Diagnose Problem

nydryl · 22 Jul 2011 at 13:55

Not ventured into this area of the forum for a long long time so here goes.

I built what was quite a good gaming pc back when the e6400 had just came out and could be clocked to death. The computer stopped working a couple of years ago and it's been sitting in a corner at my parent's house gathering dust ever since.

The problem - switch it on, fans spin, light on motherboard glows but nothing shows on the monitor. The monitor works fine so what's the most likely issue here?

I realise it's probably impossible to help without seeing the computer or being able to test each component but I thought some problems might be more common than others.

One more thing, assuming the graphics card would be an easy problem to diagnose cheaply by simply removing it and using the onboard graphics. I need a connector to let me connect my monitor (vga) to the motherboard which looks like this (Asus P5B Deluxe):

What would do the job?

Any help in these vague poorly described areas would be much appreciated. At the very least I could start using it again or strip it down and sell the working parts in MM.

Brian8bit · 22 Jul 2011 at 13:58

That board doesn't have onboard graphics. That green port is a serial port.

nydryl · 22 Jul 2011 at 13:58

See, I did mention it had been a while

spleenharvester · 22 Jul 2011 at 14:00

Clear the CMOS, and disconnect all necessary components down to the basic stuff you need to boot, i.e 1 stick of RAM etc. If you disconnect the graphics card does it seem to boot without it?

Brian8bit · 22 Jul 2011 at 14:01

If you can borrow a card off a friend, or even buy a cheap card for £10 second hand or something and try that to see if your own card is dead would be the easiest solution.

nydryl · 22 Jul 2011 at 14:03

spleenharvester said:
Clear the CMOS, and disconnect all necessary components down to the basic stuff you need to boot, i.e 1 stick of RAM etc. If you disconnect the graphics card does it seem to boot without it?

Sorry I should have said the I went through clearing the CMOS, minimum RAM etc when it broke initially. What do you mean by booting without the graphics card? I'm being an idiot but I thought the only way to see if it's booting would be by something registering on the monitor?

Brian8bit said:
If you can borrow a card off a friend, or even buy a cheap card for £10 second hand or something and try that to see if your own card is dead would be the easiest solution.

Cheers, this is the route I'll go down first I think.

spleenharvester · 22 Jul 2011 at 21:02

nydryl said:
Sorry I should have said the I went through clearing the CMOS, minimum RAM etc when it broke initially. What do you mean by booting without the graphics card? I'm being an idiot but I thought the only way to see if it's booting would be by something registering on the monitor?

Cheers, this is the route I'll go down first I think.

You would hear it booting normally

If the graphics card's in trouble it will probably hang on it at post and keep trying to reinitialise the VGA bios.

It could be anything at this stage, problems like these, the only real way to test is by swapping parts out. My money's on PSU or board.

nydryl · 4 Aug 2011 at 09:57

For some closure it was the motherboard that was the issue. Cheers for the help folks.