New build; no monitor signal

[Skiz]

Installed all the new hardware last night. Once everything was ready to go, I booted up the computer but I get nothing on the monitor. When I press the menu button on the monitor it states, "There is no signal coming from your computer." I can however hear Windows 7 boot up just fine. If I press the power button again, I can again hear Windows 7 powering down. Thus far, I have been able to repeat that as necessary.

My graphics card is an EVGA 8800 GTS. I have tried switching it to the other PCI-E slot and rebooting. No help there.
The GPU has power as the fan is spinning.
I have verified that the PCI-E power cable is firmly plugged in to the GPU.
I have verified that the GPU is firmly and fully positioned in the motherboard.
I have tried another monitor. (I usually run dual screens)
I have tried another PCI-E power cable to the GPU.
I have tried a different, older GPU (also PCI-E).
I have tried resetting the monitor settings.
I have even tried removing all but one stick of RAM and testing it in each RAM slot.

All of these lead to the same result: No signal to the monitor. After testing all of these I decided to take the computer into the living room and test the onboard HDMI. I plugged that into the HDTV and viola, I've got video out. So what does this likely mean? Bad motherboard slots? What's the next step? Is it possible that these GPU's are not compatible? :huh:

Again, the hardware I'm using is:

Motherboard - GIGABYTE GA-Z68XP-UD3
CPU - Intel i5 2500K
PSU - Corsair HX 750W
RAM - G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBRL

EDIT: I plugged my speaker in and I'm only getting the one, short beep when the system powers up, so as far as that goes, the PC is saying everything is powered up and OK.

[clocker]

Have you tried the vid card in a different machine?
Have you tried both DVI ports on the card?

Edit:
You might also try resetting CMOS on the MB...can't hurt, doubt it'll work though.

[Skiz]

Have you tried the vid card in a different machine?
Have you tried both DVI ports on the card?

Edit:
You might also try resetting CMOS on the MB...can't hurt, doubt it'll work though.

I thought about that early on but I don't have another computer to test it on; he only other computers in the house are my laptop and my media center (no pci-e). I did however try an even older PCI-E card and got back the same result. I know that's a little different, but it gets me closer to feeling that the 8800 is OK.

I have tried both DVI ports as well as both monitors.

I thought about resetting the CMOS last night but since it's right out of the box, I don't know what there is to reset. I'll try it though.

I'm going to take it back into the living room and see if there isn't something in the BIOS that needs to be changed. Maybe I need to run the chipset disc?

EDIT: Got it! I bought my smaller HDTV from the bedroom into the office and started sorting through BIOS settings. The one that fixed it was the default setting to always use onboard VGA. I switched to something along the lines of 'only if no ext PEG' and that fixed it. Hooray!

Let's just hope that's the only hiccup. :sneaky:

[megabyteme]

I just read the product page, and it sounds like there could be something in the BIOS which would allow you to change between various video options (HDMI or PCIe or "other"- I could not find a BIOS page, but from the description, it sounds like the MB has a lot of built-in features).

Plug it back into the television, enter BIOS, and look for "video-somethingorothers".

Good luck, appears to be a nice board!

[Skiz]

I just read the product page, and it sounds like there could be something in the BIOS which would allow you to change between various video options (HDMI or PCIe or "other"- I could not find a BIOS page, but from the description, it sounds like the MB has a lot of built-in features).

Plug it back into the television, enter BIOS, and look for "video-somethingorothers".

Good luck, appears to be a nice board!

Oops... just edited the previous post. :rolleyes:

[sandman_1]

From advanced BIOS features:



Onboard VGA
Enables or disables the onboard graphics function.
Auto
Always activates the onboard graphics, whether or not a PCI Express graphics card is installed.
If you wish to set up a dual-display configuration, set this item to Always Enable. (Default)

Enable If No Ext PEG
Activates the onboard graphics only when no PCI Express graphics card is installed.

Always Enable
Always activates the onboard graphics, whether or not a PCI Express graphics card is installed. If you
wish to set up a dual-display configuration, set this item to Always Enable.

[Artemis]

Since you are going to be using dual 8800GTS cards in an SLi setup the 'Enable if no Ext PEG' option is the one you need since this disables the internal graphics card on the CPU always.

It seems slightly retarded to me that the factory default for the EFI BIOS in this case is 'Always Enable'. A large percentage of people are going to use an external graphics card (because Intel internal ones are still shite) and struggle with the same problem you had here.

[Skiz]

What I've been working on for the past almost 2 hours now is how to boot from a disc.

I've set it in BIOS and even done it through the boot selection screen. It's being either completely ignored or just won't work.

