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New computer, no display

S

shawnk111

n00b
Joined
Feb 8, 2014
Messages
11
Hello all... Thanks in advance for any replys

I bought a new computer... or rather I bought a used computer from craigslist. He wanted $350 a month ago and I got it today for $200.... It is my first "Gamin" PC (I have never even had anything other than integrated graphics, so hopefully this will be a step up.. yay!).... was custom built I think... specs I have are as follows...

AMD Phenom II x4 940 processor 3.01 Ghz
The main board is a Asus Crosshair II Gaming board
It has on board HDMI video
850w PSU

Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS Video card that supports dual monitors that has 640 Megs of Memory on board

The computer has 2 Gigs of Ram
64 Bit Vista Premium Operating System
2.0 usb, it has 10 usb ports
7.1 surround sound
----------------------------

I plan on upgrading to windows 7 and getting more ram.... but I am hoping the graphics card will be better than my current intel hd 3000....

So when I was at the guys house he had it hooked up... It was working at his house... I did not see which output he had plugged in but I think it was the gfx card. In the pic on CL it looks like he had an adapter on the card.. maybe dvi to vga? I got home and hooked it up and could not get a signal from any of the outputs. VGA HDMI or DVI.... The monitors I have are an HP 23" monitor and a Toshiba lcd tv. They only have hdmi input or vga... I have an old HDMI to DVI cord that I used with my PS3 to a tv that only had DVI. But I get no signal no matter which output I use... It worked at his house. He mentioned there being a dos command needed to switch between the video outputs, but he did not know what it was because he never uses it he just used the gfx card...

So... Could it be an issue with the current resolution settings on the pc not being compatible with the monitors? I have also heard somebody mention the HDMI to DVI cord may only be one way, as in the signal can only come in as HDMI and leave as DVI, but not the other way around. Is this a possibility? Is it possible to "reset this computer to work off VGA so I can adjust settings? BTW the PC is turning on, all fans and lights are working HDD spinning... I have also tried removing all components that could cause issues including swapping ram...

Any help is appreciated... sorry for long post, just trying to be thorough.
 
unfortunately I do not own a regular HDMI cord lol.... I will buy one tomorrow though to try it... I read somewhere else online that it could require a dvi to vga adapter then just use vga cord to monitor. ??? I hope I can get it going.... I did remove the graphics card and try with just VGA, but no success...
 
shawnk111 said:
I plan on upgrading to windows 7 and getting more ram.... but I am hoping the graphics card will be better than my current intel hd 3000....
Click to expand...

If so, it won't be by much but it's not necessarily a bad buy at all... phenom IIs still make fantastic basic gaming systems IMO.

You seem confident it's the video that's the problem, so you can tell the computer is booting up and going into windows but you're sure there's just no display on the screen?

It will have nothing to do with resolutions given the OS on the rig. And the 940 CPU has no onboard video.

Check and make sure nothing shifted inside during transport. The video card may not be firmly seated in it's slot or something silly.

When you get new RAM for it, don't bother with anything rated higher than 1600Mhz and I'd pick up a used AMD 6850 or something Nvidia equivalent like that if you can find one cheap.
 
thanks for reply... I have been checking all wiring and made sure everything was seated well... no response... I dont mind if I have to wipe completely clean and reinstall drivers and everything, I just want to be able to see y screen lol.. also there is like an integrated vga and hdmi port on the mobo.
 
Last edited:
Im confused.

Your CPU has no on chip video, unless I'm dead wrong.


I don't recall the 8800 series of GPUs as supporting HDMI unless it was specific to the manufacturer.
The 8800 should have two DVI outs.

I do see where the CrossHair II DOES have an onboard GPU, thus the finding of the HDMI and VGA outs on the I/O panel of the MB.

In the MB BIOS you can set the onboard GPU to auto or "always enable"....if the BIOS is set up correctly the 8800 GTS will be the default GPU, and the onboard won't work. I would guess the guy you bought it from had the setting in the BIOS set to use to 8800 GTS and not the onboard....ie the "auto" setting......if you remove the 8800GTS from the computer it should allow the onboard to work......by default.

So.......you need DVI > HDMI or DVI > VGA right now to get a signal on your 23 inch monitor.
Or......if you remove the 8800GTS from the computer, this should allow the onboard to work and you should get a signal from the HDMI or VGA on the back I/O panel.
 
I will do this again just to be sure. What you say sounds correct. The 8800 has 2 dvi ports. The motherboard has vga and hdmi. I removed the GPU last night and tried the vga on the mobo, but still nothing. I removed the power cord and battery and tried again, nothing... I did not however have an actual HDMI cord at the time, I put it all back together and tried everything again on all video ports both on the pc and monitor. (monitor works on other computer).... Went to radio shack this morning and got a DVI to HDMI converter and an HDMI cord. Still does not wok on any slot. The guy said he had it set up with a DVI>VGA adapter. Could that be the issue? Should I go return the DVI>HDMI and get a DVI>VGA? Also there is a button to reset the cmos wich I pressed but did not seem to help anything.. Thanks guys.
 
ok... stripped it down again to bare minimum... reset cmos again... no gpu.. tried both VGA and HDMI and nothing. I rewired everything and tried again, nothing.. Hooked GPU back up and tried both slots, one with my DVI to HDMI cable, and one with a DVI to HDMI converter then an HDMI cable... nothing.... Again it powers up and doing what it is supposed to do, just no display. Worked when I bought it, 1 hour before I hooked it up at my house...
 
