Automatically disable multi-monitor?

drapacioli

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I have a bit of a unique question here. I live in a place where thunderstorms are common, but I need my PC to work during those storms as I typically have a lan server running and am doing extensive batch tasks that cannot be interrupted. Currently I have a UPS installed which can power the desktop for up to 1 hour, but I only have 1 of my 3 monitors hooked up to the battery to save power (using all the monitors basically cuts the battery runtime in half). The problem is when a power failure occurs, the other monitors shut off but the desktop still thinks it's powering 3 monitors, thus still drawing extra power. How can I get my desktop to automatically disable multi-monitor when a power failure is detected? For the record, the desktop views it as being on a battery all of a sudden.

I tried Nvidia's surround feature which allows for a keyboard shortcut to enable/disable, but it completely messes up window snapping and some programs I use have performance issues with it enabled. Additionally, there are times I cannot be at my computer to monitor and disable the extra screens manually if necessary. Is there a program that can do this monitoring for me? I run a desktop with Windows 7 Ultimate.
 

drapacioli

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Yes I would have thought so too, but I monitored it and when running 3 displays. Apparently it's just enough to kick the gpu into a performance mode or something, because the voltage goes up and so do the temps which cause the fan to run faster. I know I'm not running a very efficient card to be honest (it's a Radeon 6870 for the record). When all is said and done, the card takes up about an extra 30W when running two more monitors, quite the percentage compared with a meager 85W running single monitor on idle. Add in the power draw of the monitors themselves and it nearly doubles that 85W baseline I'm looking for.

I have done some of my own research and know that I can make a .bat file and make use of W7's built in displayswitch.exe program to disable "external" monitors (in a desktop that means disabling monitors 2 and 3), but I just need something to detect the power loss and execute the program. The current management software I have is PowerPanel personal edition that can detect power loss via a USB connection to the UPS, but it doesn't allow for anything other than to execute a shutdown when the battery hits a certain threshold.
 

drapacioli

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I can't physically be there to remove the monitor plugs if the power happens to go out though, so that doesn't really help.

I did find an answer in another forum, CyberPower Systems also makes a business/enterprise edition of their UPS management software and it allows for the use of .cmd files when power is lost. It works like a charm :)