Help! My computer will power up, but the monitor shows nothing...

[PizzaDude]

If I try and turn my computer on, it will power up, I can hear the fans running, etc., but nothing will show up on the monitor and windows won't boot.

I've opened up the case and noticed a green LED right next to the RAM, but if I look at the motherboard manual, this is the "VDIMM Power LED", so I assume it's not telling me that something's wrong.

The motherboard is a Shuttle AN35N, I have an Athlon XP mobile CPU with 1gb of pc3200 RAM, anf the video card is a GeForce4 Ti4200.

Anyone know what's going on and what I need to do to get it fixed?

 

[imported_Scoop]

How do you know if windows won't boot if there's nothing on screen? Does your monitor give you 'no signal' message or does it actually receive a signal but it's plain black? If there's no signal, either your monitor or GPU is broken, most likely.

 

[PizzaDude]

It must be receiving a signal, because it's just plain black. I went to a buddies house this afternoon and we swapped out the RAM, video card and even the processor but none of them fixed the problem.

Is it safe to say it's the motherboard?

 

[Denithor]

Originally posted by: PizzaDude
It must be receiving a signal, because it's just plain black. I went to a buddies house this afternoon and we swapped out the RAM, video card and even the processor but none of them fixed the problem.

Is it safe to say it's the motherboard?

Not until you've checked the PSU. And try booting with a single RAM stick, in various positions. And clear the CMOS (unplug, pull motherboard battery, leave out for 30 seconds or so).

Are there any signs of problems on the motherboard (swollen or leaking capacitors, etc)?

 

[PizzaDude]

Originally posted by: Denithor

Originally posted by: PizzaDude
It must be receiving a signal, because it's just plain black. I went to a buddies house this afternoon and we swapped out the RAM, video card and even the processor but none of them fixed the problem.

Is it safe to say it's the motherboard?

Not until you've checked the PSU. And try booting with a single RAM stick, in various positions. And clear the CMOS (unplug, pull motherboard battery, leave out for 30 seconds or so).

Are there any signs of problems on the motherboard (swollen or leaking capacitors, etc)?

We checked the CPU. He had a spare cpu laying around and we swapped that one with mine and that didn't do it either. We tried booting with just 1 stick of RAM, too, so we've ruled them out.

I will try clearing the CMOS by pulling the motherboard battery and report back.

Thanks.

 

[PizzaDude]

I forgot to mention that my buddy and I also tried a different PSU, and that didn't do it either.

And now:

Well I tried pulling out the motherboard battery for 30 seconds, put it back in and it's still failing to show anything on the monitor..

Any other ideas? Is the motherboard shot??

 

[0roo0roo]

its the mb.
psu would either cause autoreboot or complete dead system. fans and running means its not the issue.

 

[PizzaDude]

That's what I figured.

Next question: Where is the best place to look for a socket A mobo these days???