Display not working after pc restart.

[Naota215]

So I have a custom built computer specs are

CPU: I7-960 3.2Ghz
Ram: 8gbs Corsair Dominator 1666 MHz
Graphics Card: 2X gtx 670 2gb
HDD: WD black edition 1TB 7200 rpm
Operating System: Windows 8.1 64bit
Mobo: Intel DX58SO
Power Supply: Corsair 650 watt

After doing a little overclocking last night to see if I could push 3.8 on my air cooling (bought an after market cooler master, cant remember the model name) I found a stable clock for it. So I powered down and went to dinner, came back, powered it on and the computer started constantly restarting itself every 5-10 seconds. So I'm thinking oh well the over clock isn't working, so I just popped the cmos battery and unplugged the tower for 10 minutes, came back and the instant restarts have stopped, but now the display wont work. it just blinks like its in sleep mode. I've tried removing both the cards and trying each one in the primary and secondary slots, no change. Everything is powered on, lights, fans, etc. But no display. I took the motherboard out earlier thinking maybe just maybe that I needed to re-paste my cpu, so I did that, put it back in and still no change. I have tried HDMI and the standard display ports to no avail. I'm about out of ideas here, other than having to purchase a new mobo which if I do I'll end up having to build a new rig since the I7-960 I have isnt a supported socket (least from what I've seen) as of late. Any ideas would be greatley appreciated

 

[capt_taco]

If I had to guess, it's be that when you reset the BIOS, the system "forgot" the SLI configuration, and then when you restarted the machine, it saw two "new" video cards and didn't know what to do with them. So, I'd try resetting the BIOS again and then restarting with one video card only. If that works, then reinstall the Nvidia drivers and re-setup SLI.

Alternatively, Windows could be what is not recognizing the SLI setup anymore. I would expect that if that were the case, you'd be able to see the splash screen and POST data first, and then the screen would go black when Windows was supposed to load. Either way, try booting from a Windows CD with only one card, and see if you get a signal that way. If so, you've identified the likely cause: Go in and reinstall the video card drivers.

One more thing, based on the age of the system, your CMOS battery is probably dead anyway, so it probably would be best to replace it while you're in there.

 

[Naota215]

Thanks for the input, I have tried booting with just a single card in the main slot without using the SLI, I'm thinking at this point the PCI E port has gone bad? I dont know it doesnt make any sense to me as to why its all of a sudden doing this.

 

[capt_taco]

I don't think it's a port that has gone bad, but likely that the system is looking for the old SLI configuration but seeing one or two "new" cards that it doesn't recognize as part of the SLI array anymore. Before you try the single card, clear the CMOS again. It sounds like the first time after the original CMOS clear, you booted with both cards, and then only after that tried a single card. So do it the toher way to eliminate that variable.

Do you get any video at all, even just a few seconds of seeing the POST screen?

 

[Barty1884]

What PSU do you have specifically? Corsair has some good, some meh, some dreadful - especially for overclocking.

I would imagine your rig would be taking 500W at full load stock, so wattage capacity shouldn't be an issue, but you say you found a stable OC, so I assume you're determining that by running Prime95 or similar (which will put you under full load) - that might've just been enough to cause issues with your PSU, hence you can't get it to display, even with a BIOS reset.