Member Avatar for atkachen

Hi folks.
This is an intent to find a fast solution to the problem with my son's P4 gaming PC.
Symptoms: everything seem to work but the monitor is black (tried another that is good for sure -same thing)
What seems to work: power supply's fans, HD, video card's fan; when reconnecting the monitor to the video card I can heard the monitor react's on that.
Cause of the problem: while he was playing in his room I did turn off/on the switch on the home's main power box (of course not to break him, but have been doing some work on kitchen)
I do suspect that there is something "fired up", but what I'm looking now it is a key for where to look.

Thanks, and appreciate your advice.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by fgking

Dani AI

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A compact troubleshooting checklist and notes that build on points from , and and that also address the integrated-GPU symptom reported by . Focus is on isolating hardware vs. firmware vs. driver causes and on safe, low-effort checks you can do before buying parts.

  1. Confirm POST behavior — watch HDD/fan activity, keyboard LEDs and listen for beep codes (attach a system speaker if none built in). Beep patterns point to CPU/memory/video faults.
  2. Minimal-boot test — power the board with CPU, cooler, one RAM stick and one video output (use onboard or a single known-good card). No drives, no extra cards. If you get video here the fault is in a removed component or configuration.
  3. Reseat and clean — with power unplugged, reseat the card(s), RAM and PSU connectors. Inspect and gently clean card edge contacts and slot with compressed air/isopropyl if oxidized. Check retention clips and alignment.
  4. Visual/PSU checks — look for bulging or leaking capacitors, burn marks or damaged traces near the video slot/VRMs. Measure PSU 12V/5V/3.3V rails or swap a known-good PSU; undervoltage commonly kills video output.
  5. CMOS/BIOS and drivers — clear CMOS to restore default video selection, check BIOS “Primary Video/Init Display First” once you get any display. If the machine posts but loses display after the OS loads (a pattern similar to @fgking), boot Safe Mode or a Linux live medium to isolate driver/power-management issues.
  6. Fallbacks and final checks — try a different bus type (PCI if available) to rule out a bad AGP/slot. If the slot or VRMs are damaged or intermittent after a power glitch, motherboard replacement is often the most reliable fix.

Cautions: always unplug mains and take ESD precautions before touching cards; avoid hot-swapping cards. Use surge protection/UPS to reduce risk from household power switching. If unsure about probing voltages or replacing caps, seek professional service.

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Member Avatar for Dani

Test another (cheap) video card in the system?

Member Avatar for )BIG"B"Affleck

tried another that is good for sure -same thing)

What the monitor or video card
Move the video card in another PCI slot hopefully its PCI & not AGP that slot might be fried now just a suggestion
If that doesnt make anything work I hate to say it but it could be the card hope its not the ati RADEON 9800 pro

card.gif 7.02 KB
Member Avatar for atkachen

Thanks a lot for the tips.
That has been realy tricky - the AGP slot has been "fried".
So, the story ended very simple - I did replace the AGP card with another one, just to find out that the P4 is still alive and so on.
Did put it back and... it's working, well as before.

Thanks again.

Member Avatar for )BIG"B"Affleck

the AGP slot has been "fried".

Heavy....
Quote: John Conner

Member Avatar for fgking

I have a similar problem. The monitor receives the signal the first time I turn the PC on. If I reboot the system to restart the monitor goes to standby mode. If I turned of the PC and turned on again the monitor does not receive a signal. I have an integrated graphic card and I have no idea where to look for and have it replaced. Can you please help.

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