I have refurbished an old desktop with a new Gigabyte GA-AB350 atx motherboard, a Ryzen 5 1400 CPU, a 650watt Corsair PS and 2x8GB DDR4 Corsair memory sticks and a new SSD HDD but the monitor does not work saying to check signal cable. The monitor is Samsung and has mention: "Manufactured March 2015" and was working with the old motherboard to which it was connected with a 25pin connector, however the new motherboard only has a HDMI connection and another with many pins and a sort of small blade (mailing this from the library).
The board has 4 tiny LEDs, one for the monitor and the user manual says if that LED is on, which it is, the monitor is not functionning properly. I have tried these 2 connections mentioned above with suitable new cables and neither works.
I have read on the Internet that HDMI need drivers installed to work, I supposed it could be the same for the other connection. I also read the memory sticks not inserted properly could be the cause but they went in smoothly with the little clips automatically locking. I also get a short sharp bleep which seems to indicate that POST is done correctly.
If it is a matter of installing HDMI driver, how can that be done when the full OS still need to be installed on the new SSD drive - without a monitor?
Any hint of what other problem could exist?
A previous thread told me that the mention "Gaming" heavily prominent means nothing and that the gear is suitable for my intended word processing and web surfing. Is that correct with this board?
I cannot use the old PATA HDD holding the OS because the board does not support PATA although I can reinstall the old gear and load the OS on the new SSD drive if that could be part of the solution.

Thank you for your help.

Could you clarify, you have said in your title "refurbished monitor" and in your post "refurbished an old desktop" and name various parts I'm assuming you replaced. So, are you considering the computer refurbished because you have replaced these parts? Or did you actually buy a refurbished monitor e.g. from Newegg? OR do you have a self-refurbished computer with a refurbished monitor? Is refurbished even a word anymore? I think I've said it too many times. Ah. Semantic satiation ftw

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When you upgrade a computers motherboard you are basically creating a new system.

So you want to run an older VGA (15pin) type monitor from an HDMI socket, not a great problem, just get an adapter.
I bought one for my Raspberry Pi3, cost about £7. My monitor just worked after plugging that in.

Most TVs these days also have HDMI connectors, so you might want to test your setup using one.

Hope that's of some help to you.

EDIT: On re reading your post you said a 25pin socket, that could be a DVI, but you can get adapters for that as well.

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What is the model number of that monitor? The problem may just be a matter of selecting the correct input at that monitor.

It is not apparent just what your "25-pin connector" might be. A standard VGA connector has 15 pins, not 25. You've seen a DVI connector (the one with many pins and the flat blade), so it's obviously not that. Some DVI variants (DVI-I and DVI-A) can be converted to VGA with a simple passive adapter. Those DVI connectors have 4 analog signal pins surrounding the flat blade. DVI connections without those 4 pins cannot be so easily converted to VGA.

If your motherboard comes with DVI and HDMI connectors, it's almost certain that the BIOS supports those interfaces, so it should work.

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Well this one is easy *if* you already know the issue.

Ryzen 5 1400 (or any other current Ryzen CPUs) do not have onboard video.

No onboard video on the CPU = no video output from the motherboard = monitor seems to not be working.

You'll need to buy a PCI-E video card. Doesnt need to be fancy, a nVidia GT 610/710/630/730 ($35-100 .au) would be fine. Low end AMD cards would also work fine but are currently hard to find in Australia.

And normally you dont need to install HDMI drivers in particular- 99%+ of the time if VGA or DVI work then HDMI does as well.

*edit- and while this is not the issue, I see from your sig that you run debian. Even debian 8 (stable) would probably not have new enough drivers to work even if your CPU had the onboard video adapter.

That is 100% correct.

Sorry but no, not all DVI ports can run a DVI->VGA (or 'd-sub') adapter.

From the Gigabyte GA-AB350 site-

"Integrated Graphics Processor:

1 x DVI-D port, supporting a maximum resolution of 1920x1200@60 Hz
* The DVI-D port does not support D-Sub connection by adapter."

http://www.gigabyte.us/Motherboard/G...ng-3-rev-10#sp

I 1st ran across this ages ago with an AMD graphics card which had the same issue which was really annoying....

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I have a Biostar motherboard with Intel 4500 video and equivalent DVI-D limitation, but with VGA instead of HDMI as the 2nd video port. Not knowing at the time of acquisition the differences among DVI ports, it took me a while to latch onto why the DVI port sometimes would refuse to put out depending on what display I was connecting and whether using both outputs or just DVI. The board shipped with DVI-D to HDMI adapter. Whether used with DVI-D or HDMI cable, Xorg reports the connection is HDMI. When I connect it with DVI or HDMI cable to my 2560x1080 Dell U2913WM display, Xorg automagic fails, and starts in 1152x864 mode. To acquire any better mode in any of 1.16.4, 1.17.2, 1.18.3 or higher in Debian, Mageia openSUSE or Fedora requires I use xrandr or xorg.conf to escape 1152x864. Using HDMI, maximum I can reach is 1920x1080. Using dual link DVI-D, 2560x1080 works. I blame Dell firmware because sometimes with 3 different Dell PCs it won't light up until after POST has completed, if at all, if I use a DisplayPort cable, a problem never experienced with VGA, DVI, HDMI or Mini DisplayPort cables. Dell replaced it once at 3 weeks of age, then told me the problem was with my out-of-support Dell PCs and it couldn't help me any further. Moral here is when a display won't light up using a different motherboard, gfxcard or cable, it just might be the display, just as here there simply is no gfx hardware to put anything onto the motherboard's video connectors.

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I got a basic video card ($AU45) and it works now.

Good to hear, and good luck with your new system