Did my friends graphics card murder my mobo?

[rfas]

Long story short, my friend needed a new PSU. When he got home with it.. mysteriously, his computer wouldn't boot. It would turn on, but there was no signal to the monitor. I can't remember if the periphrials came on or not. We figured it might be his graphics card, so we tested it in my computer. It worked fine and everything booted up. When I put my graphics card back in, suddenly, I have his problem.. no beeps, no display, all the fans and LEDs turn on but that is about it. I've tried a million different things and went all through the checklist on here but to no avail. What happened to my computer?

 

[Pinhedd]

Long story short, my friend needed a new PSU. When he got home with it.. mysteriously, his computer wouldn't boot. It would turn on, but there was no signal to the monitor. I can't remember if the periphrials came on or not. We figured it might be his graphics card, so we tested it in my computer. It worked fine and everything booted up. When I put my graphics card back in, suddenly, I have his problem.. no beeps, no display, all the fans and LEDs turn on but that is about it. I've tried a million different things and went all through the checklist on here but to no avail. What happened to my computer?

Try the following two things in order:

1. Reset the system firmware settings. Consult your motherboard manual to figure out how to do this properly, do not just pull the clock battery out.

2. Turn the AC Mains breaker off (the switch on the back of the PSU) for a good 10 seconds

 

[rfas]

I can't find the jump caps for the firmware reset, but I did try the battery earlier to no avail. I also tried the back switch, no luck.

 

[socalking]

I can't find the jump caps for the firmware reset, but I did try the battery earlier to no avail. I also tried the back switch, no luck.

Are you using an Onboard graphics card?
If you were using a PCI-E card, you should've uninstalled all the files of your GPU first before placing his card onto yours.

If you had a Onboard card(On motherboard)
if you installed your friends GPU, with a CD? Installed files? etc?
Try uninstalling with the CD again, then remove the graphics card and your PC should automatically detect the onboard GPU.

I know this because I just removed my GPU from my pc yesterday for an RMA and I wouldn't get a signal on my Onboard Motherboard till i plugged my GPU back in, inserted CD and UNINSTALLED everything I installed, then I removed my GPU and connected my DVI cable back to my onboard card and voila, got signal.

Also Note, look at the gold connectors on the PCI-E card, make sure non of them have any scratches on them.. if there's a single scratch then that usually causes No Display and booting problems.
and, If your PC still turns on.. there's chances that it isn't actually your MOBO being the culprit, usually when MOBOs get fried, you can't turn on your PC at all. The fact that it is turning on with fans on is still a good sign, you're probably just not getting video signal.

Usually, whenever a PCI-E slot is occupied, it overrides the onboard video, even if you plug in your cables to your onboard Video, it will not work unless you make the PCI-E slot empty. Most motherboards are like that, the PCI-E overpowers the onboard when occupied. So.. Try taking off the card and leaving the slot empty then hook up your onboard. if it doesnt work then use the LAST CARD that actually gave you signal, in this case.. your friend's? and uninstall anything you installed. Then take off the card once again and hook up your onboard.. It should work, if that doesn't work then.. try CMOS Battery reset, which taking off the battery for atleast 15minutes, if that doesn't work then it's most likely your motherboard..

 

[smorizio]

the cmos wont clear on new mb unless you pull power from the wall andsee the mb drain 10 min. on most mb the clear cmos jumper is near the cmos battery it be a 2 or 3 pin connector. the jumper will be on pin 1-2 and would need to be moved to pin 2-3 to clear. on your friends video card look for and smell for anything that may have cooked. most time from age a cap or reistor breaks or falls off. on your mb also check the pci video slot for any bent pins.

 

[Pinhedd]

the cmos wont clear on new mb unless you pull power from the wall andsee the mb drain 10 min. on most mb the clear cmos jumper is near the cmos battery it be a 2 or 3 pin connector. the jumper will be on pin 1-2 and would need to be moved to pin 2-3 to clear. on your friends video card look for and smell for anything that may have cooked. most time from age a cap or reistor breaks or falls off. on your mb also check the pci video slot for any bent pins.

On most computers prior to 2010 the firmware code was stored on an 8 megabit EEPROM and the firmware settings were stored on a low power SRAM chip nearby. SRAM is volatile by nature so it had to receive power even when the computer was powered off, otherwise the settings would be reset every time the power cord was unplugged. Manufacturers used the real-time clock battery to power the SRAM chip, and by removing the battery the settings would be cleared.

New computers use 64 megabit boot-block Flash memory to store both the firmware code and the firmware parameters which means that the parameters will persist even if power is removed.

 

[rfas]

Thanks for the replies guys, I'll continue to work on it today. To answer some questions:

They were both onboard cards, yes. Nothing was installed/uninstalled, though. I'll try to do a CMOS reset, report back soon.

 

[rfas]

No progress, even had trouble turning it on at one point. Looks like a dead motherboard .