Alright.... major frustration - Video Issues

I just purchased a new computer. I had it custom built to be my new "badass". I could have built it up myself but I decided to trust someone elses skills this time.

Hardware specs:

Intel i7 920 2.66ghz OC'd @ 3.9ghz
12GB Ram
2x 500GB Seagate Barracuda's setup in RAID 0
eVGA GTX 295 Video card
Asus Rampage II extreme MOBO
Antec Truepower 1000w PSU
Windows Vista Ultimate 64 bit

I think that should cover any hardware possibly related to my problem.

The PC arrived yesterday while I was at work so today was my first chance to hook it up.

After getting everything together I powered up the PC only to find that I get NO VIDEO...... :bang:

I can see from the LCD Post monitor that everything seems to be starting up just fine. The LCD light on the gtx 295 indicates that it has the power it needs. All the fans are running just fine and nothing seems to be out of place or acting strangely. I have tested on two seperate monitors, both of which I have confirmed are working. Initially I tried using my HDTV hooked up to the DVI slot using an adapter. When this failed I attempted to use the HDMI slot on the vid card. This too failed. So I then used a standard 15pin hookup using an adapter to the DVI slot again. Again.. failure. I then switched to my LG LCD monitor and attempted all the same adjustements but to no avail.

I have been reading and found that HDMI won't show POST screens but that eventually I should get video right before the windows login screen. This is not supposed to happen when using the DVI adapter though. In any event, I never get ANY video... both monitors are acting as if there is no input. The one ray of hope I have seen is that hooking up the HDTV via the 15pin connector at least allows me to bring up the "pc input" menu which is not available unless a computer is hooked up.

Before any of the following suggestions come up let me rule them out:

Overheating - definetely not happening, first off it hasn't been on long enough to get hot and secondly... as far as air cooled systems go I don't think this one could run much cooler considering the hardware. This is all housed in an Antec 1200 tower. Even with all the fans running on their lowest setting nothing is hot to the touch.

Monitor failure - Again, impossible. I can hook both up to my laptop and they function fine.

Wiring - I have gone over all the connections a couple times. Everything is where it should be. The gtx 295 has both 6 pins hooked up and that little 2 pin trailer wire.


I'm suspecting 3 possible culprits:

1. Some MOBO setting - with all the overlocking issues and availability on the card I think It's possible (if not likely) that something is set wrong. I can see from the LCD's on the board though that it is currently set to its default and the OC values arent being applied. Beyond that the guy who set it up knows what he is doing and I doubt he would have made many changes without properly testing it for stability.... or at the very least to make sure it even started.

2. Bad Graphics Card or PCIe connection - As with many computers I have seen with large video cards often times the slot it is plugged into sags under the weight of the card. Every now and then I've seen this cause a break in some of the soldering and that tends to screw things up. I looked over the slot and it seems to be intact but it is skewed slightly. If it's a bad GPU I'm going to be pissed... I really don't want to hear that. I am stationed in Spain at the moment and having to ship this back to the states to get it fixed or replaced is going to take a little while.

3. When it was set up maybe the dude left the resolution higher than anything either of my monitors supports. The HDTV supports 1080p - generally as a resolution setting this is around 1920 x 1080. It is possible that it is set higher than that which could explain why the TV wont work. My LG monitor supports a higher resolution though, the exact number eludes me at the moment (I'm at work and can't check it). In my experience however, when this is the problem the LCD will automatically default the video to something like 800x600 - which is not happening.



SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOo... does anyone have a clue, suggestion, pointer... or an outright answer that might solve my problem here? I have tomorrow and the next day off and I will almost certainly spend them working on this problem as I am tired of gaming on my laptop when I have a perfectly awesome desktop sitting right next to me......

Right now I feellike the front banana ---- :banana:

 

Hi.
You said:
Wiring - I have gone over all the connections a couple times. Everything is where it should be. The gtx 295 has both 6 pins hooked up and that little 2 pin trailer wire.
Try it without that wire, and what did you plug the other end into?

In the BIOS, make sure the PCI-x x16 slots are enabled. Set the initial display to PEG (forces it to look at PCI express 1st for the videocard).
Also, make sure the 2 power plugs for video card are NOT coming from the same power rail !!!
Also, try to start the computer in safe mode. If it starts and you get video display, then the video drivers are totally bad.

Good luck.

Hawke

 

How am I supposed to boot it up to check the BIOS or get it to safe mode if I can't see anything?

OIIIII

 

If you suspect it to be a bios setting, clear the bios by unplugging the unit, and pulling the battery for 10 or so minutes...or using the clear cmos jumper.

 

If I can confirm that is the problem it will be a quick fix, didn't want to have to do that - but I suppose it'll give me plenty of time to play with OC settings and plenty of timing/voltage fun.... JOY! :\ lol

I'll consider it... going to wait for the builder to get back to me before I do anything though...