I set BIOS to boot from a disc. F10 to save and exit. Reboot. I get the message "to boot from a cd/dvd press any button..." but nothing I press will work. After rebooting and trying again, the settings are still correct in BIOS to boot from the disc first. I try disabling everything but the optical disc drive so it is the only boot device enabled. Same thing happens. After a few seconds, Windows still boots up even though there is no secondary device enabled.

If I try rebooting and using F12 to go straight to the boot options, Hard Disk is always selected (which is odd). If I select to boot 'cd/dvd disc', the same thing as above happens.

The drive has power and even works in Windows. I inserted the chipset disc and ran that to install all of the missing drivers, all with no problems at all.

I'm totally confused...

[sandman_1]

USB keyboard support enabled in BIOS?

[Skiz]

The keyboard works in BIOS and in Windows, so I don't see that as the problem.

[megabyteme]

What revision of BIOS do you have? What is the most current version available. If there is a newer version available, there might be a description indicating a change similar to the problem you are having.

It is usually best to update the BIOS for new features, and any bug fixes. Not starting from a disc really sounds like something that may have been skipped over earlier. If you weren't having any troubles, I might be more inclined to wait, but that (in my view) is a problem with BIOS settings. At the very least try to find a work log detailing the various fixes/upgrades. Personally, I've never regretted updating the BIOS. The general word is "don't unless you are experiencing problems".

[sandman_1]

The keyboard works in BIOS and in Windows, so I don't see that as the problem.


Yea it will but outside the BIOS it might not. Got an option on my motherboard, for instance, to either have it use the BIOS keyboard drivers or OS. If I select OS, then if no OS is loaded, it will fail to work. It is usually under legacy USB support or something in your configure options. When you said this, "I get the message "to boot from a cd/dvd press any button..." but nothing I press will work", it made me think of that.

[clocker]

I always have a PS2 keyboard handy for just these occasions.
Too many PCs are just cranky about USB input before the OS is loaded.
Hell, some Dells that lack PS2 ports at all are finicky about USB keyboards.

Skiz: It's hard to tell from your initial post but where did Windows come from if you had no video and then couldn't boot from disk?
Are you using the same OS install from the old setup?
If so, I wouldn't.

As to your boot issue...
If you're trying to install the OS, disconnect everything (either power or data, doesn't matter) except your optical and the target hard drive.
Kill the MBR of the HDD and then try the install.
Essentially, by restricting the BIOS to the minimum hardware config- one source for data, one place to put it- the boot order becomes irrelevant.
When I do this on my PC, it doesn't even display the "Press any key to boot from CD" dialogue...it just jumps right in to the install.
BTW, your new board should support booting from a flash drive and that's a million times faster.
Microsoft offers a free USB prep tool that will set up the flashdrive and copy the OS .iso with two clicks.
It's well worth the few minutes it takes to setup because it will cut install time significantly*.
(Some have had issues with the MS app not recognizing um..."irregular" versions of the OS as valid and won't copy them. I haven't experienced this except for a very severely truncated "lite" version I was gifted. Others, even those with integrated loaders, have all worked perfectly)

*Depending on your variables, obviously.
I'm using a no-name flash drive (4GB) over USB 2.0 to a solid state drive and it takes under ten minutes start to internet capable desktop.
I just set up an external enclosure with a 30GB SSD and eSATA/USB connectivity and am going to try an install with that just to see how much (if any) faster that might be.
A side benefit is the lack of noise.
You don't really notice how much random searching the DVD drive is doing until the noise is gone.
It's quite nice (especially with the silent SSD as well).

[tesco]

The keyboard works in BIOS and in Windows, so I don't see that as the problem.Look for something along the lines of "legacy USB keyboard drivers" in your BIOS. I'm not sure if that still exists in modern hardware, but it used to be required to let USB keyboards work for anything resembling DOS (which is what that "press any key to boot from cd" screen is).

[Skiz]

Where did everyone get the idea that my keyboard doesn't work? :wacko:




Skiz: It's hard to tell from your initial post but where did Windows come from if you had no video and then couldn't boot from disk?
Are you using the same OS install from the old setup?
If so, I wouldn't.

:pinch:

The current Windows install was still on my hard drive from the last build. I am trying to reinstall Windows so I can start a fresh OS with a fresh build but, I can't get it to boot from the disc. Therein lies the problem. My old (and rather nice) optical drive was an IDE connection, whereas my new motherboard has no place for that to plug in. I went to Frys and bought the cheapest OEM, unboxed SATA one they had since I really don't use them for much these days. I'm wondering if it may be the drive itself even tho' it appears to work fine once Windows is booted.


