Monitor refuses to recognize new graphics card. BIOS help?

I recently bought and installed a new EVGA750ti. But, It refuses to work with either my tv or my computer monitor. The only thing I ever see is something that say "cannot find signal" or some such nonsense. I've tried messing with the Bios and I'm writing this in safe mode as we speak. I know it's a software issue and not a hardware one. Ideas?

I have a gigabyte AMD Athalon x4 640 motherboard.And I think I may need to update it. How will I know which update to use?

Here's an update:

After talking to a tech guy for a couple of hours. We flashed the bios to the latest version and downloaded the latest graphics driver and....

nothing. Still no signal. Am I up a creek without a paddle?

And now it's doing the same thing with the old graphics card

Does your motherboard BIOS have a setting which disables a discrete graphics card and only uses some onboard built-in Intel or AMD graphics?

Normally "AUTO" would look for the presence of a graphics card in the PCIe slots, and only if not finding one would it revert to built-in onboard graphics. If your BIOS shows "AUTO" or something meaning the same thing, you might have a problem with your board.

How can you run in SAFE mode at all (to do this posting), if it's a hardware issue? Are you saying you CAN use the monitor in SAFE mode (which doesn't load the SVGA driver, but instead uses standard Windows VGA driver)? What cable are you using to connect to the monitor, and is it from the graphics card connectors or from the motherboard's video connector?

And now you also say the same problem is occurring when you revert to your older video card, that it too no longer runs in SVGA mode but only in VGA mode?

Sounds like a problem with the motherboard and chipset, or BIOS settings on the motherboard. Can you investigate? Can you "reset" the BIOS on the motherboard to "factory", and then re-cusomize if you need to? Does that help you video problem?

To answer your first question, I couldn't find something that disabled a discrete graphics card in my bios.

I have tried setting my bios to load from my PEG (pci express) slot. And, I tried the other way too.

I was saying it is NOT a hardware issue. Obviously it is getting something from my graphics card.

How would I return my bios to factory defaults?

Dr Blahson said:

I was saying it is NOT a hardware issue. Obviously it is getting something from my graphics card.

Well all PCs and graphics cards and monitors are designed to run in VGA mode, using standard default MS Windows capabilities. They don't need official "drivers" from the graphics card manufacturers to run in VGA mode, if they're standard PNP devices (which they all are nowadays).

That's how you always see BIOS output on your monitor screen when you boot... it's in VGA mode. Of course it also does indicate that most things are working well.

But to actually get a "cannot find signal", that is a problem with SVGA mode. You normally hear a "click" when the graphics card is swapped into that state from VGA when the graphics card drivers get loaded and launch, and the monitor now sees the different SVGA connection to the graphics card through the video cable and switches its own electronic circuitry to conform, and you're now capable of the higher resolutions and quality that SVGA mode affords.

So getting BIOS output, and basic Windows "safe mode" capability (without vendor graphics drivers loaded), that says the hardware is basically working properly... in VGA mode. But it doesn't say that everything is working properly in SVGA mode.

How would I return my bios to factory defaults?

Don't know. It's generally an option somewhere in the BIOS itself to return to factory defaults. Or, it might be a hardware jumper pin on the motherboard that you pick up and put down on the other two pins for 10 seconds, and then pick it up and put it back on the original pins for normal operation.

Check your motherboard owner's manual (or search online).

I'm just speculating that this might have a beneficial effect, not that it's guaranteed to fix anything. If there's actually a hardware problem coming from the motherboard chipset dealing with SVGA mode, I suspect resetting the BIOS won't have any effect.


You've said that even trying to go back to your original graphics card also no longer works. But did you remove the drivers for that card when you installed the new drivers for the new card? Might there just not be suitable drivers available yet for your old card when you re-tried it?

Don't know what to say.