Question Zoomed in BIOS , GTX Force 660 driver gets me black screen of death (no signal)

[Chayemor]

Hi everyone! First time for me posting here, I have no idea what else to do:

Thursday morning, on latest Windows 10 version, eveyrthing worked great. I shut the computer off, and turned it on again several hours later to receive the logo on start up and then a black screen of death, with monitor showcasing "No Signal".

- Monitor is not the problem, I have plugged it to other computers, works fine
- HDMI cable is not the problem, I have plugged it to the same monitor to other computers, works fine

I did a brand new clean install of Windows 10.

- Display resolution max is 1024, when monitor can display (and has) 1920px
- Motherboard is up to date both in BIOS and chipset
- This is the common stopping and reverting to point for all the following trials.

- I tried downloading drivers from NVIDIA for GTX Force 660 (32 and 64 bits)
- When installing all these scenarios ended up in a black screen of death that forced me to system restore or do a clean install again because restore wasn't working.

- Installing with GeForce Experience 64 and 32 bits
- Installing without GeForce Experience 64 and 32 bits
- Installing via Windows Device Manager

For all of them, I uninstall drivers using DDU in safe mode first. As soon as I install the drivers, I am able to restart the computer. But as soon as I do the first shut down, and start, Asus logo apperas, then I get a "No Sigal" showing in the monitor although the keyboard is responsive.

I understand the problem is within the graphics card drivers, because the black screen of death disappears as soon as Safe Mode is started. During Safe Mode I uninstall GTX Force 660 wtih DDU, then restart, all goes as expected. (Although the BIOS remains zoomed in, even when using other monitors).

Windows key + P or Ctrl + Alt + Del , DOES NOT WORK.

What else can I do? It's so frustrating when there's no errors that can help debug what is wrong, specially since it was working yesterday in the morning, and between shutting it off and turning it on at night it broke.

Additionally: 📝

- BIOS screen shows zoomed in no matter what I do. I have uninstalled drivers, and tried different monitors.
- Multi-Monitor enabled and Primary Display auto
- HDMI connected to PCIe GPU ---> same result and BIOs still zoomed in
- HDMI connected to motherboard iGPU ---> black screen ¨no signal" always. I have to switch the cable to PCIe GPU or I don´t see the boot so I can enter BIOS before black screen of death
- Multi-Monitor enabled and Primary Display iGPU ---> eternal black screen of death
- HDMI connected to motherboard iGPU ---> eternal black screen, can´t switch to PCIe GPU, so I have to reset BIOs by removing button battery


Specs: ✅

- Asus H87 PRO (motherboard)
- GTX Force 660
- 500GB SSD
- RAM 16.0 GB
- Intel i7-4770 CPU @ 3.4GHz
- OS at 64 bits (Windows 10)
- PSU: TX-Series ZM500-TX (80plus 230v)

I appreciate any help!

 

[rgd1101]

brand and model of the psu?
test with the igpu?

 

[Chayemor]

brand and model of the psu?
test with the igpu?

- PSU: TX-Series ZM500-TX (80plus 230v)

> test with the igpu?

If by that you mean connecting the HDMI cable of the monitor direclty to the motherboard... then I get nothing, a black screen (BIOS has PrimaryDisplay to Auto). If I force H87-PRO to use iGPU via the bios on Primary Display configuration, then I get a black screen forever, and I have to remove button battery to reset BIOS and be able to see anything.

 

[Cellie]

Do you have the iGPU Multi-Monitor option? Did you try to enable it when setting the Primary Display to IGFX?

 

[Chayemor]

Do you have the iGPU Multi-Monitor option? Did you try to enable it when setting the Primary Display to IGFX?

- Multi-Monitor enabled and Primary Display auto
- HDMI connected to PCIe GPU ---> same result and BIOs still zoomed in
- HDMI connected to motherboard iGPU ---> black screen ¨no signal" always. I have to switch the cable to PCIe GPU or I don´t see the boot so I can enter BIOS before black screen of death
- Multi-Monitor enabled and Primary Display iGPU ---> same result and BIOs still zoomed in
- HDMI connected to motherboard iGPU ---> eternal black screen, can´t switch to PCIe GPU, so I have to reset BIOs by removing button battery

😥

 

[Chayemor]

To anyone seeing this, I finally solved it, maybe it can help you too:

- The pair Windows 10 + GTX Force 660 + Monitor Acer~2014 was the problem. In safe mode, everything works, aside from that black screen of death when GTX drivers load during boot up with that monitor.

- The fix? Another monitor. Connecting a different monitor during boot up fixed it (I made the mistake to connect a new monitor after turning on the computer during my trials - by the time boot up is done whatever error in SW happens by then, no change of monitor can fix it at that point), after boot up, if I switched to the old monitor, everything was great.

Kind of disappointing that it isn't the HW that's out of commission, but somehow the SW made it go out of commission, it's a good monitor that now I can´t use with my set up.