OT.. Computer problems

[Butcherbird17]

Hey Guys,

I hope someone may have had a similar problem and knows a solution. Yesterday my mother gives me a call
to come over she has a problem with her computer. I put this rig together about 9 years ago for her.

specs...
C2D e8400,
Abit AW9D Max mobo (these guys went out of business)
2 gig ddr2
Evga 7900GS
2 hd/d (320 & 160 for backup)
500 watt PSU
windows 7 x64
Thermaltake Saprano case

So the problem is no video signal. So the first thing I do is check to see if the card is seated properly. (yes)
Next make sure the fan is spinning. (yes) Could not figure out what was wrong so I took it home w/monitor.
It needed a good cleaning so i blew it out with air and replaced two case fans that were not working.
I had a spare vid card (GTX 460) so I put that in and started it up.. No Video signal.
So thinking maybe its the monitor, I hooked it up to my rig and it worked like a charm.
So thinking maybe the 460 is bad I go over to BestBuy and pick up a cheap AMD card. Put that in and
you can guess ......... No Video Signal
Now I'm thinking maybe it's the mobo. I had my old rig in boxes, so i tear apart mom's rig, put in all of my
old rig. (everything including 550w PSU) Put the AMD card in and here we go again... No Video Signal

Now after all this last night, this morning I take the AMD card back to BB and get my money back.
Come home slap in my GTX 960 (old rig) and again... No Video Signal
So after all day pulling what hair I have left out trying to figure out why 4 video cards, 1 complete
tear down and rebuild, I still get... No Video Signal:dizzy:

So if anyone might have had the same problem or can help me trouble shoot it I would be more than grateful.

ps. I also reset the BIOS in both systems as my old rig was still overclocked. And also tried 3 types of cables
to the monitor to make sure it was not them, (VGA, DVI and HDMI) and still... No Video Signal

Joe

[Hdguy]

Yup. The PCI slot has died...

[Hdguy]

Solution. Buy a cheap micro board for about 50 bucks.That may insist on a reinstall of Windows too!

[Butcherbird17]

Don't think its the pci-e dim slot. I am having the same problem with 2 different systems
If either mobo had onboard video I wouldn't worry about the vid card. I also checked the
960 was ok by installing it into my new rig and it worked. So it has to be something else
that I am overlooking. Both systems will come on when I hit the power button and all fans
spin up. Hard/drive light shows activity, but no way to see anything. I'm at a loss to what
it is.
I'm done messing with it for today/nite, going to do some co-op in Wildlands to get my mind
off it. If anybody has this game look me up (Butcherbird17)

Joe

[txnetcop]

If that motherboard has onboard graphics go to the bios and disable it for your PCI Express video card to work. It may have reset on it's own... Also I was just remembering that that ABIT board there are other connectors on the board for video signal I think, did you connect the auxilliary power connectors on the motherboard? On the Abit board besides the usual 24 pin connector, there are two others, an 8 pin and a 4 pin molex.
Ted

[Butcherbird17]

Hey Ted,

I took the Abit board out and using a gigabyte board. The specs are:

Ga-P35-DS3R
e6750
4 gig hyperX
1 terabyte maxtor hd/d w/wins 8.1
soundblaster audio card
GTX960 FTW
Antec 550w PSU

That was my old system before I did a complete new build. (New specs in sig)
The Abit board does not have onboard video, and the gigabyte board does as I
just took a look at it. But that was turned off in BIOS when it was brand new.
I just built the new rig and old was purring like a kitten before I upgraded.
As soon as I tore it down it went into static bag and into it's box. Same goes for
PSU and Video Card. Only thing I reused was my CM Stacker Case for new build.
This was just after X-mas.

In the morning I will hook up a VGA cable to it and see if I can get into the BIOS
to check that it didn't reset it self. But I still can't figure out why the Abit board
would not, and that's trying 4 different cards in it. I have a feeling that it was a driver
update thru wins/update. My Mom said that the comp was showing no ill effects until
yesterday (Friday) when she left it go into sleep mode.

Joe

[Zoren]

You might find that the motherboard doesn't like video cards that are PCI-e 2 or higher (or at least version 3 and up...). The motherboard is 9+ years old so unlikely it will work with the newer cards. I would try and find a card the is PCI-e 1.

My son and I ran into that issue when he wanted to upgrade the graphics card in his PC. Bought a new card...won't work in his but would in mine. Tried an older card in his and then looked into the issue and it was the version of PCI-e. We found a version 2 card that worked.

[txnetcop]

There are several reasons why actually, one, the BIOS could be degrading, two, the solder connections on the bottom of board could be degrading or even none existent now, and a faulty ram read by the BIOS can cause a video failure. Like HDGuy said, a PCI Express slot and go bad-rare but it happens. Inadequate power getting to the video card as well. That was good board in it's day...I was going to suggest that you just change out the motherboard but you've done that. There are still a ton of old, used motherboards out there that used to cost a fortune.
Ted

[PHo17]

Hey Guys,

I hope someone may have had a similar problem and knows a solution. Yesterday my mother gives me a call
to come over she has a problem with her computer. I put this rig together about 9 years ago for her.
...


Nine years old computer! Possibly the onboard battery is dead?

[Butcherbird17]

Yeah I know that things happen, but the gigabyte board was just taken apart. (now 2 months)
It worked with no problems and I could have kept using it, but it was time to upgrade and I got
a deal on the new parts. (just over 900 USD)
And I stand corrected on the on-board video on that board, it does not have it. (SIDI port)
I will start looking for cheap newer tech parts of mobo, cpu and memory and just use the
PSU (which is less than a year old) hard/drives, case and GPU (GTX960). That should be
enough for her as she only uses the computer for email, watching video's (streamed) and
some lite gaming.

I would still like to figure out what is wrong with 2 different boards though. I have never had
that happen before. Yes I have had parts die, but never had the same problem with 2 different
boards.

Joe

[Butcherbird17]

Nine years old computer! Possibly the onboard battery is dead?

One of the many things I checked. I went and picked up a new battery.

Joe