Start Screen Problem

[akshaprojects]

Since I changed my dual HD monitors to with dual 4K yesterday, I am facing a few problems with my AutoCAD 2017. The Start screen comes up blank. When I move mouse pointer over the blank screen area, it seems to select the listed drawings there. But I cannot see anything. If I click on the screen when mouse appear to be over one of the listed drawings, it does open the drawing. Everything else seems to be working well. My configuration is,
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-9700 CPU @ 3.00GHz
16 GB DDR4 RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660Ti GPU

WIN 10 Home 21H1

[rkmcswain]

2017 --- Hmmmmmm....... I don't recall the exact dates/versions, but there were definitely some issues when 4k first started being put to use. Do you have the 2017.1.2 update installed?

[akshaprojects]

I have SP 1 installed. Moreover, all my toolbars, ribbons, command bar etc. appear normal. It is only the start screen that I am having problem with. I can override the start screen and go directly to New Drawing screen (Startup=0 and Startmode=0), but I prefer having the start screen.

[pendean]

>>>...The Start screen comes up blank. When I move mouse pointer over the blank screen area, it seems to select the listed drawings there. But I cannot see anything...<<<
Your video card is being choked by AutoCAD2017 in 4k dual displays: that's your issue. You know the problem now (4k displays with your video card), change the display resolutions to find a happy point for it while you explore older and newer video card drivers, or maybe toning down the settings in GRAPHICSCONFIG command.

Or go back to your older monitors.

[rkmcswain]

@akshaprojects wrote:

I have SP 1 installed.

I don't know what "SP1" is, but I was asking if you have 2017.1.2 installed?  I believe this is the update that enabled 4K to work for some, if not many things in AutoCAD 2017.

You're mixing new technology (4K) with old applications (AutoCAD 2017 is 5+ years old) that didn't fully support 4K at that time. Something has to give.

[akshaprojects]

The attached image shows the version of AutoCAD on my machine. I am not sure if it is the latest version. But what is surprising is that once I open a new or existing drawing, AutoCAD works normally with dual 4K monitors. It is only the start tab that I am having problems with.

[akshaprojects]

This is how my Start tab looks like. Small white box on bottom-right corner is the location of my mouse pointer and it indicates that the recently used drawings list is existing there. If I click at that location, the drawing opens as well. 

[rkmcswain]

Yes, I understand. What I'm saying is that this 5+ year old application was not designed to handle 4k. Some of the updates *may* fix certain parts. Perhaps they never fixed the start tab for 4K.

Have you opened a support ticket with Autodesk?

[akshaprojects · Accepted solution]

Ok, so I am coming back to report a solution, in case some one needs it. It appears that Autodesk has fixed the issue of using 4K high resolution monitors with older version like AutoCAD 2017. I recently saw a video where a similar issue was discussed for Adobe Photoshop. I tried the same solution for AutoCAD and it worked.
The solution lies within Windows 10. What one has to do is to right click on the Acad.exe file from appropriate folder (for me it is 'C:\Program Files\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2017') and select 'Properties'. Select 'Compatibilty' tab and check 'Program DPI' box. Click on 'Open Advanced scaling settings'. From the next screen, switch on 'Let Windows try to fix....' and insert a desired value in the custom scaling box. (200 in my case worked). Close all dialogue boxes by clicking 'OK' where applicable and Log out of Windows/Log in.