No Video problems

[YoMoma]

My pc has developed a problem over the last few days and today it seems to be crippiling. I`m on my other pc now cause the one in my sig will show no video.
The problem started a few days ago. My pc would freeze and the curser would not move. Basicaly I cant do anything but press and hold the on/off button to shut it down. Now sometimes it has frozen part way thru the boot sequence. But most times it starts up, has no welcome sound bite, and show no video at all, forcing me to hold the button in again. The last day or two I have rebooted around 5 times in a row before it would work right. My vid card has 2 output. A time or two it would work fine after switching to the other output. But that doesnt seem to help anymore. If I use some of my buttons on the monitor it will usually tell me no DVI input while my screen is black. Twice today I got it going and quickly I tried to restore my pc to an earlier date, well the damn thing froze up before I could get that far.
My pc is not overheating. The fans are working, Today it hardly ran long enuf to heat up before it gave me the problems.
At first I thought it was Vista with the freeze ups. Vista seems quite unstable on my pc, with IE crashing daily, and the occational freeze up. But today is the last straw. It`s pissing me off.
I am going to install my vid card in the other pci-e slot, if I can get it to fit and see if that helps. I`d even take out the card and run video thru my mobo for awhile to see if it would run better, but I dont see what output on my mobo to use for my monitor.
I`ve done a virus check with none found.
Help me please
YoMoma

 

[Dangman]

Are you talking about the PC in your sig? If so, it doesn't have onboard video. If not, please tell us the specs of the PC in question.

Anyway, try the basic troubleshooting steps here and see if they work:
http://www.hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1032266144&postcount=3

It could be a motherboard, RAM, PSU, or video card problem. Or a combination of all three.

 

[YoMoma]

Yes Danny Bui I am talking about the pc in my sig.
With a new day today came renewed hope that I could resolve the problem. My pc had other plans. Tried to boot it up at least 7 times. Had no video whatsoever or a microsoft sound bite that you hear at startup. I get nothing. Now I`m just wondering what to do to troubleshoot. I have no extra parts to try in place of other componates to see if they would work. I have no other friends that are using pci-e cards to borrow from, so if that would be the first place to start, I would need to purchase another one.
What do I need to check in order to troubleshoot my pc? And in what order?

 

[Dangman]

See if this works:

/*------------- <cut n paste> -------------*/
This is basic troubleshooting if your system has never POSTed (as in, you just put it together); Though, it may be helpful to others whose system no longer POSTs...
If you have both the 20/24 pin main ATX connector plugged in, AND the 4-Pin (or 8-pin) ATX12V P4 CPU connector plugged in, then the board should boot fine (unless it requires more power connectors from the PSU). First, try clearing the CMOS w/ the proper jumper or button.

The next thing you could do is test the PSU. Jump start it (on the main atx connector, short the green wire with any black wire, using a paperclip), and see if it stays on. If not, then its probably a faulty PSU. If it works then you can proceed with the suggestions below. ***NOTE: The paperclip trick is a simple test for those that do not have PSU testers, multimeters, nor a spare PSU to test with. It is not a 100% conclusive test of the PSU.

How to test with a multimeter @ BFG

Setup everything outside of the case, with the mobo on top of its cardboard box. Plug in only the essentials:
- PSU (namely: main 20/24-pin ATX connector and 4-pin ATX12V P4 CPU Connector; The 4-pin should work in the 8-pin EPS12v plugs, too)
- CPU w/ HSF
- Single stick of ram
- Videocard if there is no onboard video (along with its power connector, if it has one)
- System speaker/buzzer (your board may have an on-board tweeter/buzzer/speaker)
- Monitor & Keyboard

Reset/Clear the CMOS by following the instructions in your mobo manual.

* Use a screwdriver if your board doesnt have an onboard power switch. Jump the two power switch leads to turn the power on.

If it won't post, try different RAM slots. If it still won't post, pull out the ram (so no ram in the system) and listen for error beeps. If none, pull the vidcard and listen for error beeps. If none, re-seat the CPU and HSF, then try again. Report back with results if you're still having issues.
/*------------- </cut n paste> -------------*/

 

[YoMoma]

Well I`ve determined it`s not the memory. I took out all 4 sticks and tried them each by themselves in each of the 4 memory slots I have. Couldnt get any video still to show up. I even took all of the memory out to see if the mobo would give me a warning beep, but never heard a thing.
Going to try the video card in the other pci-e slot next. Will need to relocate my hard drive because the card wont fit in the extra slot if the hard drive is where it`s at.