Why does HDMI take a while to connect or recognize connection to monitor?

I've had this system a few months and it's never connected consistently.

My receiver (Onkyo 7.1) and/or TV (Samsung 65) takes a while to recognize that my desktop is on and display.

I'm running Windows 7.

Gigabyte GA-F2A55M-HD2 Micro ATX FM2 Motherboard

AMD A8-5600K 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor

For a while it helped if I just left the receiver on. The desktop would hibernate and when it woke up, it would connect. Now it's having trouble doing that.

I try different things to "trigger" a connection. Switching inputs back and forth on receiver hoping the desktop connect will reset. Same thing with TV. Powering both off and on.

Sometimes I use the F1 key, which I've heard helps. I hit the "Music" and "Home" keys on my Logitech keyboard, then try random clicking with the mouse and try to open a videoplayer that will be "recognized."

When I restart the desktop, somtimes I see the "Gigabyte" welcome screen, even the Windows 7 graphics animation -- then nothing. That is, everything seems to be connected properly. I wouldn't see the welcome screen if my inputs were wrong, right?

It's extremely frustrating. Are there settings I should be using to ensure a connection?

Thanks for your help.