Monitor blackout with new graphics card

[soopadook]

Hello everyone

My girlfriend recently got a new graphics card. It's an Nvidia Geforce GTX 560 Ti. The problem is, whenever we put the gfx card in her computer, hook up the six-pin cords and everything, the monitor says that it has no signal. The gfx card only has dvi ports (and a mini-hdmni port), but we don't have a dvi cable or hdmi port on her monitor, so we use a vga cable, with a vga-to-dvi adapter for hooking it up to her card. I'm not sure what to do, as we've tried hooking the card up to 2 other monitors and used different vga cables with each monitor and the same thing happened. I'm a huge amateur when it comes to computer engineering, but we're determined to make it work, since it's a huuuuuuge upgrade from her radeon hd 7470 (the card is so tiny!).

Here are her computer specs:

OS: Windows 8 64-bit
CPU: AMD A8-5500
RAM: 12 GB
Motherboard: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. CM1745 (FM2 )
GFX: AMD Radeon HD 7470

P.S. I've looked this up so many times and I keep seeing stuff about "re-installing bios", "cmos" or something. This seems pretty crucial but I can't really find out how to do it. Thanks for all the help!

 

[soopadook]

Should I try plugging the VGA cable into my motherboard, rather than using the adapter for the GFX card?

 

[lonewolf7]

Yes try the card in your system or any other system with VGA?DVI cable, see if you can get a display. Or you can check the BIOS of MB if the PCI-E is selected as primary display or not. If not then make the PCI-E as external/primary display, save and exit the BIOS, see what happens.

Now is it a branded PC ? I mean your GF's ! looking at the specs lead me to think of that, then you are into some trouble. Most OEM PC's BIOS are locked to do an upgrade, so it could have been the case. Talk to ASUS, they may show you a way.

 

[soopadook]

Yes try the card in your system or any other system with VGA?DVI cable, see if you can get a display. Or you can check the BIOS of MB if the PCI-E is selected as primary display or not. If not then make the PCI-E as external/primary display, save and exit the BIOS, see what happens.

Now is it a branded PC ? I mean your GF's ! looking at the specs lead me to think of that, then you are into some trouble. Most OEM PC's BIOS are locked to do an upgrade, so it could have been the case. Talk to ASUS, they may show you a way.

Hey, thanks so much for the response!

I'm not sure how to boot into my bios. Should I start the computer with my cord plugged into the motherboard and boot bios from there? Or should I remove my gfx card, put the old one in, and do it like that?

 

[cst1992]

One thing you can see:
If you have the DVI-D card then the adapter will not work.
Make sure you plug in the DVI port with the + and four dots rather than the -.
The - is all-digital, and VGA is analog, so it's not compatible.

 

[lonewolf7]

Yes try the card in your system or any other system with VGA?DVI cable, see if you can get a display. Or you can check the BIOS of MB if the PCI-E is selected as primary display or not. If not then make the PCI-E as external/primary display, save and exit the BIOS, see what happens.

Now is it a branded PC ? I mean your GF's ! looking at the specs lead me to think of that, then you are into some trouble. Most OEM PC's BIOS are locked to do an upgrade, so it could have been the case. Talk to ASUS, they may show you a way.

Hey, thanks so much for the response!

I'm not sure how to boot into my bios. Should I start the computer with my cord plugged into the motherboard and boot bios from there? Or should I remove my gfx card, put the old one in, and do it like that?

If you can boot with the old card fine and can get the display then there's no need to get into BIOS, cause the BIOS has automatically set to PCI-E.

Try the new card on another system to see if it works there or not. If it works on another system then you can be sure that its not a faulty card and there is something wrong with your GF's system. As I said earlier as many OEM BIOS's are locked for an upgrade or compatibility with GPU's, so a BIOS update may needed.

First make sure the GPU is compatible with OEM BIOS, best way to check it, is to look for some info regarding GPU's on vendors site, or talk to ASUS. If they say that a BIOS update will help then do that, else there is no way to work the card.