PC wont boot w/o Monitor

[eyal8r]

ok- my Mame PC will not boot unless I have a PC monitor plugged into the thing. Since I'm using a tv, that's a pain in the butt to drag a monitor out and plug it in every time I need to reboot. Is there a way around this?

Basically, upon bootup- it just emits a loud beep, and then sits there doing nothing. Any ideas?  Well, now that I say that- the screen is black, so I assume it's doing nothing. For all I know, it's booting to Windows, and since it didn't detect a monitor at bootup, it won't allow the TV to display anything.  Any ideas?
Thanks
D

[Lilwolf]

What video card are you using?

I've never seen this (and owned most brands of video cards).   I guess with plug-n-play video cards a driver could now require it...

btw, you should be able to test it out of cabinet without a monitor... and plug it in quickly and see what the error is.

[Thenasty]

try goinh into the bios (standard) and select none for Video.

[LordDamo]

try goinh into the bios (standard) and select none for Video.

Also check to see if the "halt on all errors" is enabled.

[moonpatrol 4 lyfe]

If none of those options work, you could try wiring up a null modem cable... except it would be more like a null monitor cable =)  Not exactly sure what resitors, diodes, etc you'd need.

Bill

[krick]

Having a monitor hooked/not hooked to a PC has absolutely no effect on booting.

I'm sure it's still booting into Windows, even though you can't see it.  Turn on the PC without the monitor attached, wait a while for windows to load and then try plugging in the montor to see if it has.

Tell me if I understand the real nature of your question...

You have a PC with a monitor and a TV hooked up to it and you use the TV-out to play games.
You want to boot without the monitor connected, using the TV as the primary display.

There are probably hundreds of people in this forum running MAME cabinets with just a TV so I know it's possible.

It may require special video settings, updated drivers, or an external utility.

What video card are you using?  This may make a difference.

If you are using a Nvidia based card, check out the TVTool utility...
http://tvtool.info/index_e.htm

[shawshank]

Eyal8r,

I had the same problem. It is really frustrating, but you can get it to work. What type of video card are you using and what OS?

I am using a ATI Radeon card with a DVI adapter to my TV. I had to hook both the PC monitor and TV up at the same time and use extended desktop to mirror both pictures. When booting the system, the TV will not show, but the monitor will still boot. You will only see a picture on your TV after the OS is initialzed. I had to make the TV the primary display and not the PC monitor.

I experienced your problem because the resolution was to high for the TV, so the systems was always looking for the PC monitor to be connected. After you mirror both you need to set the res to 60hz , then the TV picture will come on and the PC monitor will go off because the res is too low. MAKE SURE THE TV IS THE PRIMARY AND THE PC MONITOR IS SECONDARY. Then reboot.

Also I am using Powerstrip to size the picture on the TV.

Hope this helps!