SOLVED No Display!

[Stacman]

A while back I had a problem with my Acer Aspire TC-780 Desktop where the display would apparently go blank after boot-up. It was fixed by Acer but now I'm finding out that it still does it but only with a Dell monitor I'm using. When I connect it to my Vizio television it works fine. Oh, and this machine came with Windows 10 Home Edition.

Does anyone know what could cause this? The BIOS of this machine seems to be the most restrictive of most I've seen. I can't even get the machine to bootup to a flash drive to install Windows 7 for dual boot. But that's a subject of another issue. I just need to figure out this disaplay problem...

Thanks!

I tried to delete this post and post it in Installation, Setup and Updates, but didn't find the option. Sorry for posting in two threads...

 

[BigFeet]

F10 or F12 during boot up may let you select a boot menu.

Are you conectiong both the TV and the monitor via a vga cable? Or one vga and the other hdmi? May be the cable or the connector on the back of the monitor.

A moderator could have moved the thread.

 

[BigFeet]

I replied to the other thread. Maybe a mod can merge them.

 

[Stacman]

F10 or F12 during boot up may let you select a boot menu.

Are you conectiong both the TV and the monitor via a vga cable? Or one vga and the other hdmi? May be the cable or the connector on the back of the monitor.

A moderator could have moved the thread.

Thanks for the reply. I've used multiple HDMI cables and even tried a VGA cable (brand new). I've used the same cables with other boxes on the same monitor and everything else works fine, which is why I'm thinking I'm missing a setting.

When I use the F12 Boot Menu this machine won't recognize any flash drive with another OS on it, even if I change the boot priority in the BIOS. Doesn't seem to matter if I use UEFI or legacy during boot.

 

[BigFeet]

What are you using to create the bootable usb? I find the newest version of rufus doesn't always work on some of my machines. Rufus 2.17 always seems to work. So does etcher.

As far as the issue with the monitor, I'm not sure why the monitor doesn't work but the tv does.

 

[Stacman]

What are you using to create the bootable usb? I find the newest version of rufus doesn't always work on some of my machines. Rufus 2.17 always seems to work. So does etcher.

As far as the issue with the monitor, I'm not sure why the monitor doesn't work but the tv does.

I used the newest Rufus and even the one before it. I'm sure I still have v2.17 in the archives somewhere. I'll give that a try. Thanks again for the reply. The monitor thing is just weird. I still prefer Windows 7. I never had these problems with it...

 

[Tim Locke]

Assuming you are using HDMI.
Have you tried turning the monitor on first before the pc and the other way around, after.
Does the monitor have an on screen set up, have you set that to HDMI as the first and only preferred input ( if possible)

Is there a menu for the video card/system on the PC? Is that set to prefer HDMI. Some video cards have that if you right click on the display background...which is not much help if the display is not showing anything.

I am wondering if the HDCP handshake is either too fast or too slow. If that is the case then VGA should always work as it has no HDCP and is just there all the time.

 

[BigFeet]

I used the newest Rufus and even the one before it. I'm sure I still have v2.17 in the archives somewhere. I'll give that a try. Thanks again for the reply. The monitor thing is just weird. I still prefer Windows 7. I never had these problems with it...

Try running Windows 7 in a virtual machine. I run all sorts of OS's in it. I even ran Windows ME for a while, since it was one of the few versions I never had.

 

[Stacman]

Thanks to all who commented. Today I used another VGA cable and apparently there was an unnoticed menu button on the monitor. Even though it was set to use either, it wasn't until I recycled it that it began working. So that issue is resolved, but recognizing a bootable Win7 USB on this machine is still a no-go. I used Rufus v2.17 which didn't make a difference and Etcher won't create a Bootable Win7 USB, but does recommend Rufus...

Thanks again!