Question Second monitor no longer detected, even after replacing the GPU ?

[luckyniji13]

I have a build less than two years old

MSI MPG Z490
i7-107006 CPU
Geforce GTX 1660
Dell u2415 monitor x2
Windows 10

Games run fine, no issues

Recently, one monitor is no longer detected. Only one monitor will work. Some troubleshooting steps I tried:

• Swapped out cable and tried different cables/inputs (mdb, hdmi, display)
• Swapped ports each monitor was hooked up to
• Verified the other monitor is not just disabled in nvidia Console - verified only one monitor is being detected
• Windows also doesn't detect, not surprising
• Uninstalled old driver, reinstalled latest driver
• Verified second monitor works by unplugging main monitor

At this point in my troubleshooting process, I had a bad Windows update that caused me to roll my PC back to a few days earlier. Prior to which I was still able to play Modern Warfare on the one monitor aside from occasional game crashes that locked up the entire PC to which only a hard boot would resolve.
No BSOD error, nothing too significant in Event Viewer aside from services crashing one after another. I assumed these crashes were a result of my graphics card slowly dying. Then after the whole Windows update corruption/roll back problem I was unable to play MW.. it would kick me out of the game every time. I could play Halo just fine though. Assumed this also had to do with the graphics card being so crap the servers wouldn't even let us through the gates anymore.

• Swapped out graphics card for RTX 3060 VENTUS 2X 8G OC, attempted swapping cables and ports, attempted detection
• Downloaded latest driver for this card from the MSI website
• Input is set to correct cable
• Tested MW, can now play again on the one monitor (crashes are intermittent, will take a few hours of gameplay to determine if that problem is officially resolved)

Still, no second monitor detected. Device Manager also does not see the second monitor.

To add a little more history, I traveled about 1800 miles in a civic with my tower standing upright on the floor between the backseat and back of the passenger sear. I worried the vibration of the travel may have damaged the card. Lesson learned, next time I travel with my PC I am taking the GPU out and putting it safely in static wrap.

Any other troubleshooting ideas out there?


EDIT: I went mad with swapping out cables, went through multiple DPs and HDMIs before I finally found the perfect combo: two DPs, both monitors are now working. All in all, I think my old GPU may be worthy of a second life in a new build....