weird windows 7 install issue

long story but please read, over the holiday weekend i wanted to get my folks off of vista and onto windows 7 because i know it way better that windows 10, old OS but i really like it.
after about 8 diferent installs and 3 different ISO's of windows 7 pro, DVD installs, USB installs, i kept getting the same basic weird issue on the last reboot during install phase.
i tried all sorts of different BIOS settings including setting the SSD to IDE/native mode, turning off power saving features in BIOS, ect.
after the last reboot, the screen would show up for about seconds and the an error message on monitor that said no connection or whatever and a black screen.
they have a 21" acer LCD monitor hooked up through DVI.
took PC home and tonight on a whim i turned it on hooked to a 17" CRT
through VGA and was greeted to the "creat your account" screen.
mobo is some gigabyte AMD am2 board, video is ati 4850, 4GB ram 500GB crucial SSD, quad core proc.
so what would be the issue, windows not having drivers for video card or monitor maybe, on the CRT it shows generic monitor right now because the driver for the CRT gateway montitor is not installed, as is expected IMO.
the resolution of the LCD is 1650 X whatever, i know when i install windows on my 24" LCD 1920 X 1200 it works until i install monitor drivers and change resolution later.
kinda of at a loss of what would be the issue here, so i ask the PC gurus

Not sure what you meant when you said "monitor drivers": Have you installed the official AMD Catalyst Legacy drivers for the 4850? Drivers for the actual display are useless for most and aren't necessary. Once you've done that, add a DVI monitor with your VGA that does work and see if it shows up in the Screen Resolution control panel and if you can extend the desktop to it.

Of course, if all else fails, I bet that monitor of theirs has a VGA input on it, you can always just use VGA cables instead of DVI since VGA output clearly works.

Default Windows driver with a resolution/refresh rate not supported by your monitor.

As Grebuloner stated, VGA may be your friend in this situation.

Grebuloner said:

Not sure what you meant when you said "monitor drivers": Have you installed the official AMD Catalyst Legacy drivers for the 4850? Drivers for the actual display are useless for most and aren't necessary. Once you've done that, add a DVI monitor with your VGA that does work and see if it shows up in the Screen Resolution control panel and if you can extend the desktop to it.

Of course, if all else fails, I bet that monitor of theirs has a VGA input on it, you can always just use VGA cables instead of DVI since VGA output clearly works.

Click to expand...

The OP should clarify if he installed the correct AMD drivers or not. If the drivers are not installed, the resolution and the refresh rate of the monitor may not be supported and result in a blank screen. That being said, windows should default to safe vga resolutions that work with most monitors.

was at my parents home when doing all the original install, they only had a DVI cable and 1 LCD to work with,

AMD drivers not installed yet, but on my list to do tonight as are all mobo drivers, windows updates, ect.

i am doing this at my home now on a CRT,

i wonder if i could have used the install option to use F-6 to add AMD drivers during windows install ?

there is no on-board video either.

Sounds like the gfx card is defaulting to another output port once it gets into windows with a working display driver.
A bit odd, but I had hellish trouble with AMD cards doing things like this.
Connect the monitor via another output port, that should fix it it.

Alternatively, have both the VGA and DVI monitors connected and change the default active output once you are in Windows.
The same problem might occur on a new driver install or a new OS install so bear that in mind.

got the PC all setup at their house now, everything works perfectly, never have i seen such a install issue, but then i am not in IT so i am always learning i guess.
thanks everyone for the advice