Booting w/ no monitor

[bjam2]

When I press the power button eveything happens normally except the monitor just stays black. It used to start on the 3rd or 4th attempt then got worse and now does it every time

I had this problem before and replaced every part of the system including the case (heard it could be a worn out power switch) except the hard drive.

If I put in a different video card then it would work perfect for a few weeks but if I put the old one back in it wouldn't.

I had video card A in it then it would start doing this then I could put video card B in and it would work for a few weeks then I had to put video card C in and it worked but video cards A and B wouldn't work in this system but would work in any other system!!!

When I replaced the case it worked perfect for a few months and is now doing it again.

I got it to work right now by putting video card B in instead of C which has been in it and working fine.

What would make it do this with practically every component changed could it be the power switch? That seemed to work last time.

Also it's not the monitor or wall outlet and I have a total of five fans so it shouldn't be a cooling problem.


THANKS IN ADVANCE

I AM GOING INSANE I THINK IT'S POSSESED

[ski]

When the problem occurs, make sure the video card and the memory are fully inserted. Sometimes they have a tendency to creep out of their slots.

[Sylvander]

Hello bjam2

I'm using diagnostic charts.

1. Your PC is not dead, is that right?
2. When the screen has no display, did POST appear to run?
3. Did you hear a single beep indicating successful POST, or multiple beeps indicating a problem?

[gwallen4]

Have you tried the video cards in other computers to see if they will work? Or is your computer burning them up?

And have you tried a different monitor?

Also, don't go back to whoever told you it could be a bad power switch.



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Sandman

[sgelhar]

When you install these video cards are you also making sure you install the correct video driver for the card. If the cards are different you would need to uninstall or delete the old video driver and reinstall the new one, or go into control panel, select system and go into the hardware device list, select the video card and tell it to update the driver for the card you installed. Having the wrong driver for a card that is inserted can cause unpredicatable results, a conflict, or worse your computer to crash.

[iisbob]

How do you know it's not the monitor? Have you tried it on another system and it worked?

if your system is POSTing/booting, then i would say it is your monitor going bad.

sgelhar upon a first boot, drivers wouldn't have anything to do with it at this point, since you're running off of the BIOS VGA settings.


bjam2 try this monitor on another system and let us know if it works ok; also try a PCI card instead of an AGP one to see if it's a possible bad AGP slot in your mobo.{ you never said what kind of video card you were using }




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iisbob

Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.-Mark Twain