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PCI Video Card

I have a Dell Optiplex 980 that came with a DVI PCI card for the monitor. It has a VGA port that came standard with the motherboard but has a black cap over it. I took off the cap and attempted to hookup a monitor via the VGA cable but it didn't work. What do I need to do to allow the VGA adapter that's built-in to work?
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Scott C
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Pull the video card.  99% of motherboards will not support a video card and on-board video.

If your goal is dual monitors, you will need to purchase a video card that will support this.

There are any number that are very inexpensive.
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itgolfer

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Thanks. I pulled the video card out and then tried hooking up the VGA cable but I'm still getting no signal. I'm not looking for dual monitors, just want to connect via VGA instead.
Look in the BIOS to see if the onboard video has been disabled.

If it hasn't I suppose the VGA port is either not functional or has never worked.

If you still want to connect with VGA there still will be cheap cards that will to the trick for you or get an adapter to convert the DVI to VGA.
How can I view that if I'm getting no signal? Do I need to reinsert the card, enable onboard video and then pull the card again?
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Scott C
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OK, thanks.

The monitor I have is VGA only and I don't really like the adapters.
This PC cam with a selection of different CPU's you could choose from, and some of those CPU's include an on-chip GPU (the Dual core versions have that), while others don't (the Quad Core CPU's don't). So your model probably came with either the Core i5 750, Core i7 860 or Core i7 870 CPU which don't include a GPU, and so on those models the VGA output on the mainboard wouldn't be active. If that is the case you'd have to get another CPU that includes a GPU, or as mentioned above, get another video card that has more than one output.

If you are actually using a CPU that includes the GPU, check the BIOS settings, you may have to enable the CPU's GPU somewhere from there.
Glad I could help.