Screen Goes Black After Bios Is Half Way Through Posting

I have a (Dell Optiplex GX520) when turning on i can see Dell BIOS logo then the screen goes blank (black). Nothing displays at all the screen doesn't say no signal or anything like that just stay black.

If i keep unplugging the monitor cable that goes into the tower then i can see that windows is loaded for about 2 seconds not long enough to do anything (click anything).

I have had this problem before with another computer (acer M1100) and the local computer tech guy told me that the motherboard was shot. I carnt see the motherboard going on this one already.

The only things i have kept from the original computer that had the problem was the hard drive and the monitor.
(The monitor works fine as an external monitor for my laptop)

I am running windows vista home basic 32 bit. (clean installation) (Reformatted)

Any help on this would be great.

 

Try a different monitor & video cable? Could be also that you need to make sure that you do not have it set up to go to a second monitor if you have two video cards in it. That is a old machine, so it is also possible that the video chipset is going out, and can be causing the issue.

 

The monitor i am using and video cable works fine as an external monitor to my laptop which makes me think that the monitor is in working order.

I have only got 1 video card and its an on board 1.

I have tried resetting cmos and that didn't make a difference.

Im confused by this with it happening in another computer before this one. Is there anything in my hard drive that could course this problem that should be there?

Any further help would be great. Thank you for the reply.

 

Hard drive will not cause it, it is a video problem. Because it is a onboard chipset, you could try installing a onboard card. Going by the Spec's, looks like it does not have a AGP slot, so PCI would be the only choice for a different video card.

Here is a list at Newegg.com http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...7709 600007853 4025&IsNodeId=1&name=$25 - $50

Personally as old as that machine is, it is not worth the money to put anything into upgrading it, but if the new video card works, that shows that the onboard is going bad.

 

I have tried putting a video card in it and doesn't make any kind of difference sometimes it will come on and stay on if i keep unplugging monitor cable and putting it back in while the computer loaded.

I thought it would of been the hard drive because i didn't have this problem untill i put this hard drive in because it was bigger then the original.

Thank you for replying.

 

If you hit F2 during the Dell screen does it go into BIOS and does that remain on screen until you hit F10 to exit?

 

When i hit F2 while BIOS is posting then it will go into BIOS then displays what screen its on for 5 seconds then goes black again. And if i unplug the monitor cable and plug it back into tower it will display for round about 2 seconds and that's all i get out of it.

Reason i thought it was the hard drive because this problem wasn't there until i plugged in that hard drive and the screen i am using.

Any further help would be great i'm stuck at a dead end..

 

Which 520 do you have? http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/opgx520/en/ug/index.htm

You said you tried a video card, now when you did that did you actually connect the monitor cable to the video output of the card? It is easy to forget to switch the monitor cable to the video card from the onboard connection.

The other thought is have you tried just disconnecting your HD to see if it makes any difference as to how long the BIOS screen will display?

 

From the link you posted its the (Mini Tower Computer).

I did change the cable over and if i disconnect the hard drive, nothing changes but i didn't know if this could have coursed some error that causes the motherboard to play up like this...?

I admit it could be the monitor but i didn't rule this out because it works as an external monitor and hasn't coursed any harm to my laptop.

 

I will see if I can come up with anything else later this afternoon.
It seems very strange that you get the same symptoms with a graphics card and without one. That would imply a monitor problem. I just want to be sure that I understand with both the graphics card and the onboard video connection you only get a video display for a few seconds. Then when you plug/unplug the monitor cable you again get a display for a few seconds?

What do the diagnostic lights on the back of the machine show? http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/opgx520/en/ug/tools00.htm#wp1114558

 

The lights on the front of the tower don't display any error code when its booting through BIOS post then its 2 and 3,

Then it says on screen that the floppy diskette seek failure/ F1 to continue and F2 for utility setup. --- While this message shows 2,3 and 4 are on and as soon as i press F1 they all go off.

If i press F1 it continues to windows and loads. (can tell if i keep unplugging the cable)

If i press F2 it takes me into to BIOS settings. (can tell if i keep unplugging the cable)

And yes that is right i can only get a few seconds display when i keep unplugging monitor cable, i its confused me a lot because i had this with an (Acer M1100) and the local tech guy said the motherboard had gone. But the shop i bought this computer in question off (Dell Optiplex GX520) had done full test on motherboard and all was fine, They can't do anything to further assist me that's why i turned to this Forum.

Thank you for all your help so far anymore of your ideas would be greatly appreciated

 

I'm really having trouble figuring out why a video card and the onboard graphics would have the same problem. If the onboard connection was loose/damaged then by using a video card it should bypass the problem. I know you said you did change connectors but I just want to be sure you understand. When using the video card you would be connecting to the horizontal connector you have just added.

The other thing is by connecting and reconnecting the monitor can you navigate BIOS to check what your Primary Video is set to (Onboard or Auto)? It looks like you should have a Video category along the top which should then show you how the Primary Video is set. With the video card you would want it set to Auto.

Lastly, you could go ahead and reset CMOS. Because you already are getting the F1 or F2 message about the floppy it has already been cleared so it can't hurt to reset it again. I would unplug the PC, remove the video card, remove the small watch-type coin shaped battery for a minute. Put battery back, leave card out, plug in and see if it makes any difference.

 

I have no way of getting the graphics card again i lent off a mate and he took it back.

That's what i'm finding weird to, this is why i kept referring to the hard drive. I can try and get hold of another graphics card from my local computer store.

Primary video: Set To Auto In Stead of On board
Primary Video Memory: Is set to 8mb In Stead Of 1mb (would this change anything if i change mb to 1 instead of 8.

Nothing changes when i reset the CMOS (take battery out) (still get the same message - floppy diskette seek failure/ F1 to continue and F2 for utility setup)

 

You can dump the F1 message by going to Drives and then Diskette Drives and turn it to Off.

I wouldn't worry about the Video memory size. If you are using onboard video it couldn't hurt to set Primary Video to that for now. (If it later doesn't recognize a video card then clearing CMOS should set it to Auto--I believe.)

The HD change shouldn't make any difference unless something was damaged during the change. The HD itself shouldn't be involved, plus you have tried it with no HD connected and still got the same symptoms.

I saw this rather long thread that references that there might be compatibility issues with specific graphic cards but that should be all or nothing. In other words if you were connected to the graphics card with your single monitor and it wasn't recognized you should get nothing on screen, not even Dell logo. The video would be dead until you connected back to onboard graphics and then you would get the intermittent problem.

I just don't understand how it is even possible to get the same effect using two different video sources. Maybe brownizs will come up with something else to try.

 

I have dumped the message about diskette drive, and it loads straight to windows (Windows vista home basic 32 bit)

I have changed the setting in bios to use on board graphics as primary graphics instead of auto, (Still the same)

As far as i know the card i tried using was compatible.

Would you suggest trying another 1 if i can get hold of another?

I don't understand either, also seems strange that its happened to 2 of my computers this same error.
I hope so i'm at a lose end i'm normally good with computers but this one has stumped me twice now.

Thank you for your replies.