computer issue

[spiderrey]

turned computer on today and nothing. Tower lights up but screen stays black. Any ideas? Screen flashes no signal sign for a second and goes black. Worked fine this mornin before work

[maytag]

what type of computer do you have? this sounds like it could be your video-card, and on most late-models, unless you have a "purpose-built" gamer or multi-media machine, it's likely "on-board", meaning part of the mother-board.

BUT: just like trouble-shooting electrical in the fiat, start with easy-stuff first.
I assume you've turned it (the tower) off and then back on? and done the same with the monitor?

Then check the cable connections. unplug and visually inspect, then plug 'em back in. if you have another cable or monitor, plug-n-play and see if you can get it to work. or take your tower to a buddy's house and plug it into his monitor. You see where I'm going here.

lets try to narrow down the problem.

[spiderrey]

Ita an H P Media Center T V P C. I wouldnt think a connection would come lose while Im not at home. I have another dest top set up in the spare bed room and figured if I cant resolve this tonite I would swap pieces around. Thanx 4 the reply Maytag.

[redek]

If it doesn't post (no bios message), it could be your power supply. One of the most failed parts, mine died a couple weeks ago. Its a great reason to buy parts from a reliable company, I had my rma'd replacement back two days after they received it.

[azruss]

i posted last night and it didnt take. dont know what that is about.
I bought a new computer and had the same issue. it turns out it has a digital mode and analog mode. in the digital mode, it shows a black screen with the no signal message. when i pushed the right button on the monitor and got it back to analog, i was good to go. fool with this before you start digging into video cards and motherboards.

[spiderrey]

I pressed all the buttons on the screen. and turned it on again this mornin. it started up while I was in the other room. Thanx for the help guys.

[maytag]

I pressed all the buttons on the screen. and turned it on again this mornin. it started up while I was in the other room. Thanx for the help guys.

That's probably the secret then: it just didn't want to be watched during startup.

[spiderrey]

Maytag, thats not it. I would wait a long time between the restarts and still nothing. Its back now. Yesterday after being on for a few hours it shut off while my girlfriend was on it. Its on now but Im sure it will be back. now im just wondering what would be the best way of diagnosing it. Im thinking of opening it up and cleaning it out, as im sure its full of dust by now. Might not help anything, but it cant hurt. I m now eally computer savey. the last time that i took a computer in to be wored on it didnt help much. had the same issuws when it was returned. Went back a few times and gave up.

[maytag]

well, about the only stuff I know about computers is stuff I had to learn 'cuz I either broke something or bought something "pre-broken".
Cleaner is always better. Be sure to unplug it first. Use canned-air, not a compressor, or even a vacuum. You don;t want to be creating a static charge.
Heat is your enemy. Make sure the cooling fans are clean and spinning freely. ESPECIALLY the one on the CPU.
There was mention of it being your power-supply. That doesn't fit the symptoms, as you';ve stated that the tower fires-up, but the monitor doesn't get signal. Yes, it is technically possible to see the power-supply fail to JUST the video-card, but I've never seen it happen. It is quite possible to have too many peripherals for your power-supply, but that wouldn't work one day but not the next.

So you have an intermittent problem, which, just like with your car, is the hardest to diagnose. If it is possible to swap monitor and cables for another, known-good one, this will help.

If you right-click "My Computer" and then hit "properties", you can see what MOBO you're using, what Chipset and memory, etc etc. Tell me what we are working with? I would also love to know if you have onboard video, or if you have an add-on video card. This could help narrow it down.

[spiderrey]

Thanx, Ill try and dig into it tommrow. It just shut down again. I use the canned air when I clean these things.

[spiderrey]

It was filthy. I cleaned it and it still dosent work. Swapped out the screen and cord. Made no difference. Next step?

[maytag]

It's been a bit, so let's review: Your tower fires-up, meaning you hear the bios-beep, the fans are turning, all the lights on the motherboard are lit? Can you hear hard-drives spooling?

And then you get a "no-signal" on your monitor.

Can you tell me if you have on-board video, or if you are running a video-card? Maybe take some pics of the connections on the back, and then if possible, a pic of the interior of the case, showing the MOBO and any peripherals? Because this is where I'm leaning. HOPEFULLY you have a bad video-card, in which case I probably have one in a drawer I'll send ya for free. If it's on-board, we may have a larger issue to deal with.

lemme know.

[spiderrey]

Ill take pics in the mornin

[spiderrey]

Well Maytag, I cant seem to get any pics loaded on tto this backup computer. So all I know is when I turn it on the fans come on and I dont hear any other noise. And I get the no signal message on the screen. So stuck for now.

[spiderrey]

Someone else told me its the graphics card. Now I need to figure out if its a removable one. Just noticed there is a sticker on the front of the computer that says ( graphics by nvidia ). Inside there is a 1 1/4 inch square that looks as if its part of the main board. it says nvidia on it.