No Display after installing HD Graphics Drivers

[flamingspartan3]

Parts:
Asus P8Z68-V LE Motherboard
Intel i5 2500K CPU
Asus GTX 550 Ti GPU
Samsung 850 Pro SSD
Seagate 7200 RPM 1TB HDD
Hitachi 5400 RPM 640GB HDD
Antec 620 Watt 80 Plus Bronze PSU
G.skill 8GB 1333 Mhz RAM (4 sticks)
Zonet 1642S WiFi Adapter

My nearly four year old PC has been giving me numerous problems lately so I decided to reinstall Windows on it from scratch. However, I was out of town for a couple of days and turned off the PC before I left. When I got back and booted it up, I was unable to access BIOS with the GPU plugged in. Even if the 6-pin PCI-e cable was disconnected, as long as the GPU was in the PCI-E slot, no output would appear on the screen. I would hear the POST beep but no BIOS splash screen or Windows would load. I used integrated graphics to wipe my 850 Pro and install Windows 10. However, after I booted up Windows, my display would eventually go off and never come back on. A reboot wouldn't fix it and the only method was to reinstall Windows. I switched to Windows 7 and all went well until I installed the Intel HD Graphics 3000 driver. After that, my display would stop working again. I could reboot and see the BIOS splash screen as well as the "Starting Windows" bootnaimation but after that the display would go off. The Windows login sounds also play in the background even when the display is off. The only way for me to fix the issue is to enter Safe Mode and uninstall the HD Graphics Driver. I've tried various drivers as well as resetting the BIOS, updating the BIOS and reinstalling Windows. I'm ready to give up and buy new parts and would appreciate any help. Thank you!

P.S: I'm not using my GPU at the moment since I don't even see BIOS with it. I think it's either dead or the motherboard is having issues. However, since the integrated graphics work without the drivers, I don't know what the issue is.

 

[MarkW]

Download DDU (click on logo below) and run it. It will ask if it can go into safe mode to uninstall all video drivers. Select yes.

Once it is in safe mode, it will offer you 3 choices. Select the top one.

After this has completed, power down and put the video card back in, and hook up the video cable to it. Make sure you connect the PCIe power to it as well.

Restart your computer, and if it gets to the desktop with video, install the latest Nvidia drivers.

 

[flamingspartan3]

Download DDU (click on logo below) and run it. It will ask if it can go into safe mode to uninstall all video drivers. Select yes.

Once it is in safe mode, it will offer you 3 choices. Select the top one.

After this has completed, power down and put the video card back in, and hook up the video cable to it. Make sure you connect the PCIe power to it as well.

Restart your computer, and if it gets to the desktop with video, install the latest Nvidia drivers.

I followed your instructions exactly but I still get no display from the GPU. There is no BIOS splash screen nor does Windows appear on the display. However, I still hear the startup and login sounds from Windows which means that it is still booting up.

 

[MarkW]

Get the video card replaced. Any fuctioning video card will at a minumum display its BIOS info at power on, and then show the way to get into the system BIOS or a splash screen, depending on the system. If none of that is coming up on the display, and you know the display is working, replace the video card.

 

[flamingspartan3]

Get the video card replaced. Any fuctioning video card will at a minumum display its BIOS info at power on, and then show the way to get into the system BIOS or a splash screen, depending on the system. If none of that is coming up on the display, and you know the display is working, replace the video card.

I guessed that my video card had issues. However, I was wondering why my integrated graphics don't work either. Whenever I install drivers, it stops displaying Windows even while it works in Safe Mode. I'm thinking that the motherboard might be the issue and is causing all my graphics problems.

 

[MarkW]

Is the iGPU not working with drivers right now?

Did you buy the parts locally or mail order?

 

[flamingspartan3]

Is the iGPU not working with drivers right now?

Did you buy the parts locally or mail order?

Yes, when I initially install Windows with no drivers, the display works fine on iGPU. However, when I install the integrated graphics drivers, I see the BIOS splash screen, then the "Loading Windows" bootanimation and then nothing. I even hear the login sound and I can enter my password and hear the welcome sound but nothing appears on the display. If I enter Safe Mode, the PC works fine and I can uninstall the drivers. However, this seems to occur for every driver I use.

