My flatmate’s PC froze this morning and now when we switch it on the monitor stays blank. We tested his PC to my monitor and my PC to his monitor and his monitor is fine. It still beeps and we can hear the hard drive but that’s it. Any suggestions on next steps?
Thanks in advance
Did his PC work with your monitor?
You’re not giving much info here, Docklands.
Before your question can be answered or any other troubleshooting suggested, like TBone2 said, we need to know if you got a viewable desktop when you booted up his PC with your monitor attached.
Also, when you boot up his PC with a monitor attached, are the beeps exactly the same as they were before the problem occurred?
And, what OS and version are you using? Windows XP, Windows 2000?
Might be the power supply.
I don’t think so, handy. It’s more likely to the be the video adaptor.
What I’d like to know is, is it a single, short beep? Or several beeps? If the latter, what is the pattern of long and short beeps, and which BIOS is it?
So monitor(s) are known to work work but your PC does not give video output. Easy things out of the way first
1: Listen to power supply fan - Is it running? Is hard drive spinning? If so then PS is likely OK. If not replace -
2: Shutdown system and remove the memory modules and the cards in the PCI and AGP video slots in your PC and re-seat them. Make sure the power supply cable to the motherboard is firmly seated. Make sure the drive cables are firmly seated. If system starts seating was the likely issue, if system does not start with all cards in place go to step 3.
3: Leave out all cards except for video card and re-boot. If system still does not start go to step 4. If system starts replace all PCI accessory cards (while system is off of course) one by one though on-off cycles until the culprit card is found and the system will not start. If system works fine with all cards in place problem was likely poor module or card seating which multiple re-seatings has solved.
4: If unit refuses to boot with only video card in place borrow your friend’s video card and try booting with it. If system works your video card likely needs replacing per QEDs suggestion. If system still does not work then a motherboard or fried CPU issue is likely involved and replacement is usually the only practical fix in these cases. Sometimes these things are as simple as a CPU fan that has died and fried the CPU but without a motherboard handy that will work with that CPU it is often difficult to tell.
Thanks for your input. Here’s a little clarification.
His computer doesn’t work with my monitor, but his monitor works fine. It is just one short beep when you switch it on. This is the same noise that my PC makes, and as far as we can remember the same that his made before it packed up.
Both the PSU and CPU fans are functional, and I’ve already tried reseating memory and cards.
I was thinking of swapping my graphics card, but I’m at loathe to tamper with my functional and currently pretty stable system.
Do it. All indications at this point are that the video card has failed in some way that the BIOS isn’t detecting an error condition. As long as you use caution, there should be no harm done to your system. This is the surest way to verify that it’s nto the mainboard, and if it works with the known good graphics card, he only needs to out an buy a new one.