Urgetn help required- no signal found on 9800

[jasonp36]

Urgent help required please - no signal found on 9800GX2 @ 1600x1200px

Hi guys, I could really do with some help here as totally lost.

Ok, have finally got my new custom pc back for the third time(don't ask) and for the second time I can't get a signal when I turn it on. I have an Nec 2090UXI and am using a DVI-D to DVI-D connection lead. Basically, I turn the computer on and my monitor reports "no signal" and no settings on my monitor help.

However, after say 15 minutes the signal was found and the display appeared, but had set itself to 1024px x 768px. It seems that when I set my resolution to the monitors native resolution of 1600px x 1200px and turn my computer off , the signal is again not found by my monitor and the next time it is turned on and I have to go through the waiting game again.

The company I purchased this from say it works perfectly on there monitors and therefore it must be mine. However, this monitor is only around 1 year old and is very highly rated for quality and features and I spent many months choosing it. It is 20" in size.

The first time this problem occured I was using 2 x Asus 8800GTX cards in SLI mode, but when SLI was turned off I had no problems.

Then I sent the computer back and swapped the 2 x cards for 1 x BFG 9800 in the hope that the problem was simply using SLI. However, I have the problem yet again and am literally going crazy now. Please can someone help as I am so stressed.

To make matters worse my original back - up computer just broke too.

<< QUICK EDIT - I BELIEVE I HAVE READ AND ATTEMPTED ALL SUGGESTED FIXES WITHIN THE STICKY POST TO THE BEST OF MY ABILITY <<

Thanks in advance,

SYSTEM SPEC:

Windows Vista 64-bit

Intel Extreme 9650 Quad core

1 x BFG 9800GTX 1GB graphics card

3 x Raptor 150gb hard drives

8GB Geil ram

2 x optical DVD drives

20" NEC MultiSync 2090UXI display

Jay

 

[Rastalovich]

2 questions.

Do you see the post ? i.e. do u see the white text on black screen as the pc is turned on ?

When it happens that u don`t see anything, does the pc look and behave by all accounts as if it working - and u just aren`t getting a monitor output ? (pressing caps lock on the keyboard after a number of minutes and the keyboard led acknowledging it means the pc has not atleast crashed)

 

[jasonp36]

Thanks for the reply,

I don't see anything, just nothing at all. However, by all accounts the pc is indeed on as after about 20 minutes it seems to shut down into a sleep mode and goes quiet. If I press a key on the keyboard it comes back on and when the picture did eventually come the first time after about 15 minutes, the system was loaded too.

Could it be something to do with resolutions?

Cheers,

Jay

 

[FarFarAway]

Possibly, but I doubt it seeing as the BIOS sets the resolution very low to POST.

Have you tried clearing CMOS on the motherboard?

 

[Rastalovich]

Off the top of my head, I`m looking towards the monitor or it`s cable having the problem.

U got any chance of plugging something else into the pc, and maybe your monitor into some1 elses pc ?

 

[FarFarAway]

Or try connecting a VGA cable (via a DVI>VGA converter)...when the PC's off obviously

 

[jasonp36]

Sorry for late reply m8, been away. Tried plugging in my 30 samsung tv which has a native res of 1024 x 768 and eventually that also comes on using a DVI-D -D-sub cable.

I just don't understand though as my monitor has great reviews and press, cost a small fortune for a 20" display and has previously had no issues running at 1600x768px using the DVI-D to DVI-d-sub cable.

Am so stressed out about now as waited nearly 2 full months and things still are not perfect yet. However, I need to be sure this is my monitor and not my computer before I make a fuss again.

As a matter of interest, can DVI cables be hot-wired? For example, when I first turned it on and it did not work I took the cable out and plugged it into the other DVI port on my graphics card and also tried swapping the connection on my monitor, whilst the computer was on. Is this ok or does it have to be turned off first?

So confused man,

Cheers,

Jay

 

[Pat123]

are you sure it not just the graphics drivers? i had this problem for a little while, but i just switched the slots on the back of the card and now it works fine. But i also changed the drivers so i dont know which..

 

[jasonp36]

Well, the company who built this say everything works perfectly on there monitors and have tested it on a few too. They will have downloaded all the latest drivers and I would have thought it would be in the favour to try and get this thing working perfectly anyway. The whole process has taken nearly 2 full months and the computer has been back twice already. One time was to switch my original set up of 2 x Geforce 8800GTX cards in SLI mode to 1 x BFG 9800GX2 card as I thought it was the SLi technology causing the issue as when I turned it off everything seemed to work.

I have just emailed NEC support too, this is driving me nuts. Could it be Vista 64-bit maybe? I mean, to my knowledge, if I remember to manually set my resolution back to 1024 x 768px before I turn off my computer it should be find when it is turned back on, but this means every time I start my computer I will have change the resolutions.

Cheers for your time again,

Jay

 

[jasonp36]

Ok, thank to everyone for there help but all seems fixed now. I have just turned off my computer for the first time since changing the resolution to the native resolution of my monitor (1600 x 1200px) and all is working perfectly. I have since turned off my machine a few more times too and again, all is perfect.

As I said earlier in my posts. I originally received my machine at the start of the week and at this point it was running 2 x Geforce 880GTX cards running in SLI mode. When it was first turned on I could not get any signal. I therfore had no choice but to try turning my computer off and on a number of times using the only method I had available, holding in the power button (which I don't like doing for safety reasons etc). When this didn't work I unplugged the DVI cable and tried plugging it into the other 4 ports in turn, but mainly whilst the computer was still on. I presume you should always turn it off first though? So maybe this was useless and wouldn't have worked anyway. I know that when you use SLI mode only one port works but originally even after turning it off only 1 port of 4 would work anyway, so there must have been more to it.

Therefore, when I got my machine back today with the new single BFG Geforce 9800GX2 card and turned it on only to experience the same issue. I simply didn't want to have to start turning it on and off in case I could not get a signal again when I turned it back on, forcing me to shut it down incorrectly and unsafely using the power button again.

However, it must be something to do with initializing the monitor to be used for the first time or something as all is perfect now. Maybe there are still big issues with SLI too? Thanks once again and all the best,

Jay

 

[FarFarAway]

The graphics card needs to detect the resolution of the new monitor and usually the best way to do this is to start it up from scratch to let Windows drivers detect it.

 

[Rastalovich]

are you sure it not just the graphics drivers? i had this problem for a little while, but i just switched the slots on the back of the card and now it works fine. But i also changed the drivers so i dont know which..

Any monitor, booting a pc from cold, will be sent a standard signal that is very low in requirements. It displays the graphic properties in the top left of the screen breifly, then the post, then continues to check for an OS and try to boot it.

If you don`t get a view of the post, there`s an inherent problem. Sometimes the graphic properties at boot can popup too quick for you to see it.