No Signal on display when a second GPU is installed

[ishkur]

Hi all, long time listener - first time caller.

This morning I took apart a working nvidia GTX 470 SLi system to fix an aftermarket cooler to the primary card (Zalman VF3000F for the 470). When putting everything back together I replaced the card with the aftermarket cooler back into the pc but forgot to hook up the SLi bridge.

On booting, there were some odd red lines on the boot screen logo and my computer blue screened before windows loaded.

I shut down, installed the SLi bridge and booted into safe mode and uninstalled and re-installed the latest drivers (they were up to date, but to be sure). After this point when booting my monitor displayed no signal after the windows boot screen.

I read as many cases of the no signal error, and all pointed to a driver issue. I re-installed several times, and even completely re-installed windows from scratch and tried again.

As soon as I install the latest nvidia drivers, the monitor will display as no signal on the next reboot.

I tried multiple combinations of monitors, ports, cables and switched the two graphics cards around.

The computer displays no signal if at any time the graphics card with the aftermarket cooler is plugged in. This happens if it's used solo, or as a secondary card with the monitors plugged into the stock model 470 at the top. My worry is that it isn't a driver issue at all, and that I have borked the card when installing the cooler.

The computer is currently working fine with the stock model 470 in solo.

If anybody can make heads or tails of what i've done and offer some advice I would be very grateful.

thanks in advance

Ish

other specs:
Windows 7 x64
Asrock Extreme 4 mobo
16 GB Gskill ram
themeltake toughpower 850w modular PSU
AOC 23" E2343F / Acer P233w monitos

 

[ss202sl]

Sounds like you bricked it if you can't get it to run by itself, and the other card does.

 

[simpson52]

We're gonna need to do some troubleshooting before we can really nail down the problem.

Try Uninstalling fully the Nvida drivers and install earlier versions of the drivers (the latest version may be causing problems)

 

[ishkur]

I could put the card back in, boot into safe mode and fresh install the 296.10 driver.

It's worth mentioning that it was running fine in SLi with the latest 301.42 before I installed the cooler.

 

[ishkur]

I had to move the card to the PCI-E x8 slot in order to install the 296.10 drivers as it was giving me a no compatible hardware in the x16 slot.

It just stays completely black if I try and boot in the 8 slot.

Using the 296.10 drivers, in the x16 slot the monitor is displaying as no signal after the windows boot animation, then it bluescreens and reboots. You don't always see the bluescreen, as it's often just completely black.

The stock 470 card works fine in the x16 slot.

 

[ishkur]

Edit: The stock 470 card no longer works in the x16 slot.

I have no idea why, but the stock card now just remains constant black screen, no bios screen or windows boot animation.

 

[ishkur]

Edit again, yes it does it just wasn't seated correctly.

Sorry for the panic mode, it's been a long long day.