PC Problems

[polski]

My friend has a old computer and can't seem to get it to work. THe mother board is a Gigabyte GA-5AX so it's a bit old. The problem with his computer is that when he turns it on the monitor doesn't display anything. It gets the signal when you plug it in. We tried using a different video card that was AGP instead of PCI one he had and we had the same problem. Any suggestions? Thanks

 

[Ewat]

Did you try using the monitor on another computer?

 

[polski]

 

[polski]

yea the monitor is good i actually tried using the computer with both video cards on another monitor and still had the same problem

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

So, the computer just doesn't work? Just saying there's no video on the monitor doesn't mean it has to have to do with the videocard, it could be any number of things from powersupply, cpu, motherboard, ram, shorting problem, BIOS issue, etc.

Did it stop working, or was it not working to begin with?

To start off, first try to clear the CMOS with the jumper near the battery.
If that doesn't help, next thing to do is to disconnect everything you don't need to boot up (keep motherboard, powersupply, cpu, ram, videocard) and then try to boot up.
If still nothing, take those components out of the case and place the motherboard on a piece of cardboard. Connect the components listed above. Short out the pins that the power button was connected to.

If it still doesn't turn on, then there's probably something physically wrong with one of the basic parts of the system preventing it from booting.

 

[polski]

theres 3 pins beside the cmos battery and the jumper was on 2 of them. How do i clear the cmos exactly?

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Well, if the monitor is good, and you tried 2 different videocards and it didn't solve the problem, it's probably a part I mentioned above.

 

[polski]

how do i clear the cmos exactly?

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Do you see a big watch battery sort of thing on the board?

There should be a jumper near it usually. There should be 3 pins and the jumper is shorting out two of them right now. Take it off and then have it short out the middle one and the one it wasn't touching before.
Leave it like this for a minute.
Then put it back how it was before and try to boot up again.

If something went wrong in BIOS for whatever reason, this should clear up the problem.

If this doesn't help, you're probably looking at a hardware issue.


If my clear cmos instructions are confusing, head over to the search section and search for clear cmos. I'm sure you can find some different wording if mine doesn't make sense to you.