Resolved.
I am not positive as to what the issue was, but I think it was related to the EDID of the monitor getting corrupted. The monitor wouldn’t display the message stating “No Signal Detected”, but rather just a black screen. And I know my computer did (at one time at least) detect my second Dell monitor because it was in the registry as well as when I viewed the EDID information using a downloaded app.
I borrowed a monitor in order to test some ideas. It was just a standard Dell monitor with a DVI-D connection. I wanted to check to see if I could get the second monitor going while using the HDMI port on my Primary AOC monitor. Here's what I found...
This is all done on the R9-290X, not using any display connections built into the MB.
HDMI to AOC worked fine as a primary. Great! Now I wanted to get the secondary monitor working so I hooked my original Dell to the top DVI port (the one I would use for the primary monitor prior to testing), but that didn’t work. Hooked it to the bottom DVI port, but that didn’t work. Used the DP to DVI converter, but that didn’t work either.
I then performed the same steps for my Dell monitor (the one I couldn’t get to work as a secondary), but this time, it would NOT work as a primary in any port. It would just remain black.
This led me to hook up the borrowed Dell monitor, replacing my Dell monitor, and it worked in the top DVI port as well as the DP to DVI converter port.
With the borrowed Dell working as the Primary through the DP to DVI converter, I now wanted to see if I could get the AOC monitor working as a secondary. I first tried the HDMI. Worked! I then tried the Top DVI port. That did NOT work. Then I tried the Bottom DVI port. That worked! This then gave me the idea to hook the borrowed Dell into the Top DVI port to see if I could get both DVI ports running at the same time. That worked!!!
So I am running both monitors using both DVI ports. Great! But I need MY Dell monitor to work, not the borrowed one. So I unhook the power, then DVI from the borrowed Dell. Plug the power, then the DVI into MY Dell monitor…. IT WORKED! The computer now recognized both of my monitors and the display was already in extended desktop mode. Attempted a couple restarts to make sure the computer still recognized them after a reboot and each time they would both turn on just fine in the UEFI and Windows.
I don’t know why, but it took the borrowed monitor to “fix” the connection between my monitor and the computer. So, hope this somehow helps anyone. It was a damn annoyance to me considering it was a new build. Oh well, now to get to OC’n!!!