I have an older computer with an Intel DG 31PR motherboard with a dual core processor which I would like to use as a media center. The video card is a Geforce 8400 gs and has a VGA and DVI output.
The TV is a Panasonic with both VGA and HDMI input.
My problem is that when I hook the TV up to the computer using VGA everything works fine. If I hook up the TV using a DVI to HDMI cable, I see that the TV gets the signal and I see that the bios starts to come up, but the bios freezes right at the beginning (BEFORE the setup screen - when it's checking the video card). This happens every time. If I boot the computer without any monitor and after windows comes up, and then I plug in the TV, it works (although the desktop size is wrong). To make a very long and frustrating story short, I updated the bios dvi(0071 - 03/18/2010), I cleared the CMOS a number of times. I played around with the settings (couldn't find anything that I would guess could remotely disrupt the boot). I swapped video cards with others I had. I disconnected anything that wasn't necessarily from the computer. But nothing helped. The bios always froze. Thinking that it was the video card, I then took the video card out of the computer and stuck it in a very old P4 I had lying around, and IT WORKED. It booted up just fine with the DVI to HDMI cable attached to the TV (the correct desktop size too). I knew that the cable was good because it worked beforehand with other computers.
Unless I am wrong, it seems to me that there is a problem with the bios (setting or otherwise) or with something else on the motherboard.
Can anyone help me out. I'm starting to get very frustrated.
Thank you