No display when trying to boot up

exampasserexampasser Member Posts: 718 ■■■□□□□□□□
in Off-Topic
My troubles started yesterday when I tried to power on my computer nothing was appearing on the screen. After several times to boot up the display finally appeared. The same thing happened today. I don't know if it's my monitor, video card, or the monitor's cable. Any ideas on what's most likely the cause?
· Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Comments

  • sambuca69sambuca69 Member Posts: 262
    How old is the monitor? Did you recently rearrange things? First I'd check that the cables (power too) are connected nice and tight at both ends, and that the video card is seated properly.
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • exampasserexampasser Member Posts: 718 ■■■□□□□□□□
    sambuca69 wrote: »
    How old is the monitor? Did you recently rearrange things? First I'd check that the cables (power too) are connected nice and tight at both ends, and that the video card is seated properly.
    My monitor is 2 years old but the computer is 5+ years old. I did rearrange things a few weeks ago.I did check the cable connections, I'll double check to see that the video card is seated properly.
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • arwesarwes Member Posts: 633 ■■■□□□□□□□
    Does it have onboard video? We had a problem with a workstation's BIOS battery going dead and when it booted it tried using the onboard display (which wasn't plugged to anything).
    [size=-2]Started WGU - BS IT:NDM on 1/1/13, finished 12/31/14
    Working on: Waiting on the mailman to bring me a diploma
    What's left: Graduation![/size]
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • exampasserexampasser Member Posts: 718 ■■■□□□□□□□
    arwes wrote: »
    Does it have onboard video? We had a problem with a workstation's BIOS battery going dead and when it booted it tried using the onboard display (which wasn't plugged to anything).

    It does not have onboard video. When the the display would not come on the hard drive light remained on for like 10 mins until I rebooted.
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • exampasserexampasser Member Posts: 718 ■■■□□□□□□□
    It happened again to me today. I should also mention that I have not been getting the standard BIOS beep like I normally do.
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • rwwest7rwwest7 Member Posts: 300
    Very rarely do video cards go bad, it sounds more likely to be a motherboard issue. Do the CPU fan, Power Supply fan and hard drive all spin up? If so then you can likely rule out the power supply also. If I were you I'd disconnect the power cable, remove the battery, remove the RAM, wait 10 seconds then put everything back to together and try again.
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • exampasserexampasser Member Posts: 718 ■■■□□□□□□□
    rwwest7 wrote: »
    Very rarely do video cards go bad, it sounds more likely to be a motherboard issue. Do the CPU fan, Power Supply fan and hard drive all spin up? If so then you can likely rule out the power supply also. If I were you I'd disconnect the power cable, remove the battery, remove the RAM, wait 10 seconds then put everything back to together and try again.
    Everything spins up and powers on. I took out my video card and cleaned it out. It's working again for now. . .
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • arwesarwes Member Posts: 633 ■■■□□□□□□□
    Check all your capacitors on the motherboard. I had a system in a branch office that would take 3 reboots before the second monitor would start working. I opened the case and noticed bulging or leaking capacitors all near the AGP slot. We've got about 30 or so Dell GX270's and all the boards were replaced except that one because the tech said that service tag # wasn't affected by the recall. Hah.
    [size=-2]Started WGU - BS IT:NDM on 1/1/13, finished 12/31/14
    Working on: Waiting on the mailman to bring me a diploma
    What's left: Graduation![/size]
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • exampasserexampasser Member Posts: 718 ■■■□□□□□□□
    arwes wrote: »
    Check all your capacitors on the motherboard. I had a system in a branch office that would take 3 reboots before the second monitor would start working. I opened the case and noticed bulging or leaking capacitors all near the AGP slot. We've got about 30 or so Dell GX270's and all the boards were replaced except that one because the tech said that service tag # wasn't affected by the recall. Hah.

    I do have a few bulging capacitors next to the CPU but they have been like that for years and I have had no problems, but who knows they might be causing a problem now. I doubt I could get a replacement as it's and old VIA P4PB 400 board.
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • exampasserexampasser Member Posts: 718 ■■■□□□□□□□
    I may have found the potential cause of my problem, recently I attached a WD external hard drive to the system. Today I tried to boot up and the display would not come on, I decided to disconnect the external hard drive and upon the second try the display appeared and it booted. It may have just been a coincidence though.
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • rwwest7rwwest7 Member Posts: 300
    I had something similar happen to me a few years ago. You may just be over stressing the power supply with the added hard drive. For me upgrading to a higher wattage power supply worked.
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • exampasserexampasser Member Posts: 718 ■■■□□□□□□□
    rwwest7 wrote: »
    I had something similar happen to me a few years ago. You may just be over stressing the power supply with the added hard drive. For me upgrading to a higher wattage power supply worked.
    I should have mentioned that the external hard drive has its own power supply.
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • tierstentiersten Member Posts: 4,505
    exampasser wrote: »
    I do have a few bulging capacitors next to the CPU but they have been like that for years and I have had no problems, but who knows they might be causing a problem now. I doubt I could get a replacement as it's and old VIA P4PB 400 board.
    The bulging tops generally mean they're failed or failing. They don't always go pop however and may just operate in a degraded state. This means that the ESR or capacitance goes off from the rated value and the voltage regulation for the CPU or other motherboard components is no longer as stable. If you're lucky then it still continues to work at least until the capacitors degrade further. If you're unlucky then they explode with a bang and a nasty smell.
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • exampasserexampasser Member Posts: 718 ■■■□□□□□□□
    tiersten wrote: »
    The bulging tops generally mean they're failed or failing. They don't always go pop however and may just operate in a degraded state. This means that the ESR or capacitance goes off from the rated value and the voltage regulation for the CPU or other motherboard components is no longer as stable. If you're lucky then it still continues to work at least until the capacitors degrade further. If you're unlucky then they explode with a bang and a nasty smell.

    So I pretty much have a motherboard on its last legs. At least it gives me an excuse to go out and buy/build a quad core system to use with VWware, its amazing that my old tower has lasted so long considering that I'm overclocking it to get to 2.7Ghz.
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • tierstentiersten Member Posts: 4,505
    exampasser wrote: »
    I may have found the potential cause of my problem, recently I attached a WD external hard drive to the system. Today I tried to boot up and the display would not come on, I decided to disconnect the external hard drive and upon the second try the display appeared and it booted. It may have just been a coincidence though.
    Coincidence
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • exampasserexampasser Member Posts: 718 ■■■□□□□□□□
    Well it took 15+ attempts to boot today, so I'm officially looking for a new system.
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
Sign In or Register to comment.