No display problem

[Guest]

I have built many computers but this one has me stumped.
The motherboard is an Abit KT7A with 128 dimm and a Duron 750. The graphics is an ATI 32 meg AGP something or other 2000. The monitor is a 17" CTX 1280x760 something. I also have a Toshiba Satellite Pro laptop.Here is the problem.
With a brand new case and pwr supply, no display on the monitor when pwr is turned on. I checked all card, cables,etc. I connected the monitor to the output of the laptop - works great. Back to the desktop and no display. I switched out the video card and used a PCI Magic Video 8 meg video card. Still no display. I even removed the motherboard from the case and surrounded it in plastic and turned on the power, still no display. Monitor says "no input signal". The motherboard and memory are brand new. I even had the company who sold it to me, had it tested and they said everything was fine in their 4 hour test. This was without my monitor of course. The monitor is right now connected to my laptop and running fine.
Two weeks ago, while my monitor was connected to my laptop, the screen turned dark blue and seemed to 'go out'. After resting for awhile with the power off, it seems to be fine now. This must be a bad monitor, right? Wonder why it works with the laptop but not with the desktop.

 

[Guest]

Perhaps the problem is not with the monitor, but rather with the desktop.

I usually follow this kind of process to resolve boot-up problems:
(some may seem rather trivial, but even I have overlooked mis-inserted cards in my time )
- are all the components inserted properly? Especially the ATX motherboard, which has a few other connectors. I usually start with just cpu/ram/video. No hhd, fdd, cdrom, nic, etc (until it turns on properly)
- does the computer power up properly? check lights/fans/etc. Some ATX psu's have a "hard" switch you need to turn on before the "soft" switch on the case works.
- does the computer beep at you? it could be telling you where it is failing.
- does the video card work properly? can you check it in another computer?

Some more details may help the diagnostic.

--------
I have not yet begun to procrastinate.

 

[Guest]

At one point, I was unable to get the power supply to even come on. I removed everything and finally determined that somewhere the motherboard was short circuiting. This power supply doesn't have a hard switch. Its a switching power supply. Turning it on, is done through a switch on the front of the case. The power button is wired to the motherboard. I havent had this type before.

Update: I have now tried a working monitor with the power supply and motherboard isolated from the case. No Cpu fan or RAM installed. The only cable connected to the MB is the power supply cable and the power-switching wire from the case. I have tried both video cards. Still no display. This leaves only 3 possible faulty parts: MB,cpu or power supply.When I get the money I'll try buying a new power supply and see what that does.<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by koastalguy on 06/12/01 09:11 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[killall]

id be afraid... very afraid... try checking the components seperately with others from a working desktop yourself if possible... try that setup in your case with your power supply... etc...

you do not strengthen the weak by weakening the strong

 

[Guest]

You would be afraid of what??? Someone told me offline that the power supply is supposed to be 300W for a pentium 3. This power supply I have is a 250W. could this be the problem? The cpu is an AMD Duron 750

 

[killall]

shouldnt be a problem unless youre running the monitor off the power supply as well... you dont need a 300w+ power supply for anything other than faster thunderbirds (1ghz+) p4s and maybe the athlon mps though im not sure

your graphics card is fine also as a voodoo 5 might have caused some problems...

you do not strengthen the weak by weakening the strong

 

[Guest]

alright, I'll try using the video card in the other desktop to make sure the video card is working. I thought the power supply might be the problem, because at one point, last week, when i had the computer on and while attaching the monitor cable to the video card, just as the metal flange on the end of the cable touched the video cards socket, the computer went off. That made me think there was a short somewhere. The MB was in the case at the time with everything else hooked up. Maybe I should check the voltages on the power supply to MB cable.

 

[mousepotato]

I'm no expert, not by a long shot. But, I was told never to plug/unplug anything (except USB) while computer was on.

<font color=green>I've had enough cookies.</font color=green> <font color=blue><i>Got milk?</i></font color=blue>

 

[Guest]

Post deleted by koastalguy

 

[mousepotato]

Easy there, I wasn't inviting you to insult me, [-peep-].

<font color=green>I've had enough cookies.</font color=green> <font color=blue><i>Got milk?</i></font color=blue>

 

[Guest]

Post deleted by koastalguy

 

[mousepotato]

I didn't mean it to sound like criticism. If it wasn't helpful, sorry.

<font color=green>I've had enough cookies.</font color=green> <font color=blue><i>Got milk?</i></font color=blue>

 

[Guest]

Update: I found a very good UnOfficial website for the Abit motherboards, with lots of help. What I forgot to say when I first posted, was that on boot-up, there is no system beeps. Nothing. The website said this "No beep at all - this means your motherboard is dead, either due to a defective or underpowered power supply, poorly seated CPU or RAM, or a dead-on-arrival board."
I have tried reseating the cpu twice, the fan, the Ram twice, so I guess its the power supply.