[Azmin]

Hi everyone,

I am having a non-fatal, yet excruciatingly irritating problem with my dad's desktop PC. Lately, when the PC is booted up, the screen will often not start up, i.e. It displays "No cable detected" and then the green light turns orange and screen then goes totally blank. It seems to have popped out of nowhere, I thought that it might have been the new sound card (Asus Xonar Essense STX) that we installed a few weeks ago causing the problem, but if it was that then I would have had this problem earlier and the sound card is functioning fine. I suspect that the graphics card is for some reason not being detected and loaded at boot by the BIOS all of a sudden, as I can click around randomly after computer starts up properly and can login to Windows (with no display still) so I think that rules out CPU and RAM. If the computer starts up properly (screen works), then everything works 100%, I can play Call of Duty World at War with most settings at full and no problem with the graphics card when running. It isn't just the graphics card's DVI port, as it also happens with VGA. I'm pretty sure it's not the monitor (Proline MON19LCD) that's the problem. I can actually get the computer to start up properly right at the start if i press the reset button on the computer while it is booting up if I have no screen signal, but that's probably not healthy for the PC... I don't really know where to go from here, I'm no expert on computer hardware.

Any help would be highly appreciated, Thanks.

System Info:
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Tech Support Guy System Info Utility version 1.0.0.1
OS Version: Microsoft Windows XP Professional, Service Pack 3, v.3244, 32 bit
Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) Dual CPU E2180 @ 2.00GHz, x86 Family 6 Model 15 Stepping 13
Processor Count: 2
RAM: 1022 Mb
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT , 512 Mb
Hard Drives: C: Total - 152617 MB, Free - 62511 MB;
Motherboard: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd., G31M-ES2C, x.x,
Antivirus: avast! Antivirus, Updated: Yes, On-Demand Scanner: Enabled
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[mel8again]

My guess is that after being inside the case to install a sound card you have accidently dislodged the video card. Make sure it is properly seated and it's power cords are properly attached. After that I would check the connection on the back of the computer and the monitor.

[Azmin]

You are probably right about that... I took a look around inside the case last weekend just to see if there is something obvious wrong but didn't touch anything. Don't like to go inside physically unless I have to. My dad will have my hide if I break something... It's a bit obvious and stupid I didn't check the graphics card connection to the motherboard properly in the first place. I'll open it up tomorrow and remove and reinsert the graphics card and switch the power supply cable for it tomorrow as I have no time to tonight. The connections on the back of the computer and screen are definitely OK, I've already checked those. I'll report back tomorrow to see whether it works properly... Please no-one mark this as "solved" yet.

[mel8again]

Only you can mark it as solved. When you go to check, unplug from the outlet and push the on button and hold it for a couple of seconds to discharge any power left.

[Azmin]

Sorry I haven't been back for a while, it seems that it really just was a simple case of the graphics card not being seated properly in it's slot. I pushed it until no jiggling could happen and it seems to now work (booted up 6 times in a row with no issues) Thanks mel8again for the advice. My issue is hopefully now solved.

[mel8again]

Glad you got it fixed.