Dummy plugs make Twinkle Tray not able to communicate with any monitor

[lucasadelino]

Hello,

First of all, thanks so much for working on TwinkleTray. It is a wonderful piece of software.

I just came across a strange issue. I have used Twinkle Tray with zero issues for several weeks. Recently, I purchased a couple of dummy plugs (these two) to make it easier to stream games to my Steam Deck at different resolutions.

The dummy plugs' brightness can't be adjusted in TwinkleTray, as expected (I'm pretty sure they lack DDC/CI support). But, if both dummy plugs are connected, TwinkleTray can't communicate over DDC/CI with any other monitor. Crucially, this issue only happens when both dummy plugs are connected. If only (any) one of them is inserted, TwinkleTray works as expected. What's even more puzzling is that if I boot my computer with only a single dummy plug connected, and only then insert the other dummy plug and refresh the displays on TwinkleTray, everything works: TT recognizes all monitors, and is able to change the brightness of the non-dummy monitors:

But if I reboot my computer, leaving the two dummy plugs inserted, TT is no longer able to read them once it boots back up.

Oddly, everything works normally using ClickMonitorDDC, which is what I'm using in the meantime (though I vastly prefer TT!).

For reference, my GPU is an AMD 6900xt.

Any idea what may be causing this?

[xanderfrangos]

It always seems to be AMD users with the most reported issues. I swear something is up with their drivers.

Anyway, do you always have the green check marks and "DDC/CI" as the "communication method", even when the dummy plugs cause Twinkle Tray to stop communicating? Or does the "communication method" change to "None" when it stops working? Also, if you right-click on the tray icon and hit "Refresh displays", does that change the behavior?

[xanderfrangos]

@lucasadelino That helps a lot, thanks! I think I see what the issue is, but I'm not 100% sure how to solve it. I've implemented the most obvious fix in this version: https://github.com/xanderfrangos/twinkle-tray/suites/15626177969/artifacts/891841903

Let me know if that solves it. 👍

[xanderfrangos]

Actually... that one may not fix it. This might work better. I'm sort of able to replicate the issue on my end.
https://github.com/xanderfrangos/twinkle-tray/suites/15658357577/artifacts/893809851

[xanderfrangos]

Okay, last one. 😅
https://github.com/xanderfrangos/twinkle-tray/suites/15671854912/artifacts/894544561

Startup will take a little longer than before. I rewrote how DDC/CI detection works to (hopefully) be more accurate.

[lucasadelino]

Sorry for the delay, but I'm happy to report that this version fixed the issue! I really appreciate your work on this, thanks so much!

[xanderfrangos]

Great to hear! You are likely not the only person this will help.

[lucasadelino]

Quick update: while this fixed my problem (in that TT now recognizes all monitors), I'm now also getting the same black screen bug as mentioned in issues #649, #567, and #642. I didn't have the issue before using the new version of TT.