Strange display problem

[Xenon90]

Hi everyone,

Story telling time.

Basically, I was moving homes yesterday. Took me a few hours to do. Before I actually moved in to the new apartments, my PC was working A-OK without any problems whatsoever. I plugged everything out and took extra care to make sure that everything would arrive in one piece. When I moved in, I plugged everything in back and turned the power on.

First strange syndrome took place.

The resolution was all messed up for some reason (800x600). So, I tried to up scale it. I have two video cards (one integrated, Radeon HD 3200) and another one which I had put in and using since the upgrade for a long time (Radeon HD 4670). The thing is, I couldn't up the resolution for the 4670. So, I disabled the 3200 (it was disabled all this time when I upgrade, and enabled for some reason since I moved in which took like 3 hours at most), the screen went black, and the monitor said "No signal - analogue". Since then, I tried to do everything I could think of to get the picture back and running, but to no avail.

I'm going to call PC specialists to arrange an appointment, but figured I'd also drop by here to see if you guys can come up with something.

Many thanks.

(Sorry if this is the wrong section)

 

[jjhuang42]

have you checked your monitor cable for any bent pins?

 

[clarkjd]

Have you checked that all the cards are still firmly seated? Vibrations during the move may have caused a card to work loose..

 

[Xenon90]

Done it. I even plugged the power in while keeping one shield plate off to make sure that the card was working and it was. The monitor went black just right when I disabled the integrated card and haven't shown anything since.

 

[ilysaml]

if you're getting "out of signal" when you up the resolution, it might be that the driver of the HD 4670 failed, try to reinstall the latest driver and you should be fine.

 

[Rogue77777]

Are you sure that your connected to the correct video port?

 

[Xenon90]

if you're getting "out of signal" when you up the resolution, it might be that the driver of the HD 4670 failed, try to reinstall the latest driver and you should be fine.

That's the thing, I cannot install anything because I can't see. The monitor isn't showing anything at all, just the out of signal message briefly. The PC itself is working fine from what I could gather.

This is really confusing. Before I could disable the integrated card just fine, but yesterday it just made my PC into useless garbage out of the blue.

Just to make it clear, here's a brief version of what happened:

1) I test the PC. Everything is fine.
2) I plug everything out. I pack everything. I move out.
3) I come in, plug everything in, turn the PC on, the resolution is all messed up.
4) I try to up the resolution for the 4670 as it SHOULD be my primary display adapter, but for some reason it's the 3200.
5) I go to device manager and disable the 3200.
6) Bham. Black screen with no signal.
7) I restart. Same thing. I check the inside the PC to make sure that everything is firmly connected. Same thing.

Hopefully this will give you guys a better understanding of the situation. I'm really at loss though, as I cannot install anything to try and fix the problem. :S

 

[ilysaml]

As far as i know, when you install a PCIE card the onboard graphics card is disabled automatically, but somehow as you're stating that it's only the HD 3200 is working.
Anyway, if you were using the HD 4670, then disable the onboard graphics card from the BIOS and everything should get back to normal when you plug in the HD 4670 and go to windows environment.
Let's assume that the HD 3200 is the current default one, you should be able to run it at 800 x 600 resolution, while doing so install the onboard driver and you should be fine.

As long as you go to windows environment, no problem with your PC you just gotta determine what's GPU is installed and install it's drivers.

 

[PartialGenious]

Well, it sounds like your video card needs to be reseated. Try resetting your bios, probably the easiest way is to remove the battery from your mobo. This should re-enable the on-board graphics.

After that boot into windows and make sure your graphics card is showing up under the device manager. If it is and the driver is correctly installed then make it your primary adapter and then you can disable your on-board graphics.

If not again check your graphics card as I am pretty positive it just needs to be re-seated.

If not then it may be toast but you can check that by seeing if the fan spins when you turn it on. Then again if it is not seated properly and getting power then the fan will not spin.

Oh also, didn't even think of this but if you just disabled the graphics in windows and not in your bios then it should boot into the bios just fine. Which means you can hit f8 upon boot up and go into safe mode where you may be able to fix your problems as I stated above.

Try that and see how it goes.

 

[Xenon90]

Well, it sounds like your video card needs to be reseated. Try resetting your bios, probably the easiest way is to remove the battery from your mobo. This should re-enable the on-board graphics.[/QUOTE]

I'm not sure if I understand you here correctly. I should remove the CMOS battery from the motherboard? But how the PC function without it?

After that boot into windows and make sure your graphics card is showing up under the device manager. If it is and the driver is correctly installed then make it your primary adapter and then you can disable your on-board graphics.

Can't boot in now, since I can't see anything in the monitor...But this is without the battery thing.

If not again check your graphics card as I am pretty positive it just needs to be re-seated.

Actually, it's seated so firmly in that I couldn't remove it without thinking that I'll break it.

No joke.

If not then it may be toast but you can check that by seeing if the fan spins when you turn it on. Then again if it is not seated properly and getting power then the fan will not spin.

Yup, tested that first thing when I got inside the PC, the fan was spinning.

Oh also, didn't even think of this but if you just disabled the graphics in windows and not in your bios then it should boot into the bios just fine. Which means you can hit f8 upon boot up and go into safe mode where you may be able to fix your problems as I stated above.

That would be awesome. The problem is that I can't see ANYTHING in the screen. Literally. Nothing from the start up process as well. :/

Try that and see how it goes.

 

[PartialGenious]

Have you tried the other port to plug your monitor in as Rogue77777 said?

As ilysaml said if you take out the discreet graphics card then it should enable the on-board graphics I believe depending on the motherboard.

If that does not work try taking out the bios battery, it is small and round looks about like a quarter, should just unclip from the mobo. If you take this out for a few seconds it should reset the bios as well.

Although if you just disabled the on-board graphics in windows that should have nothing to do with your current problem. You would have to disable it in the BIOS to not have standard on board graphics check your cables. You should have access to the bios if this is the case. There may be other underlying problems we just have not got to yet.

 

[ilysaml]

Clearing the CMOS has nothing to do with the problem.
also it's very noticeable, he will be running the GPU which his monitor cable is plugged in.
technically, there can't be 2 different GPUs working at the same time. as long as he's inside windows he just needs to determine what GPU is working and problem set.
and 800 x 600 is very noticeable to the eye, if OP is claiming that he can't see anything... that's really weird.

 

[PartialGenious]

Exactly which does not make sense to his other posts. He said at one point he could get into windows and in windows he disabled his on-board graphics. At this point he should still be able to see a bios or boot screen in some form or another because that was accomplished in windows not in his bios.

If his cable is plugged into his discrete card and it is not working properly he should try plugging into the on-board port as that would make him get VGA again right?

 

[ilysaml]

Again, no 2 GPUs at the same time, and the default for all MOBOs is when a PCI Express graphics card is installed the onboard graphics card is disabled automatically.
so if he is plugging his cable to the HD 4670 and he is getting a signal...this means he is running with the HD 4670 and he shouldn't experience any problem as he previously installed the drivers.
But now i guess he is running with the built in GPU and addresses such a problem.

 

[Xenon90]

Okay, I've resolved the problem.

All I did, is removed the AGP, which re-enabled the on-board graphics. As soon as I logged on, I got an error message that the ATI drivers malfunctioned. Fortunately I had the installation disc with all the needed drivers, so I installed, restarted and it finally worked as it was before. Very strange that this happened, though.

Thanks for your help guys.