Windows sees a monitor that doesn't exist after new discrete card installed.

DsntWrkNidkY

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Jun 12, 2013
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I recently bought a new discrete graphics card to beef up my Gateway DX4380G (which I found out recently is a lame computer). I wanted a card good enough to run an HDTV at 1080p for my copy of Skyrim.
As you may know if you are familiar with this bottom line PC, the graphics I am replacing is an AMD A6 (5400k?) 3.6GHz dual core with Radeon HD 7540D integrated graphics. The motherboard is an Acer AAHD3-VC which I cannot even find a manual for online (POS). The new card I bought is a Radeon HD 7850 2GB and I am using Windows 8.
My problem is thus. Everything about the card seems to be working fine so far, my games are running great on ultra settings except for the odd crash hear and there (of the game, not the whole system) I suspect this may be due to the CPU being overloaded but I'm not sure. The only real problem I am having is that windows is picking up an extra Generic non PNP monitor when there is nothing but my TV plugged in. This would not be so bad but my PC seems to have set this as display number 1 and my TV as number 2. Because of this my monitor does not get a signal until all the boot operations have completed so the windows login screen is the first thing I see.
With the card installed I cannot access my BIOS or even boot up in safe mode. I have gotten into BIOS with the card removed only to find there is no option to select the primary display device. Also tried booting in safe mode again with the card removed and uninstalled the drivers then disabled the integrated graphics in the device manager. This also did nothing when I reinstalled the card and drivers. I have updated my MB BIOS, still no option for default display.
I should also not that when the card is installed, it is the only display adapter listed in the device manager, and as far as AMD Vision Engine Control Center is concerned there is only one monitor hooked up to the PC. I have read through many forums and help sites and put in a ticket with Gigabyte which they have yet to respond to and nothing has solved this problem for me. I have only found one instance where this exact situation has happened to someone else online. They did not get any help.

If any one has had any experience with this problem I would really, REALLY, appreciate your help! Thank you for reading through this and for any consideration and/or help you may give!
 

DsntWrkNidkY

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Jun 12, 2013
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YAY!!! I am so happy now because I have gotten this problem fixed ^.^ Through much searching and reading it all came down to two unassuming settings in my BIOS. Secure boot mode - Disabled, Launch CSM - ALWAYS.
It is said that bootable media from previous versions of Windows may not be recognized by Windows 8 (Link Here). I do not know if that was my problem, I think that my PC was just seeing both the integrated and discrete graphics and labeling them accordingly. I had no way of changing my graphics settings in BIOS because as I mentioned before the stock MB that this PC came with is a POS. But turning off the secure boot in turn also enabled the option to launce CSM on startup. Now I have no clue what CSM stands for but enabling it also enabled some detection settings and one of them just happened to be for video.
So as it stands now, my TV is the only monitor that shows up in both Windows and CCC and, more importantly, it is labeled as display 1 and receives signal all throughout POST. Now I can access BIOS and start up in safemode With my new $200 graphics card installed. Again, so happy! :D
I hope anybody having the same problem will be helped out with this...Because this is a really frustrating problem and nobody seems to know about it or want to help with it. If it weren't for persistence there would never have been an answer here. So like I said, I hope this helps someone else.
 

DsntWrkNidkY

Honorable
Jun 12, 2013
7
0
10,510


I am glad that you were able to fix your problem! I literally found nothing about this issue on the net. Cheers!