Need monitor to work, to see, to get the monitor to work!!!?

Question

I am putting an old tower back together, and I need to download a monitor driver. The problem is I dont have the original monitor that worked with it anymore, so I cant see to do any kind of work on anything. I'm sure I'm not the first person to run into this problem. I mean how do you get a monitor to work when you simply cant see anything, to be able to get it to work? I know about the driver and graphics adapter and all that stuff, and the parts do work, thats not the problem. If I have the driver on a disk or flash drive, is there maybe a keyboard button or something I can press to get it to work. Or is there a way the PC will automatically install it from the source? There's not a way to use a laptop as a monitor is there? Any info would be great....THANKS

Well, I have had this happen before, and when I swithed monitors long enough to install a driver, it worked fine. This time I tried two different monitors, a really good Dell, and an even better Sony flatscreen, and neither one worked. the monitor kicks off into the power saver mode ( green light switches to yellow light). I even tried two different video cards, one of which I know does work. (at least it did). However, I did put in a different hard drive that is using windows 98, whereas the last one was using ME. Could that be the problem? I dont have that old hard drive, or WinME anymore, but I do have a boot floppy.

Answer 1

tricky one, i assume you have tried booting in safe mode and that it dosent help; i can think of a few solutions;
if no monitor driver is present make a copy of another pc and boot the pc in q off that disc.
have you tried networking the pc in q and running it off another pc, use a cross over cable , you might get lucky!
take it apart and start again?

Good luck

Answer 2

If you are using windows, then I think windows installs a default plug and play monitor driver when you boot up for the first time. To be honest I don't think the monitor driver makes much difference, I am pretty sure I am still using the default one with my new monitor.

How bad your problem is depends on what is happening. If you can switch the monitor on and if you see the bios at the beginning the it should be a fixable problem.

Oh and check the following:
Is the monitor plugged into the correct slot? (can be a problem if you have more than one graphics card)
Is the monitor switched on? and are the brightness/contrast set to a point where you can see?

My suspicion is that the problem is not the monitor but something else you have changed such as the graphics card or something not plugged in correctly.

If you think it is the monitor then it is usually pretty simple to try another one, perhaps borrow one from a friend.

edit:
You should be able to get to the bios(the bios is stored on the motherboard) even with a broken hard-disk. I suspect this may be something else.
Check the power supply is compatible with the motherboard.
It might also be the little battery on the motherboard which has died.

Answer 3

I would check to see if your video card is properly puched in to the mainboard, give it some *umph* but not to much.

The monitor should work when plugged in, even if you dont have an operating system installed you should still be able to see the POST screen.

There really is not MONITOR driver, wouldnt make any sense if you cant see anything (how would you install it?)

If you know the monitor DEFINATELY WORKS and get no display at all, it is possible that your desktop resolution is set to high and the monitor does not support that resolution. Plug in a different monitor (or borrow one) just long enough to boot to the desktop and lower your desplay's screen resolution. Shut Down and plug in the monitor your having trouble with. When you turn it on it should work.

If not, you video card is either loose or your monitor is really old or worse, broken.

Answer 4

OK, I have had similar problems in the past, after tinkering about wit things that I had no idea about at the time.

If teh monitor just stays in stand-by mode, or quickly switches back to stand-by mode, and you don't hear the POST beep, I woudl suggest that the problem lies with the motherboard.

To be on the safe side though, and to eliminate all otehr options, you shoudl try all the other components in another PC - Graphics card, memory and so on. This will either identify the faulty compenent for you, or point to the fact that the mobo is indeed knackered.

All sorts of odd things can throw up unexpected problems - for example, I had a bit of dodgy ram in my system, and although the system would boot and POST ok, it would crash out just before getting to the log-on screen. I tried everything - even bought a new mobo, but turns out I had a faulty mem stick, took it out, hey presto, prob solved (other tha having to scoot out to grab another gig stick).


Explore all possibilities with you hardware. It's unlikely to be a "monitor driver" issue, more a hardware issue with your system.

Answer 5

if you cant see anything then there is a fault either in the video card, motherboard or monitor. my guess would be its a monitor problem (or a cable interconnect)

assuming all is OK you will allways see soemthign on intial boot, if you can but windows ffails to work then start windows in safe mode.. usually its pressign f8 during boot up

to debug it try conencting any old monitor and see if anything different happens..

Id agree with earler reply.
check the display card is firmly seated
check the motherboard is actually working
check the cables between the PC & monitor are firmly located, and preferably screw clamped, whilst you are messing around there check the mains cable is correclty plugged
do you hear an bleeps when the PC starts...
check the fuse in the monitor power cable
some very old monitors require specific settigns to work (eg display frequency) using the wrong settings could destroy them

Answer 6

Hello,

(ANS) YES! your spot on, you have to have a monitor of some kind inorder to see whats going on here. A monitor is considered to an integral part (componant) of an entire or whole system.

I think your options are:-

a) Borrow a monitor from someone you know, who is willing to be helpful i.e. a friend or mate.

b) Buy a new monitor or even a second hand monitor

c) Yes! you can connect up a laptop and use it as a secondary monitor but thats abit of a pain to be honest. But it can be done depending upon which OS you are using? If its win2K or XP or above you should be OK.

**But the bottom line is you definately need a monitor to complete the task/s here.

Hope that's of use?

Best Regards IR
(10yrs+ in computing, MCSE trained).

Answer 7

Assuming you are seeing the bios POST info (this proves the screen and graphics card are working) then go into safe mode by pressing f8... This resets the graphoics mode to the universal one that all monitors work on... then install the driver and reboot...

( NOTE: THIS ISSUE CAN HAPPEN WHEN YOU CHANGE FROM A TFT TO A CRT MONITOR)

Dan

Answer 8

any monitor should work, depending on correct installation of graphics card (physical not software), working cables, connections and monitor.

if you have the above and can't see a black screen with white text when you first start the PC then you have a bigger problem to deal with.

Also, make sure everything has electric in it...

Answer 9

OK, an old tower, maybe the cmos battery has gone flat, try another one, see if helps, also are you hearing any Post beeps, eg, 1 beep, 2 beeps, etc, more than one indicates a problem.

Answer 10

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