Strange behaviour on startup with dual-monitor desplay

Hi there!

I’ve been having a problem with my dual monitor setup on startup for the longest time, and I can’t figure out the problem.

Behaviour:

  1. when I press the power button on my pc, there’s obviously a signal
  2. when it gets to the lock screen is where it’s really weird. The monitor clearly has a signal but the screen is all black. My 2nd monitor is working normally and is on the lock screen. However when I type my password, it’s “going to” my main screen (despite being all black)
  3. after I enter my password, my 2nd monitor boots up normally. But my primary loses signal
  4. my 2nd monitor enters normal operation, and my main monitor flashes black a few times and also comes into normal operations about 5-10 seconds after my 2nd

If anyone could help me, or point me in a direction to fix the problem, that would be amazing.

System:
  Kernel: 5.15.16-1-MANJARO x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 11.1.0
    parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.15-x86_64
    root=UUID=d6f8c1d4-003e-43ff-8b50-7126bcf3d505 rw quiet apparmor=1
    security=apparmor udev.log_priority=3
  Desktop: KDE Plasma 5.23.5 tk: Qt 5.15.2 wm: kwin_x11 vt: 1 dm: SDDM
    Distro: Manjaro Linux base: Arch Linux
Machine:
  Type: Desktop System: LENOVO product: 90NC00JAUS v: Legion T5 28IMB05
    serial: <superuser required> Chassis: type: 3 serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: LENOVO model: 3717 v: SDK0J40700 WIN 3258192292810
    serial: <superuser required> UEFI: LENOVO v: O4NKT16A date: 09/03/2020
Battery:
  Message: No system battery data found. Is one present?
Memory:
  RAM: total: 23.22 GiB used: 5.09 GiB (21.9%)
  RAM Report:
    permissions: Unable to run dmidecode. Root privileges required.
CPU:
  Info: model: Intel Core i5-10400 bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Comet Lake
    family: 6 model-id: 0xA5 (165) stepping: 3 microcode: 0xEA
  Topology: cpus: 1x cores: 6 tpc: 2 threads: 12 smt: enabled cache:
    L1: 384 KiB desc: d-6x32 KiB; i-6x32 KiB L2: 1.5 MiB desc: 6x256 KiB
    L3: 12 MiB desc: 1x12 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 2450 high: 3297 min/max: 800/4300 scaling:
    driver: intel_pstate governor: powersave cores: 1: 2793 2: 2698 3: 3049
    4: 2000 5: 2763 6: 3297 7: 2094 8: 2027 9: 2630 10: 2140 11: 1865 12: 2045
    bogomips: 69629
  Flags: 3dnowprefetch abm acpi adx aes aperfmperf apic arat
    arch_capabilities arch_perfmon art avx avx2 bmi1 bmi2 bts clflush clflushopt
    cmov constant_tsc cpuid cpuid_fault cx16 cx8 de ds_cpl dtes64 dtherm dts
    epb ept ept_ad erms est f16c flexpriority flush_l1d fma fpu fsgsbase fxsr
    ht hwp hwp_act_window hwp_epp hwp_notify ibpb ibrs ibrs_enhanced ida
    intel_pt invpcid invpcid_single lahf_lm lm mca mce md_clear mmx monitor
    movbe mpx msr mtrr nonstop_tsc nopl nx pae pat pbe pcid pclmulqdq pdcm
    pdpe1gb pebs pge pln pni popcnt pse pse36 pts rdrand rdseed rdtscp
    rep_good sdbg sep smap smep ss ssbd sse sse2 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 stibp
    syscall tm tm2 tpr_shadow tsc tsc_adjust tsc_deadline_timer vme vmx vnmi
    vpid x2apic xgetbv1 xsave xsavec xsaveopt xsaves xtopology xtpr
  Vulnerabilities:
  Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: VMX disabled
  Type: l1tf status: Not affected
  Type: mds status: Not affected
  Type: meltdown status: Not affected
  Type: spec_store_bypass
    mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl and seccomp
  Type: spectre_v1
    mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization
  Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Enhanced IBRS, IBPB: conditional, RSB filling
