The monitor is a 1704FPV and is hooked to an Optiplex GX270.

Thanks for the quick response.

 

65honda,

Thank you for using the Dell Community Forum.

What monitor do you have connected to which system?

Having not heard a peep from anyone, I tried a few "tricks" I thought might work and did finally get the DVI input working between the GX270 and the 1703FP. When the machine was powering up I pressed the menu button (left most button on the monitor) and then repeatedly pressed the "+" button on the monitor (right most button on the monitor). Kaching! DVI input recognized.

I also made changed in the BIOS for the video adapter to not be "auto" recognized.

Which did the trick? Either? Neither? I have no clue. What I do know is now it works so it was not a bad GeForce card or a bad monitor or an old driver (all things that had been accounted for without success).

Would someone from Dell would give us a pointer.

Its interesting that this same computer had been serviced by Dell-sponsored on-site technicians who, during visit one, replaced the video card and then, during visit two, replaced the monitor thinking they were "bad" because they could not get a digital signal from the GeForce MX 440. They still had not gotten it work when I tried applying the two items detailed above. I guess they did not know the "trick" either. :(

nekton

Nekton, Thanks for the info....I'll give it a try when I get back to the lab.
The FP was hooked up by our company IT guy and when it didn't work out of the box, he just hooked up the VGA adapter and let it go.
Couldn't let that nice screen go to waste!

I tried your suggestions, but it didn't work. I guess I'll have to wait on the Mod. to respond.

Thanks anyway,

65honda

Honda,

Hrm. That does not surprise me as I was not sure, if any, of the two things did the trick. I am going to be back at that computer this week and will see if I can get it back to analog mode (and then of course, back to DVI mode). I will let you know what my results are.

I was under the impression that the GX270 + GeForce where able to auto detect whether they were receiving a digital or analog signal. That is why I was concentrating on seeing if there was some "trick" to telling the monitor to output digital versus analog. But as I said in my earlier post, this is all pure speculation. The on-site Dell techs thought that both the video card and the monitor were both bad because _they_ were unable to have the digital signal autosensed. Neither the card or the monitor were "bad" as they are both are being used with the DVI cable and the monitor indicating a digital signal is being transmitted/received.

More later. ;)

nekton

The + sign on most dell monitors is a source select button. pressing it switches between analog and digital mode. If you're not getting a DVI signal on the LCD then you'll probably see a self-test screen displayed with "ANALOG SELF TEST." This tells you the monitor is stuck in analog mode. (If the monitor is already in digital mode then the self-test screen will say "DIGITAL SELF TEST")

1st thing to try is just pushing the + button and see if that switches to Digital Mode. If that doesnt work then shut down the PC and monitor. Disconnect the DVI cable then power the monitor on. Press the + button then attach the DVI cable and power on the PC. The monitor should now be back in digi mode and should pick the signal up. I've tried these steps on several Dell flat panels that wouldnt find a digi signal. It has worked every single time for me.

The workaround by BlueSideup did the trick for me to regain control on the DVI input, however I found I had to put the Screen mode to 1024 by 768 first using the VGA input.

I have this 1905FP problem with a Gainward MX4000 graphics card (DVI and Analog outputs).  When switching to DVI input the 1905fp does not see the DVI signal and ask to press a key or move the mouse after a few seconds.

I tried another 1905FP and it suffered same problem.
Dell should sort out this generic problem, it will costs them money with 1905fp being returned that will be NO FAULT FOUND (NFF)

One thing I have found is that the DVI cable supplied with 1905fpo  

The workaround by BlueSideup did the trick for me to regain control on the DVI input, however I found I had to put the Screen mode to 1024 by 768 first using the VGA input.

I have this 1905FP problem with a Gainward MX4000 graphics card (DVI and Analog outputs).  When switching to DVI input the 1905fp does not see the DVI signal and ask to press a key or move the mouse after a few seconds.

I tried another 1905FP and it suffered same problem.
Dell should sort out this generic problem, it will costs them money with 1905fp being returned that will be NO FAULT FOUND (NFF)

One thing I have found is that the DVI cable supplied with 1905fp  

Continued....

One thing I found with the 1905fp DVI cable is that the wire between pin 24 to pin 24 is NOT implemented. This wire is TXC- signal.....  

Has anybody tried another DVI cable which has pin 24 wired??   does this cure the problem?
Presumaby this will provide a better clock signal for the 1905pf to detect unless........pin 24 is used in 1905fp circuitry.   Surely a Dell technican should help us out?