5870 eyefinity - No signal

NAC

Golden Member
Dec 30, 2000
1,105
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I've been running my 5870 eyefinity for about a year. Both of my monitors are connected to the card via DVI cables. One day, on startup - one of my two monitors gave the “no signal” message. I've connected the monitor to a laptop via a VGA cable and confirmed the monitor works fine. It has been about a week and my other monitor has been working through the video card. This morning I rebooted, and now the second monitor is also indicating no signal.

I've checked the connections to the card and they seem fine. Also when I reboot I can hear it booting fine, and then Windows gives the regular bootup sound. I can even type in my password and hear windows complete the login process. So the computer seems fine. I haven't played any 3d games or used the CPU heavily for weeks – I've basically only been surfing and other light tasks – so I think I can rule out power or overheating as the issue.

Unfortunately, at this time I cannot easily test the DVI connections on the monitor – my laptop only has VGA out. I also can't easily test the video card via a native display port monitor.

Any advice on how I can trouble shoot?
 

KingFatty

Diamond Member
Dec 29, 2010
3,034
1
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Looks like the VGA input port of the monitor tests out ok? Put a DVI-VGA adapter (nearly all video cards include one in the package box) on your video card's supposedly faulty DVI port. Connect the monitor using a VGA cable. If it works fine, then that shows probably the DVI port of the card is working, and there is an issue with the DVI input of the montor.
 

NAC

Golden Member
Dec 30, 2000
1,105
11
81
I put in an older video card and confirmed that the DVI ports work on both monitors. I'm using the older card now. So it isn't the monitors. I guess it must be the 5870. Could it be software or perhaps the drivers got corrupted? I wouldn't think so since the monitors never display anything - just total black and a no signal message from when I turn them on to windows bootup. I put in a help ticket with Sapphire.

I don't think this matters - but I wasn't able to use the advice you gave KingFatty. I have 3 such adapters from previous monitors or video cards. All of them are male DVI, which plug into the female displayport adapter for the 5870. The male DVI adapters require a large flat pin, surrounded by 4 small pins. The female displayport adapter has the large flat pin, but it is missing holes for the 4 small sounding pins. Unsure why. But I don't think it matters - by switching cards I confirmed that the monitors both work.
 

iCyborg

Golden Member
Aug 8, 2008
1,384
91
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Could it be software or perhaps the drivers got corrupted?
If you don't see BIOS POST, then it's certainly not video drivers because they haven't been loaded yet. Maybe corrupted OS, but if you can hear logging in, it's quite unlikely. I'd think it's a hardware issue.