[SOLVED] Black display after minor hardware change
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I haven't managed to make sense of this, so I thought I would throw it out there. I have worked for a couple of weeks on this issue, and have hit the brick wall.
Slackware 15 system, with triple headed monitors. No problems there. After several years the graphics card, XfX HD-677X-z5hd, with 1GB and 5 mini DP sockets. The fan seized and the only option was to return it to the factory. They turned it around reasonably quickly, and two weeks later, I had the new board in hand. I installed it, and that is where my problems began.
Let's call the monitors A, B and C. B&C now work, and A does not show a signal. Everything was connected with DVI. I had a spare cable for DP, so I tried that, no joy.
I tried every adapter, cable and monitor combination I had, in different DP sockets. No joy. I bought a new, fourth miniDP to DVI adapter. No joy. Well, actually it works with B&C, just not A.
I tried a new DVI cable, no joy.
The computer recognizes the monitor, but it is not used after Slackware comes up. So perhaps static or something got it when I was installing things after the new graphics card. So I bought a replacement monitor, figuring, OK perhaps that is it.
New (to me) monitor, no joy. Same behavior. Black screen, and the display tool identify button does not identify it.
Since I had additional adapters, I tried using 4 adapters, and moving A or it's replacement around on ports. Still no joy.
So I am stuck, with a pile of notes with written the matrices of each experiment on them. A pad of 1/4" rule graph paper.
I am at a loss, and welcome any sane suggestions, although I think I may have tried them all.
MB is a gigabyte board, G77 vintage. And, again, this system worked just fine with the old graphics card, until the fan went toes up on it.
Any ideas?
Last edited by linuxbird; 02-25-2024 at 08:45 AM.
Reason: typo fax vs fan
Been poking around BIOS now. One observation to share: When booting, the messages start on monitor A and B first, then after the boot font changes to a smaller font, the boot goes to B and C, both mirrored. This is consistent with what happened prior the fan failure on the graphics card.
I will redo those again, as i ran them initially and found them unremarkable. As i recall everything appeared normal, but screen was black on monitor A.
New data. I may have a hardware issue in that XFX has updated their cards, and the card I have will pass through an active adapter to up to two DVI ports, but no more. Apparently there are only two on the current board. The current board replaces an old board, which has been superceeded.
So I will fiddle with miniDP to DP cables, and see if I can get things to work.
So I can run two DVI ports through the DP ports on the graphics card, but only two. Checking my older configuration, I had two DVI ports and one DP port. Running a DP port does not presently work, and I am not sure why.
I did get the third monitor running, but it is not a long term solutions.
I was able to use the on-the-motherboard DVI solution to talk with the third monitor (well actually monitor A in my earlier write up. Running that way, the gamut is washed out, and response for apps on that window are slow. So I will need to change that.
XFX has modified my trouble ticket for the graphics board, but they were clear that I needed to do a parallel ticket with AMD.
So I can make some forward progress on the work I should be doing, while I work background on the issue of the DP not working. It is recognized, but is not rendering to that monitor through the DP.
It might be worth investigating an MST adapter if at least two of your displays have DisplayPort inputs. I've never seen mention anywhere, but I suppose at least in theory one could use DP-to-HDMI or DP-to-DVI converters in conjunction with an MST splitter to make displays with only DVI or HDMI inputs work. AFAIK, it's only from-HDMI-to-DP conversion that can't work. I wouldn't get hopes up though. With all the outputs on your card yet only two can work at once sounds like could be a major obstacle. I have several Intel iGPUs like that, with 4 or 5 outputs existing on the motherboard, but the iGPU limit is 3 at a time maximum. Older Radeon and NVidia cards I have here have 3 outputs but only support 2 maximum at once.
Last edited by mrmazda; 02-26-2024 at 09:59 PM.
Reason: FWIW: I sent this originally before I saw post #7, but didn't actually edit after reading it.
All of the monitors I would like to use on that computer have DVI (digital) and miniDP, and at the moment, I would like to be able to use them. I had 3, and have since picked up one used one. I don't think that computer has to run with four monitors, but I would like to get it to run with the three it was running with, with the same "model" graphics card.
It wasn't an option when I built the system in 2012, but if I were doing it today, I would simply use a single card, and something like a 4k monitor. I have a TV which is good enough, but there may be others which are better for high density text.
But for now, I want to see if I can get the XFX board to work with the original monitors.
IMO an RMA replacement of a card that ever did work for 3 unique displays with one that can't work the same is cause for another RMA. OTOH, I don't understand how you managed to get a replacement for hardware technology over a decade old.
Given old Radeons with 3 outputs were limited to only 2 available crtcs, I would be surprised an HD-67xx card would ever have supported 3 or more if your XFX didn't have 5 (? this?). I suppose that could have been an XFX-specific enhancement that lesser HD-6XXX cards didn't support.
I have no discrete Radeons anywhere near similar age as yours with more than 2 outputs. I do have a 4650 with 3, but it only supports 2 crtcs (like my NVidias of similar vintages):
1. Failed fan after 13 years of 24/7 operation. I positively pressurize my cases through stacked fans, with external (vaccumable) media.
2. Replacement card was defective.
3. Replacement card replaced, but that card would not perform at all.
4. A different card, RX 570 series was provided. I got it going out of the box. I had to replace cables, as it did not have the miniDP. Turns out that one of the new DisplayPort cables I bought was defective.
5. All is well. I have not measured, but I think the RX-570P8DFD6 board provided is faster than the HD 677X board it replaces.
In the end, all the issues were hardware. Thanks again for the folks who chimed in with suggestions and guidance.
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