  Type: srbds status: Not affected
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA TU116 [GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER] vendor: Micro-Star MSI
    driver: nvidia v: 495.46 alternate: nouveau,nvidia_drm bus-ID: 01:00.0
    chip-ID: 10de:21c4 class-ID: 0300
  Device-2: Sunplus IT Co Full HD webcam type: USB
    driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo bus-ID: 1-8:4 chip-ID: a187:28b3
    class-ID: 0102 serial: <filter>
  Display: x11 server: X.org 1.21.1.3 compositor: kwin_x11 driver:
    loaded: nvidia resolution: <missing: xdpyinfo>
  Message: Unable to show advanced data. Required tool glxinfo missing.
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Comet Lake PCH-V cAVS vendor: Lenovo driver: snd_hda_intel
    v: kernel alternate: snd_sof_pci_intel_cnl bus-ID: 00:1f.3
    chip-ID: 8086:a3f0 class-ID: 0403
  Device-2: NVIDIA TU116 High Definition Audio vendor: Micro-Star MSI
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 01:00.1 chip-ID: 10de:1aeb
    class-ID: 0403
  Device-3: Sunplus IT Co Full HD webcam type: USB
    driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo bus-ID: 1-8:4 chip-ID: a187:28b3
    class-ID: 0102 serial: <filter>
  Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.15.16-1-MANJARO running: yes
  Sound Server-2: JACK v: 1.9.20 running: no
  Sound Server-3: PulseAudio v: 15.0 running: yes
  Sound Server-4: PipeWire v: 0.3.43 running: yes
Network:
  Device-1: Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200 driver: iwlwifi v: kernel bus-ID: 02:00.0
    chip-ID: 8086:2723 class-ID: 0280
  IF: wlp2s0 state: up mac: <filter>
  IP v4: <filter> type: dynamic noprefixroute scope: global
    broadcast: <filter>
  IP v6: <filter> type: noprefixroute scope: link
  Device-2: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
    vendor: Lenovo driver: r8169 v: kernel port: 3000 bus-ID: 03:00.0
    chip-ID: 10ec:8168 class-ID: 0200
  IF: enp3s0 state: down mac: <filter>
  WAN IP: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Intel AX200 Bluetooth type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8 bus-ID: 1-9:5
    chip-ID: 8087:0029 class-ID: e001
  Report: rfkill ID: hci0 rfk-id: 1 state: up address: see --recommends
Logical:
  Message: No logical block device data found.
RAID:
  Message: No RAID data found.
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 1.83 TiB used: 37.2 GiB (2.0%)
  SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required.
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 maj-min: 259:0 vendor: Western Digital
    model: WD BLACK SN750 SE 1TB size: 931.51 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B
    logical: 512 B speed: 63.2 Gb/s lanes: 4 type: SSD serial: <filter>
    rev: 711130WD temp: 32.9 C scheme: GPT
  ID-2: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Western Digital
    model: WD10EZEX-08WN4A0 size: 931.51 GiB block-size: physical: 4096 B
    logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s type: HDD rpm: 7200 serial: <filter>
    rev: 1A02 scheme: GPT
  ID-3: /dev/sdb maj-min: 8:16 type: USB vendor: SMI (STMicroelectronics)
    model: USB size: 7.44 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B
    type: N/A serial: <filter> rev: 1100 scheme: MBR
  SMART Message: Unknown USB bridge. Flash drive/Unsupported enclosure?
  Message: No optical or floppy data found.
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw-size: 350 GiB size: 343.43 GiB (98.12%) used: 37.18 GiB (10.8%)
    fs: ext4 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p5 maj-min: 259:5 label: N/A
    uuid: d6f8c1d4-003e-43ff-8b50-7126bcf3d505
  ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 260 MiB size: 256 MiB (98.46%)
    used: 29 MiB (11.3%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1 maj-min: 259:1
    label: SYSTEM uuid: 1491-B94B
Swap:
  Alert: No swap data was found.
Unmounted:
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1p2 maj-min: 259:2 size: 16 MiB fs: <superuser required>
    label: N/A uuid: N/A
  ID-2: /dev/nvme0n1p3 maj-min: 259:3 size: 580.26 GiB fs: ntfs
    label: Windows uuid: EE1094771094490B
  ID-3: /dev/nvme0n1p4 maj-min: 259:4 size: 1000 MiB fs: ntfs
    label: WinRE_DRV uuid: 26DC94C5DC9490A3
  ID-4: /dev/sda1 maj-min: 8:1 size: 128 MiB fs: <superuser required>
    label: N/A uuid: N/A
  ID-5: /dev/sda2 maj-min: 8:2 size: 931.39 GiB fs: ntfs label: Data
    uuid: FA3C976D3C972423
  ID-6: /dev/sdb1 maj-min: 8:17 size: 7.41 GiB fs: vfat label: N/A
    uuid: 4C8A-F0BA
  ID-7: /dev/sdb2 maj-min: 8:18 size: 32 MiB fs: vfat label: VTOYEFI
    uuid: 2BE6-1E5C
USB:
  Hub-1: 1-0:1 info: Hi-speed hub with single TT ports: 12 rev: 2.0
    speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0002 class-ID: 0900
  Device-1: 1-3:2 info: Razer USA Razer BlackWidow V3
    type: Keyboard,Mouse,HID driver: hid-generic,usbhid interfaces: 5 rev: 2.0
    speed: 12 Mb/s power: 500mA chip-ID: 1532:024e class-ID: 0300
  Device-2: 1-4:3 info: Corsair Gaming GLAIVE RGB Mouse type: Mouse,HID
    driver: corsair,usbhid interfaces: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s power: 300mA
    chip-ID: 1b1c:1b34 class-ID: 0300 serial: <filter>
  Device-3: 1-8:4 info: Sunplus IT Co Full HD webcam type: Video,Audio
    driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo interfaces: 4 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s
    power: 500mA chip-ID: a187:28b3 class-ID: 0102 serial: <filter>
  Device-4: 1-9:5 info: Intel AX200 Bluetooth type: Bluetooth driver: btusb
    interfaces: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s power: 100mA chip-ID: 8087:0029
    class-ID: e001
  Device-5: 1-11:6 info: Lenovo ITE Device(8297) type: HID
    driver: hid-generic,usbhid interfaces: 1 rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s
    power: 100mA chip-ID: 17ef:c955 class-ID: 0301
  Hub-2: 2-0:1 info: Super-speed hub ports: 8 rev: 3.0 speed: 5 Gb/s
    chip-ID: 1d6b:0003 class-ID: 0900
  Device-1: 2-6:2
    info: Silicon Motion - Taiwan (formerly Feiya ) Flash Drive
    type: Mass Storage driver: usb-storage interfaces: 1 rev: 3.1
    speed: 5 Gb/s power: 504mA chip-ID: 090c:1000 class-ID: 0806
  Hub-3: 3-0:1 info: Hi-speed hub with single TT ports: 2 rev: 2.0
    speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0002 class-ID: 0900
  Hub-4: 4-0:1 info: Super-speed hub ports: 4 rev: 3.1 speed: 10 Gb/s
    chip-ID: 1d6b:0003 class-ID: 0900
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 27.8 C mobo: N/A gpu: nvidia temp: 44 C
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A gpu: nvidia fan: 27%
Info:
  Processes: 407 Uptime: 28m wakeups: 0 Init: systemd v: 250 tool: systemctl
  Compilers: gcc: 11.1.0 clang: 13.0.0 Packages: 1337 pacman: 1321 lib: 358
  flatpak: 6 snap: 10 Shell: Zsh v: 5.8 default: Bash v: 5.1.16
  running-in: konsole inxi: 3.3.12

Hello,

Aside the fact that you are way behind the updates, and considering that you know that from BIOS to Grub to the desktop, the GPU ports are activated in this order:
VGA > DVI-I > DVI-D > HDM I> Displayport

You can create a fixed layout for your screen and monitors and save it in /etc/X11/mhwd.d/nvidia.conf
Here is an example that might help you

Read along to get the context.
In some cases seems that enabling early KMS helps too, see here: