One video card + dual monitors = no video display after cold boot

[Trizik]

I have two monitors (one DVI, one VGA) running off one video card. When I cold boot my machine (completely shut down, disconnect power, flush remaining power out of motherboard) the monitors won't display anything. If I reboot the machine without cold booting it, the monitors have display.

Any ideas why they won't display after a cold boot?

 

[Lord Evermore]

Do you get the normal beep from the mainboard when you boot cold, and does it seem to continue its normal bootup with the hard drive activity, you just can't see anything on the screen? Does it happen when you only have one or the other monitor connected?

The only thing I can think of is that there's not enough power for the entire system to turn on cold, but then once the mechanical stuff is spinning it's capable of warm booting. Assuming this your system rig in the link, I assume you don't have a wimpy power supply.

 

[imported_RedStar]

how come there is no PSU category in system specs?

is this a case of "Higher efficiency PSUs generally tend to need higher minimum power on the 12V line in order to simply run"

http://www.silentpcreview.com/news652.html

(reveals the issue)

edit: Prolly not..as some where along the line you obviously got it to boot up at least once so you can reset it

 

[HannibalX]

Do you also have onboard video? If you do disable it in the bios. is your addin card AGP or PCI? In the bios look for an option that says "First Display Device" and make sure it points to whatever format your addin card is.

 

[Trizik]

Yes, it seems like a normal boot with the beep and all, there's just no display on the monitors. Turning off one of the monitors seems to have the same result. I should point out that this sometimes happens during warm reboots as well. It's kind of random. In fact, last night my main monitor had display during BIOS but the secondary monitor didn't until it suddenly showed display a few minutes after Windows was already booted.

The machine has an Antec NeoPower 480W PSU. I thought that would be powerful enough, but what you said about there not being enough power makes sense because I have a better chance of getting display if I quickly hit the power button off and on if the machine is already running.

Triniton: Yes, I have onboard video but it is disabled. My main card is PCI-e and "First Display Device" is configured that way.