Solved HDMI signal doesn't work without drivers

Hello everyone,

as the title says, without the video drivers installed and loaded by windows, I don't get any vido signal to my monitor using the HDMI output. When I first installed windows I didn't have this problem (otherwise I wouldn't be able to do so) but something changed after a windows update and now I have this problem. Unfortunatelly I'm not able to track down the exact moment when this issue firts presented but my hardware configuration never changed.
I have tried to check if the problem would have raised even with different display, cable and even GPU and yes, even if i change all those components the problem presents and I have no signal using the HDMI.
The thing is that my actual GPU is installed in an upright configuration and is not easy to change the output and, without drivers, in HDMI mode, I can't enter windows safe mode neither enter the bios so I would like to solve the problem without having to swap video outputs.

Thanks.

Bye.

Hi, welcome to the Eleven forums

Just to be absolutely certain, make sure you haven't accidentally turned off your monitor and that the cable is connected to your wall outlet properly and the wall outlet is turned on. You would be surprised how many homes I have been to and this has been the problem. My monitors have a touch sensitive power button on the front, I turn mine of without meaning to all the time.

And if you’ve checked that, and you can’t see your operating system to troubleshoot, then I don’t see that you have any option but to get to the display port to try that instead.

P.S. Sounds like your Monitor has had an issue. As you state you changed the GPU and cables. It would be plausable.

Your motherboard has onboard GPU. Have you tried connecting the monitor to the Display Port on the motherboard?

If none of the above is helpful, the next 2 things I would try is A: Take your monitor to a friends place and try it on their PC, or if you have a laptop, try it on that. If it works, great, the monitor is fine.
B: Borrow a friends monitor, if you still can’t see the Boot Screen or see the Windows environment, then you can assume you have a PC issue.

Can you hear your PC booting up?

antspants said:

Hi, welcome to the Eleven forums

Just to be absolutely certain, make sure you haven't accidentally turned off your monitor and that the cable is connected to your wall outlet properly and the wall outlet is turned on. You would be surprised how many homes I have been to and this has been the problem. My monitors have a touch sensitive power button on the front, I turn mine of without meaning to all the time.

And if you’ve checked that, and you can’t see your operating system to troubleshoot, then I don’t see that you have any option but to get to the display port to try that instead.

P.S. Sounds like your Monitor has had an issue. As you state you changed the GPU and cables. It would be plausable.

Click to expand...

Hi, thanks

my monitor automatically turns off when not receiving an input from the GPU and automatically turns ON as soon as it gets it, but no, i didn't accidentally turned it off manually (you can turn the monitor off so even if it gets the signal from the GPU it doesn't turn on but this is not the case). All my cables (power and HDMI) are correctly connected.

If I use the display port everything is fine even if I don't have the drivers installed: I can enter the bios, I can enter windows safe mode, I can see the booting screen and this is true with my monitor and my GPU or with the lenovo monitor and the GT 1030.

While troubleshooting I changed the diplay and the GPU (I used a Lenovo diplay and an MSI GT 1030) just to check if even with another monitor and another GPU the issue of not having a video signal without video drivers when using the HDMI would still appear and yes, it does. So if I connect another display to another GPU (installed on my motherboard) using an HDMI cable (to be sure the problem wasn't the cable I used a different one then the one I use on my Neo G7) and I don't have the nvidia drivers installed, I won't get any video signal.

antspants said:

Your motherboard has onboard GPU. Have you tried connecting the monitor to the Display Port on the motherboard?

Click to expand...

I will try that.

antspants said:

If none of the above is helpful, the next 2 things I would try is A: Take your monitor to a friends place and try it on their PC, or if you have a laptop, try it on that. If it works, great, the monitor is fine.
B: Borrow a friends monitor, if you still can’t see the Boot Screen or see the Windows environment, then you can assume you have a PC issue.

Can you hear your PC booting up?

Click to expand...

I will try to connect the Neo G7 to my laptop.
I can hear my PC booting (it doesn't have the "bip" sound but it boots because I'm using right now to write and I use it every day for work and gaming).

Also I should mention that all my drivers and firmwares are updated. The bios is updated and windows is updated.

Thanks.

antspants said:

Your motherboard has onboard GPU. Have you tried connecting the monitor to the Display Port on the motherboard?

Click to expand...

No it doesn't, no motherboard has an onboard GPU anymore, it is all integrated into the CPU. In the OP's case he lists a KF series CPU (i9 13900KF) which doesn't have the iGPU in it so the video connections on his motherboard will be dead.

stormy13 said:

he lists a KF series CPU (i9 13900KF)

Click to expand...

