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Computer boots, but no signal to monitor

Tags:
  • Graphics Cards
  • Computer
  • Monitors
  • Graphics
Last response: in Graphics & Displays
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December 6, 2011 1:05:54 PM

I have an old computer that we leave on all the time, but gets rebooted every couple days. The monitor stays on and goes to sleep all the time. What happened today was I went to wake up the monitor and it brings up a "no signal" message. First thing I check was to see if the computer is still up and operational. And I can vnc into the computer and its fully functional.

I then decided to disconnect and reconnect the monitor. no luck there. I then tried a second monitor, and same issue. I even dropped the graphics back to 1024x768 to make sure it wasn't too high for the old monitor I tested with. Still no luck.

I then rebooted the machine, and again tested via vnc and the computer boots cleanly without errors. Does anyone have any suggestions on what to test next to figure out whats wrong? I would assume its a bad vga port on the motherboard, but i know my assumptions are wrong a lot of the time.

Thanks

More about : computer boots signal monitor

December 6, 2011 1:23:39 PM

The only thing you may not have tried is using a different cable with each monitor. When you tested the second monitor, did you use the same cable or a different one?

Very rarely do these cables go bad, so I would say that you're correct if that doesn't solve your problem. If you've tried different monitors and have verified that the PC boots properly to windows and can be accessed with VNC, then the port is the problem.

Depending on its use, you can find a very cheap, PCI-e video card to replace the failed onboard video.

Good luck!
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December 6, 2011 1:27:52 PM

thanks for the quick answer. I am unsure if a seperate vga cable was used. I was diagnosing a problem with my wife over the phone to get her to switch monitors out and tried rebooting things. I will be going over shortly and will check and try different vga cables if the same one was used.

But at least I know that if a different vga cable does not work, and I know at least the spare monitor does work, that its the vga port on the motherboard. I'll have to see what kind of video ports are on the motherboard to use. not sure if its older then pci-e or not.

thanks again
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a c 234 U Graphics card
a b C Monitor
December 6, 2011 1:43:31 PM

If available, try swapping in a stand-alone video card to test your assumption that the on-board video is defective (I, too, think that is the likely issue at this point).
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a b U Graphics card
December 6, 2011 2:14:01 PM

two things
1.remove out the rams for a while and blow air to ram slots then put them back correctly.
2.remove out your cpu and check all the pins if they all were straight then it's ok and put it back.
Then try.

Good luck!
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December 6, 2011 3:00:29 PM

Well I figured out what it was. I wasn't around initially to see everything. But swapping a monitor out with a new vga cable didn't work.

However I didn't remember that the video card in the computer is some weird card with ports I'm not sure what they are. close to the size of hdmi but not. Anyway there was a dongle that converted that port to vga and there were two of those ports on the video card (its not on board after all). When I went over and saw that, I moved the dongle to use the other port on the video card and everything worked fine. Switched it back to the original port and it continued to work fine. so something with that dongle got jiggled loose or something.

I guess thats what I get for trying to diagnose something over the phone without getting the whole picture. Thanks for all the replys though.
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