Monitor says "no signal"

[zorro bravo]

So I just finished building my first PC, and I plugged in the vga cord into an upstar monitor (cheap I know). I turn the computer on, processor fan is working, lights come on, GPU fan is spinning, but when I turn on the monitor it just says no signal, and it doesn't turn on when the PC is turned on either. I've cleaned the RAM, motherboard battery thing and checked the PSU. Everything seems fine, so what's happening

 

[Milheim]

Check that your GPU is seated well and that it has all the necessary power cords attached. If your monitor has multiple inputs, make sure the correct source is selected.

 

[xapoc]

Did you connect monitor cable to motherboard or your video card?

 

[ffg7]

try the monitor on another computer. does the hard drive light flash as tho it is trying to load without windows on it?

 

[zorro bravo]

Check that your GPU is seated well and that it has all the necessary power cords attached. If your monitor has multiple inputs, make sure the correct source is selected.

I've put my GPU into the pci slot where it should be and it clicked in. The monitor won't even let me select a source though. It just says no signal and shuts off.

 

[zorro bravo]

Did you connect monitor cable to motherboard or your video card?

I plugges the vga into the motherboard.. it's supposed to go to the GPU with a vga to dvi adapter?

 

[zorro bravo]

try the monitor on another computer. does the hard drive light flash as tho it is trying to load without windows on it?

I tried it on another PC and it worked fine. I think i just have to use the GPU instead of the motherboard. And I don't have windows installed yet.

 

[ffg7]

when videocard is plugged into motherboard slot it overrides the onboard video so it does not work unless the bios can be configured to allow both the onboard video & videocard to work at same time.