Help me diagnose my PC issue

Gentleman · 23 Sep 2018 at 17:29

Hi everyone,

I have a desktop PC. It has 16GB of RAM with GTX 460 graphics card and I have upgraded from Windows 7 to windows 8 and now windows 10. The computer has suddenly stopped working with just black screen and nothing on the monitor. I thought it was the monitor but the monitor has worked fine with another PC.

I thought it might be hard drive failure and I was a little concerned but luckily, I have just removed the hard drive and tried it in a Dell PC and it worked - I can see my usual desktop with all my sticky notes and files etc.

At this point, what else would you recommend I try?

Raz · 23 Sep 2018 at 17:33

The pc doesn't power up at all, or is it just that there's no output on the screen but fans etc are working?

Gentleman · 23 Sep 2018 at 17:58

T

Raz said:
The pc doesn't power up at all, or is it just that there's no output on the screen but fans etc are working?

Thanks for your reply. The PC is powering up. The fans come on but that is it.

jpod · 23 Sep 2018 at 18:24

I am a rookie but:
Try reseating memory, graphics power cables.
Can your MB show graphics with out a graphics card.........? Or have you got a known working graphics card to try?
Finally, do you have post beeps or a speaker you can put in your PC so you get the diagnosis beeps when your PC starts........

Motherboard, power supplies and memory are the most likely to fail....you can try a known working PSU or one stick of ram then the other.

But keep posting here and PC Pros will help.

User457 · 23 Sep 2018 at 18:32

I'd be looking at the graphics card first, as suggested above, does your motherboard have onboard video ?
If so hook the monitor onto that and see what you get ? If not, can you borrow another graphics card and try it in there ?

Also, check everything is seated correctly, memory, graphics etc... double check all power connections too ?

Let us know how you get on ?

Raz · 23 Sep 2018 at 18:33

Gentleman said:
T

Thanks for your reply. The PC is powering up. The fans come on but that is it.

As others have suggested it could be the GPU. Do you have another you could test out?

Gentleman · 23 Sep 2018 at 18:41

Thank you everyone. The power supply is working has the different fans on the system come on. The light on the front also come on.

My motherboard has an onboard video and I have tried that with no luck, although I am thinking I may need to remove the Graphics card to activate the onboard one. There are 4 Rams on there and I will remove them all and try 1 after the other to see. The speaker is connected and it doesn't make any noise either.

User457 · 23 Sep 2018 at 18:45

Yes, remove your Graphics card and run the onboard, see what you get ?

You said you tried hard drive on another machine, was this as a slave drive, ie non boot ?

Gentleman · 23 Sep 2018 at 18:58

User457 said:
Yes, remove your Graphics card and run the onboard, see what you get ?

You said you tried hard drive on another machine, was this as a slave drive, ie non boot ?

I tried the boot drive and it loaded win 10 normally with the files on it. I didn't try the slave drive.

User457 · 23 Sep 2018 at 19:07

That's fine, just wanted to ensure drive was booting, the fact its been in another machine now and confirmed is great.
Only down side is it may have changed drivers etc but wouldn't worry about that just yet.

My instinct is telling me its your Graphics or possibly motherboard !

jpod · 23 Sep 2018 at 21:15

You can usually activate the onboard in BIOS (I remember several hours figuring that out in the past . DohH!) and you need to plug monitor cable from motherboard to screen.....

Absence of a post beep suggests motherboard is flakey.

Not sure a light and fans means the PSU is all good - you can get a plug in tester and a known working spare PSU and graphics card is handy but appreciate you may need to convince a PC chum do dismantle their rig for you!

Nevertheless doing a system test is the way to go. There is a great thread on here....here it is,,,it is Admiral Huddy's. Hope that helps......

https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/threads/general-troubleshooting.18281472/

Gentleman · 24 Sep 2018 at 07:30

Thanks Wise guy, I'll give this a try later on today.

Gentleman · 27 Sep 2018 at 22:01

I have now, removed the graphics card and there's still nothing. The green light on the motherboard is on and the fan on the motherboard is working.

Anything else that I should try?

Thanks

User457 · 27 Sep 2018 at 22:04

Have you tried it in another pc ?
Can you double check the bios to ensure the onboard graphics are enabled ?

EsaT · 27 Sep 2018 at 22:17

Gentleman said:
Anything else that I should try?

That darn crystal ball never works, so how about listing parts of your PC?

And getting integrated GPU to work might need resetting BIOS to defaults.
Assuming CPU has integrated GPU, there are some which don't have it.

Also it's likely old enough to have dead "BIOS"/RTC battery so might be worth of replacing that.
Should be CR2032.

Gentleman · 27 Sep 2018 at 23:07

User457 said:
Have you tried it in another pc ?
Can you double check the bios to ensure the onboard graphics are enabled ?

I have tried the hard drive with the operating system on another PC & it worked. When I put the hard drive back into its pc, the fan comes on and the light on the motherboard but nothing is displayed on the monitor. I have removed the graphic card and still nothing. But how do I enter bios to enable the integrated GPU if nothing is showing on the monitor?

Gentleman · 27 Sep 2018 at 23:18

By the way, the motherboard is an Asus p7h55-m si

AthlonXP1800 · 27 Sep 2018 at 23:23

Try clear CMOS on motherboard by look up on manual page 7.

Gentleman · 28 Sep 2018 at 22:41

So far, I have done the following.

Removed the hard drive and tried it in a Dell PC and it worked
Removed and returned the RAMs and the graphic card
I have reset CMOS by removing the battery and replacing it
I have tried from the integrated GPU on the motherboard
I have just put the hard drive back into a small dell PC and it loaded windows 10 pro fine as before. However, when I logged on as admin - there's a lot of update necessary and this is till ongoing

I am planning to let the updates etc finish and then remove the hard drive and try again. But is there anything else?

The motherboard is the only thing left that I can think of. Is it possible the motherboard is gone even though the fan and the light comes on? OR could it be the CPU that is gone?

jpod · 30 Sep 2018 at 20:22

Any update homes?