Computer not showing anything

[dragoncdf]

I'm helping out a friend with their pc problem. Now when you turn it on the dvd drive lights up and the harddrive light comes on and I can hear the fans but the monitor says no signal. I tried a different monitor no luck. I also tried a different video card still didn't help. Which leads me to think it's the motherboard. If not the motherboard what else could cause this? Also if I replace the motherboard with the exact model and use the current processor do I need thermal paste?

 

[treefrog07]

It could be the board, or the PSU, or the RAM, or the CPU. I could also be the CPU fan stopped working and the CPU over-heated, shutting down the POST. If you replace the board, you will have to re-seat the CPU, and yes, you will need new, properly-applied thermal paste between the CPU and the heatsink.

 

[dragoncdf]

It could be the board, or the PSU, or the RAM, or the CPU. I could also be the CPU fan stopped working and the CPU over-heated, shutting down the POST. If you replace the board, you will have to re-seat the CPU, and yes, you will need new, properly-applied thermal paste between the CPU and the heatsink.

the fans are running at normal speed not 100%. even toke the side of the case off and could hear the fans. the hard drive light blinks once but doesn't stay on so I'm not sure how far in the boot it gets. just know the dvd drive light blinks once and the harddrive blinks once. the dvd drive opens when the button is pressed. it's the hp 514c with the fic am37 motherboard. anyway to narrow it down without buying a bunch of stuff that might not fix it? thought I had a old power supply but I don't. Would a bad harddrive cause this too?

 

[jsc]

Our standard checklist and troubleshooting thread:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/261145-31-read-posting-boot-problems