Screen is black until desktop appears

[soopytwist]

I've got two EVGA GTX 780 SC ACX and my monitor (Samsung S27B971D) is plugged into the primary graphics card's DVI-D socket.

If I plug another monitor into the DVI-I socket of the primary card I don't see anything on my Samsung display while booting up until the desktop appears. It doesn't take long to actually get into Windows as it boots from an SSD but it's a problem if I need to get into the BIOS and can't see anything.

 

The other monitor is disabled though from within Nvidia control panel so I can't see anything on there either - I only enable it when I want to extend my desktop and don't actually use the second screen for gaming. If I enable the second monitor and boot up I can see the POST on the second monitor but not the primary until the desktop appears and then I have both displays showing the desktop.

 

I can only see the POST on my Samsung if I physically disconnect the second monitor.

 

Should I be plugging my second monitor into the secondary graphics card? Or is all this something to do with the DVI-D vs DVI-I?

 

It's almost as if plugging in a second screen automatically assigns it as the primary display where as it should be number 2- even if it's disabled in the Nvidia control panel.

 

BTW as I have SLI, in the Nvidia Control panel I have SLI configuration set to "Maximize 3D performance".

 

Is there something I need to toggle in the BIOS for two cards and two displays?

[sabot]

Does your monitor say "Out of range" Mine did that. It was an asus monitor.

[Samdb]

Have you disabled GUI boot?

[soopytwist]

Is GUI boot in the BIOS? I don't get any messages on screen. This is different to the Dell monitor I had previously - it would go into Energy Saving mode a lot of time by itself.