Guild Wars 2

Hi guys, this is my first post on this forum so bare with me .

My brother has recently bought a new gaming pc, and it has been working for about half a week. He was playing GW2 one day, and all of a sudden he had a black screen on the monitor. The big problem is….. the pc now has a permanent “no signal to monitor” even after switching off and on.

I don’t know if this will help but, we have tried some suggestions from other forums with no success such as :
Unplugging the power cable and holding down the power button for a while;
Reseating the graphics card and RAM

try monitor on another system, try another monitor on his, if his system died, he needs to return it, if monitor died, he needs to return or rma it……

Thanks for the reply We tried the monitor on another pc and strangely enough it only works on that PC’s integrated graphics but not discrete. The monitor also works perfectly fine on his laptop too. Btw whats rma?

Maybe he changed the input of the MOnitor… Check if it’s input is DVI VGA or maybe HDMI. Have it plugged into the GPUs output and if the inputs on the monitor lights up then success, if not, then it’s another issue.

You could also try cycling through display configurations by pressing “windows key + P” then press P to cycle projector only/duplicate/extended/computer only.

If it’s not even displaying on boot up, then I’d try clearing CMOS. You’ll have to look at the user manual for the motherboard. There may be a button on the back where the keyboard and mouse plug in, or you may have to set a jumper on the motherboard.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Return_merchandise_authorization

Thanks all for the replies your help is greatly appreciated, we have tried all given ideas, but the pc ceases to get any connection to the monitor. We will now RMA it.

On the PC that it has stopped working on:

1. Scenario and possible fix:
   1.If I read your response correctly, you have integrated graphics as well as a custom GPU in your PC and your PC has an image when connected to the integrated graphics, but loses signal when connecting to the custom graphics card. If this is the case:
   1a. Connect the monitor to your integrated graphics port. You should have picture. Go to your desktop properties (XP) or (Win7)right-click and hit Screen Resolution.
   Then under the listed displays: If XP, select the “mymonitor on customGPU” that is listed, instead of the “mymonitor on integratedGPU”. In Win7 either do the same for listed displays or simply click on the other graphic for Display #2 shown.
   Your screen will lose signal since it is switching over to using the custom GPU signal instead of the integrated GPU signal. Now switch the monitor cable from the integrated graphics card to the custom graphics card. You should have picture. Try running GW2 now.

If I had misread your statement on the situation above, then:
Does it only not work when running GW2 (as opposed to all the time)?

If it only loses signal when running GW2 (or another 3d application) then:

As iSmack asked, is it connected via DVI, VGA or HDMI cable to the PC?

What graphics card is in the system?

Are you running Windows Xp or Win7 or another OS?

1. Scenario and potential fix:
   If you are running an AMD/ATI graphics card and are connected via DVI, then:
   In Catalyst Control Center
   Select “My Digital Flat-Panels” tab on the left
   Select "Properties (Digital Flat-Panel)
   Now check the box next to “Reduce DVI frequency on high-resolution displays”
   Now try it out to see if you still have the issue. If so, then also check the box for “Alternate DVI operational mode” on that same screen.

If not an AMD/ATI graphics card, or if not connected via DVI, then more information will be needed as requested above.

I hope something in this has helped you.

Did you try a different monitor on the computer in question? I would start looking at a possible PSU issue is it big enough to handle the graphics card you have installed? If you power on the computer do you get anything on the screen bios logo maybe and then it shuts off when the windows logo appears because that would indicate a driver or configuration problem. No signal means the graphics card is not working or the monitor is trying to connect using some other input (vga vs dvi or Hdmi). Forgive me I was confused reading above does the monitor work on the same pc with the on board graphics? if so and the bios is configured to display the break out video card? Also that could indicated that the PSU has a bad rail and the graphics card isn’t even turning on.

Do you have a lower end video card handy to test with? or you could even try a different rail on the PSU.

I’m thinking about the gpu itself too. Since the monitor works on an other computer.
You can get that problem when you use a 14" screen on a big kitten graphic card who don’t support low resolutions (happens to me once when i upgraded a gpu xD), but i guess that is not your case.

14" ouch……that makes my eyes hurt just thinking about it…….