Ahh OK, good catch. I didn’t realise.

stormy13 said:

No it doesn't, no motherboard has an onboard GPU anymore, it is all integrated into the CPU. In the OP's case he lists a KF series CPU (i9 13900KF) which doesn't have the iGPU in it so the video connections on his motherboard will be dead.

Click to expand...

Ye, I knew my CPU didn't have it since is KF. For a moment, due to antspants comment, i thought my MB had an integrated VGA and I didn't knew it
Anyway, as stated with a different GPU (the GT 1030) I have the same issue (no video without drivers if I use the HDMI) while if I use the DP I don't need the drivers in order to get a video signal.

DLz47 said:

I have the same issue (no video without drivers if I use the HDMI)

Click to expand...

That’s odd because most all of my (6) monitors are connected via HDMI and I have never had this issue. Maybe it’s exclusive to the NEO. I have no idea.

Sorry about the GPU thing. I have had my ASUS ROG Maximus Formula board with onboard graphics for so long I didn’t know things had changed

Just a wild guess, but maybe you need to turn off the onboard graphics component/feature [that is dead like @stormy13 pointed out] of the motherboard in the BIOS settings.

antspants said:

That’s odd because most all of my (6) monitors are connected via HDMI and I have never had this issue. Maybe it’s exclusive to the NEO. I have no idea.

Sorry about the GPU thing. I have had my ASUS ROG Maximus Formula board with onboard graphics for so long I didn’t know things had changed

Click to expand...

Don't worry it's all good
The thing is that when I first installed all the components (around december 2023), I didn't have this issue then all the softwares, firmwares and bios got updated together and all of a sudden I got the problem. This is also why is so hard to track down what's the main root of the problem: I don't know which update or software is behind it.

hdmi said:

Just a wild guess, but maybe you need to turn off the onboard graphics component/feature [that is dead like @stormy13 pointed out] of the motherboard in the BIOS settings.

Click to expand...

I'll try to check the bios. Unfortunatelly, right now entering the BIOS (and windows safe mode) means that I have to install my other graphic card because is easier than swapping output on my rtx 4090 (installing it upright looks cool but is a pain if you have to swap ports).

Thanks.

Are you using G-Sync for games? G-Sync requires to use DisplayPort.

johnp said:

Are you using G-Sync for games? G-Sync requires to use DisplayPort.

Click to expand...

Yes, I use G-Sync for games but G-Sync works with HDMI 2.1 too. It doesn't need DP (HDMI 2.1, The New Standard For TVs, Is Supported By GeForce RTX 30 Series and 40 Series GPUs).

Hi guys! This weekend I was finally able to do some other tests and I finally found the cause of the problem and the solution.
I'll write everything down in case someone else needs it.

The test step by step:

1) First I disconnected my 4090 and installed my GT 1030 in the same PCIe slot my 4090 was installed in.
2) I connected my Neo G7 to the Display Port (DP) of the GT 1030.
3) This way I was able to enter the bios and windows 11 safe mode. So it was clear that it was not a PCIe slot issue and that the monitor could detect the video signal from DP.
4) I checked the bios for any power or display or integrated gpu settings but didn't find anything relevant. Just the option to select in which PCIe slot the main gpu is installed (in my case the slot 1 since is the one with x16 speed)
5) I connected the G7 to the HDMI port of the GT 1030 with a different cable.
6) This time I was not able to enter the bios neither windows 11 safe mode: No video signal detected without drivers (for both the HDMI ports). So the problem was not the cable. At this point either the G7 had a broken HDMI hardware or this is the normal behaviour for HDMI or both my 4090 and my monitor had hardware issues.
7) I connected my G7 to a laptot using the HDMI port and again No video sginal detected without drivers.
8) I connected my other display (lenovo) to the GT 1030 using the HDMI and I was able to enter the bios and windows 11 safe mode without any problem. So at this point the problem had to be in either the G7 or the 4090 (or in both).
9) I connected my G7 to the HDMI port of the GT 1030 start messing with the system settings and I finally found the problem: the HDMI version!!! Having HDMI 2.0+, HDMI 2.1 as an iput port version causes the problem of not having a display signal without drivers! Swapping to HDMI 1.4 solved the issue. I can enter the bios and windows 11 safe mode.
The reason why the lenovo was working without drivers using HDMI channel was exactly that: the HDMI version it uses is the 1.4.

Thanks everyone for the help! :)