[I.D.S. Administrator]

I have 2 monitors. The both of them do not recieve a signal on startup unless I do stuff like opening / closing the computer case, swapping the vga chords back & forth &c. I have an onboard, and a nvida graphics card. This just started to happen yesterday. I have had the video card since xmas. Could this be related to not having a strong enough power supply? My power supply is only 300w. My graphics card is a nVida 8500 GT. My secondary monitor is hooked into the onboard graphics card; the monitor is a CRT. The monitor hooked into the nVidida is a 1680x1050 LCD monitor.

Please help, I am worried.

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Hi there,

I have never worked with two monitors in this configuration before. Why do you have one to the video card and one to the onboard video? I would have thought it better to connect them both to the video card and disable the onboard video. Have you tried this? Can you try this and let me know what happens?

Have you tried using new cables for the monitors?

If you don't do your startup routine (open/close case, swap cables), does it literally just not show any display? Or will it eventually come on after, say, five minutes?

Yes your PSU is only 300W, but it may be enough for your system (or not). Even though that's a pretty low number, it really depends on how many/what components the PSU is powering. I personally would upgrade it anyway, I well and truly have heard enough of the horror stories caused by cheap-branded and/or low-specced PSU's...

Cheers

Troy

[Troy]

Hi there,

I have never worked with two monitors in this configuration before. Why do you have one to the video card and one to the onboard video? I would have thought it better to connect them both to the video card and disable the onboard video. Have you tried this? Can you try this and let me know what happens?

Have you tried using new cables for the monitors?

If you don't do your startup routine (open/close case, swap cables), does it literally just not show any display? Or will it eventually come on after, say, five minutes?

Yes your PSU is only 300W, but it may be enough for your system (or not). Even though that's a pretty low number, it really depends on how many/what components the PSU is powering. I personally would upgrade it anyway, I well and truly have heard enough of the horror stories caused by cheap-branded and/or low-specced PSU's...

Cheers

Troy

[hfcg]

Hello,
When you have two components that perform the same function they may conflict with each other. E.G. an on board NIC and an Ethernet card, on board sound and a sound card, on board video and a video card...........
What usually has to be done is the on board component is disabled so that there is no conflict with the card.
If your video card does not have two ports then you can buy an adapter cable, however you will get the same display on two screens.
If you are wanting to split the display you will need a video card that has that function. (It will have two ports).

[I.D.S. Administrator]

Hi there,

I have never worked with two monitors in this configuration before. Why do you have one to the video card and one to the onboard video? I would have thought it better to connect them both to the video card and disable the onboard video. Have you tried this? Can you try this and let me know what happens?

Have you tried using new cables for the monitors?

If you don't do your startup routine (open/close case, swap cables), does it literally just not show any display? Or will it eventually come on after, say, five minutes?

Yes your PSU is only 300W, but it may be enough for your system (or not). Even though that's a pretty low number, it really depends on how many/what components the PSU is powering. I personally would upgrade it anyway, I well and truly have heard enough of the horror stories caused by cheap-branded and/or low-specced PSU's...

Cheers

Troy

1. I use an onboard because it came with the computer.
2. Same thing happens (if I can actually get the monitors to work).
3. I have
4. Literally. LED light goes orange.
5. I have been thinking about upgrading my psu. So by your sugguestion I'll go buy one.

[I.D.S. Administrator]

Hello,
When you have two components that perform the same function they may conflict with each other. E.G. an on board NIC and an Ethernet card, on board sound and a sound card, on board video and a video card...........
What usually has to be done is the on board component is disabled so that there is no conflict with the card.
If your video card does not have two ports then you can buy an adapter cable, however you will get the same display on two screens.
If you are wanting to split the display you will need a video card that has that function. (It will have two ports).

By "conflict" do you mean won't work period? Or just that they might spawn unfortunate actions slowly but surely until the effects are noticeable?

[hfcg]

By "conflict" do you mean won't work period? Or just that they might spawn unfortunate actions slowly but surely until the effects are noticeable?

Both, The computer needs to be told which device to use. If it does not know then it will try to use the on board device but the card will try to work as well so many problems can arise.
Disable the on board graphic card and get a cable with two outputs or a video card with two ports.

• click on the start button
• select control panel
• open system (for vista open device manager)
• select hardware
• select device manager
• right click the on board graphics adapter
• select disable

[Troy]

5. I have been thinking about upgrading my psu. So by your sugguestion I'll go buy one.

This quite possibly has nothing to do with your problem, just a word of warning. Or funnily enough, it might fix it. Either way, all I was saying is I personally would upgrade it, so I believe this is a good choice

Let us know your budget, or what kind of PSU you're looking at, and we can help you choose a quality PSU.

Cheers

Troy

[hfcg]

Just so you know that the problem is not your power supply.
You will not get good results from trying to use an on board video card and another video card, does not matter how much power your psu can provide.

[I.D.S. Administrator]

Just so you know that the problem is not your power supply.
You will not get good results from trying to use an on board video card and another video card, does not matter how much power your psu can provide.

I dunno, I set the comptuer to boot specifically boot from Onboard, and I disabled the video card on start. The only time I can have both monitors functioning is when I have actually logged into Windows, in which the graphics card is re-enabled.

[I.D.S. Administrator]

5. I have been thinking about upgrading my psu. So by your sugguestion I'll go buy one.

This quite possibly has nothing to do with your problem, just a word of warning. Or funnily enough, it might fix it. Either way, all I was saying is I personally would upgrade it, so I believe this is a good choice

Let us know your budget, or what kind of PSU you're looking at, and we can help you choose a quality PSU.

Cheers

Troy

My budget is $85 (yeah, though times). I usually shop online for these things at pricewatch.com.

Edited by I.D.S. Administrator, 23 January 2008 - 06:38 PM.

[Troy]

If you make use of the rebates, either of these fall into your price range and are both good choices.

Troy

[I.D.S. Administrator]

If you make use of the rebates, either of these fall into your price range and are both good choices.

Troy

Thanks I just bought and installed, and now everything seems to work fine.
Please close topic.