Dell Optiplex 980: No video after removing PCI-e graphics card

[pushpull]

Hey guys, I have an Optiplex 980 which I digged up to sell and I had an extra graphics card in the computer. I don't have the exact model of the graphics card here right now, but the thing is that these low profile cards come with a special DVI-looking plug which requires a cable that splits into 2 regular DVI ports. I do not have this cable so the plan was to pull out the card so BIOS wouldn't auto-disable the on-board VGA or let me use onboard display port.

However the computer boots up with diagnostic lights 2 4, which means graphic card failure - even without the graphics card in the computer. Anyone have ideas on what to do ?? Not sure if I need to enter bios to enable the onboard graphics card... but in that case I have a problem lacking the weird-DVI-plug-to-two-DVI-ports-cable

 

[revelation65]

I have a old 760 I installed a low profile ATI Radeon, now you will need to enable the on-board card in the BIOS,
as for the cable dual dvi I believe, but first enable the on board video card in the bios ,

 

[pushpull]

Hi and thanks for the answer. But is there no way around this? I mean, I would have to order the correct cable on Ebay and wait for weeks for asian mail to come through just to be able to access the BIOS :/ I thought BIOS would auto-enable onboard card once I removed the low profile graphics card. I tried setting the graphics card back in and use display port as well with no luck.

 

[revelation65]

From my experience with Dell, I believe they have trouble-shooting lights I have attached the link
http://www.dell.com/support/article/uk/en/ukbsdt1/SLN284978/en

Okay it appears you have already disabled the on-board card, and now the other thing is resetting the BIOS, could that possibly work ?

Just remove the CMOS battery, obviously with power off and the power cable removed from the desktop, wait a good 30 seconds or so,

 

[pushpull]

That is an EXCELLENT idea, I am gonna give it a go asap and report back. Thanks.

From my experience with Dell, I believe they have trouble-shooting lights I have attached the link
http://www.dell.com/support/article/uk/en/ukbsdt1/SLN284978/en

Okay it appears you have already disabled the on-board card, and now the other thing is resetting the BIOS, could that possibly work ?

Just remove the CMOS battery, obviously with power off and the power cable removed from the desktop, wait a good 30 seconds or so,

 

[pushpull]

Finally got around to testing this with no luck. Tested the following:
-Removed CMOS, held power button to drain power, waited 1 minute or so and put it back in. Did several times
-Removed RAM, tried starting with only 1 ram chip. Tried both chips
-Tried to insert graphic card in another slot
-Tried with and without graphic card inserted

Regardless I get the 2 + 4 graphic failure diagnostic lights. This computer was working fine the last time I had it rigged and there's no way BOTH onboard VGA + graphic card is broken.

Any other suggestions guys?

 

[pushpull]

anyone?

 

[revelation65]

so graphics failure, even with the card out, now, there is any other cables that have come off loose etc,


but I did some digging found this on another dell

Power down, completely remove your graphic card, hook the monitor up to the on-board port, and reboot. It should detect and revert to the integrated graphics automatically.

see if that works

 

[pushpull]

Hi and thanks for your reply. I have rebooted the computer many, many times without graphic card installed and VGA connected, still 2 4 error. The computer behaves exactly the same with or without graphic card installed. I even reset bios with CMOS chip after having removed graphics card, which should revert BIOS to have onboard VGA enabled :/

 

[revelation65]

I have just got my old Dell 760 it has a low profile ATI Radeon 3450, I did the same testing as above it will revert to the default but
this is a tough one since I obviously do not have the pc with me, if I did I would try another card, even a cheap one, just for testing purposes, I am sure there is plenty on Ebay that would not cost much,

 

[pushpull]

Hey, yeah if either one (onboard VGA or with GFX card) was giving the error it would make sense that GFX card or onboard VGA is damaged. Both giving same error, even after CMOS reset, is just confusing.

Quite frankly I'm just going through all the hardware I don't need to sell it to save up money for another investment. So I will not be buying any additional hardware for the computer. But this is an i7 with SSD & 8GB ram so I still hope I can make it run smoothly again.

 

[pushpull]

Guess I will just strip it for RAM & SSD, sell them - then throw the d**n box out the window

 

[saketron]

Guess I will just strip it for RAM & SSD, sell them - then throw the d**n box out the window

Hello, I picked one of these Dell 980's in the same configuration, i7 8gb ram with dual radeon 3450 cards with the DMS-59 connections. From the service manual I don't believe onboard video was an option for the i5 & i7 models. Both the onboard VGA and display ports had black plugs with the no symbol on them in my system. I eventually broke down and ordered the $4 splitter on eBay. Works well for me. I'm wondering if I can hook up a second splitter and run 4 displays​?