Possible video card problem

Cherry_Cola

I have a PC which has been displaying a "No Signal" message on the screen for the last while and I can seem to fix the issue.

This has happened before, however it was seemingly a monitor issue which I managed to fix. Even then, I was still able to hook it up to my TV via HDMI without any problems.

This time around it seems a bit more serious as I have tried two monitors, using VGA aswell as a HDMI-DVI cable. Also, this time it is not working on my TV through HDMI.

I have also tried swapping around the ram and still no result. It seems to boot fine with the usual fan noises etc and no beeps of any kind.

The specs are as follows:

Acer Aspire AX3812 with Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit.
E3200 Intel Celeron Processor
3GB DDR2
x4500 Integrated Intel GMA

As the video card is integrated, is it at all possible to fit a new one and see if that's the problem?

Any suggestions welcome.

yoyo

Cherry_Cola wrote: »

I have a PC which has been displaying a "No Signal" message on the screen for the last while and I can seem to fix the issue.

This has happened before, however it was seemingly a monitor issue which I managed to fix. Even then, I was still able to hook it up to my TV via HDMI without any problems.

This time around it seems a bit more serious as I have tried two monitors, using VGA aswell as a HDMI-DVI cable. Also, this time it is not working on my TV through HDMI.

I have also tried swapping around the ram and still no result. It seems to boot fine with the usual fan noises etc and no beeps of any kind.

The specs are as follows:

Acer Aspire AX3812 with Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit.
E3200 Intel Celeron Processor
3GB DDR2
x4500 Integrated Intel GMA

As the video card is integrated, is it at all possible to fit a new one and see if that's the problem?

Any suggestions welcome.

Does the manufactuers splash screen appear at startup? Or is it no signal all the way through the boot process, is it only when Windows loads it screws up? Could be the OS is using a resolution/refresh rate your monitor doesn't support, boot into safemode (tap F8 repeatedly at startup, choose safe mode then).
If that doesn't work the video card could be screwed, easy enough to install another provided there is a PCIe port in the machine. You can get PCI cards but there quite pricey and useless, a PCIe port looks like this (The long black one, the short black ones are PCIe 1x ones which have limited range of video cards available).
If it has a PCIe slot, This would do it, It even has low profile brackets which are handy if your case only accepts low profile cards (they may not be included, although pic suggests they are).

Nick

Edit: Another thing worth trying is popping the BIOs battery out and leave it for 5 minutes, then pop it back in and boot. This resets the BIOs settings in case the internal video card has accidentally disabled itself or settings got corrupted

Cherry_Cola

Thanks very much for the reply. Nothing splashes on startup at all unfortunately so I can't get into safe mode or anything yet.

Fortunately it does have a PCI-E slot so that card would be perfect as the case only supports low profile cards.

I have opened it up now to take out the BIOS battery but have yet to locate it.

Will report back once I try this.

Cherry_Cola

I couldn't manage to get anywhere near the BIOS battery as the space was just too tight.

I reckon I may have to chance getting the new card and hope that will solve the problem.

yoyo

Cherry_Cola wrote: »

I couldn't manage to get anywhere near the BIOS battery as the space was just too tight.

I reckon I may have to chance getting the new card and hope that will solve the problem.

Fingers crossed man

Nick

Cherry_Cola

Just an update on this. I picked up a new video card and installed yesterday, still nothing.

So with nothing to lose I took the whole thing apart, swapped out the ram and took out the bios battery for a few mins. Sure enough it worked perfectly.

Thanks for the help Nick

yoyo

Cherry_Cola wrote: »

Just an update on this. I picked up a new video card and installed yesterday, still nothing.

So with nothing to lose I took the whole thing apart, swapped out the ram and took out the bios battery for a few mins. Sure enough it worked perfectly.

Thanks for the help Nick

Can't believe I never suggested reseating the RAM . Common problem associated with RAM getting dislodged/loose, ahh well at least you have a better video card at the end of it

Nick

Hijpo

yoyo wrote: »

Cherry_Cola wrote: »

Just an update on this. I picked up a new video card and installed yesterday, still nothing.

So with nothing to lose I took the whole thing apart, swapped out the ram and took out the bios battery for a few mins. Sure enough it worked perfectly.

Thanks for the help Nick

Can't believe I never suggested reseating the RAM . Common problem associated with RAM getting dislodged/loose, ahh well at least you have a better video card at the end of it

Nick

Dont beat yourself up, one of the.1st thins he did was swap out the ram so it must have been the bios battery.

yoyo

Hijpo wrote: »

Dont beat yourself up, one of the.1st thins he did was swap out the ram so it must have been the bios battery.

Ahh that must be why I didn't suggest it, well spotted . Looks like I was right about the BIOs all along :P

Nick