Question Computer boots up but no display or beeps

Cloe1994

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I have been having the weirdest problem i have ever encountered dealing with my computer.
So i have an old build i5 2400 8GB of ddr3 Ram , two hard drives a 1TB Segate and a 320gb Hitachi all running off of an OCZ CXS 500w psu and plugged in to the Asrock H61m VS motherboard.
My problems started once i sold my GTX 650ti boost Graphics Card which i had for years running in that build.
As soon as i took it off the system and gave it to it's new owner i tried to boot up off of the i5 2400 integrated graphics which worked just fine and i was able to boot normally and even watch some netflix but after 30 minutes or so the screen went blank (NOT BLACK) it was still lit up but there was nothing on the screen. i tried to move the mouse, clicking CTRL ALT DEL... nothing worked so i shut down the pc and boot it again and there i couldn't for the life of me get it to post.
So that's what i got: All the fans are spinning , hard drives are spinning and even the led's on my back chassis fan are glowing but my monitor is not turning on at all.
I can see the blue led in the lower right hand corner blinking constantly but the monitor wouldn't turn on. i tried to force turn it on by holding its tactile button for a few second then holding it again but that didn't work. My monitor is a 22 inch Samsung S20A300e it has a VGA and a DVI ports in the back.
My motherboad supports VGA only but before i sold my graphics card i was using a VGA to DVI adapter to plug in my 650ti boost and VGA to plug in my monitor which worked just fine.
What i have tried for the last couple of days:
-Resetting the ram / trying to use one Ram at the time
-Removing the CMOS battery leaving it for 5 minutes and holding the computer's power button for 30 seconds then putting the battery back in its correct place
-Changing the CMOS jumper's placement from pin 1 and 2 to 2 and 3
-Trying to use a graphics card (Gtx 1650) which i borrowed from my cousin and running it with a HDMI cable with a different samsung monitor which has an HDMI port (NO adapters)
-Trying to boot without any hard drives attached
After trying all of this nothing worked permanently, I have been able to enter the bios on a couple of occasions and i enabled the IGPU multimonitor setting and i even got into windows and was able to use the pc normally browsing the internet all using my VGA cable directly plugged to the motherboard and my sansung S20A300e VGA port.
But after i shut down my computer last night and wanted to boot it up this morning i got the same problem PC is seemingly booting up and all the fans are spînning but i got no display on my monitor, also my mouse and keyboard are not lighting up either.
All help is appreciated.
My second question is simple i was thinking about upgrading my aging rig to get a bit more performance and be able to play AAA titles comfortably. so my current rig is I5 2400 (planning to upgrade to an i7 2600K) Gtx 650ti boots (already got rid of it) 8GB DDR3 memory 240GB Kingston Now A400 1TB Segate 320gb Hitachi.
So i am really torn between a GTX 970 which i can have for a very good price or either a 1060 3gb or a 1650.
 
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This will reset your BIOS to the factory default settings. You will need to go back into the BIOS and configure any custom options you may have set including the memory XMP profile.


BIOS Hard Reset procedure

Power off the unit, switch the PSU off and unplug the PSU cord from either the wall or the power supply.

Remove the motherboard CMOS battery for five minutes. In some cases it may be necessary to remove the graphics card to access the CMOS battery.

During that five minutes, press the power button on the case for 30 seconds. After the five minutes is up, reinstall the CMOS battery making sure to insert it with the correct side up just as it came out.

If you had to remove the graphics card you can now reinstall it, but remember to reconnect your power cables if there were any attached to it as well as your display cable.

Now, plug the power supply cable back in, switch the PSU back on and power up the system. It should display the POST screen and the options to enter CMOS/BIOS setup. Enter the bios setup program and reconfigure the boot settings for either the Windows boot manager or for legacy systems, the drive your OS is installed on if necessary.

Save settings and exit. If the system will POST and boot then you can move forward from there including going back into the bios and configuring any other custom settings you may need to configure such as Memory XMP profile settings, custom fan profile settings or other specific settings you may have previously had configured that were wiped out by resetting the CMOS.

In some cases it may be necessary when you go into the BIOS after a reset, to load the Optimal default or Default values and then save settings, to actually get the hardware tables to reset in the boot manager.

