Extremely basic display problem, help needed !

longers · 23 Apr 2011 at 17:27

Ok here is the situation

I put together a PC for a mate, set it up round my house... everything was working fine nothing wrong with it whatsoever.

He's just taken it back to his and when he starts it up he can't get any kind of picture coming through his monitor, it just says no signal.

When i set it up i set it up with a resolution of 1680x1050 as that was my monitors native resolution, however he has one of these ghetto monitors http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/displays/81598/acer-al1751 which has a max resolution of 1280x1024...

So im thinking that its trying to display the image at too high a resolution for the monitor, problem is he can't change it as he can't get any picture on his screen due to it saying "no signal"

I've had similar issues before with an xbox 360 that was set to one resolution which my tv didn't support and it kept saying "no signal", eventually i had to take it to my mates and get him to put it to my tvs native res and then it worked fine...

unfortunately he is miles away and can't bring it back round to mine.

Is there any way i can sort out this problem ? i realise its probably really basic and nooby but he's not computer literate and im not really sure how to sort this out either.

Any help would really be appreciated !

stulid · 23 Apr 2011 at 17:29

Start in safe mode and alter the resolution?

Or start in safe mode, uninstall the GPU drivers, restart the pc in normal mode and reinstall the GPU drivers.

Baldbloke · 23 Apr 2011 at 17:30

Could try booting to safe mode first. Then twiddle from there.

Pipped at the post

longers · 23 Apr 2011 at 17:34

I told him to try that but he can't even get the screen to select safe mode to appear.

as soon as he turns computer on he just gets the monitors acer logo appear and then it says no signal !

stulid · 23 Apr 2011 at 17:38

longers said:
I told him to try that but he can't even get the screen to select safe mode to appear.

as soon as he turns computer on he just gets the monitors acer logo appear and then it says no signal !

So its displaying that before the GPU driver has even loaded? then hes got it connected wrong?

longers · 23 Apr 2011 at 17:41

Im pretty sure he has it connected ok

even the bios gigabyte screen doesn't appear apparantley. the monitor just instantly says no signal as soon as he turns the computer on/

as i said it was working perfectly at my house, all the components are new... i cant understand why its doing this !

longers · 23 Apr 2011 at 18:28

If the Gigabyte bios screen isn't appearing does that suggest there could be something more seriously wrong ?

He swears that the computer didn't get knocked or anything and that no cables are loose.

Could it have somthing to do with motherboard battery ? any easy way to reset it which doesn't involve me having to see anything on the monitor ?

Im starting to get a bit worried... frustrating that i dont have it infront of me as well !

stulid · 23 Apr 2011 at 18:29

Try a CMOS clear.

is there any light activity? fans spinning? if not, is there a power switch actually on the back of the PSU? is it on at the wall? is the power lead hes using the same as what you used? is the fuse ok in it?

longers · 23 Apr 2011 at 18:33

its powers on, beeps and then he gets the no signal message appear on his monitor. fans are running fine, lights are on

he never sees the usual bios boot up info you see when you first turn computers on, there is just no signal from the very start.

How does he do a CMOS clear exactly ? He can't go into bios setup or anything due to having no signal !

stulid · 23 Apr 2011 at 18:35

turn the PC off, and there is either a button to press on the motherboard, or a jumper to move around for a few seconds, then place it back to its right position.

Baldbloke · 23 Apr 2011 at 18:38

Perhaps choosing autodetect (or similar option) on the monitor will help. Probably not but can't harm. Just a thought.

panyan · 23 Apr 2011 at 18:42

longers said:
its powers on, beeps and then he gets the no signal message appear on his monitor. fans are running fine, lights are on

he never sees the usual bios boot up info you see when you first turn computers on, there is just no signal from the very start.

How does he do a CMOS clear exactly ? He can't go into bios setup or anything due to having no signal !

1) with VGA often the mobo doesnt display the mobo image and it jumps straight into windows

2) it MIGHT have a clear cmos button at the back, if not, try what the guy above said