Windows 7 - Black Screen follows Win 7 clean install on all DVI cards/monitors

Wow, I really didn't expect this problem in Win 7.

My PC has recently been throwing up blue-screen errors during backups, so I decided to start the New Year with a completely new install of Windows 7.

Spec:

ASUS Sabretooth motherboard
2 x Radeon 6870 cards in Crossfire
1 x OCR SSD
2 x 1TB HDs (Western Dig) in RAID
16GB DDR3 RAM

The install was going great and went through all the initial stages no problem... The, on the final stage, she froze.

I left her for a wee while hoping the problem was a glitch but after about an hour stuck on the BIOS screen, I decided to hit the power button and do a re-start.

After I pressed the power button, I could hear the machine whirring away, but absolutely nothing came onto my screens.

It's important that you understand that NOTHING came onto the screens. It was as thought someone had removed the connections to the monitors. The both remained black.

I took out both the Radeons and replaced with an older MSI (DVI) card... nothing.

I've read around a bit and apparently WIN 7 has a preference for the old-school VGA cards, so a buddy is bringing one down to see if we can see something, ANYTHING, on one of my monitors using only VGA!

So my question is: given Windows has nothing to do with the BIOS, why is it that after trying to install WIN 7, I see absolutely nothing whatsoever?

Does Win 7 send some instruction to the motherboard looking for a VGA connection or did Santa steal something when he left me that pack of socks??

Looking forward to your insights on this guys as I am completely dumbfounded... losing all monitor activity is something I've never seen before in a failed install.

Cheers and Happy New Year to all

Hey Richard,

Windows 7 has nothing to do with your system until after the BIOS is finished loading. It is bad when the windows is loading start screen doesn't appear. However, if the BIOS never finishes or starts loading, then it is either a BIOS or hardware-related problem.

Try to reset the BIOS (Should be a CMOS button on the back of your computer, if not, it could be a bit harder to reset it). If you can get into the BIOS, it should give you the option to reset it somewhere to default. If not, there is a motherboard battery you would need to remove for a few minutes. You can google how to do this but it can be slightly difficult.

I would try replacing compatible parts with a nearby computer to see if any of it (graphics card, psu, etc.) bit the dust.

Some things like the motherboard and psu are going to require some knowledge on replacing them and are a bit harder to do. You may end up having to take it to a computer repair shop as they can (usually) aptly diagnose it for you.

Happy New Year to you too, hope this doesn't cause you more stress than you need.

Check your BIOS settings to see if you have your onboard video disabled and have your dedicated GPU enabled. Also try re-seating the GPUs and checking that the GPUs have a proper power connection.

Quick test, remove the graphic cards and any other cards in the system, disconnect all drives and disconnect any thing connected to the MB like a KB, mouse, speakers. Now remove all you ram and try to boot up, if your Mb and CPU are good you will hear a series of beeps, this is a good thing, now stick only 1 stick of ram back in and try booting, if it boots keep adding ram until you have it all in or until it will not post again, let us know what happens.