WA Radio Scanner Users' Group

Hey all.... Just wondering if there are any people here who can offer some advice with a computer problem....

I purchased a new graphics card today... I have installed the card onto the mainboard correctly and installed the drivers from the supplied cd... It says that the card has been installed... when i restart the PC with the monitor cable now plugged into the new graphics card, the screen just goes blank after the initial boot screen....

would anyone know what could be causing this?!

cheers!

Single or Dual Head? (Does it have one or two connectors?)

"After the initial boot screen" do you mean after the Windows Logo/Linux Boot Screen or after BIOS?

If it's a dual-head card try swapping to the other port. Usually it is coloured yellow or blue.

it goes blank after the Windows logo...

also the card does have another head (yellow) but its a strange looking connection thats different to what the monitor plugs into

Is your monitor plug a smallish plug with probably around 15 pins?
Where did you used to plug the cable into? another graphics card or onboard graphics card?

yes thats the connection head my monitor has....


it was plugged into the onboard card.... i have disabled the onboard one and even that hasnt fixed the problem... me thinks i might have to take it in to the place where i bought the new card from to see if they can get it right...

Unplug the PC completely from power, i.e. cable out of the back
leave it for a minute this should discharge even the longest lasting capacitors. Press the power button for luck, plug power back in and try again.

Im pretty sure you need to be plugged into the other port from default. You can get an adaptor for a couple of bucks.

I think it is seeing your screen as the secondary screen which is why you see the windows logo and then nothing. Can you see your mouse pointer? (you might need to drag the mouse a fair bit to the right)

Im 95% sure this is the problem

I've found more often than not when the DVI port is green that they're digital only and don't have analogue capabilities. Usually an adaptor is included with the card and it should automatically detect which port is in use.
But if you can use the digital port then even better.
If you can't try pressing F8 key early in and select VGA mode. This will disable the manufacturers video drivers and use the windows ones.

donks wrote:it goes blank after the Windows logo...

also the card does have another head (yellow) but its a strange looking connection thats different to what the monitor plugs into

I'm assuming you have a card that has both VGA (blue, looks like a normal monitor connector, kind of like a serial cable) and DVI (longer, much more pins with a large "ground" pin to one side). By default most cards prefer the DVI to be the primary monitor. You should have received a VGA-DVI adapter with your new video card. Try using that to see if it helps. Otherwise as Tyranus mentioned, press F8 just before the Windows "loading" screen appears and select VGA mode. Once you are in windows you should be able to sort out your settings from there.

Also, it may help to know what make and model the graphics card is

I found the ATI driver, when first installed sets the screen resolution to the highest setting & the monitor shuts down when windows boots up.

Had to find an old CRT monitor that didn't shut down & reset the resolution to a setting in the ATI driver, (not windows display manager) that is compatible with my normal LCD monitor.

Radzeck wrote:I found the ATI driver, when first installed sets the screen resolution to the highest setting & the monitor shuts down when windows boots up.

Had to find an old CRT monitor that didn't shut down & reset the resolution to a setting in the ATI driver, (not windows display manager) that is compatible with my normal LCD monitor.

I had the opposite experience. It had set my resolution to something like 640x480 when I installed a new ATI card.

thanks for the advice guys.... I decided to take the pc down to storm computers and $20 later they had fixed it all up for me! . what took them 10 mins would have probably taken me 4hours to work out!

BTW they said it had something to do with the drivers not being recognised.... but alas it is sorted and I can now be a happy gamer. haha

cheers