Yeah well back in the years that was the size of the first lcd screens :p
It was with a vga graphic card… good old memories

@ ST Babaganosh. He can’t, he doesnt have another monitor to test it out. Also, I’m not sure on his PSU details.

@ StinVec + ST Babaganosh. I’ll tell him to give your suggestion a try when I can next contact him, its my brother’s pc not mine and we don’t live in the same house just saying to avoid some confusion. He says when its plugged into the discrete graphics slot of any of the two PC’s he has, there is no picture at all (cant even see the PC load up). It’s only when he plugs it into the integrated graphics on the older PC, can he see anything. He cant use the integrated graphics on the new PC as its been disabled. He is running windows XP on the old PC and windows 7 on the new.

@ hoegarden. He has a 19" monitor.

Oh and his graphics card in the new PC is the GTX 550 ti, and on the old PC it’s the Radeon HD 5450

Jeffreff.2894:

Thanks for the reply We tried the monitor on another pc and strangely enough it only works on that PC’s integrated graphics but not discrete. The monitor also works perfectly fine on his laptop too. Btw whats rma?

It looks like your answer is right there. Sometimes monitors fail in such a way that they cannot switch to higher resolution graphics modes.

Also, he is leaving out one of the steps in troubleshooting this problem – try another monitor!

I realize that you said he doesn’t have one, but I’m willing to bet he could borrow one or (at the very least) bring his PC to a shop. It takes no time at all to test that and no repair shop (that’s any good) will charge for that.

abomally.2694:

Jeffreff.2894:

Thanks for the reply We tried the monitor on another pc and strangely enough it only works on that PC’s integrated graphics but not discrete. The monitor also works perfectly fine on his laptop too. Btw whats rma?

It looks like your answer is right there. Sometimes monitors fail in such a way that they cannot switch to higher resolution graphics modes.

Also, he is leaving out one of the steps in troubleshooting this problem – try another monitor!

I realize that you said he doesn’t have one, but I’m willing to bet he could borrow one or (at the very least) bring his PC to a shop. It takes no time at all to test that and no repair shop (that’s any good) will charge for that.

Hmmm ok, but how come it was working for half a week on the discrete graphics at first?

It is possible that the monitor is stuck at a lower resolution (640×480) and this resolution is supported by the GPU on the older machine. Have him plug it into the older machine and turn the resolution to 1024×768 or higher and make sure the refresh rate is set at a low standard like 60 hz.
Unhook it and move it over to the new PC see if that sorts it out.
If not head on over to his house (if feasible) with your monitor and give it a test.

If the known working monitor still doesn’t work it is possible the PSU is just not supplying power to the GPU. Are there any alarms when the system boots?

One other thing – If you have RDP enable on the workstation have him power on the computer give it time to get into windows and RDP in to see if the system itself is running correctly and it just a monitor issue.

@ ST Babaganosh. Sorry for the confusion i’ve made, there is no signal to the monitor from ANY GPU slot, be it the old or new pc, it’s only the integrated graphics on the older pc that seem to get a signal to the monitor. We cannot see if the integrated graphics work on the newer PC, as it’s been disabled by the PC supplier to accomodate for the graphics card.

I am not able to supply him my monitor as we live quite a distance away from each other.

There are no alarms when the system boots.

Unfortunately he doesn’t have RDP enabled.

Personally, I’m thinking its the monitor being faulty, but I dont wan’t to advise him to buy a new monitor only for it not to solve the problem. :S

If the system is new and the supplier made changes to the bios to accommodate the graphics card that says to me he didn’t build it. Take the system to the store that build the system and have them test the monitor/computer. If the system was built by someone else there should be some sort of warranty and if they didn’t put a big enough PSU in to handle the load that is on them.

Hmmm ok, but how come it was working for half a week on the discrete graphics at first?

It doesn’t matter. Electronics can have very unusual failures.

I have been repairing electronics and computers for over 30 years. The very first thing I would do would be to substitute a known working monitor in place of the old one.

Jeffreff.2894:

Hmmm ok, but how come it was working for half a week on the discrete graphics at first?

If we all know when stuff will break that would be amazing no ? :p
A car can stop working too at anytime of the day. Those stuff just happens.