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October 14th, 2023 00:52
No Monitor Signal After SSD Install
Hey everybody.
I own a Dell Inspiron 3650. It's been great, but I wanted to upgrade it a little.
I purchased a Samsung 2.5" QVO 870 2tb SSD, and my plan was to migrate my HDD over to the SSD and use the HDD as additional storage.
Well... I never got that far. I plugged everything in, and my monitors are now getting no signal.
I tried:
Removing the SSD
Reseating the graphics card, ram, power cables, CMOS battery, power cable, HDD sata cables
Plugging HDMI directly into motherboard instead of graphics card
I'm still getting no signal. The computer powers on, some peripherals light up and appear to have power, but the monitors just wont show anything. I can't view BIOS or anything. I'm baffled that even taking the SSD out didn't fix anything.
Any insight would be great.
Cheers,
Chris
RoHe
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October 14th, 2023 01:28
Version of Windows?
Is the PC's power button steady or blinking. If blinking, note the color(s) and count the blinks which is an error code.
Did you check the video connection on the monitor's end of the cable? Can you test this monitor and its cable on a different PC, or a different monitor and its own cable on this PC?
If the monitor has its own On-Screen Display (OSD) that's opened by pressing a button(s) on the monitor, open the OSD and make sure it's still set to use HDMI. If it's set to "Auto-Select" (or similar) change it to HDMI, and then see if that helps...
Try disconnecting the old HDD from the motherboard and see if you can boot from the new SSD now.
How did you migrate the contents of the boot drive onto the new SSD?
Do you know if BIOS was set to use RAID or AHCI before you started the upgrade? Since you removed the motherboard battery, BIOS may have gotten set to AHCI (default), but do NOT change it now. And Samsung SSDs are known not to be happy when BIOS and Windows are set up to use RAID.
You probably have to test again using the onboard HDMI port after removing the add-in video card completely. The onboard ports may not be active when an add-in video card is installed, even if no monitor is connected to that card...
(edited)
Chris129
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October 14th, 2023 12:05
@RoHe
Version is Windows 10.
The power button is not illuminating at all. I've reseated the plug and nothing.
Connections on both ends of monitors are fine.
One monitor is set to HDMI, I unplugged the second monitor. Still nothing.
The new SSD is empty, it has never been used. I plugged it in and everything has since stopped working.
No idea what bios was set to. I didn't think adding a secondary drive would cause something like this.
I removed the gpu, hdd, optical drive, one of the ram sticks, etc. Just to try to get it to boot to BIOS but it just won't get there.
RoHe
10 Elder
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45.2K Posts
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October 14th, 2023 20:08
Are you sure the add-in video card is seated correctly in the x16 slot and its retention bracket is snapped into place? See here.
Is one of your monitors connected to the onboard Intel Graphics HDMI, and one to the add-in video card HDMI port, or are both connected to the add-in card?
When there's an add-in video card, the onboard HDMI port typically won't be active unless a monitor is also connected to the add-in card. So if you want to try using the onboard HDMI port, you have to physically remove the add-in video card. And test each monitor and its own cable with the onboard HDMI port.
If the power button doesn't illuminate at all, there could be a power supply issue. Double-check all power connection to the motherboard and check the power button connector too, all marked here.
If still not booting, try running the PSU BIST test by following the instructions for a PSU with a test button, (#5 here).
If BIOS and Windows were set to use RAID, installing that SSD could have confused the boot manager which would expect to find some OS files on the new SSD, but it's not even formatted. If/when you're able to get into BIOS setup see how SATA Operation is set, but do NOT change it. And I sure hope all your personal files are backed up elsewhere.
You could create a bootable USB (at least 8 GB, but not bigger than 16 GB) with the Win 10 installer on it. Plug that into PC with power fully off. Power on and tap F12 to see if you can open the menu. If the F12 menu opens, select the option to boot from USB, and see if you can run the Windows troubleshooter.
Chris129
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October 15th, 2023 01:15
@RoHe
Yes it was in correctly to begin with, and when I have put it back in to try different ways to get bios to boot it was in correctly as well.
Both monitors are connected to my GPU, but I tried removing my GPU entirely and having just the one monitor with HDMI to the mobo.
Double checked all the sockets. Everything seems seated properly.
BIST test seemed fine. Light was solid and fan turns on. I don't know why the light on the power button doesn't work.
I'm dumbfounded. I guess I'll have to try booting from a USB next.
RoHe
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45.2K Posts
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October 15th, 2023 03:53
It's always possible the LED in the power button just burned out. There can also be times when the PSU passes the BIST, but still doesn't provide enough power to run the PC.
Did you reseat all the cards (aside from video card) and RAM modules in their slots?
Did you try each monitor using the onboard Intel HDMI port?
When you removed the motherboard battery (with PC unplugged from the mains), did you press/hold power button for ~30 sec before reinstalling the battery? Did you install a fresh battery?
Problem is, if you don't even see the Dell splash screen now, you may not be able to boot from a USB. But be sure to plug the Win 10 USB into PC with power fully off. Then power on and tap F12. I'd do this using the onboard Intel port, with video card removed, to take that card out of the picture...