New Monitor reports "No Signal" with display driver enabled

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  1. Posts : 39
    Win7-64
       #1

    New Monitor reports "No Signal" with display driver enabled


    How can this be so hard? Why does Windows make it impossible to change monitors?

    Here's a summary of the problem, with details below:

    System: Windows 7-64 HomePremium SP1 with all important updates, Radeon HD 4830 video card. Gigabyte MB, Intel E8500 CPU, 8GB memory.

    My old monitor gave out a couple of days ago, so I went to the store yesterday and got a new one. It does not have a resolution mode that matches my old monitor, and I cannot turn that resolution off, so I keep getting "No Signal" when the video adapter is enabled. The monitor works fine in safe mode and with the video adapter disabled, but every time I try to reinstall the video adapter, it goes back to the old, incompatible resolution, and I get "No Signal."


    Here are the details:

    I hooked up my new monitor (to the HDMI output, same as the old one), turned on the PC, the monitor showed it going through the BIOS startup, and the Windows startup, but just before the login screen, it went black and said "No Signal."

    OK, I know what the problem is. My old monitor had a native resolution of 1650 by something, and my new one is like 1920x1080, and doesn't have a 1650 mode. So I reboot and start Windows in safe mode. Now I can log in to Windows at 800x600. It has an ugly black background, but it works.

    I go into Device Manager and disable the video adapter (my card is a Radeon 4830), and restart. Now Windows comes up in its normal pretty blue background. I go into Display, change the resolution to 1024x768, and that looks OK, but wastes a lot of space on the screen. I enable the adapter and restart.

    No signal.

    I restart in safe mode, and this time instead of disabling the video adapter, I uninstall it. I restart, but as soon as I log in, Windows tells me it has automatically installed a Microsoft version of the Radeon driver, and I need to restart. When I do, I get "No Signal."

    I restart in safe mode, disable the adapter again, restart, change the resolution to 1024 x 768, download the latest Radeon driver from AMD, install that, and restart. No signal.

    I go through the safe mode-disable-restart cycle again, get on the net, and look for a solution. There seems to be a consensus that the only way to fix this is to uninstall the display driver, delete all the AMD folders, and then install a new driver. But Windows won't let you do that, because it automatically installs a Microsoft driver.

    Half the answers say to turn off automatic updates, but many people say that won't help if the driver is already on the system, which in my case it is. The only way to prevent Windows from installing an existing driver is to type

    GROUPEDIT.MSC

    from the start menu search box, and then you can check a box that tells Windows not to install drivers automatically.

    But if you have the Home Premium version of Windows 7, there is no groupedit.msc; it's only on Pro and Ultimate. And there's apparently no workaround for it. I thought I found one when a few websites recommended a hack that was posted on this forum by davehc, but when I looked for it, I found that he disavowed it, because it didn't work reliably.

    So how can this be? I've wasted a whole day trying to fix this. Why doesn't Microsoft let HP users turn off automatic driver installs? Why do Microsoft and AMD both insist on installing new display drivers with the old resolution, instead of something safe like 800x600? Surely I'm not the only guy who got a new monitor that's incompatible with the old resolution, and surely it's easier to take ten seconds to change a safe resolution to whatever you want the first time you boot with a new driver, than to tear your hair out trying to get out of an incompatible resolution.

    There has to be a way to fix this without re-installing Windows.

    Doesn't there?

    I'm very comfortable with editing the registry, etc., so I'll be happy to do that if somebody tells me what entries to edit.

    Or can I just delete the Microsoft version of the AMD display driver, so it can't automatically install it? If so, where is it, and what is it called?

    if anyone can get tell me what I need to do to fix this, I will be eternally grateful.
    Last edited by brocks; 23 Sep 2012 at 18:05.
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 414
    win7 ultimate 32bit
       #2

    you didn't say what brand/model the new monitor is---what is it's native resolution?

    the new monitor should have come with a driver disk--and that's where you should be installing drivers from.

    did you try a different HDMI cable? did you try a DVI or Display Port cable?
    did you check t0 make sure the card is seated properly?

    Radeon4830 specs show
    Dual Link DVI supports 18-, 24-, and 30-bit digital displays at all resolutions up to 1920x1200 (single-link DVI) or 2560x1600 (dual-link DVI)
    HDMI All display resolutions up to 1920x1080

    you should be able to start machine in safe mode--install drivers that came with monitor--then restart and it should just work--if you're getting a 'no signal' message--there is a loose connection somewhere--or perhaps the monitor is 'not' functional--there really can be 'bad new' products--try the monitor on another machine!
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 2,240
    Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit
       #3

    Checking out your card specs, all I can find is that is has 2 dvi-dual ports and 1 s-video port. So, how are you making the HDMI connection? Are you using an adapter of some type? If so, that may be your problem right there.
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 414
    win7 ultimate 32bit
       #4

    every image I can find shows only ports 'bassfisher' mentioned but ATI Radeon site list the specs below--it appears this card was released under several configurations and it is supposedly sub $150 card--I would suspect the card is bad-or at least failing

    ATI Radeon


    ALSO--reviews show that this card tends to run hot, which also suggests the card may be failing

    http://www.legitreviews.com/article/811/8/
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 39
    Win7-64
    Thread Starter
       #5

    tman69 said:
    you should be able to start machine in safe mode--install drivers that came with monitor--then restart and it should just work--if you're getting a 'no signal' message--there is a loose connection somewhere--or perhaps the monitor is 'not' functional--there really can be 'bad new' products--try the monitor on another machine!
    Thanks for your response.

