No signal on DVI until Windows GUI appears

[Ark]

I am probaly way behind and this was covered many times, but point me to the right direction please:

I have older ATI AIW AGP card with DVI only output.
For many years it was used with DVI-to-VGA adapter (came with card)
as I had no DVI monitor

Now I connected to LCD monitor with DVI input - it works great, but only after Windows boots to the desktop screen.

No DOS or BIOS screens - monitor said "no signal" until Windows comes up.
I can get them only if I used adapter and VGA input on the monitor.

Any ideas? Is this normal for this old card?

Thanks

 

[keeleysam]

Is it an Apple LCD?

 

[Ark]

No, this is new Acer 22"

 

[Ark]

I did not think that this may be a monitor problem, but I found few posts over different forums with exacty same complains

I guess this is what you get if you buying low end LCD

 

[Zap]

It may indeed be a function of the card. I have the Acer 22" widescreen and have no such issues with either a 7600GT or a 7900GS. My HTPC had this issue... trying to remember which card. Maybe a 6200TC or something, running off the s-video output. No video until into Windows, but other video cards (6600GT, X800GTO) worked fine.

 

[Ark]

I just rebooted it again to capture the message
It said: "signal not supported"
So I guess card uses some kind of non-standard resolution in DOS, that is not supported by monitor's DVI.
Well I can live with this... DVI image quality much better than VGA
And I want to keep this card for a while because of TV tuner...

 

[nitromullet]

My old Radeon 7500 was the same way on the DVI out with my Dell 2005FPW. I think this is a known 'older' Radeon issue.

 

[Cyn]

I use to run my Radeon 9700-np to my 27" lcd via dvi, and it wouldn't show any of the BIOS on the screen at all. Right when the desktop began being displayed is the time the picture would appear. Otherwise it was "over range." Sounds similar to your problem, but might be from the fact it was an lcd tv, and not just a monitor.

 

[xtknight]

Cards that send a 720x480 (I believe DOS resolution) image without scaling it themselves will confuse the monitor. It could be fixed with a BIOS update on the video card (set video-card scaling bit to 1 for 720x480 res). I believe all extremely new cards (x1800/7800) should be fine. This is only a problem with DVI AFAIK. I'm not sure what happens with VGA but it seems since it's analog that the resolution is more or less arbitrary, so only quality would suffer if something went wrong.

 

[giantpinkbunnyhead]

I don't know anything about your monitor, but does it have two DVI inputs? I used to have my comptuer hooked up to a 37" LCD with two DVI inputs, and unbeknownst to me, one DVI was "better" than the other. Meaning, the 2nd DVI couldn't support 1080p and stuff like that. I had my computer hooked to the second one and had the same problem as you describe. When I switched it to the 1st DVI port, suddenly it worked perfect.

 

[xtknight]

Originally posted by: giantpinkbunnyhead
I don't know anything about your monitor, but does it have two DVI inputs? I used to have my comptuer hooked up to a 37" LCD with two DVI inputs, and unbeknownst to me, one DVI was "better" than the other. Meaning, the 2nd DVI couldn't support 1080p and stuff like that. I had my computer hooked to the second one and had the same problem as you describe. When I switched it to the 1st DVI port, suddenly it worked perfect.

Yeah, that's an idea. One was probably dual-link DVI and the other single-link DVI. Another thing would be if the LCD was incorrectly selecting an input to display, which could happen even with two single-link DVI ports, or one DVI port/one VGA, or anything.

 

[Ark]

Nop, only one DVI and one VGA
Picture here

 

[xtknight]

Is there a way to force your LCD to only look at the DVI-D input with the on-screen-display setup?

 

[Ark]

Is there a way to force your LCD to only look at the DVI-D input with the on-screen-display setup?

I tried to select "digital", but getting same thing.

Monitor actually detect DVI signal - I can see LED color changes as soon as I power PC up,
but it displays message "signal not supported", so I guess signal out of range or so.
Message is differendt from the usual: "No signal"
What strange, it is working in VGA mode.

It could be fixed with a BIOS update on the video card (set video-card scaling bit to 1 for 720x480 res).

Never did Video card BIOS update - any ideas how to do it and where to get new file?

 

[xtknight]

I'm not sure, but all I know is that it would be possible. I don't think the BIOS editors let you set scaling options for resolutions yet, but perhaps whomever made your card has released a BIOS update. If so, try updating your video card's BIOS. We'll need a very specific model number though (preferably a P/N or S/N on the card) as it's easy to select the wrong BIOS and damage your card.

If it wasn't built by ATI, that matters as well. You'll have to find the exact BIOS for your card.

Actually, what you may want to try first is updating your motherboard's BIOS. For some reason this has fixed it for some people as well, and that's a lot less risky because it's a more commonplace and straightforward operation (and AFAIK covered under the mobo's warranty).

Ah, the mobo BIOS update may fix it if it switches the display mode from 720x480 to 640x480.

 

[Ark]

Mobo BIOS is the latest.

I don't think that it is worth to touch Video card BIOS on this old but very good card:
It is original ATI AIW Radeon, built by ATI, about 5 years old.
I will keep it just because of TV tuner and it does support 1680x1050 !!!

I have newer AIW 9600 (2006) dual head, but it does not have DVI.
Image is much better with DVI and old TV tuner much more stable as well.

This is not gaming PC, mostly internet acess and TV recording, so old AIW works just fine.

 

[bobsmith1492]

Originally posted by: nitromullet
My old Radeon 7500 was the same way on the DVI out with my Dell 2005FPW. I think this is a known 'older' Radeon issue.

Yeah, same here.

 

[Bull Dog]

Originally posted by: Ark

I will keep it just because of TV tuner and it does support 1680x1050 !!!

As does virtually any half-way modern video card out there. If the drivers don't have it selectable, you can easily add it with Powerstrip.