You said your monitor has only HDMI and VGA ports, correct?
So how are you attempting to check your 8800GTS?

You said your monitor worked on another PC, what was the output and input in that situation?

Have you tried placing the 8800GTS in another computer?

Your big problem is the monitor at this point, with it's limited inputs. Can you borrow one that has normal DVI inputs to check your system?

What resolution did the other guy have the computer set to display? I noticed you are running Vista, it's been a long time since I used Vista, but I cant recall if the OS automatically adjusted resolution on the fly? In XP I recall having to make sure the monitor resolutions and the GPU resolutions matched or you would get no video on screen when you booted up.
 
I have aSharp TV, a Toshiba TV, and an HP monitor. Both tv's have multiple HDMI ports as well as one VGA port. The Monitor has one VGA and one HDMI. This is only my second time ever seeing DVI (The first time was on a big screen TV made in 2006), so I dont know anywhere where I could use a TV or monitor with DVI.... To use the 8800, I have used a cable I bought that was DVI on one end and HDMI on the other. I also bought a DVI to HDMI adapter and an HDMI cord. Tried both in both slots with no success. The guy had it connected with a DVI to VGA adapter... I was gonna go back to radio shack soon and exchange the DVI>HDMI for DVI>VGA and see if that works....

But I do think it is an issue like u mentioned at the end with XP. I think it is set for a certain resolution or something, and since my monitor may not handle it, maybe it wont get display.... I dont know about the tvs, but the HP monitor says the recommended resolution is 1920x1080... Maybe he had it set higher? If so is there a way to just reset this entire thing to go off the on board VGA an let me just install windows 7 and then set up the gpu how I want? I have already reset cmos but did not work...
 
Do you see the BIOS screen when you boot up and get no video when it boots into Windows? If so, the resolution is set higher than your monitor can support. Just boot into safe or VGA mode and lower resolution or worse case boot into safe mode, uninstall driver then reinstall.
 
no I do not get bios or anything. Just black screen. the monitors or tv's just never activate like there is absolutely no signal anywhere.
 
He didn't give you the DVI to VGA adapter? On my 9800GX2, which is probably similar to 8800GTS, I use a DVI to VGA adapter and only get video on the lower (in tower case) or right port (looking from rear view with bracket facing up).
 
no he did not give me the adapter... I emailed him and he said he had it connected with a vga to dvi9 adapter.... I just got a dvi to vga and still no success... looking at the package it says DVI-A to VGA... would that matter is there a difference between DVI-9 and DVI-a? are they both even real things or do they matter?
 
Well, for one the seller is a dork for making life difficult by withholding that small but critical DVI to VGA adapter. DVI-A to VGA adapter is the right one but make sure it looks like this:

http://de.academic.ru/pictures/dewiki/65/Adapter_DVI_to_VGA.jpg

You should still ask for the original adapter from him and try that.

Also, does the system even get the normal beep when you turn it on?

You can try pulling out the 8800GTS, clear CMOS to reenable onboard VGA if it's disabled and see if you get video from onboard VGA then go from there. Download the manual off of the Asus site.
 
ok that is the adapter I have, but no results... Also nothing beeps at startup. All fans kick on, but no beeps.... I removed everything again.. all un needed attachments. surround sound gone, the 7000 extra usb ports that were on here. the weird radio thing that was installed etc etc. All I have in is 1 stick of ram, 24pin and 8pin power, the vga straight to monitor, everything powers on, no signal on monitor. No beeps. Maybe it is not really booting at all for some reason? It was on windows before I brought it home.....
 
Ok finally got it... I striped the entire motherboard down to nothing and removed it from the tower. Removed battery, and let it sit for a few hours. Put back in case, connected power, 1 stick of ram i the blue slot furthest from the CPU. I connected to my monitor through VGA and I finally got bios... I will start putting everything back together and update you if I find anything that messes it up again... Thanks everyone for your time in helping me with this.
 
shawnk111 said:
Ok finally got it... I striped the entire motherboard down to nothing and removed it from the tower. Removed battery, and let it sit for a few hours. Put back in case, connected power, 1 stick of ram i the blue slot furthest from the CPU. I connected to my monitor through VGA and I finally got bios... I will start putting everything back together and update you if I find anything that messes it up again... Thanks everyone for your time in helping me with this.
Click to expand...

Good job. Tough problem.
The reset of the CMOS probably did the job.
When you go into the BIOS make sure you set the iGPU to "auto", so you will get exclusive video from the 8800 GTS, unless you want to use it in conjunction with the GPU.
 
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