Need help with Display port issue.

[senvae]

Greetings everyone,

I recently did some maintenance on my mother's office computer, her video card got fried so I bought a new one. I mistakenly forgot to check the video outputs behind that card before ordering it online, and now I am stuck with a video card that has 3 display ports!!! ... and only one DVI port. She needs to do a dual screen with one VGA monitor (we have a VGA to DVI adapter that works), and another monitor that can do everything but Display Port (HDMI, DVI, VGA).

Here's the problem, none of the display ports seem to work with any Display Port to HDMI adapters we tried to use. To make things worse, none of our local computer shops have the equipment to help us troubleshoot if the video card is having issues, or if we're being unlucky with the adapters not working. We tested what we could individually, so we know for a fact that the HDMI wire works, the Monitor works in HDMI mode and DVI. We also exchanged the video card once with the online supplier. But we just can't get the dual screen setup, since the Display Ports won't work.

The real problem is my lack of troubleshooting options.

The card is: Zotac 460GTX 1gb

I don't want to pay for another video card (my return period is ended) and I don't want to waste more time and money shipping this bloody card back to Zotac.

Does anyone have any experience with Display ports that would be relevant to my problem, anyone know how I could troubleshoot or get out of this situation as cheaply as possible?

 

[noidea_77]

I couldn't find any Zotac 460GTX with three display ports. All models show two DVI, one display and one HDMI?
Beside that: does the monitor respond at all? Is the resolution set right?

 

[bryonhowley]

What make/model Monitor's do you have? On my 3 Asus 27" monitors I have select witch mode I am going to use as they do not auto select. This may be the case with yours. For instance if you are going from Display Port to HDMI you would need to set the monitor to HDMI in order to get it to display a picture.

 

[senvae]

What make/model Monitor's do you have? On my 3 Asus 27" monitors I have select witch mode I am going to use as they do not auto select. This may be the case with yours. For instance if you are going from Display Port to HDMI you would need to set the monitor to HDMI in order to get it to display a picture.

Yeah the monitor automatically searches through all it's inputs for the source. We had no problem getting her laptop to display an image, on that monitor, via it's HDMI output. So we know the HDMI wire and the monitor works. We have one Display port to HDMI adapter, and one of them is a full wire with Display Port on one end and HDMI on the other.

I didn't change anything about the resolution, but we get no image at all anyways. The monitor behaves as if it's receiving no signal from the HDMI input. This was the same problem I had with the previous card, and the returned card doesn't budge as well.

About the card's specifics, it's a Zotac Geforce GTX 460 3DP (I assume 3DP stands for 3 display ports)
1024MB GDDR5, dual link DVI-I, 3x Display Port connectors, 710Mhz Core Clock, 3600Mhz Memory Clock, DirectX 11, Open GL 4.0

We are running it on Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bits

I'm pretty sure the mobo only has a PCI Express 1.0, ... would that make a difference? It only matters for speed right? Display Ports don't require PCI-E 2.0 or some bullshit like that, does it?

 

[senvae]

Oh... the HDMI monitor in question is a Samsung 25.5" 60hz 1920x1200 Syncmaster. The other one is a flat-square Viewsonic 19", but that doesn't matter much right now.

 

[noidea_77]

We are getting closer! According to this there is some magic involved, to get the passive adapter working.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DisplayPort#Compatibility_with_HDMI.2C_DVI_and_VGA
The problem in you case may be, that the monitor searches for an input signal at the same time, when the Zotac needs a connection to detect the adapter. Can you fix the input to HDMI at the monitor side and start the PC after that? If it still does not detect the monitor, I'm out of ideas, except to try an active adapter or exchange the card for a model with different connectors.

 

[senvae]

Thanks for the link Noidea_77. It seems rather complicated though. They seem to imply I need additiona info on my monitor, the adapter, and the Display Port in order to tell if they are compatible, dual mode or not. Sigh! I hate it when the industry can't make up it's mind about input plug technologies. What a headache!