wostg]

DF should cover some of this - you can have an 'all monitors on, including MPDs' profile and a 'just the big monitor(s) with other switched off' profile and switch between them. I haven't figured out how to get it to autoload the preferred one on boot, but its easy enough to select. 

You can have it show taskbars on just the primary monitor, or all monitors. I can't see how to exclude from the MIPS. I haven't found out how to get it to do clever things like show the taskbar on a non-primary monitor only, or display vertically.

You can get the mouse cursor to wrap around at the sides, and prevent it from snagging on awkward corners between different sized monitors, but I can't see how to block travel entirely.

 

[Hammer1-1]

OK, I submitted a thread on their steam discussion and asked a similar question. Ill hopefully get a reply soon with some answers, but Im gonna have to figure out how to use this tool. Lot of info here that makes no sense to me.

[MustangSally]

To remove task bar from MIP...

Go to Settings > Personalization > Taskbar, and scroll down to the Multiple displays heading. Switch to Off the slider labeled Show taskbar on all displays.