This PC is about 4 years old but I got the parts in the mail.

 

[MarkW]

Try something... Power up, go into the BIOS, and on the Save/Edit screen, there should be a Restore System Defaults option. Select that, and then Save and Exit. Let the system boot to the desktop, and see if it will work with video drivers at that point.

 

[flamingspartan3]

Try something... Power up, go into the BIOS, and on the Save/Edit screen, there should be a Restore System Defaults option. Select that, and then Save and Exit. Let the system boot to the desktop, and see if it will work with video drivers at that point.

Unfortunately, it didn't work. After loading optimized defaults and installing the driver, the subsequent reboot led to the BIOS splash screen, loading windows bootanimation and then a blank screen that resulted in the display turning off. As usual, entering safe mode and uninstalling the driver worked.

 

[MarkW]

I want you to go to C:\Windows\System32 and find cmd.exe (CMD). Right click it, and select create a shortcut. It will ask if you want the shortcut placed on the desktop and select yes.

On the desktop, right click it, and Run as Administrator. You will get an old style DOS window with a C:\Windows\System32> prompt. At that prompt, type in sfc /scannow and press Enter. This will take awhile. When it is done, it will say some stuff, including that there were some things it could not fix. I think it says that every time it runs. I am pretty sure this needs a windows recovery partition to work, but if you have deleted that, it may well tell you it cannot run, and stop. Hopefully it is there, and gets to fix something. This will refresh any Windows drivers that are on your system, and it might just fix whatever is ill and needs fixing.

 

[flamingspartan3]

I want you to go to C:\Windows\System32 and find cmd.exe (CMD). Right click it, and select create a shortcut. It will ask if you want the shortcut placed on the desktop and select yes.

On the desktop, right click it, and Run as Administrator. You will get an old style DOS window with a C:\Windows\System32> prompt. At that prompt, type in sfc /scannow and press Enter. This will take awhile. When it is done, it will say some stuff, including that there were some things it could not fix. I think it says that every time it runs. I am pretty sure this needs a windows recovery partition to work, but if you have deleted that, it may well tell you it cannot run, and stop. Hopefully it is there, and gets to fix something. This will refresh any Windows drivers that are on your system, and it might just fix whatever is ill and needs fixing.

As usual, I see the bootanimation and then the screen goes off. I ran the CMD command once before installing the driver and then booted to no display. I then booted into safe mode and ran the command again and rebooted but still no display. I've even tried reinstalling Windows but I still get no display when I install the driver. Both times I ran the command it said it did not find any integrity violations.

 

[MarkW]

Well, if you have both reinstalled Windows and run that sfc scan, and its still doing that, something in hardware is definitely messed up.

Simplest thing for a first step would be to ask a friend if you could install your video card into their computer just to see if it works. I suspect that it does work, but you need to be sure.

Here comes the hard part. Since I am now fairly sure that the problem is hardware, here is the order that I would try replacing things:

Motherboard.
CPU
Power Supply
Memory

Im almost certain its the motherboard, but I am not there to see what is happening. So I listed what I think is most likely possible in the order that I think have the highest chance first.

If you have wanted to upgrade motherboard, CPU, and maybe even the memory, this is probably as good of a time as any to make the move. You could get your self some newer technology in this process. But this is just me thinking. You know your situation there. So your call.

 

[flamingspartan3]

Well, if you have both reinstalled Windows and run that sfc scan, and its still doing that, something in hardware is definitely messed up.

Simplest thing for a first step would be to ask a friend if you could install your video card into their computer just to see if it works. I suspect that it does work, but you need to be sure.

Here comes the hard part. Since I am now fairly sure that the problem is hardware, here is the order that I would try replacing things:

Motherboard.
CPU
Power Supply
Memory

Im almost certain its the motherboard, but I am not there to see what is happening. So I listed what I think is most likely possible in the order that I think have the highest chance first.

If you have wanted to upgrade motherboard, CPU, and maybe even the memory, this is probably as good of a time as any to make the move. You could get your self some newer technology in this process. But this is just me thinking. You know your situation there. So your call.

