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Rig won't boot with 2 monitors connected - x1900xtx

691 Views 13 Replies 5 Participants Last post by  Devman, 
D
Okay, this is frustrating me to NO end. I dont understand why this won't work, but it is steadfastly deciding not to.

My rig is in my sig. It's 3 years old, needs to be replaced but it's going to have to live for the next 6 months or so. DFI nForce4 Ultra-D, x1900xtx. Searched and searched, but can't find a solution to this problem.

Here's what happened: I bought a new 24" monitor, works flawlessly. I wanted to hook it AND my 19" up, no problem, right? Both are DVI, two DVI ports. Plug up and go!

Not so much. Turn the machine off, plug in the DVI cable, turn the monitor on, then turn the machine on, won't POST. 1 long, 2 short beeps. Video card or display error. That's wierd. Okay, unplug the new monitor, reboot, same POST error. Reset the BIOS, same thing. Make sure it's getting power, etc, etc, pull CMOS battery, yadda yadda. Nothing. FINALLY, I decide to reseat the video card, which is a pain in the keister. Lo and behold, it boots again!

So I figure my problems are behind me. I plug in the new monitor and the old one while in windows, it finds it, configures it, I play EVE on it no problem for 4 hours, reboot it a few times (using restart from WINDOWS, so it doesn't go through POSTing), no problem. Shut her down for the night, bring her up in the morning, SAME POST CODE ISSUE! 1 long, 2 short beeps. Go through the same process, finally pull/replace the card, and it works again, but I left the 2nd monitor unplugged, but I had the 24" plugged in this time instead of the 19", and it works. So it's NOT the monitor compatibility with the gfx card.

Frankly, I'm baffled. I cannot understand how nor why this would happen. The ONLY thing I can think of is that when the card sees that it has two monitors attached at POST it doesn't know which to display on, gets confused and then goes into "holy crap something is wrong!" mode. Is there something I need to enable in my BIOS? Is there some monitor specification setting I don't know about? Have I missed something? Am I condemned to never turning my machine off again?

Any and all help is appreciated,

Devman
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Faster_is_better
One of your DVI slots bad? do you have a spare card to try with both monitors?, maybe, while your up and running, unplug the monitor, plug it into the other dvi slot, Possibly you need to change a setting in CCC and/or upgrade drivers
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D
Both DVI slots can be confirmed working as the dual monitors work when plugged in after Windows boots. It's only during POST I have an issue, which rules out CCC, and I use Omega drivers anyway.

Like I said, the only thing I can think of is a BIOS setting I don't know about.

Devman
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Faster_is_better
Did your new monitor come with any drivers? did you install those?
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D
No drivers- plug'n'play monitor. It works in Windows. It even boots with JUST the new monitor attached after reseating the GPU. It isn't the new monitor. It's something to do with the GPU and BIOS for determining how many monitors and how to display on them at POST for BIOS.

I just don't know what it is...

Devman
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gonX
2
Quote:


Originally Posted by Faster_is_better
View Post

Did your new monitor come with any drivers? did you install those?

I would like to see how that would work out when it's not even POSTing


The only thing I have to say in regards to this is that the DFI LP s939 series was pretty touchy about even the smallest things. Only solution I have is to boot up with just 1 monitor plugged in, and when you're done booting, plug the second one in.
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ltulod
gpu manual ftw?
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D
Quote:


Originally Posted by gonX
View Post

Only solution I have is to boot up with just 1 monitor plugged in, and when you're done booting, plug the second one in.

Sadly, I thought of this. But the rig won't POST after there's been a 2nd monitor attached AT ALL, even if I remove one of the monitors from being plugged into the card. The only way to get it to post again is to remove the card and reseat it, which is the wierdest damn way of doing anything, considering that even a CMOS clear didn't fix it.

Ah, DFI. So much potential, so much frustration. It's like an italian sportscar, or italian woman. You never know when they're going to blow up on you, but while they're purring you never want them to stop.

Devman
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Z
Put the GPU in the PCI-E SLOT closer (slot #1) to the middle. If it is plugged into the slots at the bottom you will not see the POST test.
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gonX
Quote:


Originally Posted by Devman
View Post

Sadly, I thought of this. But the rig won't POST after there's been a 2nd monitor attached AT ALL, even if I remove one of the monitors from being plugged into the card. The only way to get it to post again is to remove the card and reseat it, which is the wierdest damn way of doing anything, considering that even a CMOS clear didn't fix it.

Ah, DFI. So much potential, so much frustration. It's like an italian sportscar, or italian woman. You never know when they're going to blow up on you, but while they're purring you never want them to stop.

Devman

So even if you remove the 2nd monitor before shutting down it still does it?
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D
Quote:

Originally Posted by Zoki318 View Post
Put the GPU in the PCI-E SLOT closer (slot #1) to the middle. If it is plugged into the slots at the bottom you will not see the POST test.
It's in the slot closest to the CPU. 4 LED flickers down to 3, stops at 1 LED on, 1 long, 2 short beeps.

Re: gonx
Interesting idea. I hadn't tried that. I will do so when I get home.

Devman
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D
Okay, I THINK I have it taken care of. I will confirm this in a minute. I had to BOOT with the 24" connected ONLY, then connect the 19" as a secondary monitor, swap the 19"s DVI cable, then reboot a couple times, then turn off, and voila! It POSTS.

Don't ask me why this worked. It just seems to have. Will confirm this with several reboots and power off/ons later.

Thank you all for your input!

Devman
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gonX
What BIOS are you using? I might suggest Merlin's, I found it a bit more stable, and seemed to give me higher stable speeds too.
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D
I run a custom BIOS, I want to say it's Merlin's, but I couldn't commit to that. I reflashed ages ago. You have the link to the latest nForce4 build from Merlin and I could tell you exactly.

Devman
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