Monitor is blank, can't find problem

Hi
I recently encountered a problem when switching on my PC, the video was flickering badly (right from POST). After a couple of days, it stopped working altogether.
I have two monitors, which both work fine on other PCs, and I have tested my graphics card on another PC, and this works fine.
I can't do any troubleshooting because I can't see anything. I can't install a new OS even - I can't change the BIOS settings to boot from floppy or CD.
There is a jumper on the motherboard titled "Clear CMOS" which I am reluctant to try in case I screw something up.
I did try to install Lycoris shortly before the problem started... I had to manually select resolution and refresh rate... I think this is where it originated, and it went rapidly downhill from there. I have removed Lycoris now and XP is still on the HDD.
Should I reset my CMOS using the motherboard jumper? Any other ideas??
Thank you in advance
Chad

System Specs:
p4 2.4 GHz, 1 Gb DDRAM, Gigabyte MB GA-8IPE775-G, GeForce Ti4200 128Mb graphics, soundblaster 5.1, 56k int modem, 80 Gb + 200 Gb HDD, DVD, FDD etc, using OS Win XP Pro (and the occasional Linux dist!)

 

You can clear the cmos, all that is going to do is set it back to defaults wont hurt anything. Also what's on the hard drive is not going to effect the monitor from coming on at first power up. It may be your motherboard, maybe you could track down a PCI graphics card. Not that it will do anything but you could unplug all the drives from the motherboard and make shure everything is plug in properly(memory,vid card).

 

Have you tried booting into Safe Mode?

I have done this when the display settings were set wrong and I could not get anything on my monitor. Safe mode overrides the settings and you should be able to change the settings back to default or whatever works.

 

your agp slot might be bad from manufacturing...or maybe the card isnt sitting on correctly or loosely or even slanted on its seat..

 

Thanks for the ideas - I'm looking for a PCI video card to test out... I'll try and get another AGP card to test out as well...
Tried safe mode, tried clearing CMOS by shorting the jumper on the motherboard, tried re-connecting everything... no luck so far, but will post again after I get hold of some other video cards
Chad

 

It could be the monitor... can you try that on any other setups? Old monitors can be messed up by trying to run them in modes that are out of their range (6 years and older).

If not, sounds like the graphics card is either ever-so-slightly out of position or there is a hardware fault.

 

Thanks again guys!
So far I've determined the monitors work fine, the AGP card works fine, I've tried two AGP cards in my m/board and no video through either of them. Given that the video deteriorated to nothing over a couple of days, I'm leaning towards this being a problem with the AGP slot or the m/board itself (although it's not beeping at startup or anything.) I've cleared the CMOS with the jumper, and I've unplugged and replugged everything. I've tried safe mode. The PC was working fine previously with all the same h/w.
Haven't been able to test the m/b or test a PCI video card yet.
I think I'll dig out the m/b receipt and check the warranty as it's only a couple of months old.
...unless anyone's got any other ideas??
ta, chad

 

now ... correct me if i am wrong but lycoris is a version of linux? im thinking you may have installed it improperly ... if you see the post fine and you can get into the BIOS without your display messing up im thinking there is nothing wrong with your hardware ... and i think you might try a new hard drive with a fresh install of XP then set your present hard drive as slave only after you get it working and recover your files then format your present drive or format your present hard drive and do a fresh install that way

 

I think I probably did install Lycoris wrong - but I can't see POST or get into BIOS - I could only clear the CMOS by shorting the jumper on the motherboard. Neither monitor will respond at all, there is no signal.

I've got another HD running XP, and I've tried booting from that to no avail (wildly pressing f8, hoping it would go into safe mode and magically work ;-)

 

Ok I'm getting a little frustrated now!

I got a new motherboard to test out, and it hasn't fixed the problem. I've got no video - but it's not the motherboard, monitor or graphics card.
It also switched itself off a couple of times using the new motherboard, after about 5-10seconds. Maybe this is something to do with the power supply?

I'm going into computer withdrawals here! Any help appreciated!!

 

ok try this for me. unplug everything from the motherboard except the video card, RAM and processor. Connect the monitor, power, keyboard, and mouse. Turn the computer on and if it doesn't post then maybe faulty mobo. If it does post start connecting everything 1 by 1 to narrow it down to the faulty hardware. Also did you try the PCI video card?

 

im thinking its the HDD because lycoris messed it up ... i wouldn't see how a bad install could hurt anything else ... and if you have a HDD with windows on it that was installed onto another mobo it will not work with another mobo

 

pyrate his computer isn't POST'ing at all. The harddrive wouldn't come into play until after post unless there is somethign physically wrong with it which is why you unplug it to see if the computer POST's. If it posts when the hard drive is not plugged in but doesn't post when it is you found your problem.

 

make sure the mobo isnt shorting out... and thats happened to me before with an agp card.. but it just gave me a series of white lines on the screen... i dunno

 

I'm having the same problem with no signal to the monitor, but in a new homemade system. I'm using a ECS KT600 m/b socket A with a AMD 2700+. I tried to install a ATI Radeon 9200 SE (AGP 8X) and get nothing at all to the monitor. The monitor works fine on my older system with onboard video, but on the new system I can't even see if it is posting properly.

 

Look at post #11 and try those things to see if you can get your computer to boot. If that doesn't work are you hearing any post codes ie beeps that are not the usual ones.

 

All right, found the problem. In my case the pin settings on the video card were defaulted to PAL which is the european standard. The manual states that that should only affect the svideo output, but when I changed the pin settings the system booted up fine.

 

Finally got around to doing the barebones test (see post #11).
I didn't try the PCI video, as I'm still waiting for it to arrive. Anyway, it still had the same problem when stripped of its peripherals. Tried different CPU and RAM and MB, and tested the AGP card on another PC. Tried it with and without various IDE drives. Figured that left the power supply as the main suspect.
So I switched P/S and case and the video is working fine now. Unfortunately it comes up with a BIOS checksum error on both motherboards I've been testing. I'm at the internet cafe downloading the flash BIOS programs now, so fingers crossed it'll all be good by lunchtime.

Thanks for all your help, particularly Ironsnipe ... will post back once the BIOS is good and I can load a fresh OS and all that.

 

looks like the dodgy power supply has shorted both my motherboards - the error is "BIOS ROM checksum error" on both boards, and I can't flash it.. so I'll try and get a new BIOS chip, otherwise I'll have to get a new m/b