Strange problem

IamMetaldave

Hey guys,

Was hoping someone here might have an idea as to what os going on with my PC.

Last Sunday, I turned my PC on and there was "no signal detected" coming up on my monitor. So I restarted, same deal. I tryed booting into Safe Mode and it was ok... restarted into normal mode again, same message. So I removed my graphics driver and restarted, no joy. I removed one of my graphics cards and installed older drivers and tried to see if that would work. Again, nothing. Then tried the newer ones, and still nothing.

On Monday, I brought the PC into work with me. I plugged it into my KVM switch and turned it on... When the PC booted up I got the desktop in normal mode. I thought it was all a bit weird that it started working again. So I thought nothing of it then and just brought it home that evening. When i plugged it in, guess what? It didn't work!? Again I tried everything I could. Swapped out graphics cards, drivers... Then I tried a system restore. And hey-presto it worked alls good again. Until yesterday, I boot my PC up and nothing, "no signal detected" I removed all nvidia drivers from the machine, then did a system restore and I booted in normally no problems, put the drivers back. Everything was fine. I did a restart a while later and when I restarted I got the same problem.

Can anyone shed some light on this for me? As I'm going home to deal with it again tonight... Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I've got 2 7600GT's running in SLI on a Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe. My monitor is a BenQ 19" LCD FP93GX

Cheers guys.

Saruman

Forget safe mode for now.. try it in vga mode which is normal mode but with vga drivers. Pray it works! If it does then its just a simple driver problem, albeit a strange one

Although on the other hand, it could be your screen not supporting the res any more (fault). Try going into vga mode and setting the res down to 800x600 then restart in normal mode. If you get in then up it again and see what happens.
Do you have another screen to test with?

IamMetaldave

I've tried it with another screen too, same deal.

The screen definitely supports the resolution and refresh, I have the ones it can't hidden

What happens if it doesn't work in VGA mode? And if it does, what do I do next?

Thanks for your help!

8T8

A tricky one indeed...

For the life of me I cannot think if any reason why the system restore should bring it back unless there is some sort of software install happening in the time period after that restore that causes it to go again.

Try clearing the CMOS as a longshot.

I take it the no signal detected detected only appears when you get to the Windows booting splash screen you can see the bios post ?

There is one more possibility SLI is the cause, on certain systems I have seen SLI cause the display to lose sync at the Windows boot screen. Try disabling SLI support in Windows or in the bios/motherboard & see what happens.

IamMetaldave

I installed one program, Daemon Tools, it's a virtual drive program. For mounting and running ISOs without actually having to burn them to a CD.

I'll try the CMOS tonight.

I can see the XP loading screen come up, but when it starts loading loading windows, thats when the message appears.

I turned off SLI in the bios and I got the same thing.

Again, thanks for your time

8T8

Well remove Daemon tools and disable SLI in the NVIDIA control panel just in case as well (if the SLI box is still enabled even if the bios support is disabled that might be a sign something is up).

Failing that I would recommend you go to the SLI Zone forums and post in the Ongoing SLI Support section on the off chance someone knows the cause & solution.

IamMetaldave

Yep I uninstalled that...

Cheers, Ill give all the above a go tonight and let ya's know how I get on tomorrow or if I figure it out!

IamMetaldave

Just to add to this. When I went home last night and booted up, no problems. It booted in on 800 x 600 and at 16 bit colour, but normal otherwise.. This is just crazy!

8T8

Remove the second 7600GT.

Uninstall all NVIDIA drivers. (dismiss prompts to re-install driver upon reboot)

Download drivercleaner & run it to remove any NVIDIA remnants.

Run NVIDIA 93.71 installer now see if the system boots normal for period of time.

IamMetaldave

So this has popped back up now... and this time when I reinstalled all the drivers I've noticed a popping and crackling sound from the speakers.. I swapped out for a set of head phones and it's still there... i think I'm going insane with this..

Anybody any other ideas?

Cheers dudes..

8T8

Bad motherboard maybe ?

The crackling and popping is usually a sign of EM interference or some sort of resource conflict.

Try disabling the on-board sound in the bios and see what happens, if it returns to normal operation that could be a clue.

IamMetaldave

Bad motherboard? Really.. Oh man.. It's been nothing but a pain since I got it.. first the chipset fan arrived knackered now this... bummer...

I'll give the sound thing a go later cheers for all your help bro

The driver cleaner is also a neat little tool n1!

Cuddlesworth

Don't suppose you have a creative x-fi?

IamMetaldave

No I don't just use onboard sound..

IamMetaldave

Ok defo something going on with the drivers. The system restore back at the start seemed to be a fluke. Now when it happens, I remove all Nvidia drivers, use that Driver Cleaner, then reinstall them everything is sweet again... So something is doing something funky to the driver...

IamMetaldave

Ok defo something going on with the drivers. The system restore back at the start seemed to be a fluke. Now when it happens, I remove all Nvidia drivers, use that Driver Cleaner, then reinstall them everything is sweet again... So something is doing something funky to the driver...