The DVI Port on my Gigabyte Motherboard no longer seems to work.

May 19, 2013 11:52 AM

The DVI Port on my Gigabyte Motherboard no longer seems to work. I need the DVI port as I am running a Hackintosh and Apples are not compatible with VGA. What are some of my options and what is your diagnosis?

So, I installed Mountain Lion successfully a few days ago and it was running fine, then the day after install I shut down my computer and restarted it and since then the DVI port has not been recognized by the monitor.

I have used several different monitors and several different DVI cables and still the monitor display the message that there is no cable plugged in.

Some questions I have:
1. Would any setting in the Bios of the Motherboard affect whether or not DVI is recognized by the monitor?

2. Would buying a Graphics Card (right now I am just running I7 3770 with the Intel Internal Graphics 4000 HD) presumably fix the problem. I was intending to purchase a graphics card anyway and if that fixes it maybe I should just do that.

3. Why would a restart break the motherboard's DVI port?

I am reluctant to send back the Motherboard because that requires unplugging everything and removing the CPU which I am not eager to do. I'd rather just deal with broken DVI ports on the motherboard and use external graphics if possible.

Thanks so much in advance.

posted by cloeburner to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

Have you tried booting a Linux CD to see if the DVI port works under a different OS?
posted by pharm at 2:22 PM on May 19, 2013

Response by poster: Hey, I haven't but I am running both Windows 7 and Mountain Lion on this computer. The DVI Port does not work at start-up at all (cannot view BIOS/OS unless I use a VGA cable). It might be a loose solder joint because I cannot imagine what else would cause such calamity.

Anyway, I bought a video card, it should be here in a few days, hopefully that helps.
posted by cloeburner at 3:11 PM on May 19, 2013

Well, if it doesn't work in W7 either then either it's broken or a bit has flipped in the BIOS to turn it off! Unless the cable is broken...
posted by pharm at 11:44 PM on May 19, 2013

Check the manual for your motherboard and clear the CMOS. Then try a new cable AND another monitor.

I've binned a very large pile of "totally good" VGA, some dvi, and the various adapters between them over the years. I've also had several monitors that one input stopped working on but not the other(and I think my current one is getting flaky in this regard).

Oh, and if clearing the CMOS fixes it update the bios immediately afterwards. Even if it doesn't fix it I'd have done that just for the hell of it.

Also, is this a combined DVI port? Or DVI-D only. I'm not super familiar with the latest hackintosh stuff, but at least on a lot of older intel macs with dvi ports(mini, 1st gen MacBook Pro) you could connect a dvi>VGA adapter and just run that with no issues. If this is a hackintosh driver issue or related to that+the intel IGP though then TIL, and never mind that...

But yea. To sum it up I'd be thinking CMOS settings, bad cable, bad display, obscure bios error update to see if cleared, then possibly a cold solder joint or somesuch like you considered.

I'd also say that even if a graphics card solves this problem, I'd want to get the motherboard replaced anyways if that became the obvious culprit. I would never, ever be able t trust a known faulty motherboard for doing much of anything.(I'm a bit of a hypocrite on this as my "bench" system has a horribly cocked mb, but i also only use it for soundcloud, surfing, and email while i work on other machines or projects so...)
posted by emptythought at 4:13 AM on May 20, 2013

Response by poster: Just as a follow-up, I was lazy and never replaced the Motherboard. I did get a video card Gigabyte Nvidia GT640 and things have been going well for the past week or so, but with this post I will most certainly jinx myself.
posted by cloeburner at 10:03 AM on May 29, 2013