New build; no signal to monitor; kinda panicking

[Graves73]

I've just upgraded my old case with all new hardware. I purchased an:

Motherboard - GIGABYTE GA-Z68XP-UD3
CPU - Intel i5 2500K
PSU - Corsair HX 750W
RAM - G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBRL

Once everything was ready to go, I booted up the computer but I get nothing on the monitor. When I press the menu button on the monitor it states, "There is no signal coming from your computer." I can however hear Windows 7 boot up just fine. If I press the power button again, I can again hear Windows 7 powering down. Thus far, I have been able to repeat that as necessary.

My graphics card is an EVGA 8800 GTS. I have tried switching it to the other PCI-E slot and rebooting. No help there.
The GPU has power as the fan is spinning.
I have verified that the PCI-E power cable is firmly plugged in to the GPU.
I have verified that the GPU is firmly and fully positioned in place.
I have tried both DVI ports.
I have tried another monitor. (I usually run dual screens)
I have tried another PCI-E power cable to the GPU.
I have tried a different GPU (also PCI-E)
I have even tried removing all but one stick of RAM.

All of these lead to the same result. No signal to the monitor. Since this is a new machine, I'm panicking a little. HELP!

 

[Outlander_04]

Its possible the 2500K is just annoyed at having an 8800 gts connected

but if thats not the case theres a thread at the top of this forum about how to troubleshoot a new build that you should read

 

[Graves73]

Its possible the 2500K is just annoyed at having an 8800 gts connected

but if thats not the case theres a thread at the top of this forum about how to troubleshoot a new build that you should read

I'm not a gamer so my 8800 GTS is more than ample. I can't see the need for spending $150 on something else to do the same job.

On the subject of the sticky regarding new builds (which is in a different section btw) does not help. My particular problem is not mentioned there or in the subsequent links, though I did try anything I felt could be even mildly relevant such as trying each memory stick in each slot.

 

[Outlander_04]

pull the graphics card and connect to the motherboard

 

[hunuok]

Have you tried disconnecting and reconnecting the cable to the VGA whilst power is on?

Is there a reset option in your monitor menu?

 

[Graves73]

pull the graphics card and connect to the motherboard

Making progress.

I immediately dismissed this earlier as the only video out on the motherboard is HDMI and my monitor does not have that. Your comment made me think about it again and I brought the PC into the living room. After plugging it into the HDTV via HDMI, I immediately have a monitor now.

So what does this likely mean? Bad motherboard slots? Some sort of monitor conflict with the motherboard? Is it possible that these GPU's are not compatible? That doesn't seem likely...

Is there a reset option in your monitor menu?

I am unable to bring up the menus while the monitors are not receiving signals.

 

[Graves73]

Plugged a speaker in and I'm getting just the one short beep, so as far that goes it seems everything is POSTing and powering OK. Still have no visuals though.

 

[g-unit1111]

Does your motherboard have an onboard video card or at the very least an HDMI output option? If so you may want to take the video card out, and see if it boots using the onboard video.

 

[Graves73]

Does your motherboard have an onboard video card or at the very least an HDMI output option? If so you may want to take the video card out, and see if it boots using the onboard video.

That was discussed two posts above yours.

 

[Twoboxer]

If I'm following correctly, you can get video using onboard graphics via an HDMI connector, but you can't get video out of 2 different vid cards installed in the PCIe_1 slot.

I've not used Z68 yet, so FWIW have you:

1) Installed your vid card in a different PCIe slot (one bad slot?)?

2) Installed the chipset drivers and the Lucidwhatever software?

3) I've looked through your mobo's manual, but if there's anything about graphics settings in there I've missed it. Is it possible a BIOS setting is forcing onboard graphics only? Or CMOS is. Have you cleared CMOS and loaded optimized defaults?

4) As a long shot, I'd also ask what case are you re-using? was the old PC branded (eg Dell)?

 

[Outlander_04]

now you have a monitor [ tv ] connected try resetting BIOS to fail safe defaults .

You wont want to keep that setting for ever but it would be worth trying it again on the graphics card at that point .
If it runs then reset BIOS to optimized defaults and proceed

 

[Graves73]

Got it! I bought my smaller HDTV from the bedroom into the office and started sorting through BIOS settings. The one that fixed it was the default setting to always use onboard VGA. I switched to something along the lines of 'only if no ext PEG' and that fixed it. Hooray!

What a terrible default setting.

Let's just hope that's the only hiccup.

Thanks folks!

 

[Graves73]

Best answer selected by graves73.

 

[Outlander_04]

Got it! I bought my smaller HDTV from the bedroom into the office and started sorting through BIOS settings. The one that fixed it was the default setting to always use onboard VGA. I switched to something along the lines of 'only if no ext PEG' and that fixed it. Hooray!

What a terrible default setting.

Let's just hope that's the only hiccup.

Thanks folks!

Thats worse than terrible if its a deafult setting . Maybe you got that one in a million board that didnt quite set up properly .

Anyway glad it works .