    I agree, I SHOULD be able to do what you said, but I spent all day yesterday proving that I can't.

    The only drivers that came with the monitor are for XP. It's plug and play for Vista and Win7.

    The "No Signal" message is definitely not from a loose connection. With the driver disabled, I can go into Control Panel/Display and change the resolution to various values. If I pick one that the monitor can't handle, I get a black screen and a "No Signal" message, exactly like what I'm getting after Windows startup with the driver enabled. Fortunately, the Display app reverts back after 15 seconds if I don't click on "Keep the Changes," and then I can see the screen again.

    This is not a hardware problem. The monitor works fine in several resolutions. Every time the resolution changes, it reports it in a little box on the screen that stays up for five seconds or so. When I start the PC, the BIOS boots up in 640x480, then switches to something else for the Windows startup, then switches to something else for the login screen.

    With the driver disabled, it switches to 1024x768 for the login screen, and I can see everything. With the driver enabled, the screen goes black when it switches to the login screen, and then the monitor displays "No Signal."

    The monitor obviously works in 1024x768, so that's what I'm trying to change the driver to, but it won't let me. When the driver is reenabled, or reinstalled, it keeps coming up in 1650x whatever, which is incompatible with the monitor.

    My question is how to get the driver to come up in 1024x768. After I solve that, I can change the resolution in the control panel to 1920x1080, which is the native resolution, and if that doesn't work, it will be a different problem, and I'll be back here with a different question. But all I want now is to get the driver to work in a resolution that I KNOW the monitor is compatible with, because it works fine with the driver disabled. Thank you.
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 39
    Win7-64
    Thread Starter
       #6

    bassfisher6522 said:
    Checking out your card specs, all I can find is that is has 2 dvi-dual ports and 1 s-video port. So, how are you making the HDMI connection? Are you using an adapter of some type? If so, that may be your problem right there.
    Thank you for your response.

    Yes, there is an adapter on the cable, but as I explained at length in my last post, all indications are that the problem is with the driver. The adapter works perfectly with the driver disabled.
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 414
    win7 ultimate 32bit
       #7

    are you changing the resolution in the ATI Radeon control panel--or using the win7 change resolution control panel?
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 39
    Win7-64
    Thread Starter
       #8

    tman69 said:
    every image I can find shows only ports 'bassfisher' mentioned but ATI Radeon site list the specs below--it appears this card was released under several configurations and it is supposedly sub $150 card--I would suspect the card is bad-or at least failing
    OK. I remembered I had an old drive with a bootable partiton of Windows 7 on it, which I stopped using when I got a much bigger drive a couple years ago. I thought it might be old enough that it was set to a lower resolution, so I hooked it up and booted from it (my BIOS makes it very easy to do this), and sure enough, it was set to 1024x768. Windows came up fine. Then I changed the resolution in Control Panel/Display to 1920x1080, and it was absolutely gorgeous. Then, just to triple check, I installed the new Radeon driver that I had downloaded yesterday to make sure there wasn't something wrong with that. Windows still comes up beautifully in 1920x1080, fitting the screen absolutely perfectly, very clear and sharp.

    So, I was 99% sure before, but now I am 100% sure,
    IT IS NOT A HARDWARE PROBLEM.

    The monitor is fine. The graphics card is fine. The cable is fine. The DVI adapter is fine.

    But I don't want to use the old drive, which doesn't have half the apps I'm currently using, and isn't big enough to hold them anyway.

    I know I can solve this by reinstalling Windows and then reinstalling the several dozen apps that I use on my current drive, but that would take days, even if I can find all the installation CDs and keys, and I should not have to do that. I just want the damn driver to come up in 1024x768, so I can then change it to whatever I want that is compatible with the new monitor.

    So I appreciate all the responses, really, but could somebody please address the driver issue, and stop worrying about the hardware?

    Thank you.
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 39
    Win7-64
    Thread Starter
       #9

    tman69 said:
    are you changing the resolution in the ATI Radeon control panel--or using the win7 change resolution control panel?
    I can't log in to Windows when the driver is enabled, therefore I can't see the Radeon control panel. I can only change the resolution in the Win7 control panel.
      My Computer


  10. Posts : 2,240
    Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit
       #10

    My next question: Does your monitor have built in speakers? If not; then there is no need for the use of an HDMI cable. Both HDMI and DVI support HD resolutions. The only difference between HDMI and DVI is that HDMI carries sound. So, if your monitor doesn't have built in speakers, it's just a waste of a cable because your not getting the full benefits and I would just use a DVI cable, either dual link or single link.
      My Computer


 
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