Monitor cables/connections

Jaeger

Just got my new pc and there doesn't appear to be any standard ports on the tower for monitor output....just two DVI ports and one TV-out port on the gfx card.

The branty-new 19" monitor I got with it is VGA I think.

I was looking into adapters but I'm not fully sure exactly what I need. Checked komplett and I don't think they do them


Anyone else been in the same jam and how did you get it sorted?

Chalk

checkk the for sale forum
you can get an agp gfx card for about 20-30 euro
any cable malrkey is gonna screw with the quality


have to say tho it highly unusual for any mobo not to have built in gfx

Jaeger

I have a 128mb agp card but if I use that then I won't be using the one that's already installed? It's nVidia gforce 6800GT btw...

Chalk

i dont know,
i wouldve thought every gfx card would have a standard 15 pin output.

CatInABox

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=106841&cks=PRL

This is what your looking for. Dont know about any drop in quality, should just forward the signal, so you'll get VGA quality. Might be one in the box somewhere. There was one in with my graphics card.

As far as I know, DVI is the way forward for monitors, and VGA outputs are being phased out.

SantaHoe

CatInABox wrote:

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=106841&cks=PRL

This is what your looking for.

Indeed it is
Have to say I was surprised to find my latest gfx card had two DVI outputs and no VGA... it came with two (of the above) converters though.
I can't say I've noticed any difference in quality between using a DVI->VGA adapter and using VGA straight from the card.

Actually, there are a number of different pin layouts for DVI, so make sure you're getting the right one... although I'm not sure if one standard has emerged dominant and if it's even an issue anymore.

sceptre

Chalk wrote:

i dont know,
i wouldve thought every gfx card would have a standard 15 pin output.

Quite a few of the newer ones don't. Then again, quite a few of the newer ones do as well.

Jaeger

Wahey!

Dug about all the stuff that came with it and found a single adapter in the whole lot. Now we're suckin diesel eh? Not.

The gfx card doesn't appear to be outputting any signal so when I switch it all on the monitor just sits there flashing it's little power light.

Shane™

Did you try both DVI ports?

Will_hendrix

hold Ctrl when windows is starting up, this forces the display drivers to load default settings, usually 800x600 at 60hz, even though LCD's dont use refresh rates, only a latency timing.

Jaeger

Did exactly that just after I posted Shane - boots now but there's some very strange patterns in the display, think I'll leave it for a mate who speaks german to sort out (got it from jes)

Gilgamesh

with such a short connector you won't have any quality loss at all.
go ahead and buy it, I know peats in Parnell street sell them aswel, but probably for twice the price

Will_hendrix

to be honast personally i think if peats don't have the little parts you need, they probly don't exist, thats how good they are, in fact they sold me a Pentium 4 mainboard that was only used as a testing rig once and was fairly new for 45euro

Jaeger

Got it booted up in the end. BUT:

There was a load of corruption on the screen before windows even starts....

Opened it up to find a wee piece of metal (looks to occupy the drive bay area when there's no drive in) knocking about which was a little worrying.

Tried another PCI card and tada - no corruption whatsoever.

Must be one of the following:

a) not enough power to the card.
b) problem with the pci-e slot.
c) card damaged by feckin piece of metal knockin about in transit.
d) some other problem between the bios on the card and the mb.

Ruled out heat as an issue because the corruption pops up with the very first image on the monitor. Tried opening up the BIOS settings and we couldn't even make out anything on the screen. May send it back to them now. Hope they'll still take it with it having been opened by us - the problem after all wasn't caused by us.

Guess whose short-lived enthusiasm for online shopping has been firmly stamped upon.

aidan_dunne

Would this adaptor be of any help, I wonder?

www.marx-computers.com > goto GRAPHICS/TV > DVI-VGA ADAPTOR (€12)