ICC profiles not sticking with dual monitors.

Everything about displays and monitors. 120Hz, 144Hz, 240Hz, 4K, 1440p, input lag, display shopping, monitor purchase decisions, compare, versus, debate, and more. Questions? Just ask!
Post Reply
Scorch_
Posts: 3
Joined: 03 Dec 2017, 15:31

ICC profiles not sticking with dual monitors.

Post by Scorch_ » 14 Dec 2017, 13:07

I've ran into this issue before with my previous dual monitor setup (asus vg248qe / benq xl2420t) but was able to find a suitable yet strange work around. By unplugging my second monitor, (the benq one) opening windows color management and clicking on "reload current calibrations" then plugging it back it, I was able to make the ICC profile stick through just about all games and applications. Recently though I've swapped out my vg248qe for an asus pg258q 240hz monitor and the problem is back.

This only happens when using two monitors, if I were to unplug my benq and just use the asus the problem is non existent. The most noticeable change after this reset is the gamma, both of my screens become much brighter making them both difficult to use. Now I understand that most games are supposed to alter your gamma (at least when ran in full screen mode.)but they're not returning it to the values dictated by the ICC profiles after exiting like they previously were with my old work around.

The work around I was using before no long seems to work and all other alternatives have failed. Just to be clear the issue is that while using a dual monitor setup, opening and exiting certain games (those that are ran in full screen and not border less windowed mode.) and applications my ICC profiles reset forcing me to go into windows color management and reload them.

This was an issue I spent days looking into the first time around and didn't really find a solution, it was dumb luck that I found the work around that I did. Just like before I've hit a wall and don't really see any options other than reaching out for assistance, below are some of the things I've tried so far and have had no success.

Trying my old work around:

This was the first thing I tried and unfortunately it didn't work as it did last time. I never quite figured out why it worked in the first place but my best guess was because the issue only happened when using two monitors, I was in a way "tricking" it into working as intended. Because there aren't any issues when using a single monitor, by unplugging the second monitor and reloading the profile on my primary monitor then plugging the second monitor back in, what ever was causing it to work while using a single monitor but not work while using both didn't take place.

Using color profile keeper and similar programs:

Since the issue of ICC profiles resetting / not sticking goes some ways back and a lack of acknowledgement from hardware / software manufacturers, resourceful people have attempted at making their own programs that re enable the ICC profile after something else has disabled it. Unfortunately these programs generally have mixed success and are very hit or miss, since the last time I looked into this issue a new one of these has popped up (color profile keeper) and i decided to give it a shot. The only thing I could really get it to do was reload the ICC profiles similar to the windows color manager, however some times it wouldn't even do that and I'd have to go through the manager anyways. I also tried out color sustainer which had mixed results and would keep my ICC profiles for some games but not others. Display profile was the last one I tried and it only seems to be useful for quickly changing between profiles without having to fig into the windows color manager.

Forcing windows to rediscover my monitors:

This was a bit of a long shot but I noticed that in my color management the display numbers were the opposite of what they were in the screen resolution window. I ended up finding a solution that required deleting 2 windows registry keys both the connectivity and configuration keys under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Systems\CurrentControlSet\Control\GraphicsDrivers. This corrected the the reverse numbering but didn't seem to effect the ICC profiles.

So this is where I'm at, googling around for this issue isn't the easiest since there's a lot of misinformation, repeat of the same information, and general lack of understanding of the issue. There's also apparently a bug in win10 that causes the same problem, but as far as I know its exclusive to win10 (I'm running win7). I should also mention that I've tried the obvious things such as making sure my ICC profiles are setup correctly and updating my video drivers.

Post Reply