No display is shown on the monitor when powering up my PC

[Viraylab]

Hello Experts,

This is what happened. A few weeks ago, my brother who was using our home PC complained of garbled display in our monitor. So I immediately felt it was the monitor or the video card that was falty. I uninstalled our video card and had it tested in my friends PC but it was pretty ok. I left it with him for a few days to test it but he said there was no problem with my card. So now I borrowed his NEW monitor and tested it(using our video card) in our house but it still displays garbled images even during startup. So now I realized this must be a motherboard problem or even the power supply. I also borrowed a power supply from my friend and installed it in my PC but it still has the same problem. Now this is where it gets weird. Last week, when we tried to power on our PC, it doesnt respond or "power up" our monitor even with my friend's NEW monitor but I know our PC is running ok. So we ran out of options so we decided to take it to a technician. So when he tried to turn on our PC in their shop, whoa! it was working! We left it for a almost a whole day and when we came back, he said that it was working perfectly fine. He told us that it we might have a faulty power strip or outlet. Ok, so we immediately bought a new power strip and went home as fast as we could to test again our PC. But to our dismay, it still had the same problem. So what we did was to plug the power strip to another power outlet in our house but it still had the same problem. So now we are really out of options. Hope you could help me out here experts. Thank you very much and take care!

BTW, below is the spec of our PC:

Processor: AMD Sempron 2200+
MOBO: MSI KT4AV
Memory: 512 DDR400
1 CD-RW
2 HDD(1 80 gig Seagate Baraccuda and 1 20 gig Maxtor)
400 Watts Power Supply
AOC 17" Monitor

[Ajmukon]

try reinstalling the Video Card Driver
that would be the first course of Action

[alternate]

Get an uninterruptible power supply (UPS)? Try plugging the computer into an outlet of the house of your friend? You might just have a bad house...

[Sylvander]

When your PC previously worked well, did you hear the single short beep that indicates successful completion of the POST?

And when the PC now gives no display do you hear no single short beep?

[Viraylab]

When your PC previously worked well, did you hear the single short beep that indicates successful completion of the POST?

And when the PC now gives no display do you hear no single short beep?

No, I do not hear any beep when I turn on the PC.

[Sylvander]

Two questions asked, only one question answered.

1. Have you ever heard beeps on this PC? [i.e. Does the internal speaker work?]

2. "I know our PC is running ok"
How do you know this?
What signs do you see?
Any sign the POST is running? LED's blinking? Fans running?

3. To test whether the POST is running...
Switch off, remove video card and all RAM, switch on.
If the POST runs, and tests, and warns, and the internal speaker works, you should hear warning beeps.
Switch off, reconnect video card, switch on. [Should still hear warning beeps]
Switch off, reconnect at least 1 stick of RAM, switch on. [Should hear no warning beeps]

4. If you want to be really thorough in 3 above you'd have the mobo out of the case on a non-conducting surface.
Then you'd disconnect all non-essential hardware to leave connected only:
PSU, mobo, CPU+heatsink+fan, internal speaker.
If you have any doubts about the on-switch, don't connect it, just short the pins on the mobo instead.

[Viraylab]

Hi Sylvander,

Sorry for the delayed reply. Anyway, we went to a computer repair shop to have it checked again. Now, the technician told us that our fairly new video card(just bought it this december) has capacitor leaks so thats why our monitor is not powering up. So I went to the store where we bought the video card to have it replaced. Now for the meantime I will wait for their call to know if the card really has leaks or damage. Thank you very much for your reply and I will update this thread as soon as I have an update regarding the status of my video card.