Need help with Windows 8.1 Monitor detection FAIL.

     I hope someone can help me get this one solved!   I am running Windows 8.1 on a small form factor PC, and am desperately trying to get it to work with an older 10.1" Touchscreen monitor.  The monitor can display 800 x 600 that I need no problem.  After jumping through tons of hoops, I was able to turn on Low Resolution support in WIndowsx 8.  I set the display to 800 x 600 with a 60Hz refresh.  The display is clear, centered and looks great.  I went into MSCONFIG and set the boot options as permanent as the above link explains.
 
    Now the problem...  Windows 8 refuses to boot with the monitor plugged in.  I have read that Windows 8 will not boot, if the monitor can not display the resolution properly.  This makes no sense, as I have it set to a mode the monitor can support 800 x 600 at 60Hz.
 
Testing went like this:
 
If I unplug the VGA cable, and turn the computer on, it will boot perfectly, and I can remote login with VNC from this PC.  Going into display properties, it shows that it is set to 800 x 600 and a refresh of 60Hz.  I can then plugh in the VGA cable to the monitor, and the screen displays properly as it should. 
 
If I boot the machine with the VGA monitor pluged in (even if it is off) It gets hung up somewhere during the boot process.  I have no idea where, as the monitor just displays "Unsupported Mode" right after the initial BIOS screen.  After waiting for quite some time,  I can not log in with VNC.  Even after waiting for like 5 minutes to ensure the PC would be booted up. 
 
Is there some sort of hack or something that will disable whatever windows is trying to during boot up?  Any other ideas on what I can do? 
 
As for running Windows 8, I did it for the app capability such as Skype, Pandora, iHeard Radio and such.  Also the weather App is actually really nice, and better than my home brew with the icons and embed radar screen images!  I am also running ModernMix that allows those to be run in a standard window, and be able to switch from one to another easily, and be able to have my Home Automation software actually embed the screen / app right into it's interface.
 
Thanks for any help in advance!
 
 
    

Here tested Windows 8.1 on a tabletop using 800X480 resolution mode.  I did have issues running the metro applications initially.  I did not see an issue with boot up though.  I also used VNC.  It seemed to only allow a view mode though and not administrative mode for whatever reasons.  One thing I noticed is that while it automatically did load the video drivers for the touchscreen; it was very basic.  I found an online touchscreen driver for windows 8.1 that was created on the fly which was sort of neat but was only made in trial mode. 
 
I have a bunch of these and have been testing them in Wintel, Linux and Android mods. 
 
Personally here it worked OK but still not as fast as my almost embedded XP touchscreens. 
 
Testing Windows 8.1 with an Intel Atom Z520 (1.33 GHz, 512KB L2 cache). 512Mb RAM with a Intel SCH US15W (GMA500) (Poulsbo SCH with hardware H.264/MPEG-4 AVC playback).
 
I did google and find a fix.  I am not sure that it will work though.  Try too initially to remove VNC before installing the modification.
 
How to use Enable low-resolution video mode (VGA Mode) startup option in Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8 and 8.1

I wonder, might it be helpful to use one of the old adapters that would allow setting resolutions via dipswitches?  They were in-line plugs that had switches on them to allow selecting resolutions.  Mainly because not all monitors would properly trigger the right values for the display cards to use during auto-detection.  Either certain resistance values or smarter EDID return signals.
 
That and not all display cards would do things properly, thus also requiring the adapter to help force the right settings.
 
No idea where you'd find one these days.
 
This is similar example, but it's for VGA to Macintosh:
http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-Adapter-Block-DB15M-Dipswitches/dp/B00004Z6EI

I found nothing whatsoever that I could get to work fore a work around.  I worked on it for almost 2 days straight.  I did a backup image of the hard drive, and then formatted and installed XP.  I had it up and running and working with all the hardware within an hour.  I have the Windows 8.1 image that I could install in about 10 minutes to test any solutions that may pop up.

Yup here I got the XP image down to around 2 Gb (3 with TTS fonts) where as the smallest I could get the Windows 8.1 image down to was around 7 or so Gb (with speech fonts).
 
I tested the image for almost two months.  I did put a switch on it to go from metro to HSTouch to whatever.  I quit testing though as it was a bit "chatty"; speedwise it was fine though. 
 
Here I utilize little cheapo ZIF SSD drives.  I backup sometimes live but many times I just remove the SSD and just image it with another computer.  (well use Linux).
 
Day before yesterday saw a post relating to Clover EFI which would let you multiboot whatever OS; well you could boot up in Windows 8.1 or XP with it.
 
I have a tablet right now running something similiar multibooting wintel (3 flavors), Mac, Android or Linux.

Did you try enabling boot logging and compare the log files?

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/commands-s/a/startup-settings.htm

JohnWPB said:

I found nothing whatsoever that I could get to work fore a work around.  I worked on it for almost 2 days straight.  I did a backup image of the hard drive, and then formatted and installed XP.  I had it up and running and working with all the hardware within an hour.  I have the Windows 8.1 image that I could install in about 10 minutes to test any solutions that may pop up.

Click to expand...

 
Did you try my suggestion of using one of the VGA mode dongles?  
 
I'm guessing the video card is having trouble identifying the monitor, or some driver along the way is mis-interpreting what it thinks the monitor and video card claim to have connected.  Dummy-ing up the connection by forcing a specific mode (like 1024x768) might help skate by the initial startup hassles and allow the later tweaks to do their thing.
 
What you describe was not an uncommon hassle with oddball video cards, monitors and drivers.  So it doesn't surprise me to hear of it coming back from the grave for win8.  No doubt whatever driver checking that was done didn't regress all the way back to the particular combination of gear you're trying to force it to use.
 
At some point it becomes a better time/money proposition to just get modern gear and retire the oddball stuff.  Lord knows I've got bins full of that kind of crap...

I have the Windows 8.1 image that I could install in about 10 minutes to test any solutions that may pop up.

Click to expand...

 
Before testing on my tabletop touchscreen I built a Windows 8.1 VM on my workbench test computer (newer AMD E350) using an older 4:3 touchscreen monitor.  Checking my workbench monitor is an old Planar touchscreen with a legacy serial touch interface.
 
It worked fine except for Metro which I had to play with at different resolutions.

@John,
 
What are the hardware specs for the computer and monitor (IE: MFG too)?
 
Thinking/guessing; well its been years now that I met you at one of the after EHExpo little HA group parties in Florida
 
This morning purchased a wide screen capacitance screen that should work fine with Windows 8.1 on the recommendation of another automation forum user.  Here have been looking to replace my 17" capacitance 4:3 screens.
 
It's a good deal at $78 including shipping on Ebay.  (its an openframe with just the VESA mounting brackets on it).
 
I am utilizing Aopen Digital Engines here for the larger touchscreens. 
 
They are similiar to MAC mini's relative to footprint.
 
The AOpen DE's run Windows 8.1 64bit just fine.  Today these are running Wintel and Linux (Ubuntu 14.04 64 bit).