Monitor not turning on when computer is booted... Thread

Alright, I'm having this really weird problem with my computer. Basically, my computer's monitor isn't turning on when I press the power button. This happened off and on for the first week after I bought my new computer parts (early-mid January), but then it stopped happening. When it did happen, though I had no idea what it's cause was, I jiggled random components around a bit, made sure everything was firmly seated, then rebooted it. That always fixed it. Now it doesn't.

I was at a LAN party yesterday, at a friends house who lives up a very rough gravel road. It worked fine for the whole LAN party, but when I went back home, it stopped working. It might be important to note that I built this computer from scratch, without assistance. Though I am fairly knowledgeable with computers, and the hardware that make one up, it is possible that I put it together wrong. This wouldn't make much sense, however, as it worked fine for over a month.

In case it's important, here are the specs of my "beast":

Windows 2000 Professional, Service Pack 4

Samsung 17" LCD Monitor

MSI K8T Neo Motherboard (with newest BIOS as of February)

420w Power Supply

AMD Athlon64 2800+

512MB DDR400 Kingston Ram

ATI Radeon 9600 Pro Video Card (128mb)

60gb 7200rpm Maxtor HD

Soundblaster24 PCI Sound Card

Standard 48X CD-RW drive

Standard 48X CD-ROM drive

Standard 3 1/2" floppy drive

Things that I've already tried, to no avail:

Insured that all devices & components are firmly seated.

Insured that all cables (such as IDE) are firmly connected on both ends.

Insured that all powersupply connectors are firmly connected.

Blew all of the dust out of my video cards fan. There was a bloody lot of dust in there..

Took RAM out, blew any dust on it off, put it back in.

Tried several different monitors. None work.

Known problems with this system:

There is no thermal compound on my CPU.

The frontpanel components (extra USB & sound ports) are nonfunctional.

For some reason totally unbeknownst to me, it crashes when I tilt it vertically more than about 30 degrees. It must therefore always run on its side.

There is some loose piece of metal or something inside of it. I spent about 20 minutes looking for it, but couldn't find a thing. I believe it's under the motherboard.

Reset button non-functional.

A few other things to note:

I did overclock the FSB n this system from 200mhz to 223mhz (so the multiplied CPU speed went from 1800mhz to 2007mhz), but I stopped doing that a while ago when I realized that I had forgotten to put thermal paste on the CPU.

I have never had any problem with overheating. The hottest I've ever ran it was at 40c degrees, when playing FarCry. I promptly stopped overclocking afterward, though that is definately within the range of safety.

Any help is VERY appreciated. Thanks in advance,
~Sangye

Edited by: San-J

Reset the computer after turning it ion.

Oh yeah, my reset button doesn't work either..

*Adding that to the list of known problems.

THEN FIX IT

Reset = your friend

I have to reset my underclocked 950 every time I boot it for the first time in a day because of the voltage allocation

Mabey it's just broken?

lol - i would search a bit harder for that peice of metal bud, if its behind your mobo, i suggest you look there to be sure, it could be shorting something out. also a reason for the system crashing when tilted beyond 30 degrees.make sure your computer is posting correctly each time this happens, test your video card in another machine. hope that helps.

Edited by: MajorPest

yea, swap parts around. It may make them feel like dirty whores, but it might not be the moniter, could be the video card, or versa visa.

i had this same problem i think

change your comps battery

yes, after reviewing your facts, i am almost POSITIVE all you have to do is replace its internal battery thingy

dont know what they call it these days, but im sure you know what i mean

Edited by: ImTheDarkcyde

I had this problem once, with a GeForce2 GTS. Bleh, what had happened was that the connector on the card had gotten kind of corroded, so that it couldn't really sit in the AGP slot properly. You had to jiggle it around to make the monitor turn on. Then one day it got so bad that no amount of jiggling could make the video card work again, the slot connector was totally broken. Or alternatively, the AGP slot itself may have become damaged.

Could be something else too. See if you can borrow a video card off a mate and see if it works in your PC (if you have any mates that trust you that much).

PS get some thermal paste or pads for the CPU.

Edited by (in order): frosty-theaussie, frosty-theaussie

Get that bit of metal out - behind a mobo it's equivalent to leaving a spanner on a car battery. What happens if it accidentally drops between +5v and +1.5v terminals?

My friend has an identical video card, but he recently upgraded to an x800 Pro, so I suppose that I could borrow his old one and see if it works. I also wouldn't need to install any new drivers then.

I also figured out why the reset switch doesn't work.. The connector got lost behind my motherboard as well, when I put the mobo in. As soon as I figure out where to connect that resetswitch thingy, I'll try what Cheapy suggested.

I spent some more time searching for that metal thing, and I didn't find it. I bounced the case around, and decided that it sounds more like plastic anyway.

Thanks everyone for the help
~Sangye

dont forget to change battery!

Alright, I gave up on trying to fix the problem yesterday.. My computer is currently being worked on by a trained professional, and I shoul know what the problem was within a few hours.

Thanks again to everyone who tried to help out, and I'll be sure to let you know what the real cause for this odd problem was.

~Sangye

I know you are getting it fixed but how old is the monitor?

Got it new for Christmas.

ANyway, its fixed now. The technician just swapped out the video card, and it ran. Then, he swapped it back in, and it still ran. Still no idea on why this happened.

San-J wrote: ANyway, its fixed now. The technician just swapped out the video card, and it ran. Then, he swapped it back in, and it still ran. Still no idea on why this happened.

Probably dust in the AGP slot interferring with the card's connector.

Like I said

You probably where right then, Frosteh

I did take the GFX card out and then put it back in, but I guess that didn't get all of the dust out when I tried it.

how much did that little ditty cost ya?

Don't even ask.. The bastard charged me $55 !!!11one1twothree. He did fix a few other things though, so I'm glad I took it there. He charges a lot, but his work is very very high quality.

Well thats good, glad your monitor is working

$55? Damn that's cheap.

I charge £7/hr ($13.46) plus parts.