 

Remove the pci-e sound card and then boot.

 

Unusual Fix... I'll try that one when I get home..... If it does work however, what am I suppose to do for sound?

 

1st. Im gonna first assume its the overclock is the cause. Not enough voltage or just the wrong settings will just make it fail.

2nd. would be a bad ram stick. Take them all out and test each one by one. Even one bad stick will make your computer not boot up into windows.

3rd. Why not just ask the person who put it together for you?

 

Already contacted the guy, just waitin for a response from him now...

I just figured I'd get a headstart on diagnosing the problem in case he comes back with "it worked fine when it was here" which is what I assume he will say. I dont figure he would have sent it to me knowing it was going to fail.

I don't think it is going to be an overclocking issue. The rampage Mobo makes overclocking pretttttyyyy eassssyyyy. But I'm definetely going to find out.

I'll check the RAM first thing when I get home. This one I could believe... 6 sticks in there... one could very easily be bad or maybe just not properly seated.

 

After reading this I'm 85% sure it's the OC, while the Rampage may be a great OCer every 920 is not. I would definitely put that 920 back to stock and see what happens, why this wasn't the first thing you did surprises me.

 

I assumed since I can hear everything POST'ing and see the POST checks via the LCD post monitor that it was fine, but you're right - that really is no indication that I should have thought I didn't need to check it.... I'm going to check the RAM first thing and if that is not the issue I will remove the PCIe sound... if neither of these issues resolves the problem then a BIOS wipe will be in order. I'll just handle the OC'ing on my own.. I was just feeling a bit lazy about playing with the timings and voltages.

 

If you suspect that it's set in too high of a resolution for your monitor, pressing f8 during startup will take you to safemode...bypassing that setting.

 

Checked the RAM, Removed the PCIe Sound card, Reset the BIOS ... still nothing.

 

Ugh!@#!@#

New info.. after attemping the fixes listed here I have some new problems now.

1. My LCD Post says "CMOS ERR" - obviously I'm having a CMOS error now.

2. Something else I noticed, when I pull out all the RAM and leave only 1 stick in I get one of two results:

* If the RAM is in a WHITE slot... nothing happens on startup.. the machine won't POST.. this goes for any white slot.

* If the RAM is in a BLUE slot... it posts as normal but when it gets to the "CMOS ERR" it stays there for a second before quickly flashing over to "BOOTMENU" before again quickly moving to "WELCOME".

If all RAM slots are occupied, it stays at "CMOS ERR".

I have no clue what is going on with this machine now. I have attempted booting on the 2nd BIOS, I have Cleared CMOS with the button the back of the system.

Throughout this the only process the only thing that has remained completely consistent is the fact that my monitors act as if they are not plugged into anything. I cannot see anything when I power up the computer. No device Logo's, no windows loading bar... nothing.... even if this is a BIOS issue I cannot get to the BIOS to alter it.

Frustrating.....

 

Ok first off remove the ram sticks from the white slots. Try to boot the machine with ram on blue slots. Make it triple channel. If you can get it to boot this way put all the clocks to default, log on to windows and update mobo to the latest bios.

By the way there is a ram compatability chart for your mobo on asus website. Please check just in case if your mobo supports your ram.

Or else give the specs of your ram and i will check it out for ya.

 

Hi.
Just yesterday i brought almost identical system at home. When I connected it to my SONY HDTV i did not get any video on the screen. Honestly i was ready for this problem. When people built my system they used regular LCD monitor. All settings stucked in the system memory. So what i did was. My BFG came with DVI to VGA adapter. So i brought my old CRT monitor and connected it through this adapter. And at the same time i connected my HDTV through HDMI. When i booted and on my CRT monitor was ok. After in windows i went to monitor settings and explained computer that my sone tv is my main monitior riught now. The moment i hit apply the image dissapiered from CRT screen and appiered on my tv. After i deleted CRT I changed settings in in NVIDIA control panel for my tv and restarted. It was ok almost. I still did not get anything on the screen untill windows kicked in. But at least I can use right now. The only problem right now I still do not know how do go to BIOS. Anyway i hope it will help.

 

Sorry for my English.
Second language.

 

In order to use the HDMI output on the GTX 295 you have to put the card in Single GPU mode.

 

Thanks. But does it mean I will loose advantage of SLI. What about if I connect through DVI to HDMI adapter and coonect it PC DVI out TV HDMI in. Or I will still to have to change Single GPU.

 

If you use a DVI to HDMI adapter then you can use SLI through HDMI, but currently you will lose SLI if you use the onboard HDMI output. It's a "bug" that NVIDIA is working on and hopefully we will eventually have Multi-GPU mode enabled with HDMI output.