Forcing PC to use VGA

SnowDrifts

Right - I bought a Dell Optiplex GX620 for a relation. I want to use my VGA monitor with it. There was a black plastic cap over the VGA motherboard port. I removed the cap and plugged in the monitor. When turning on the computer, the computer's power light comes on and I can hear the hard drive presumably booting Windows. But the computer is not sending a signal to the monitor apparently. How can I force the PC to revert to it's onboard VGA?

There is some sort of dvi card in it. I tried taking this out and still, no signal sent to the VGA screen. I would try get a DVI to VGA cable but I can't even tell what type of DVI port it is. I'll attach a photo if anyone knows?

Any ideas?

bonzodog2

Can you access the BIOS to control the primary video output?

invaderzimirl

well apparently that port is a vesa DMS-59 port that supports via an adapter have a look here vat the pic

adapter you need for Dual VGA

SnowDrifts

I have tried turning it on and pressing F2 several times but nothing shows up on the VGA screen so can't see if I'm accessing BIOS or not.

SnowDrifts

invaderzimirl wrote: »

well apparently that port is a vesa DMS-59 port that supports via an adapter have a look here vat the pic

adapter you need for Dual VGA

Ok - thanks for that. Never even heard of a port by that name. Right, so at least I have that to fall back on if I can't figure out how to enable VGA.

bonzodog2

Maybe try resetting the CMOS

SnowDrifts

bonzodog2 wrote: »

Maybe try resetting the CMOS

Is that done by removing the battery on the motherboard? Would there be any other side effects to that? Thanks for your help so far.

bonzodog2

Sometimes there's a jumper you have to connect across 2 pins, or a recessed switch. Check your motherboard documentation. Its generally a safe process; it reverts the BIOS configuration setting in the CMOS memory to the default.