It is probably also worth mentioning that for anything that might require an attempt to DO a hard reset in the first place, it is a GOOD IDEA to try a different type of display as many systems will not work properly for some reason with displayport configurations. It is worth trying HDMI if you are having no display or lack of visual ability to enter the BIOS, or no signal messages.



As far as the graphics card is concerned, there is no guarantee that you won't have to update the BIOS, but so what. You should probably, especially by now, be on the latest BIOS update anyhow if you want to run any modern upgrades or peripherals without inherent problems stemming from old firmware.

Update to the latest BIOS, once you get the display issue sorted out, and then you should be able to run any graphics card you wish to up to the latest releases currently being offered. Both the latest AMD and Nvidia offerings should run without problem on that board so long as you are not on a very old BIOS release.
 
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Cloe1994

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Thank you for the fast and thorough reply.
I have already tried taking out the CMOS battery out but i didn't leave it for more than two minutes so is it worth trying to leave it even longer you reckon ?
I have also watched a youtube video about the no display problem and followed the instruction and removed the CMOS jumper altogether but that didn't make any difference.
As for the cable i am using it's a VGA cable as my motherboard doesn't have any other ports in it which is really frustrating.
I think it's worth mentioning that before i got rid of my 650ti boost i was running it using a vga to dvi adapter which worked absolutely fine but when i removed the graphics card and thought i'd run with the integrated graphics i got no display.
So i used my friend's gtx 1650 just to see if i can get a post. well i kinda did... i got an image of the bios screen with the multiple keys to press and their functionalities but i couldn't do anything my keyboard and mouse were both lit up but not functioning.
After a couple of tries and removing the CMOS jumper i finally got it to work and i entered the bios and i changed an option in the chipset configuration which gave me the option to either use PCIE or Onboard graphics so i chose Onboard graphics (as i want to run the computer without the gpu for now) i saved the changes and exit.
I got the windows logo screen then a blue screen saying that my storage device couldn't be recognized which is my 1TB Segate drive which i am certain is working fine but to double check i tried to boot off of my friend SSD and i got nothing the same old no display.
It is really frustrating and i hope i can find a solution to just run the computer without the gpu till i buy a 970/1060 or 1650.
EDIT: Forgot to mention that whilst on the bios screen all my drives were recognized but my boot drive (1TB segate) there were two of it and i think one of them said UEFI at the end of it if i remember correctly.
 
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Try the hard reset, EXACTLY, STEP FOR STEP, how I have it outlined. If that doesn't work after doing it exactly as outlined, including unplugging from the wall, leaving out for five minutes AND pressing the power button for 30 seconds continuously WHILE the battery is out, then we can go from there.

Do NOT mess with the CMOS reset pins. Leave them in the default position if you have not already removed them. If you have, make sure they are back in the default non-shorted position, otherwise nothing is going to work right so long as they are on the wrong two pins.
 

Cloe1994

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I have followed all the steps exactly like you instructed yet i am still getting no display off of my integrated graphics. Also i have made sure that the CMOS battery is inserted correctly and that the CMOS jumper is in the correct two pins (i know that because if i put it in the other two pins the system wouldn't even start).
So i am left out with the same booting with no display. my monitor little light is blinking blue but won't turn on when the system is up.
I am sure my i5 2400 is capable of running off of the integrated graphics because it worked before but whilst i was watching netflix i noticed that the screen went black for a second as if windows was installing some kind of video drivers then it went blank and unresponsive so i had to reboot and i haven't been able to post since.
All help is appreciated.
 
You may have to borrow some parts if you know anybody WITH parts you can borrow, at this point, to identify the problem. The first thing I'd do is try a different monitor cable and/or adapter. The second thing I'd try is a different monitor.


Drivers can't be the problem or else there would still be a display before it tried to boot into windows. Do you have a display for the POST screen and BIOS, or is there no display, ever, at all, at any time after you power on the unit? If there is nothing, at all, then it's a driver and it's not anything related to the Windows configuration, because those have nothing at all to do with the display signal prior to the point in the boot process where Windows actually starts loading.

Given the age of the motherboard, it's also entirely possible that the part of the motherboard that is responsible for facilitating a video signal between the CPU and the motherboard video outputs on the back has problems or has failed. Replacing the motherboard might not be wise or even an option, because these boards have become somewhat difficult to find, and expensive, because those selling them used know that people are willing to pay more for them than they are worth simply to avoid having to upgrade the whole platform and since they haven't been manufactured for many years you don't really have any other options, new or used.

