System: HP m8010y with Vista Ultimate SP2 32bit
Display: HP w2207 (Supports Pivot)
Sometime after installing all available updates a couple months ago, I started getting a funny silver and green dialog box on startup.
It is called License Status, and the box itself indicates that there has been a Version Changed and that you now have a BAD LICENSE FILE for the Portrait Display software. Also, my monitor had also lost its ability to Pivot (change from landscape to portrait by turning the monitor).
I believe what happened is the HP Total Care Advisor update software found Pivot’s Commercial software and installed it automatically, thereby breaking the My Display software because I don’t have a commercial license. If you check the Portrait Displays folder in the Program Files you’ll see two folders, one for My Display and one for the regular Pivot software.
Uninstalling the My Display software will get rid of both folders.
Make sure you download the latest My Display software from HERE .
Reinstall it.
After reinstall, you might be prompted by HP Total Care Advisor to do a Critical Update of the Portrait Displays, Inc Pro Software Application. It says that this update will address issues with Auto-Pivot, manual rotation, and hotkey functions.
After you click Run and let it install, you will probably get this dialog box:
Go ahead and click on “This program installed correctly”.
Total Care indicates that the software installed correctly and asks you to reboot. Go ahead and reboot.
After reboot it asks you to verify that you have Pivot capabilities. Test it and click OK. You’ll now see the Pivot Software Control icon in the System Tray along with HP My Display.
That’s it. You’re done.
Update 11/23 – Leave me feedback and let me know if this fix worked for you or not. Thanks! -Mitch
Update 12/10 – Turns out My Display software causes other problems too…in one case I had a computer start making random USB device connect/disconnect sounds when nothing was plugged in. Finally discovered it was the My Display software.
Thank you.
thanks so much… this worked… however on my wife’s user desktop, it’s still coming up “hp my display has stopped working”. when i uninstalled it to get rid of the “portrait displays bad license file”, it got rid of that problem too, but when i reinstalled it, the error message came back “hp my display has stopped working” please if you can help me, that would be great. my wife would appreciate it to, i don’t know why it just comes up on hers… thanks!!! rimi
Your problem probably has to do with Vista’s annoying habit of locking down program access to your system.
Try this:
Right-click on your desktop “Computer” icon then click on the “Advanced System Settings”.
Click on “Performance Settings” and choose the “Data Execution Prevention” tab. Make sure the selection is the first choice of the two listed there. (“Turn on the DEP for essential Windows Programs and Services…”) Cick OK and REBOOT.
Problem solved?
A thousand thanks for your info, after months of seeing the annoying display & getting nowhere with correcting it, within minutes of your instructions, I had it sorted.
You’re welcome Joan! I wish more people would comment like you when one of my solutions works for them…or especially if they don’t! I’m always fine tuning my site and the information it provides :]
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great post, thanks for sharing
Followed you advice and it fixed my problem, for awhile anyway.
Then HP Updater wanted me to download the Pro version of Pivot software. And being a “trusting” soul I did. Wrong thing to do. Screen resolution all screwed up and could not reset to factory values for my HP w1907 monitor and they want a product key and registration code.
Fixed my new problem and old one with just one move. Used the “Uninstall HP My Display” option and did not reinstall anything.
Everything working normally, at least for now.
Hey Ken,
Yes, that will work, but then you will probably be giving up Pivot capability! But if you can live without it then so much the better! 🙂
Thanks so much. this worked perfectly.