Video Card problem(I think)

Discussion in 'PC hardware help' started by lmac222, May 25, 2010.

  1. lmac222

    lmac222 Regular member

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    This is for my friends moms computer. As she described it to me it sounds to me like a video issue. She turns her computer on and boots it up, it powers up, lights up, everything works like normal except she sees no output on the screen. She can mess with the settings and see the settings on the monitor as for like brightness and tint and all that standard stuff, just no windows info. My guess is the video card?

    Should she try other things to make sure its that?
     
  2. ddp

    ddp Moderator Staff Member

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    try another monitor to make certain.
     
  3. lmac222

    lmac222 Regular member

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    thats what i told her....will see what she says.
    Thanks
     
  4. ddp

    ddp Moderator Staff Member

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    find out if she is using onboard video or a videocard. if a videocard then check if she has onboard video.
     
  5. lmac222

    lmac222 Regular member

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    ok i know its 3 months later
    but i finally got over there and brought the cpu to my house
    so....i inspect it and I know why she gets no video, her onboard video isnt hooked to the motherboard completely any longer. Wiggles alot and it appears a clip isnt mounted any longer on the board. I guess she dropped it or something. So I took my working Video card out of my computer and put it in hers, and fired it up, only to get my monitor to cut off "no signal." The computer boots up and powers on, but nothing appears on the screen. My other computer did this, and after a few restart/boots it would finally recognize or whatever and start up. What do you think the problem is here?
     
  6. ddp

    ddp Moderator Staff Member

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    try clearing the cmos to see what happens as she has onboard video, the bios might be configured for that not your card so clearing cmos might correct the problem. reseat all cards, ram & cables to motherboard & drives as she already had 1 loose cable, there might be more.
     
  7. lmac222

    lmac222 Regular member

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    ok, tried that and still get the "no signal" If the HD in the computer doesn't have a valid OS will it do anything. I assume it still has whatever she had on it before, but just a therotical question.
     
  8. ddp

    ddp Moderator Staff Member

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    will still post even without windows on it. look at the silver top cans on the motherboard which are capacitors to see if any are domed or leaking brown stuff. try another psu as maybe issue is with it & not motherboard\videocard.
     
  9. jkl

    jkl Regular member

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    wow, yeah...that could be almost anything XD. i know once my gf had a similar problem show up in her computer that her brother in law built, finally after trying to troubleshoot it for 3 days i got pissed and just decided to completely rebuild the entire computer making sure everything is done right (needed some serious wire maintenance done anyways) so i start going through everything making sure there's no burn marks or anything like that on anything, i finally pull out the mobo and found the problem...the brother in law (he has his a++ several other cert's and is well qualified supposedly to build computers) thought that spacers were a decorative thing and after looking at the back of the mobo i also found a nice large burn mark, from the cpu going to the i/o panel all the way up to the top of the mobo. moral of this story, if u don't build it don't trust it. if he gets a job at any computer company SHORT SALE THERE STOCK AND NEVER BUY FROM THEM AGAIN!!! so definately check all hardware involved, if it has onboard graphics try those if not i think u already tried a different gpu, then try cpu, then mobo etc. till u can figure out which part it was.
     
  10. lmac222

    lmac222 Regular member

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    would all the lights and the sounds of everything start up if the power supply were bad?
     
  11. ddp

    ddp Moderator Staff Member

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    yes as have seen that a few times.
     
  12. lmac222

    lmac222 Regular member

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    Ok i think the power supply is fine, another fool proof test, both dvd rom and dvd burner pop out upon boot, meaning they are getting power. From what my friends mom says everything was fine, just one day was getting anything on her monitor and i know why, the on board video thing really isnt totally connected any longer. Figured a video card would fix that.

    What else?
     
  13. ddp

    ddp Moderator Staff Member

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    can still be a bad psu as have seen optical drives still open with bad psu but nothing posting. try another known good psu to see what happens.
     
  14. sammorris

    sammorris Senior member

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    Drives only use 12V to open the tray. There are also 5V and 3.3V rails from a PSU that are critical for the PC to function.
     

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