PC not displaying a picture at all :( Quite the mystery!

bobert50

bobert50

bobert50

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Hi, I'm really hoping for some suggestions from here to help me get a friends PC up and running.

TL-DR = The PC appears to boot up absolutely fine sound-wise when listening inside the case, but there is no display at all via HDMI or DP, and the same using multiple different monitors.

Things of note:
1) The CPU / GPU / case fans are all spinning absolutely fine, I can even hear the hard drives firing up and it makes sounds typical of a PC booting up and going through the motions.
2) There is no display showing at any stage, including mobbo logo screen / so no access to BIOS, just absolutely nothing showing signal wise.
3) I've tried switching up the RAM slots, trying just one RAM stick at a time in different slots, no luck at all.
4) I've tried a different GPU, same thing exactly.
5) I've tried pulling the CMOS battery for 15 mins+.
6) When I press and hold the power switch, it remains on, but then as soon as I let go of the power switch, it powers down instantly.

Apparently when this first started happening to his PC, he couldn't see anything visually but he could hear through his headset when his pc hit windows because of the sounds, but that no longer happens, possibly through windows getting confused at this stage and not making it fully into windows?

I don't know exact PC specs sadly as no display and he doesn't know for sure either, but it seems like a relatively modern AM4 build with a 1060GTX, EVGA 500w PSU, 2x8gb 3200mhz DDR4 RAM.

Any help very appreciated, as I'm super baffled!
 
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Tetras said:
Pulled all the USB devices?

What's the cooler? Sometimes can be a mount issue, though I'd expect that only likely to be an issue if it was repasted recently, or moved.
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It looks to me like an AMD Ryzen Wraith Prism CPU Cooler. It looks solidly put on at a feel, and hasn't been altered in any way since the build was done successfully I think 6 months back.
 
alex24 said:
My point is - what if for some reason it's enabled now and is outputting a signal. Does connecting to the motherboard display output show anything?
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Thanks for the suggestion. Yeah, I was hoping this would be the case yesterday. I've tried it with the HDMI wire in the motherboard HDMI socket both with the GPU still in, and then without. No display at all still, sadly.
 
Threepwood said:
reseat the gpu, and the ram?
try the GPU in another computer?
try another gpu?
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I've researched the GPU and RAM sooo many times. Tried all the port combinations (1 and 3 + 2 and 4, as well as 1 and 2). I've also tried one RAM stick at a time in various slots just in case one of the RAM sticks is playing up but not the other, still no luck.

Regarding trying another GPU, I booted up my working media centre PC just to make sure all was good with it before shutting it off again and experimenting with different parts. I then switched the GPU from the 'problem computer' into my working media PC, and I instantly had no signal on my normally working media PC, so i thought 'Yes, cracked it!!'. So I then switched my working graphics card from the media PC into the 'problem PC', fully expecting it to come up with a signal and be fine... but nope, no signal! :confused:
 
freddie64 said:
Try the GPU in the second slot, if the motherboard has one.

Try a new CMOS battery
Click to expand...

There is another GPU slot but it's really tiny and couldn't fit any sort of modern GPU in even to test.

I tried another CMOS battery from a different motherboard and still didn't help.

It's all very baffling!
 
pastymuncher said:
Are you able to test it with a different psu? The reason I ask is that if that 500w psu is one of the EVGA whitre label ones it's garbage and may be faulty.
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Yeah this was my first thought when I saw the inside of the PC. It seems generally good parts but, yep, a EVGA white label 500w PSU :(

However, I have now tried a 100% working Corsair 1200W PSU just now and still the same thing, no display.
 
freddie64 said:
Think if you try the onboard graphics you will have to remove the 1060. Chances are though the CPU has no igpu.

What is the GPU you tried from your media PC?

Think the next logical step is to try another PSU.
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I tried a 970 GFX from my media PC as well as an even older GTX 780 the day before, but yep, no display still.
 
Threepwood said:
that will just be a pcie x1 slot then, a second pcie x16 slot will look exactly the same as the normal gpu pcie x16 slot,
rip it all out and bread board test it , if it still doesn't work try a new psu, which will be pretty easy if you already have everything out of the case
have you tried a different video cable yet?
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Yep I figured it must be a pcie x1 slot but wasn't sure of the name :)

I've got two PCs (problem pc + fully working pc) set up on the dining table atm, so it's definitely not the wire, but I have tried various HDMIs and displayport cables the previous day too.
 
Thank you for all the suggestions. Even my earlier 'breakthrough' turned out to be incorrect this morning with regards to the GPU from the 'problem PC' not working in my media PC, or so I thought. It turns out just via HDMI it didn't show the mobbo logo in time on the big TV and it got confused in windows initially, but it's now working fine in my media PC after leaving it a while. Hmmph! Zero progress at all. Completely baffled.

From experience, something still makes me think this sounds so RAM-like, but I've tried the sticks individually, in all combinations / RAM slots. I may as a last ditch attempt try to borrow some of the same type of RAM from my wife's PC. Am I correct now to thinking more along the lines of the very few remaining things, RAM or maybe even faulty motherboard?
 
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