Monitors show 'cable not connected' after boot

Hello

I have been using my desktop pc with two VGA Monitors for several months with no problems.

However, each time the pc now boots the monitors soon display the 'cable not connected' message.

I have not altered my display settings or carried out any system alterations in advance of this issue occurring.

As the monitor displays all of the initial boot info ok, it would seem that there is no malfunction with the monitors themselves, nor with the cables.

Sometimes the monitors remain active for a period after booting and I can use windows (home xp sp3) as normal for a few minutes before the cable not connected message appears.

The power scheme is set to 'Never turn off monitor' and 'Never turn off hard disks'

When I look into Computer Management -> Device Manager -> Display Adaptors there are no error messages or question symbols beside the 3 display adaptors. For information they are:

NVIDIA GeForce 9800GT
USB 2.0 Graphics Card-Extend.
USB 2.0 Graphics Card-Mirror

After the cable not connected message appears, the computer appears to still be running normally (power light still on, fan still running, no beeping or startup/shutdown noises from hard disk)

Any advice/assistance greatly appreciated

 

Thank you for your reply Major Attitude

The 'cable not connected' message is displaying each time now before windows fully loads so I can not access any of the information regarding drivers etc.

I gather the 'NVIDIA GeForce 9800GT' I mentioned is probably the Graphics card?

It's my suspicion that this is the root of the problems.

Should my next step be to try a new graphics card in the pc?

 

Just to be sure are you using both the graphics card and a USB display adapter? Os one monitor is connected by graphics card and one is connected by USB?

If you unplug the USB device and start Windows using only the grahics card monitor, does the monitor from the graphics card still lose signal?

 

Hello sach2

Both monitors are connected via VGA cable. I don't have any monitor connected via USB.

To simplify the problem I have now unplugged one of the monitors.

I now just have one monitor - connected via VGA - which shows boot screen correctly every time before then displaying 'cable not connected' a few moments later.

Thanks

 

Well it seems the two USB display adapters are left over from an old device (I'm just getting that from Google) which is no longer being used. You could try disabling them in Device Manager to rule them out as a cause of trouble.

So you have one graphics card with two ports for VGA monitors. Since both monitors are getting info from the same graphics card it would seem that it is at fault. It sounds like you used to be able to run Windows for longer than you can now.

Try tapping F8 repeatedly during the initial BIOS/boot screen to get to Advanced startup options and try Safe Mode. See how long it runs before losing the signal. If it loses the signal after only a few minutes then it would seem to be a problem with the graphics card. If it runs fine for an extended period of time it could be a driver issue (although I am not sure if a driver would ever cause a complete loss of signal).

Maybe if it loses the signal you could try reseating the graphics card in hopes that it is just a bad connection.

 

Re: Monitors show 'cable not connected' after boot (RESOLVED)

I took the video card out and reseated it. I went to start up the pc and there was spark from the power supply.

I brought it to my repair guy at this point.

Power supply is blown.

The fan on the video card had jammed and this was the root of all problems.

New power supply, new video card.......new levels of debt!

Thanks for all help.