New, about the cheapest board you can find is around 188 dollars. Totally not worth it when you can get a brand new board for an upgrade build for much less than that, along with a CPU and memory, and be into a much better performing system for around $367.00.

So, that is an option as well. Sometimes failures, rather than lack of adequate performance, drive our upgrade cycles.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor ($189.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard ($114.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($62.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $367.97
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-12-24 11:53 EST-0500


The other thing you can try if you know somebody with a graphics card of any kind that is compatible, that you can borrow, is to throw a graphics card in there and see if there is a display. If there is, then obviously it's not the monitor, or the cable, and is probably not the CPU, leaving the motherboard as the most likely culprit. The CPU is always a slim, outside possibility, but unless you've had the CPU out of the motherboard recently or during this process, that is highly, umm, less-likely.
 

Cloe1994

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There is nothing at all in the screen it's totally off with the little light in the lower right hand corner constantly blinking.
Usually when i turn on my pc i press the power button and the monitor just comes up and the little blinking light becomes solid.
I have tried a different monitor with different cable type (HDMI) and a gtx 1650.
It took many tries but i was able to get it to post and i was able to enter the bios thinking that that's the end to my problem.
In the Bios settings i looked for the option to choose the Primary Graphics adapter which was PCI Express originally so i changed it to Onboard since i want to run the pc with the intel HD graphics for now till i buy a new graphics card (probably in two weeks).
I saved the setting and exit but to my surprise after seeing the windows boot logo i got a blue screen and wasn't able to boot up again since.
The blue screen said something about not finding a storage device although i remember seeing all my Drives in the Bios screen.
Also i remember that while browsing the different bios settings to find the one to change the Primary Graphics Adapter, i saw an option to change the sata mode selection from IDE to AHCI but i did not touch it.
Now upon hitting the power button all the fans work and i hear my hard drives spinning but unfortunately no display at all.
The Graphics card i borrowed was my cousins and i didn't want to hold it even longer so i gave it back to him after my failed attempt.
Now i am left with the same no display issue. I even tried to take out the CMOS battery again leaving it for five minutes and holding the power button for 30 seconds but that didn't help either.
Thanks for your help.
 
So, the display works with a discreet graphics card installed. The monitor works with a graphics card installed. The only things that can be wrong are the CPU or the motherboard. At this point, I'd go out on a limb and say it's probably the motherboard. Have you tried a different TYPE of display output from the motherboard using the CPU graphics? For example, if all of this was done using VGA, have you tried DVI or HDMI? Most likely, there is a fault somewhere between the CPU and the output on the motherboard though. Or, the integrated graphics of the CPU have failed.

Or, this CPU was not installed correctly to begin with and has bent pins, but you never noticed it because the pin or pins that are bent may have only be related to the integrated graphics and nothing else so you never noticed or knew about it.
 
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Cloe1994

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Update after trying different setting in the monitor menu i got my pc to boot and was able to enter the bios again.
I got a blue screen stating : Your PC Ran into a problem and needs to restart. You can restart.
Stop code inaccessible boot device.
I have since chose the troubleshoot option and went on with the reset option.
Currently what i see on my screen is the loading of installing windows still at 0%.
I will keep you updated once this is finished but it looks like i am going to need a new hard drive.
 

Cloe1994

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So, the display works with a discreet graphics card installed. The monitor works with a graphics card installed. The only things that can be wrong are the CPU or the motherboard. At this point, I'd go out on a limb and say it's probably the motherboard. Have you tried a different TYPE of display output from the motherboard using the CPU graphics? For example, if all of this was done using VGA, have you tried DVI or HDMI? Most likely, there is a fault somewhere between the CPU and the output on the motherboard though. Or, the integrated graphics of the CPU have failed.

Or, this CPU was not installed correctly to begin with and has bent pins, but you never noticed it because the pin or pins that are bent may have only be related to the integrated graphics and nothing else so you never noticed or knew about it.
It actually might be the case because what i did to get the pc to post is grab my VGA TO DVI adapter and plug it into the monitor's DVI port whilst the other end is plugged into the motherboard IO using VGA.
I have never seen anything like that before so i am so confused.
Also i noticed that there are two options in my monitor: Analog and Digital. while trying to boot unsuccessfully i have always had it on Analog which caused the screen to stay off and basically wouldn't let the pc complete the boot.
However by plugging the DVI adapter i saw the monitor alternating between analog and digital every second or so which mysteriously made it possible for my pc to boot successfully.
 
