My computer broke

[skip]

My computer turns on fine and it sounds fine, but my monitor is all black. I tried taking a monitor from my other computer and plugging it in, but still, nothing showed. So, I don't think it's a monitor problem. I could be wrong. I'm thinking it's either a video card or a mobo problem. How do I figure out which it is? I don't want to drop a couple hundred bucks on something that won't fix my computer. And bear in mind, I don't really know how to take stuff apart in my computer  .

Thank ya mucho!

[MyndFyre]

This advice MIGHT work, but it really only applies to Newby....

[Warrior]

If your computer does not POST try to clear the CMOS, if that still does not resolve it try testing with a different powersupply.
Really though, it could be a number of things.

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I don't really know what POST and CMOS is, but I'm going to assume here that I need to see things on my computer screen to know if it does or not. 

I'm just going to go ahead and buy a new video card, if it doesn't fix my problem, I guess I'll just return it. Can I just pick any video card? Does it have to be compatible with my computer and stuff?

[MyndFyre]

I don't really know what POST and CMOS is, but I'm going to assume here that I need to see things on my computer screen to know if it does or not. 

I'm just going to go ahead and buy a new video card, if it doesn't fix my problem, I guess I'll just return it. Can I just pick any video card? Does it have to be compatible with my computer and stuff?

POST is "Power-On Self Test" and CMOS is "Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor".  The POST is the text-mode stuff like tests that come up during initial startup; CMOS is a special kind of memory chip that stores things like your BIOS (hardware settings) and gets your computer to start your OS.

[skip]

Hmm. I see.

Can someone recommend me a video card? It has to be atleast 512 MB, PCI Express x16 slot, and be between $100-$200. The only thing I really do on it is play WoW and watch movies. My monitor is a 22" widescreen if you need to know that... 

Thank ya mucho!

[Joe]

512MB $100-$199
1GB $100-$199

[Warrior]

Hmm. I see.

Can someone recommend me a video card? It has to be atleast 512 MB, PCI Express x16 slot, and be between $100-$200. The only thing I really do on it is play WoW and watch movies. My monitor is a 22" widescreen if you need to know that... 

Thank ya mucho!

You should be sure that the video card is the source of the failure. You can always check by removing your current video card while it's turned on and listening for the beep it makes. Beep = POST, No Beep = No POST

[Chavo]

You can always check by removing your current video card while it's turned on

For the love of God, why the hell are you recommending something so ridiculously wrong as REMOVING A COMPONENT WITH LIVE POWER TO IT?!!??!

I agree that the video card is the logical device to check when your monitor does not display anything and a second monitor does not as well, but removing ANYTHING from your computer while it is running is probably THE worst possible thing you can do without introducing your own power source or rubbing your hands on the carpet.  Not to mention that any sanely designed motherboard will power off IMMEDIATELY when you remove a component, not make a beep.

There are a couple things you can check for:

1.  Checking for a system beep is a good idea, but you'll of course need a properly connected speaker to the motherboard (and I'd recommend clearing CMOS first to make sure the setting is at default).  My guess is that if you can hear your computer reading the hard drive in the same way it does while loading your OS, the motherboard isn't the problem.
2.  Does the monitor change state when the computer is powered on?  Modern monitors typically display a 'no input detected' when then they are receiving no signal from the vga/dvi cable.
3.  Check the basics:
  - make sure the video card is well seated, remove dust
  - visually inspect the video card and motherboard for obvious signs of corrosion or blown components
  - pull the video card and try the integrated video if your motherboard has it

[Blaze]

I'm pretty sure he didn't mean what he said.. I hope. 

[Ergot]

I heard the Radeon HD 4850's are beasts for their price.

In addition to what Chavo, it might not be a bad idea to just unplug every extra device: hard drives, CD drives, sound cards, etc and see if it boots. For some reason reseating the RAM also helps sometimes too; in fact go ahead and reseat everything.

[Warrior]

You can always check by removing your current video card while it's turned on

For the love of God, why the hell are you recommending something so ridiculously wrong as REMOVING A COMPONENT WITH LIVE POWER TO IT?!!??!

I agree that the video card is the logical device to check when your monitor does not display anything and a second monitor does not as well, but removing ANYTHING from your computer while it is running is probably THE worst possible thing you can do without introducing your own power source or rubbing your hands on the carpet.  Not to mention that any sanely designed motherboard will power off IMMEDIATELY when you remove a component, not make a beep.

This is pretty common practice to do, and no most motherboards will indeed give an error indicating an unseated video card.

The same goes for unsteated RAM modules.

I assume when dealing with such things he already knows how to ground himself.

[Warrior]

To elaborate, I've had POST failures be a wide range of hardware related things. To save money you should make sure that it's actually a video card failure.

This can be as simple as  a BIOS misconfigugration (remedied by clearing the CMOS jumper, your motherboard manual should have it's location), unseated video card / bad video card / unseated ram / bad ram, bad power supply, etc.

Try to start up your PC with one stick of ram (swapping them out until you've tested each one alone individually), if you have an integrated video card, try that.

If you can, try finding an old video card you can throw in there for testing purposes. If you have an old AGP slot this is much easier.

It really could be a number of things, so eh.

[skip]

Okay, I realized something after reading Chavo's post, when I have my computer on and my monitor plugged in, it just has a black screen, however, when I unplug the monitor and my computer is on, it says, "Check Signal Cable."

So I'm saying this based on speculation, but, doesn't that mean my video card was sending something to the monitor (therefore, working), but my computer, like Warrior said, has a BIOS misconfiguration or something?

I did try taking out my video card but I don't know how and I'm afraid I'm going to break something lol.

[Warrior]

Okay, I realized something after reading Chavo's post, when I have my computer on and my monitor plugged in, it just has a black screen, however, when I unplug the monitor and my computer is on, it says, "Check Signal Cable."

So I'm saying this based on speculation, but, doesn't that mean my video card was sending something to the monitor (therefore, working), but my computer, like Warrior said, has a BIOS misconfiguration or something?

I did try taking out my video card but I don't know how and I'm afraid I'm going to break something lol.

No. The No Signal feed is built into the monitor.

Not POSTing, like I said can be a number of things. When you plug your speakers in, do you hear any beeps at all when starting up your computer?