As to your boot issue...
If you're trying to install the OS, disconnect everything (either power or data, doesn't matter) except your optical and the target hard drive.
Kill the MBR of the HDD and then try the install.
Essentially, by restricting the BIOS to the minimum hardware config- one source for data, one place to put it- the boot order becomes irrelevant.
When I do this on my PC, it doesn't even display the "Press any key to boot from CD" dialogue...it just jumps right in to the install.
BTW, your new board should support booting from a flash drive and that's a million times faster.
Microsoft offers a free USB prep tool that will set up the flashdrive and copy the OS .iso with two clicks.
It's well worth the few minutes it takes to setup because it will cut install time significantly*.
(Some have had issues with the MS app not recognizing um..."irregular" versions of the OS as valid and won't copy them. I haven't experienced this except for a very severely truncated "lite" version I was gifted. Others, even those with integrated loaders, have all worked perfectly)

Right now the only connected drives are the optical drive and SSD with the Windows installation, which is the same drive I'd like to format and overwrite.

How do I "kill the MBR"?

As for the flash drive, I'll have to give that another try. I tried it with a couple of different versions of Windows 7 back when the RC versions were being released every week, but the Windows Genuine Advantage kept denying me. If you're having success with it these days, I'll give it a shot after the game today.

[sandman_1]

Where did everyone get the idea that my keyboard doesn't work? :wacko:

Maybe because you said this:



...but nothing I press will work



:ermm:

[Skiz]

The keyboard works in BIOS and in Windows, so I don't see that as the problem.
Sorry if there's some confusion but I would have though this post cleared up any keyboard questions.



BTW, your new board should support booting from a flash drive and that's a million times faster.
Microsoft offers a free USB prep tool that will set up the flashdrive and copy the OS .iso with two clicks.
It's well worth the few minutes it takes to setup because it will cut install time significantly*.
(Some have had issues with the MS app not recognizing um..."irregular" versions of the OS as valid and won't copy them. I haven't experienced this except for a very severely truncated "lite" version I was gifted. Others, even those with integrated loaders, have all worked perfectly)

*Depending on your variables, obviously.
I'm using a no-name flash drive (4GB) over USB 2.0 to a solid state drive and it takes under ten minutes start to internet capable desktop.
I just set up an external enclosure with a 30GB SSD and eSATA/USB connectivity and am going to try an install with that just to see how much (if any) faster that might be.
A side benefit is the lack of noise.
You don't really notice how much random searching the DVD drive is doing until the noise is gone.
It's quite nice (especially with the silent SSD as well).

Just tried this with this version (http://filesharingtalk.com/nzbs/software/windows/49973-Microsoft-Windows-7-Enterprise-x86-SP1-Integrated-October-2011-BIE). It laughed at me. Didn't even think about for a second. Instantly told me it wasn't genuine.

[tesco]

Where did everyone get the idea that my keyboard doesn't work? :wacko:


Because of this:

to boot from a cd/dvd press any button...
That message is coming from the windows installation disc, not your BIOS, therefore it's booting from the cd/dvd just fine, but your keyboard input isn't getting through...

As I said just because it works in the BIOS and Windows does not mean it will work in the windows installer; as clocker said a PS2 keyboard would definitely work.

[Skiz]

^That did the trick. :blushing:

Had to do a bit of work to get the drivers installed as well. Some of the USB and ethernet drivers took a bit of work but nothing too ornery. Everything seems to be up and running now. :01:

[clocker]

Just tried this with this version (http://filesharingtalk.com/nzbs/software/windows/49973-Microsoft-Windows-7-Enterprise-x86-SP1-Integrated-October-2011-BIE). It laughed at me. Didn't even think about for a second. Instantly told me it wasn't genuine.
Try http://wintoflash.com/home/en/ from Novacorp.

The MS tool would not recognize my external SSD enclosure as a valid flash device and refused to work.
W to F was unfazed.

[Skiz]

Just tried this with this version (http://filesharingtalk.com/nzbs/software/windows/49973-Microsoft-Windows-7-Enterprise-x86-SP1-Integrated-October-2011-BIE). It laughed at me. Didn't even think about for a second. Instantly told me it wasn't genuine.
Try http://wintoflash.com/home/en/ from Novacorp.

The MS tool would not recognize my external SSD enclosure as a valid flash device and refused to work.
W to F was unfazed.

I actually tried that as I saw it recommended somewhere. Unfortunately I couldn't ever get the PC to boot from the USB drive. Since I didn't want to go through that whole debacle again, I just installed from the disc. :dabs: