Legit Reviews

Well all of a sudden my gaming PC stopped outputting video. I forget the exact circumstances surrounding it, although I do know it has gotten gradually worse.

It started off as when there was just a LCD monitor plugged in, it would clone a TV output as well and so the monitor was stuck at a max res of 1024x768. It did this every so often after the power had been off at the wall. To fix it just disabling the 'ghost' tv in catalyst control centre would fix the resolution limit.

Now it came to booting up one day and I couldn't get video out through DVI or VGA. There was something being outputted to SVideo however, so i was able to somehow fiddle and manage to get back VGA working and save my stuff.

Next time I came to have a look at it it would output video during post and vista loading (this time on DVI as well), but as soon as it was time for the ATI drivers to kick in, the screen would blank out and I'd lose video (couldn't be bothered with checking SVideo again).

So I reinstalled vista. Video works fine until it is time to install the ATI drivers (8.10's, have tried several older versions). Once they were installed, I'm back to not having video after the windows loading bar.

Would this be a problem with my motherboard or graphics card? I really don't want it to be the graphics card as I've got it all nice and heatsinked with the AC Accelero on it. I'm at the latest BIOS for my motherboard.

I've tried an old X700 in my PC too, but that also doesn't output video.

It's strange as it's worked fine before now.

Dan

Can you try the video card in another computer?

DMB2000uk wrote:Next time I came to have a look at it it would output video during post and vista loading (this time on DVI as well), but as soon as it was time for the ATI drivers to kick in, the screen would blank out and I'd lose video (couldn't be bothered with checking SVideo again).

Try a newer version driver maybe (if there is one, I am not up to date on ATI drivers).

8.10's are the latest, but I've had 8.8's and 8.9's on there as well and it did the same thing. The stupid thing about vista is that you can't uninstall the drivers while in safe mode (as it doesn't let the installer program run) so I have to resort to using a system restore every time. :-/

I think trying a nvidia card in this system and trying this 4850 in a different PC are my next course of action (I desperately don't want it to be a dodgy 4850 though, as I've covered it in ramsinks to keep cool, and they might not stick on so well if i have to take them off and re-stick them on a new/repaired card.

For anyone else wondering, it's not the cable, as I can output DVI through it fine on my P180 PC.

Dan

Sounds to me more like the drivers than the card, Dan. If the video works fine until you install the drivers. Maybe I'm nutso?

Jack

Well that's what I was inclined to think, but there has to be a bigger problem as a reinstall hasn't sorted it.

Dan

probably doesnt help, but i have had some weird things happen with ATI drivers, including not being able to run certain programs that ran fine on the system after installing a different card with Nvidia. Have you tried just installing the single driver neccesary for the video card?

DMB2000uk wrote:Well that's what I was inclined to think, but there has to be a bigger problem as a reinstall hasn't sorted it.

Dan

\
DriveCleaner Pro, remove the drivers and reinstall. make sure to remove all folders if you can related to ATI

I did one better and reformatted and reinstalled vista.

I've tried lots of different things, and so far I'm now able to use DVI-D on a projector, so fingers crossed it will work on the monitor now.

I'm not sure but i think the thing that got me this far was disabling EDID use and setting the res to 640x480 @ 60Hz.

Dan

Well although the projector worked through DVI-D my monitor still wouldn't.

I've been hacking away at it trying different things, and so through a combination of using a projector as a working DVI monitor, installing the LCD monitor's INF, telling my KVM to read and remember the EDID of the DVI port through the working DVI connection (P180 rig), and then forcing the aspects of the montior, I was finally able to enable the LCD as a secondary monitor and then work backwards to make it the primary.

It appears to have resolved itself now, I just pray that it stays fixed.

It's really weird as doing all those things mentioned above separately (and even taking the KVM out of the loop) didn't fix the issue.

So I still don't know what the frak was up with it all, but as long as it's working I don't care anymore.

Dan

Crap. Came to turn on my system again today and i lost video after the windows loading screen, and once i rebooted everything I'd lost all DVI video.

Using the projector still lets me have DVI out, but no combination of faffing with settings would let me fix it this time.

I have tried a nvidia 7900GS in the machine and that too doesn't output DVI to my monitor (again, projector works fine).
I've tried lots of different combinations of cables and KVM setup (bypassed and not bypassed), so it isn't either of those.
I've tried hot swapping the DVI from the working projector and I do get an image that way, but rebooting the machine fails to initialise DVI again.
The DVI does work on my P180 rig (see sig). I've never had an issue with it and this monitor.

I'm just baffled.

So I'm hoping it's the monitor, and a simple upgrade to a nice new one will work.

The only other thing I would imagine it to be is the mobo, but I've had DVI issues with a P35 rig (different everything) and this monitor before, so am more inclined to hope that it is the monitor.

Dan