Thread: Computer cactus?

Do you use a video card or on board ???

If you try removing the vid card and use on board and it boots then vid is U/S

If you use on board try and see if you can get hold of a vid card to test and try.

Try removing your ram and reseat, then if still no boot try one stick at a time in alternate slots. If it boots on one not the other the a ram stick is U/S

If still no boot I would say your mobo is U/S.

I have just gone thru this on my new gaming PC (6 weeks old,power surge) and it ended up being the mobo so I bought a cheap one (same chipset/brand) while the good one away being RMAd all I had to do was reload sound drivers.

Dazza

How dusty is the inside of the case? Could be a blocked fan.

Assume you've looked for the basics - video cable pressed in ok, and no damaged pins?

I take it the machine didn't beep at all as it powered up? Or a series of beeps? If not then it's a fair sign that either motherboard or CPU are toast.

Originally Posted by Dazza67

and it ended up being the mobo so I bought a cheap one (same chipset/brand) while the good one away being RMAd all I had to do was reload sound drivers.

Dazza

so windows thought it was the same board??

Originally Posted by Pedro_The_Swift

so windows thought it was the same board??

Yep Win7 is pretty cool like that, same chipset is important though otherwise if it isnt the same chipset you should just need to load the drivers but it could be a little untidy.

I would only do this if I needed to get stuff off the C drive then do a full format to tidy things up.

Since mine was a same branded ASUS board but just had a different sound chipset it was just easier to load the sound driver and it didnt miss a beat, My good board is a tri-sli and the cheapy only single but it will do for the few weeks until the other is back

Dazza

OK so I opened up my PC and cleaned all the dust out - there was plenty of the video card leading me to beleive maybe this was running too hot from not being cooled properly. Anyway I cleaned it all u and removed and refitted the card from the mobo just for fun.

Did the same with all the memory sticks.

Cleaned up dust from the CPU fan (not blocked but not ideal either).

Put her back together and fired it up and.... same old.

Looks to be booting, or at least starting to boot. The red light ocomes on and I think I can hear the drive kick in.

However there is absolutery no signal to the monitor> Uslaly when booting up at oleast egt something here showing the self test / the bios doing it s thing.

Nothing.

I suspect therefore that the videocard is probably at fault?

Its an ASUS A9X something or other mobo and does not appear to have video on the mobo (no appropriate plugs anywhere on the outside of the pc).

Hmmm, I suppose I need a video card to try in it and see if it works? I really don;t know. Anyonein inner north brisbane have one to spare that I could try ?

I've had a couple of computers die with those exact symptoms. All the light some on as expected, it seems to be going through POST and then loading the operating system, but nothing comes on the screen. It's always been the motherboard rather than the graphics card.

If you can find one, trying another graphics card is a good plan. I suspect it's the motherboard though. If a graphics card fails you will hopefully hear a series of beeps, those are error codes which you can look up in the user manual or online. The motherboard is supposed to detect graphics card issues during its boot up test, but it's by no means foolproof. Both my failures didn't detect any issues or produce beep codes. You haven't mentioned this at all, so that's also making me suspicious it isn't your graphics card.

Another port of call is trying to reset the motherboard. The best way of doing this is by unplugging it from the mains, and then changing over a jumper or pushing the reset button, depending on your model of motherboard. On my relatively ancient Asus board, it's a jumper, called CLRTC. Consult your motherboard manual, it will have instructions in there. Alternatively, but not by any means recommended, you could remove the backup battery. It does the same thing, just not quite how the manufacturer intended you to do it. I had a look for an online manual for the Asus A9X, but couldn't find anything. Are you sure that's the correct model? Thankfully Asus is one of those brands who actually bother to physically put a label on their boards. It's saved me a lot of pain in the past when trying to identify old hardware I've acquired.

All the best with it!

-Martin

A9X??
you are old!

put some glasses on and have another look--

but my moneys on the vid

agp or pci?