VGA / DVI converter not working - monitor goes into power saving mode

So I've been testing this with 2 monitors and 2 computers.

Old Monitor = has both VGA and DVI
new monitor = has only VGA
desktop computer = DVI only
laptop = VGA only

I'm trying to connect my desktop computer to my new monitor.

My new monitor only has a VGA slot and plugging it to my laptop which has one too, works. So the new monitor works.

However , my graphic card on my desktop computer only has a DVI slot and my monitor has a VGA slot so I'm using this little piece that has VGA on one end and DVI on the other end.

After plugging it in, the monitor acts like it knows there is something but goes right away into power saving mode. And I can't get it out of it.
If I use the same converter with my older monitor it does not seem to detect anything.

So that would suggest there is something wrong with my desktop computer / video card.
However if I simply connect the DVI cable from my desktop computer to my old monitor - it works.

So both my monitors work and my computers. However I can't get anything to work using the piece of crap converter thing.
It's just a 2 inch piece that changes it from DVI from VGA.

Okay, with my new monitor when NOTHING is plugged in, it says " CHECK SIGNAL CABLE "
But if I connect using the converter thing it goes from it into power saving mode.

So it does detect something.

Also, nothing seems bent or damaged.

Does anyone have a clue of what is going on?
Thank you very much in advance. I want to use my new monitor with my desktop computer.

By any chance is your new monitor a Samsung?

yes but this adapter also doesn't work when used with my old monitor

My old monitor is a 19 inch Dell and my new monitor is a 24 inch LG monitor.
I think my graphic card is only a 8600 gts 512mb nvidia card.

Could my graphic card be the problem?
The refresh rate is set to 60hz so its probably not the problem.

I found a solution... for me at least. My problem was a little different but may help. I have 2 graphics cards in my pc. One x16 one PCI, they run 4 monitors. When I first installed the cards everything worked great. Have been running 4 monitors for at least 2 years. I replaced the (dual VGA ports) card for a newer card (one DVI one VGA) with a little more memory, everything was fine, they installed great and seemed to be running well... Until I rebooted. After rebooting the DVI port of the PCI card had that monitor in power saver mode. Nothing worked to get the monitor to wake up. I tried every driver NVIDIA had, swapped cables, got another card, monitors, dvi to vga converters (all four of my monitors are just VGA) NOTHING. I was able to reproduce the problem in Windows 7 and Windows XP. So I decided to look in the BIOS. There is a video configuration mode on mine that says Primary Video card (or something like that) I have the X16 card as the primary in the BIOS (it has DVI and VGA ports too). If I make the PCI card the primary in the BIOS when I boot Windows 7 and Windows XP sees all 4 monitors GREAT! No problems at all!! I did not have the issue with the OLD PCI card (both outputs were VGA ports) only when one was DVI and the other VGA. Not sure what that has to with what one is set as the primary in the BIOS and why windows would NOT get that DVI port on the PCI card to come out of power saver mode unless it was set as the primary. Perhaps since it is seeing it upon boot, it tells widows it is there... Not sure but it is at least working for me.
So hopefully this helps someone with their problem. BIOS, select a different primary for you video cards.

I had the same problem, my video card is a Radeon HD4850 with dual DVI plugs, and my monitor is a old VGA LG W1942SM, I´m using a DVI/VGA adapter. Always when I turn on my computer the monitor image was terrible, I´m not able to see anything, so after a few seconds the monitor goes into power saving mode too. So I disconect the cable and conect the cable again in the other DVI video card plug, reset the computer and other things, and the monitor without any reason works well, but if I turn off the computer the problem occurs again. I changed the monitor (another VGA monitor), I changed the adapter, etc and the problem is the same. But when I use a DVI monitor it´s works fine. I think the problem is the monitor can´t understand the signal. DVI works with digital signal and VGA works with analog signal, but LCD monitors with VGA plug has a internal Digital/Analog converter. I think something happen and the conversion don´t work well and the monitor can´t understand the signal. I use a very old CRT monitor with VGA plug, CRT monitors are Analog, so this type of monitor don´t need to convert the signal, the signal is converted by the DVI/VGA adapter, and the CRT monitor work fine. I don´t have a solution yet to this issue.... If somebody got a possible solution I will be thankful.

Sorry for my bad English, I´m from Brazil and my English isn´t so good...

Thanks...

Lets see if anyone can figure this one out. Similar problem but with a few differences.

I am running a Windows 7 computer with An NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285 video card. The video card has two DVI outputs.

Running a two monitor set up, the 1st an 6 year old 19inch AOpen monitor with VGA or DVI input, the 2nd a 5 year old Samsung LCD TV with VGA input.

I was running a DVI cable to the 1st monitor and a VGA cable, with a DVI converter at my computer, to the second. Everything worked fine. Then I moved my set up to a new room and had to move the second monitor further away. I decided, since I needed a longer cable anyways, I would try some other options.

I bought both a 15' DVI to HDMI cable and a 15' DVI cable.

I started using the 15' DVI to HDMI cable to the Samsung TV and everything worked fine for about 2 months. Then one day my TV stopped recognizing the input from the computer. It would not even allow me to select the HDMI port as if nothing was plugged in. This is particularly strange since my computer still recognized the TV and acted as if it was working fine. I tried ever variation of rebooting I could think of, TV on first then computer, Computer on first then plug in TV, and so on. Nothing would recover my picture. (I also verified plugs were properly plugged in an all the basic stuff)

At this point I'm thinking, good thing I bought that 15' DVI cable... unfortunately my self-satisfaction was short lived. I plugged the DVI cable into my computer and fed it to the TV via a VGA converter. Again my computer detected the TV. However this time, while my TV would sense that something was plugged into the VGA port, the TV would not find the output signal from the computer.

So after this novel of a post I guess I really just have 3 questions for anyone who thinks they know a bit about computers:

1. What would cause my DVI-HDMI connection to just stop working? (The only thing I can come up with is my computer HDMI inputs just fried out or something)

2. Why does it matter if I use a VGA cable, adapted to DVI at my computer, instead of a DVI cable adapted to VGA at my TV? These would seem to be the equivalent to me.

3. What can I do to fix the problem? (Besides buy a longer VGA cable...)

Many thanks.