New graphics card not working with old monitor

[Jinxie27]

Hey everyone,

 

I'm hoping you can help me, I've been getting different answers in the shops I've been to and I don't know if they're right or if they're just trying to get me to buy more stuff!

 

My old graphics card (GeForce 8800 GT) died about two weeks ago. I bought an ATI Radeon HD 5870 off my friend, and replaced my old power supply with a much better one. After switching cases and installing everything, I connect my two old VGA monitors to the two DVI slots on the graphics card (using adapters), and power it up, but nothing comes on the screens, they both just say there's no connection.

 

I plugged one of the monitors into the onboard graphics (which has an old VGA connector too), still nothing. I took the power cables out of the graphics card and try booting up again. This time the motherboard makes a horrible screeching noise to tell me the graphics card isn't powered (so it recognises it, I guess), and the monitor that's connected to the onboard graphics boots up like normal, gets into windows and everything's fine, except the display is crappy because it's through the onboard graphics.

 

My friend says to try the HDMI slot on the graphics card instead, as that's the one he was using, so I hunt around for a way to plug my VGA monitor into a hdmi slot. One person tells me I need an adapter which I can plug into my VGA-DVI adapter which I can use with the VGA cable. Another guy tells me I need a box to convert the analog signal from the monitor into a digital signal for the DVI/HDMI slot, as the card is digital and won't work with an analog monitor. Yet another guy tells me I need to buy a new monitor, as no amount of adapters will make an analog monitor work with a digital card.

 

One more thing - when it was plugged into the onboard graphics I tried to go into BIOS to disable the onboard graphics, as someone told me it might be conflicting with the new card somehow, but I couldn't find the option to do that, and as the sound the motherboard was making was pretty unholy, I didn't stick around for too long.

 

I really hope someone can tell me it's just a tiny thing I have to tweak, as I've spent far more on this b***** thing than I wanted to already, but mainly I just want a straight answer about if my monitor can actually work. It's a Dell E1910H monitor if that's any help.

 

Thanks so much for any help you can give!

[Jelly Bean]

Hello there....

 

Have you simply tried a rest of the BIOS via removal of the BIOS bettery for a few seconds,replace and reboot?

 

Could you borrow a DVI monitor from a friend just to check the card?

 

Try a diffrent VGA - DVI adaptor....

 

Could you post the make and model of your mainboard please?

[Jinxie27]

Hey, thanks for responding.

 

I've just tried removing and replacing the bios battery, still the same. I've got a brand new vga cable and vga-dvi adapter, both of which worked perfectly before the new graphics card, so I don't think it's them.

 

I don't have a DVI monitor available, but I'll see if I can find one over the weekend. My friend was using a HD monitor with a HDMI cable, so that part seems to be working, at least.

 

My motherboard is a G31-M7 TE, I've had a look at the manual here: http://206.108.48.60/app/en/mb/introduction.php?S_ID=363&tab=3 but as my experience with computers is a little limited I'm not even sure what I'm looking for. It does seem to recognise the graphics card as it beeps like it's supposed to when the power cable is out.

 

I'm thinking it's because my monitor is old (though it's only from 2009...) so I'll have a look out for a DVI monitor to test the card with.

[Jelly Bean]

Did you buy a 500 watt PSU or higher as minimum is 500 watts....?

 

Doesnt this card have a single VGA port you can test?

 

I would not buy anything until you have tested the card on another computer.

 

It is possible the old card was not the issue but the mainboard graphics card slot...

 

Borrow a DVI monitor just to test the system....

 

Test old card and newer one in another computer.....

 

If you can see the BIOS via the old monitors via the onbaord VGA then the monitors are fine.....

 

Dont buy anything,beg and borrow from friends is the best option......

 

Have you taken the card out and restited it?

[KenB]

Hi,

 

If I can add my two cents worth ......

 

HDMI is a pure digital output.

The is not a simple HDMI to VGA adapter.

The digital signal can be converted - but at a cost.

 

DVI makes use of the two. It has both digital and analogue outputs.

This is why you can get a DVI to VGA adapter at a reasonable price.

 

The conclusion being - your new card should produce graphics on your VGA monitor if it has DVI sockets.

It has 2 x DVI ports and 1 x HDMI port.

 

That card has 2 x PCIe 6 pin power connections.

Do you have these connected?

[Jinxie27]

The new PSU I bought was a 500w one, so I don't think that's the problem. There's no VGA port on the card, just 2X DVI and HDMI ports.

 

I've just tried my brother's DVI monitor, and that still doesn't work. I don't have a HDMI adapter to test if his DVI monitor will work in the HDMI slot, though.

 

All the power points are connected to the best of my knowledge (two 6 pin power connectors).

 

My old card was 3rd hand when I bought it, and the graphics had started glitching in games before it finally became unusable, so I assumed it was the card but I guess it could be the connector too. The thing is, with the old card plugged in I could still see the screen, it just looked like it was in safe mode all the time and there were lines and zig-zags across the screen. The error I got was that windows had stopped the device because there was a problem, and I couldn't find any way to fix it so I bought a new one (as I knew I'd have to eventually anyway).

 

As for the new card, my friend was using it before he sold it to me with no problems (though he was only using the HDMI port). It definitely won't be simple for me to test it in anyone else's computer, though he'll take it back if I can't get it working.

 

I just had a thought - he installed a new fan on it before he gave it to me. The new fan is the R6950 Twin Frozr III, and it says on the box it's for the Radeon HD 6950. Could that be causing any issues? It's lighting up and spinning just fine.

 

Another minor thing - my PSU (I think, it's hard to tell if it's that or the MB) makes a very quiet beeping noise when the power is off. It sounds almost like a siren, but you can't hear it unless you're very close. It might just be a feature of the PSU, but I figured I'll say anything weird just in case.

[Plastic Nev]

Hi, if your friend is willing to take the card back and refund any cash you paid, that may be the only simple answer, it is looking like there may be a fault with the DVI output from the card, hence why your brothers DVI monitor doesn't work on it either.

This strange sound when power is off, does it still make that noise if the plug is pulled from the wall socket?

If it does, I would be concerned that a capacitor is about to go as the noise could just be pressure releasing, which shouldn't be there any way.

 

Nev.