Spocky’s PC has lost video output, I’m not sure what’s going on with it. It has a Nvidea card of some sort (dual output) to run two monitors, but after booting it up from being off for a couple of days nothing appears on the screens. I pulled the video card out then plugged in just one monitor, but still no difference.
It seems to boot up otherwise just fine, eg, I can hear USB devices being plugged-in & out from the usual sound coming from the speakers.
Any idea why all video output seems to have died? I really don’t want to have to build another box at this point.

Bill.

Spiny Norman said:

I pulled the video card out then plugged in just one monitor into the output from the motherboard, but still no difference.

More info.

Has she just installed the Win10 update? Could be drivers.

Sorry, I can’t help at all, Mr Norman.

Rule 303 said:

Has she just installed the Win10 update? Could be drivers.

Sorry, I forgot to mention that it’s running W7.

Michael V said:

Sorry, I can’t help at all, Mr Norman.

No probs. :)

And by no video I mean not even a POST screen, etc.

is there a video output on the motherboard you can plug the monitor into to see if you have a source?

Is um…. is the screen turned on?

ChrispenEvan said:

is there a video output on the motherboard you can plug the monitor into to see if you have a source?

Mentioned that above, yes.

Peak Warming Man said:

Is um…. is the screen turned on?

Both, yes.

• I pulled the video card out then plugged in just one monitor into the output from the motherboard, but still no difference.

Did you try that with both monitors?

furious said:

• I pulled the video card out then plugged in just one monitor into the output from the motherboard, but still no difference.

Did you try that with both monitors?

Only one has the right connection for the motherboard output.

See:

https://newtonexcelbach.wordpress.com/2015/08/03/installing-windows-10/

That’s about a Windows 10 problem, but the solution (disabling the video driver) might work in your case.

• That’s about a Windows 10 problem, but the solution (disabling the video driver) might work in your case.

How can you do that without a monitor?

The Rev Dodgson said:

See:

https://newtonexcelbach.wordpress.com/2015/08/03/installing-windows-10/

That’s about a Windows 10 problem, but the solution (disabling the video driver) might work in your case.

I’d like to try, but how?

Also, when you tried the onboard video was the NVIDIA card still installed?

Scratch that, you said it already…

furious said:

• That’s about a Windows 10 problem, but the solution (disabling the video driver) might work in your case.

How can you do that without a monitor?

I misremembered what I wrote in that link, sorry. I thought it had a trick for accessing the OS before the graphics kicks in.

I have a PC with an NVIDIA card and it takes ages to start because of a BIOS setting trying to get the onboard monitor to work. I can change this in the BIOS but it won’t go to BIOS from the NVIDIA card. However, when I plug into the onboard video nothing comes onto the screen because the NVIDIA card over rules it, apparently. I didn’t bother in the end, it just takes a while to start up and is just a minor annoyance. However, if I want to fix it, I suppose I would have to reset the BIOS. Have you attempted to reset the BIOS?

Have you tried the usual multi-screen switch-about trick that laptops normally use to control video output? It’s always been Hold Fn and press F8 to select different output modes, IME.

This is on the interweb.

“Remove your power cord and hold the Power On button for 30 seconds to 1 minute and then connect the power cord back and turn it on to see if the problem persists. “

Sounds like using the power of faith to heal a compound fracture of the tibia overnight., but you never know.

Peak Warming Man said:

This is on the interweb.

“Remove your power cord and hold the Power On button for 30 seconds to 1 minute and then connect the power cord back and turn it on to see if the problem persists. “

Sounds like using the power of faith to heal a compound fracture of the tibia overnight., but you never know.

There is a lot to be said about the healing powers of turning it off, then turning it on again.

>There is a lot to be said about the healing powers of turning it off, then turning it on again.

“The issue has been resolved after power-cycling affected hardware.” …NBN speak

Four things I can think of. The first is the video cable. They do fail – rarely, but it does happen. Second is to check any power cables to the video card. Third is to reseat the video card. Pull out the card (while safely being earthed to the PC chassis) and then install it again. If you can borrow a different card, that would be better.

The other is what Furious mentioned about the resetting of the BIOS. On the motherboard there will be 3 prongs and a jumper connecting two of them, you need to short the unconnected jumper for thirty seconds or so.

To find the jumper (there may be several three pronged connections), find the motherboard brand and model number. It will be screenprinted on the Motherboard. Then search for it in your search engine of choice with the words “Clear CMOS”. It should get you instructions. Short of that, you will go to the Motherboard site and download the motherboard manual and the info will be in there.

Remove the video card and try boot after clearing CMOS. The reason for the clearing of the CMOS / BIOS is to have it default. BIOS will default to onboard graphics.

Let us know the results.

Nothing worked, so I bought a new motherboard (MSI B250M) , CPU (I3-7100), and ram (8gig). Got it all installed this afternoon and decided to take the dodgy path of just trying to boot-up from that. It works, but I’ve yet to install all the drivers to make the motherboard work properly. It’s looking good for that to happen though.

Spiny Norman said:

Nothing worked, so I bought a new motherboard (MSI B250M) , CPU (I3-7100), and ram (8gig). Got it all installed this afternoon and decided to take the dodgy path of just trying to boot-up from that. It works, but I’ve yet to install all the drivers to make the motherboard work properly. It’s looking good for that to happen though.

Bugger…

Bugger.
The dodgy attempt is stalled for now – The box doesn’t have a DVD drive (files on the motherboard DVD) so to install the drivers I tried using a USB stick. Guess what? Yep, there’s no USB driver installed so it can’t detect the stick. So back to MSY tomorrow to get a cheap DVD drive for it.
But mysteriously, the wireless mouse does work. It’s got a bluetooth (I assume) dongle that plugs into a USB port.

Needs an exorcism.

Sorted. I put in a huge effort and overcame my laziness – I pulled the 2nd drive out of it, stuck it in a spare caddy I have that’s otherwise used for back-ups, and copied the drivers into a directory there. Put the drive back in, and installed it all from there.
Now just have to get the 2nd monitor working ….