Motherboard works but no video !!

[matsekberg]

I have a motherboard with a Athlon64 and a X300 PCI-Express16 video card.
When I boot I can hear that it boots ok and proceeds the whole way to Windows. The thing is, I dont get ANY video out, not even BIOS-messages. I have tested the video card on another computer and it works ! Also, I have tested another video card with no success.
Strange huh?

Any ideas?

[azzey]

Welcome to http://www.pcguide.com/ubb/pcgubb.gif Discussion Forums!

Okay, so I assume you can hear the Windows startup sound?

Is your monitor working okay? See if you can test it.
Does your motherboard have onboard video? Your full system specs are needed.

[matsekberg]

Welcome to http://www.pcguide.com/ubb/pcgubb.gif Discussion Forums!

Okay, so I assume you can hear the Windows startup sound?

Is your monitor working okay? See if you can test it.
Does your motherboard have onboard video? Your full system specs are needed.

Its a Asus A8Ne-FM w Athlon64 3000, 1GB RAM, 250GB Samsung IDE-HD, Twinhan DTV-S CI, ATI Rage X300.

I know that its starting ok, because I can tell on the HD-lamps pattern.
Also the SPDIF starts delivering a digital stream to my receiver.
The monitor (LCD-projector) is working ok with the graphics board in another computer. I can also hear the plug-in-USB-sound when I connect an external HD via USB.
And I can also here the Windows "welcome"-tune.

I have resetted the CMOS RAM on the board according to the MB manual.

[alex666]

Try booting into safemode.

[azzey]

If there's no video being output at all then there's not way to get into safe mode. Furthermore, if the POST isn't even displaying anything, then it's not a Windows problem.

Is there another monitor you can try?

[mjc]

I see that you've checked the monitor on another machine, but I agree with azzey...try another monitor on this one.

[Sylvander]

CHECK THE HARDWARE
If the hardware is at all functional, then the #1_TuffTEST-Lite (http://www.tufftest.com/free.htm) bootable test floppy should produce a display [it uses its own machine code, not drivers, to operate the hardware directly], and run display test [among others].

WINDOWS DRIVER PROBLEM?
Then if its a driver problem, you could run Knoppix from a Knoppix Linux Live CD (http://www.knoppix.org/), and the Knoppix video drivers may produce a display.

NEITHER OF THE ABOVE?
If neither of these work, then I'd guess it's a BIOS configuration problem.
You're using a PCIE video card, but perhaps the BIOS is configured to use a PCI video card.
If so you need to use a PCI video card to get a display, then configure the BIOS to use a PCIE video card, shut down, connect the PCIE, and switch on.

[alex666]

If there's no video being output at all then there's not way to get into safe mode. Furthermore, if the POST isn't even displaying anything, then it's not a Windows problem.

Yes, you're quite right. As I recall in the OP's original post, you could see something during posting, the video bios (hence my suggestion), though I'm not seeing that now. I guess I'm just going daft.

In any case, did this problem start suddenly, out of the blue? That's not clear to me. Or is this a new build possibly, though I can't imagine how you'd have a hdd with windows on it already with a newly-assembled build?

In short, what's the history, time-line as it were? That would help.

[matsekberg]

Yes, you're quite right. As I recall in the OP's original post, you could see something during posting, the video bios (hence my suggestion), though I'm not seeing that now. I guess I'm just going daft.

In any case, did this problem start suddenly, out of the blue? That's not clear to me. Or is this a new build possibly, though I can't imagine how you'd have a hdd with windows on it already with a newly-assembled build?

In short, what's the history, time-line as it were? That would help.

This is my mediacenter machine that have been up and running perfectly about a year. I use Windows Mediacenter edition. A few days before the "crash" I installed MediaPortal and it worked fine for a week. Then suddenly when I turned the projector on there was no video from the already powered up PC.

[matsekberg]

CHECK THE HARDWARE
If the hardware is at all functional, then the #1_TuffTEST-Lite (http://www.tufftest.com/free.htm) bootable test floppy should produce a display [it uses its own machine code, not drivers, to operate the hardware directly], and run display test [among others].

WINDOWS DRIVER PROBLEM?
Then if its a driver problem, you could run Knoppix from a Knoppix Linux Live CD (http://www.knoppix.org/), and the Knoppix video drivers may produce a display.

NEITHER OF THE ABOVE?
If neither of these work, then I'd guess it's a BIOS configuration problem.
You're using a PCIE video card, but perhaps the BIOS is configured to use a PCI video card.
If so you need to use a PCI video card to get a display, then configure the BIOS to use a PCIE video card, shut down, connect the PCIE, and switch on.

Thanx, Ill try this. Have to find a floppy first though....

[alex666]

But if you're not getting ANY video, including even seeing the bios, I'm not sure tuff test will make any difference either.

You may need to pull out everything temporarily and start with just your cpu and hsf, memory, and video card. No other peripherals connected. This can help identify whether it might be a power supply (psu) issue. BTW, does that video card have its own power molex connector and did it by any chance fall off? I'm sure you would have caught that, but I thought I'd ask. In any case, if I was in your shoes, I'd be trying to get that work as an absolute barebones system with just the cpu, memory, and video card first. And if that doesn't work, and the video card works fine elsewhere, then you've got to consider that the mobo is screwed up. I was able to download the manual and it does not appear to have any on-board video, so that should not be the problem. It's actually a Fujitsu mobo made for Asus.

[Sylvander]

" But if you're not getting ANY video, including even seeing the bios, I'm not sure tuff test will make any difference either"
That's what I was thinking too, but....
The video card seems to NOT fail the BIOS's POST and halt the POST...
Instead the sytem seems to pass all hardware tests...
Is the BIOS configured NOT to halt on ANY errors?
So it should be possible to boot the #1-TuffTEST-Lite bootable floppy...
And it would be interesting to see what happens. :)
Would TuffTEST be able to control the hardware directly?
Does it control it via the BIOS and would the BIOS do as its told and operate the video card?

[alex666]

Syl, now you've got me curious, so I downloaded the tt iso file. Will burn it to a cd when I get home from work and check it out. I'm always open to new self-booting diagnostic programs.

Re. topic at hand, I swear he originally said that he COULD see some video during post, hence I suggested booting into safemode. But then upon re-reading the original post, I see no mention of seeing any such video, and then later he said there is no video even with a different card.

marty