I recently bought a pre-built gaming PC from a coworker who decided to sell it because it didn't have a graphics card. I picked it up for a great price and my friend donated his old 1080TI to me. I thought I installed it properly, but when I boot the PC, nothing shows up on the monitor when it's plugged into the graphics card. The monitor works fine when connected to the motherboard, displaying the BIOS boot options like DEL for BIOS and F12 for the boot menu, but none of those options seem to respond after that. I've tried resetting the PC, removed the graphics card, and used different USB ports and keyboards, but I'm still stuck. I'm not very experienced with this stuff, so I'd love to get some advice!
3 Answers
It sounds like you're not getting a signal from the GPU. Make sure you're plugged into the graphics card itself and not the motherboard. Also, did you connect the power cables to the GPU? That’s essential for it to function properly!
Those flat 4-pin connectors can sometimes not make good contact. Check the back of the connectors to ensure everything's fully inserted. If you’re still having trouble, you might want to try booting without the GPU and use just the onboard graphics. Once in BIOS, check if you’re booting in UEFI or legacy mode and adjust your boot order to make sure your drive is set to boot first.
If you can access BIOS, that’s a good start! While you’re in there, look for settings related to boot modes. If your PC is trying to boot but then fails with a blue screen, double-check the SATA mode too—try switching between ATA, AHCI, and RAID to see if that resolves the boot issue.
I did connect the power! There was a 6-pin connector that had two leads going into a flat 4-pin connector, and I plugged both into a wire that had multiple female plugs. The GPU lights up and everything, but I still get no display when I connect via HDMI or the display ports.