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I have a quick question yes you have removed motherboard battery as per testing and you do seem to semi get the computer to work only the have it boink out again.

Is this an older Dell Computer.

Have you exchanged with a new motherboard battery. On a few of the older Dell's and some HP's as well when the battery is low not dead it will seem okay until you unplug as you did to remove your GTX 650ti.

you had no Idea did all the right steps trying to just use on board graphics but as you have explained It's making you pull your hair out.

You can get a battery at the Dollar store most of the time in a 2pac but get the thicker ones like a nickel thickness not the wafer thin ones.

Do you have a cheap volt meter to read battery voltage. A new fresh battery is 3 volts the older Dells go stupid at 2.83 volts.

It took a while to learn this trick as most other motherboard are not as grumpy and could give a ratt's a.. and be just fine with a dead battery not older Dells. And Merry Christmas
 
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Cloe1994

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Thank you for your reply and merry christmas to you too.
No this is not an old Dell computer i have actually built this computer myself few years ago it has an Asrock H61M VS motherboard paired with an i5 2400 and i had a gtx 650ti boost installed in the 16x pcie slot but sold it few days ago as i am planning to get either a gtx 970 or 1060 6gb or 1650.
The CMOS battery is definitely old and i didn't try to replace it just yet but i will definitely give it a shot.
My problem is that every time i get the computer to finally boot into the bios or even into windows a simple restart would alter all of this and i am back with a no display. feeling so frustrated as i don't have spare parts to test out the psu.
 
H61 is PLENTY old enough to have a dead CMOS battery. I would recommend getting and installing a new CR2032 CMOS battery, available at most places that sell batteries, before doing anything else. There is a very good chance of this being the issue.

Not a certainty by any means, but it's old enough to be right at that age where it is likely dead or weak, and at the least, for two bucks or so, you can eliminate that as another potential issue.
 
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Cloe1994

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Update: i went through and tried unplugging every single cable in the motherboard and re-plugging it again.
Now i am getting an error beep code which is 5 consecutive short beeps i initially thought this was the ram code but after re seating the ram modules and putting them back one at the time i still get the same five beeps. I am lost! please help.
 

Cloe1994

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Another update : I have actually took the whole pc to a friend's house so we can diagnose using his parts.
Results: My psu is fine he tried his and it yield no difference.
He tried his RX 580 in my system and it worked fine although we couldn't try the on-board VGA port in my motherboard because he had no monitors that have VGA in them only HDMI and DVI :/
Also the beeping sound (5 beeps) continued to happen before the one beep posting sound.
Now I can get my keyboard and mouse to lit up as normal and hear the 5 beeps followed by the post beep and eventually my pc boots up to windows however I cannot see anything on the screen as usual using the VGA cable directly from my motherboard to my monitor.
Seems like the only way to see an image is by using a dedicated graphics card in the PCIE slot.
My guess is that I need to enter the bios and change the allocated memory for the on board graphics from Auto (default) to another figure because according to my motherboard's manual setting it to auto disables VGA.
The second theory is that the VGA port is physically damaged.
 
Get your battery and than we can go from there.

Get battery installed.

Unplug hold down power switch 20 seconds.

Plug in try to start if no beeps go into BIOS set to default push F10 to save. But don't exit BIOS yet!


Set on board Graphics as default.

Set you "C" drive as your first boot.

Set date and time and again push F10 to save exit BIOS with saved items listed.
 
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Cloe1994

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H61 is PLENTY old enough to have a dead CMOS battery. I would recommend getting and installing a new CR2032 CMOS battery, available at most places that sell batteries, before doing anything else. There is a very good chance of this being the issue.

Not a certainty by any means, but it's old enough to be right at that age where it is likely dead or weak, and at the least, for two bucks or so, you can eliminate that as another potential issue.
Just replaced the CMOS battery with a brand new one (CR2032) nothing changed same behavior.
Hopefully getting a new gpu soon. :/