Distorted graphics / blank screen

Hi Geeks!!

I was looking at a PC for a friend. I don't have the specs to hand but it's an old AMD dual core and the mobo had built in video.

When first looked at the machine it was powered on but the display on the monitor was all distorted in funny squares, you couldn't make anything out.

It wouldn't reset, tried completely powering down and again wouldn't reset.

When turning on there were NO bios beeps and not the start up one beep either??

Could just hear the fans and everything whirring and a black screen (monitor no signal) - Checked all connections and OK.

Looked in machine and was very dusty, took the RAM out cleaned and reseated and it booted first time, booted several times consecutively afterwards so told him to see how he gets on.

This was yesterday and today he tells me it has crashed again and wont power on at all.

Could I assume this is a faulty motherboard or could anything else cause this sort of behaviour???

Thanks in advance

 

If you have an old video card lying around that will fit the board, you might try installing it and seeing if it solves the problem (just be sure to use the right type for the board, AGP or PCI-e).

If you don't have one lying around (and the CPU is an AM2 or AM2+ running DDR2), I'd tell your friend to spring for a new board - AM2+ boards are still around for about $50 new.

If it's a 939 or earlier, I'd look at upgrading the PC: A new AM3 (265/270) CPU is around $60, a decent AM3 mATX board for $60 and some DDR3 (dirt cheap - 2x2GB (4GB total) for about $30 = $150 for something much faster.

Hope this helps.

 

Thanks that's a big help.

I'll see if I have a spare gfx card knocking about, but yeah you confirmed my thoughts that it will most likely need a new a board