How to Fix DisplayPort No Signal on Windows PC – Quick Tips

How to Fix DisplayPort No Signal on Windows PC – Quick Tips

 No signal from the DisplayPort: "Have you tried turning it off and on again?" says the question. When someone has a difficulty, it's commonly known that a simple reboot often solves the problem. On my home PC, I recently encountered a hardware issue in which one of my two monitors failed to connect when I booted up. What gives? It was fine the day before, and it hadn't been touched since then, so what's the deal? Let me take a step back... (Unless you're impatient and want to see the answer right away).

A bit of background - why use DisplayPort anyway?

Two 144Hz monitors are connected through DisplayPort cables in my PC setup. They connect to an Nvidia GTX 1080 directly. I double-checked all of the cords for tightness, disconnected and replugged them, and even switched it off and on, but to no avail. "DisplayPort- No Signal" was displayed on the left monitor, while my typical desktop was displayed on the right.

I wanted to take full advantage of the displays' 144Hz capabilities, therefore I needed to use either DisplayPort or DVI-D. DVI wires, especially the way they have to be screwed in, irritate me. This is what prompted me to use DisplayPort in the first place. After I found this problem, I didn't immediately convert to DVI-D since I wanted to figure out what went wrong.

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Possible Hardware Issues with a Broken Displayport

I looked at the following items in terms of hardware:

1. Was it a loose connection after unplugging the cable and inserting it back in to the same port?
2. Changing the wire to a different GPU port—perhaps the first port was damaged?
3. Trying out a new cable—or the cable—or both?
4. Changing the cables for both monitors—maybe it's the cable?

Broken displayport - Possible Software Issues

The second monitor was definitely being detected. I could see it in the settings, but when trying to tell it to “extend these displays”, it couldn’t save the configuration.

I then experimented with the settings a little:

• Drivers for graphics cards are being updated.
• These changes are being rolled back.
• I was able to change the refresh rate on the monitor I had access to.
• Attempting to reinstall the driver from scratch after uninstalling it.

I got to the conclusion that it was most likely the monitor's DisplayPort connector. I'd have to get a new monitor (or to send off the current one for repairs).

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DisplayPort No Signal Solved!

I tried to get to the bottom of this once and for all in one last desperate attempt to avoid putting in DVI connections. I did some more research on the internet and discovered that a few other people had experienced similar problems.

It turned out that the solution was as simple as:

1. Turn off the PC.
2. Disconnect the PC from its power source.
3. Disconnect all monitors
4. Unplug the monitor you’re having issues with from its power source.
5. Wait approximately 1 minute.
6. Reconnect ONLY the monitor you were having issues with to the power, and to the PC.
7. Reconnect the PC to the power source.                    
8. Turn on the PC.

Once the broken monitor is functional again, you can reconnect any extra monitors to the PC. It just goes to show that sometimes it's as simple as turning it off and on again...