No Display?

K1LLSW1TCH

K1LLSW1TCH

K1LLSW1TCH

Caporegime
Joined
12 Mar 2009
Posts
26,779
I have a bit of an odd problem and I'm hoping someone can give me a bit of help. (PC related) :p

Basically I'm not getting any picture either through my on board graphics chip or via a PCI-e card. I've tried my motherboard's built in Geforce 9300 and I've tried my HD5850. The motherboard has VGA and HDMI so I tried HDMI first, plugged into my HDTV and nothing, then I tried my graphics card over HDMI and nothing. So I pulled my Samsung LCD monitor out and connected the graphics card via DVI, nothing, I then tried the on board via DVI and nothing again.

The weirdness is that this computer has worked fine in the past, the computer turns on, all the fans spin up as they should, as per normal, the power light comes on, and all looks as if it should just there's no picture either on the TV or on the monitor. I thought maybe the graphics card could be at fault (even though it appears to power up and spin its' fan) so I removed that from the equation by taking it out of the PCI-e slot but still there's no video output. Can anybody give me some advice?

So far I've tried:
  • Removing the graphics card and using the on board graphics chip
  • Unplugging and re-inserting the motherboard power cable from the PSU to the motherboard
  • Resetting BIOS by taking the battery off the motherboard and waiting a few moments before re inserting it
  • Reseating the RAM

What else can I do? I don't think it's the motherboard at fault as the lights all come on, on the the motherboard and the case fan, the GPU fan and the CPU fan all spin up as well as the PSU fan.

Motherboard is a Zotac 9300 ITX.

Thanks.
 
I've just taken the whole thing apart, removed the motherboard from the case hoovered the case as there were a few bits of cable sleeving that had frayed, which could lead to possible shorting. I reseated everything, and now I'm testing with just the on board graphics and still nothing. Could it possibly be a power supply problem? I thought I'd ruled that out due to the motherboard powering and all the fans spinning up but is that possible?
 
daft question from me, but have you enabled/disabled the onboard gfx as required, as they can sometimes conflict.

not sure what else is in it but have you tried stripping it down to the bare bones, so processor, onboard gfx, 1 stick of memory and boot hd, unplugging power from everything else and the gfx card removed from the system ?
 
There is no speaker for the motherboard to answer the first question. :)

The second one, I've just done that now, removed everything from the case, I'll try the one stick of RAM now as I've been trying with two modules inserted. It's down to it's bare bones at the moment, processor, on board graphics and the HDD connected. I've tried without the HDD connected as well which I assume should still let you view the BIOS but it still results in the same problem, the monitor just flashes standby... I would like to enable my HD5850 and disable the onboard graphics but until I can get into the BIOS I can't do that, or can I?

I'll try with one stick of RAM and report back.
 
You don't need the HDD connected for the system to post.

It makes sense to try and start the system on 1 stick of ram, switch them over just incase one is faulty. If you are still having no joy with the advice above you may need to try and borrow a psu just to rule that out also.

It could well be a mobo fault, welcome to the "joys" of troubleshooting. Good luck let us know what you find.
 
I've just tried 1 stick and the same problem, tried the other stick and the same thing, no display. I tried each stick in both slots, also, the HDD activity light does flash on the front of the case, the keyboard lights up and shows that the motherboard is detecting USB, everything is exactly as it should be except no signal on the monitor, this is with the on board graphics. It's possible that it's looking for the PCI-e card and that's why there's no signal, maybe. Would there be some way of forcing the computer to use the onboard graphics without going into the BIOS and doing it? Removing the battery for a few minutes should reset the BIOS shouldn't it?
 
Well because you have reset the bios there is a good chance on default it is using the onboard graphics. You can plug in the gfx card and swap over the monitor cable between the IGP and the gfx card to see if anything is displayed whilst the system is on

I'm leaning more towards a mobo fault but try and source a psu just to rule it out.
 
honosuseri said:
Well because you have reset the bios there is a good chance on default it is using the onboard graphics. You can plug in the gfx card and swap over the monitor cable between the IGP and the gfx card to see if anything is displayed whilst the system is on

I'm leaning more towards a mobo fault but try and source a psu just to rule it out.
Click to expand...

Is it possible for the motherboard to be faulty despite the fans, HDD and USB indicating that they are working? Not picking apart your theory, I'm glad for the advice, but I'm just questioning. :)

I'll have to try another PSU at some point, though that will have to wait until later on in the week.

EDIT: For some reason it's now deciding to work, just booted up to the splash screen and now I'm going into the BIOS. My fear is when I turn it off to install the PCI-e card that I'll turn it back on and it will refuse to work again, which is what it did the other day.
 
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No it's ok, it's a fair question. I repair pcs on a day to day basis. What bremen is getting at is that the mobo beeps when u power on. It's called post (power on self test) if anything is wrong the beeps point to the problem.

As you dont have this to help point you in the right direction is a matter of swapping out parts for testing. I have a wide variety of parts for troubleshooting purposes.

It's unlikely but both ram sticks could be faulty. It would be best to borrow a psu than buy (so long as you know its good) as if it is a matter of buying a new mobo you'll kick yourself for spending £50ish on a psu when nothing was wrong with the old one.

You could head to your local tip armed with a trusty screwdriver and a tenner to bribe the guys with beer. My bro worked at a recycling yard and would bring home pcs all the time. It is a gamble as you dont know why they were disgarded but you could get lucky....just a thought you'd be amazed at what people throw away.
 
:) Thanks for the help everyone. I've got it working with the onboard graphics and I'm just in the process of installing the new catalyst drivers before I disable the on board graphics in the BIOS and try the 5850 again.

Cheers for the advice as well honosuseri. No doubt I'll be back in a few minutes to tell you that I disabled the on board graphics and the PCI-e card still doesn't work. :p

EDIT: WOOOO! It finally works. :D Booted into Windows with the onboard graphics, installed the Catalyst drivers for the 5850, disabled the Nvidia 9300 which is on my mobo and it automatically picked up the 5850.
 
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