monitor goes blank at startup - "no signal"

suiko

Sometimes, when my PC starts up, the message "no signal" appears. Then the next screen is as normal, except that it stops at the line "<CPVD:0681>, at which point the screen goes blank, "no signal" comes up briefly again, goes blank again, and the PC does not respond to reset or off switches, so I have to turn off at mains.

It's a second-hand PC with Win XP. I have run antivirus, adaware, cleanup, malware etc programs already (see previous thread on what to do about slow PC).

aliEnRIK

Id check your connections if I were you
It sounds like the monitor is fine, its just not receiving a full signal (Guessing of course)

jackthenipper

My comp also does this on startup but stays on when booted up, this is due to the graphics card/mother board not having full power running to it untill it boots up.

Do you have an on board graphics or a seperate graphics card?

suiko

Thanks. Connections are fine - even I'm not such a technical disaster that that's not the first thing I thought of!

I'm not sure about the graphics, as it's a 2nd-hand PC . I don't think there is a separate graphics card - if there was, would it be installed in one of the ports or internally inside the case? I can try to ask the previous owner too.

aliEnRIK

I would guess then that the power supply isnt upto the job. Just open the side and look at the power supply (Where the mains cable enters the pc) and look at the WATTAGE which should be wrote on it somewhere. Anything under 400 isnt good (Generally speaking)

If it has a graphics card it will be internal and the monitor lead plugged directly into it. Look at the back and see if you can find any conenction that looks the same as the one your using. If there is one then your plugged into a graphics card (Otherwise you have 'onboard' graphics, meaning its a part of the motherboard (And not very good))
Heres a pic of some graphics cards ~
http://www.trustedreviews.com/images/article/inline/3359-1.jpg

Heres what one looks like from the back of the computer
http://www.dansdata.com/images/xabre/conns500.jpg

The blue connection is a standard monitor connection, the white one is a digital DVI connection (Onboard will almost certainly be the blue one)

suiko

Thanks. I'm actually kind of apprehensive about taking the back off at all, as last time I did this with a computer I couldn't put it back together again. I am one of those individuals who is seriously taxed by wiring a plug

The other thing is that the guy who had the PC for 5 yrs never once had this problem. Does this change things?

savemoney

Have tried the monitor in another pc

It could be a number of things

1. the monitor
2. the graphics card gone
3. psu
4. or worse pc borked

aliEnRIK

suiko wrote: »

Thanks. I'm actually kind of apprehensive about taking the back off at all, as last time I did this with a computer I couldn't put it back together again. I am one of those individuals who is seriously taxed by wiring a plug

The other thing is that the guy who had the PC for 5 yrs never once had this problem. Does this change things?

You said you installed a 500 gig harddrive. Was this a SECONDARY hard drive (As in there are now 2 in the pc?). If so, youve just put extra strain on the power unit

suiko

No, I never said I had two hard drives - there's only one. I don't have another pc to check with, unfortunately. And then it comes on OK most of the time...

marleyboy

Try turning monitor off when you shut down, and turn it back on just after you reboot.

suiko

Thanks! That does sound like a nice solution - will try it!