Video Card or Mobo problem?

[Cabelos]

Hi all, I ran into a problem a couple of days ago where I was on my computer working fine. I packed up the PC and LCD monitor and took it to a friends house for a mini-LAN. The monitor was packed in the original packaging for transport and the PC was nestled nicely in the backseat of the car. At no time did I jostle, drop or bang either piece.

Once I got everything hooked up, I booted the computer up and got a "no signal found" on my screen. I use DVI off of a ATI Sapphire HD3850 graphics card. It does NOT have VGA. Here's what I've tried so far:

* Tried both DVI ports off the graphics card. Neither port works
* Tried another DVI cable - still not working
* Grabbed a friend's video card and plugged a VGA cable into it and it worked, which means it's not the monitor
* Plugged a VGA cable into the onboard video card and it worked

Once I got home, I hooked everything back up with the original setup and still couldn't get a picture off the DVI ports.

* Took my other monitor that doesn't have DVI and hooked it up to the onboard video port and all of a sudden it doesn't work!
* Took my monitor and hooked it up to my other computer using VGA and it works, which confirms that it's not the monitor.

So now I am out of ideas. I can't test my HD3850 because I don't have any other computers with DVI but then why is my onboard video suddenly not working either? Is there a controller on the motherboard that processes video? Are there other troubleshooting methods I can try?

Thanks for the help.

 

[cusideabelincoln]

Sounds like the video card.

You should take it out and put it back in, making sure it's secure in the PCI slot. Also examine everything else inside the case.

And your motherboard can detect which video boots first (onboard or dedicated card). So when you hooked your other monitor that doesn't have DVI, you should have done that when the computer was turned off or somehow restarted the computer after hooking it up.