Gateway E-3600 computer has no video!

I've tried different monitors and video cards. I still have no video and I can't get to the BIOS either. Is there a way to bypass the AGP video slot and use the PCI slot on the motherboard?

 

Welcome to MajorGeeks williajw!

I moved your thread over to the Hardware forum...many that help out in the tech forums don't get a chance to peek into the other forums so this way your thread will get seen sooner by those that can assist you.

Best of luck!
AbbySue

 

Is it onboard video or is there an actual video card in the AGP slot??

Roger

 

There's a video card in AGP slot and I've tried different video cards. On the power button instead of a green light, I have a yellow light. Does that mean the motherboard is bad and there's no way around the video bypass?

 

Are you talking about the power button on the monitor??

When the power button on the monitor is Amber/Yellow/Orange...that means that the monitor is not recieving any video to display, I guess you could say it is "asleep". When the monitor recieves a signal to display graphics, then the power button will turn green and ofcourse you will see the display come to life!!

By the way...I'm assuming that you know the computer is booting up, as in the lights flashing on the individual drives as the system boots, and the fans are spinning up, and you can possibly hear/feel a vibration from the hapd drive spinning?

Most motherboards have a setting in the bios that that you set the video to either AGP or PCI, but being that you obviously can't even get into the bios, it would make it hard to change that setting!!

For starters...I myself, would start by resetting the CMOS by taking the battery out (with the system unplugged) and leave it out for atleast 5 minutes, then put it back in and try to reboot. If that doesn't work...I would take the AGP video card out and put in a PCI video card just to see if the system will automatically pick up the new PCI video card and bypass the AGP and therefore you would get video again. If that doesn't work...then I hate to say that you are probably going to have to get a replacement motherboard form Gateway and replce it, or ofcourse they will do it for you for goad knows how much!!

FYI...you can log into Gateways live online chat and they will be able to answer any questions about replacing your board, as far as ordering the part or the cost for them to do it, etc., etc.!!

Roger

 

In my gateway computer i didn't have to switch anything in it's bios when when i put the video card (ati radeon 9000 agp) from my previous computer.
But in your case there should be a setting in the bios for video pci or agp.
But to answer you question, Not quite, It just may be a setting in you bios that you may have overlooked.