I was suspecting that it's the motherboard too since both the iGPU and my external GPU don't work correctly. I will probably buy a motherboard and see if my current GPU works. The only problem is that I'll have to replace the CPU and perhaps RAM as well since the LGA 1155 socket is no longer manufactured and things are moving to DDR4.

 

[MarkW]

Well, if you want to upgrade to Skylake, yes. But if you wanted to just go to Haswell, then just the motherboard and CPU would need to be new.

I do think Skylake is a generational update. You will only see changes like this about once a decade. I have a Haswell CPU here. Z87 motherboard. So I am not going to make the jump to Skylake. I might make a jump late next year, or maybe to Kaby Lake in 2017. I want the new features Skylake has, but I do not want to replace my 16 month old motherboard, CPU and memory this soon.

We all have these kinds of decisions to make each year.... LOL

 

[flamingspartan3]

Well, if you want to upgrade to Skylake, yes. But if you wanted to just go to Haswell, then just the motherboard and CPU would need to be new.

I do think Skylake is a generational update. You will only see changes like this about once a decade. I have a Haswell CPU here. Z87 motherboard. So I am not going to make the jump to Skylake. I might make a jump late next year, or maybe to Kaby Lake in 2017. I want the new features Skylake has, but I do not want to replace my 16 month old motherboard, CPU and memory this soon.

We all have these kinds of decisions to make each year.... LOL

Thanks for all your help. I just realized that my PC was transported recently from NJ to Texas in a hot car and that might have been the cause of the hardware failures.

 

[MarkW]

Just realized? You ever been to Hotexas? In summer? When the dust is the wettest thing within 400 miles? And there is lots of that dust....

 

[flamingspartan3]

Just realized? You ever been to Hotexas? In summer? When the dust is the wettest thing within 400 miles? And there is lots of that dust....

Unfortunately, I wasn't around to oversee its packaging so there's another place that it might have broken. The PC was in a sealed box and surrounded with foam but next time, I'll just disassemble it and take the components with me individually.

 

[MarkW]

I spent 28 years living in Las Vegas. I know all too well what heat can do to computers. Most of the time, as long as the computer is off when its really hot outside, things turn out well. But if you left your computer on in the morning in the middle of summer, went to work, and came home when it was 110 degrees out, and when you opened your door you were hit with a blast of hot air, that's when the computer would die.

Is never fun to have a one die. Even less fun figuring out what died and replace it. I've been there more than once. All I can do is try to help.

 

[flamingspartan3]

I spent 28 years living in Las Vegas. I know all too well what heat can do to computers. Most of the time, as long as the computer is off when its really hot outside, things turn out well. But if you left your computer on in the morning in the middle of summer, went to work, and came home when it was 110 degrees out, and when you opened your door you were hit with a blast of hot air, that's when the computer would die.

Is never fun to have a one die. Even less fun figuring out what died and replace it. I've been there more than once. All I can do is try to help.

I did some research today and found out that my iGPU not displaying is due to problems with Intel's drivers. They're well documented on the Intel forums and apparently, it will display if a VGA cable is used. However, I didn't have any VGA cables so I was stuck with DVI. I tried to insert the GPU again and it still didn't work. Then I tried turning off my PC and reversed the DVI cable. Voila! It displayed a BIOS splash screen and booted into Windows flawlessly. I installed Nvidia drivers and had no issues. My PCI WiFi card stopped working but I just switched it to a different slot and it was fine too. I even cancelled the order on the refurbished motherboard that I had! I think the cable was just not secure; who knew something as simple as that would be the cause of my problems?

 

[MarkW]

I am sitting laughing and wondering why I shouldn't be crying.

Which way the DVI cable is connected should not matter. I also had not heard about Intel iGPU's not working. I'm sure there are some, but I sit here most days helping, and have only had one Intel iGPU problem, and that was his cable.

I'm just glad that you figured it out. Now go have some fun for a change! :lol:

 

[flamingspartan3]

I am sitting laughing and wondering why I shouldn't be crying.

Which way the DVI cable is connected should not matter. I also had not heard about Intel iGPU's not working. I'm sure there are some, but I sit here most days helping, and have only had one Intel iGPU problem, and that was his cable.

I'm just glad that you figured it out. Now go have some fun for a change! :lol:

Lol thanks for all your help!

 

[MarkW]

Welcome