Member Avatar for RevDoddy

Here is a weird one that's got me stumped. My parents computer had developed a weir issue. The graphics output doesn't work. I swapped the graphics card and still no fix. Not even the bios splash screen appears. The thing is that the computer actually boots up. You can hear the vista jingle. Monitor and cables are fine. Everything in the computer plugged and working. Took out the cmos battery and tested the ram in another machine. The computer is a HP pavilion s3040. 2 gig of ram. 160 gig hard drive.

Thanks

RevDoddy

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by Suspishio

Dani AI

Generated

Given the two symptom sets here — a system that sounds like it boots but shows no BIOS/POST video () and an intermittent monitor that sometimes works and sometimes does not () — focus on quick, targeted checks that separate monitor/cable/EDID problems from motherboard/PSU/video-hardware failures. ’s pointer about trying another monitor/cable is valid; extend that with the following prioritized diagnostics.

  • Attach a small motherboard speaker (or use keyboard LEDs). Press CapsLock/NumLock and watch the LEDs; if they toggle the system is running past POST and the problem is video-initialisation rather than a full boot failure. If you can get beep codes, write down the pattern and check the board manual.
  • Bench the motherboard with a minimal configuration: power, CPU, one known-good RAM stick (try every slot), and video. Remove drives, USB devices and all add-in cards, and boot outside the case to rule out shorts from standoffs or a faulty peripheral.
  • Confirm stable power rails. A flaky PSU can let the machine start enough to play the OS sound yet fail to initialise video. Use a PSU tester or swap in a known-good supply before replacing the board.
  • Verify the physical video path: test a simple VGA-only monitor and a different cable, try each video output on the system (onboard vs card), and ensure the monitor’s input selector matches the cable. Intermittent behavior often traces to a bad connector, pin, or cable.
  • Inspect the motherboard for bulging/leaking capacitors, burn marks, or loose solder joints around VRMs, the northbridge or the GPU slot. Physical damage points strongly to board-level repair or replacement.
  • Resetting or recovering the BIOS can help if settings or a corrupt firmware prevent video, but only try a recovery/reset method documented for the board and avoid blind BIOS flashes without vendor instructions.

If these isolate the fault to the board or power delivery, the practical next steps are PSU replacement or motherboard repair/replacement. Keep a concise list of tests already done to avoid repeating steps when seeking parts or professional repair.

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Member Avatar for lakmalnj

Hi,

I'm experiencing the same issue. But my monitor works randomly. that means one day it works without any issue but next day it doesn't show anything even BIOS.After plug another monitor to my CPU it works. Please let me know any solution on this

Thanks,
Lakmal

Member Avatar for Suspishio

Cable?

Monitor works on another PC?

Any other cards in the PCI slots that don't work?

Member Avatar for lakmalnj

Cable?

Monitor works on another PC?

Any other cards in the PCI slots that don't work?

It works sometime with my machine.This is occurs randomly.2-3 times I connected to another pc that time Monitor worked.Oneday it works but next day it failed.
No PCI cards. I'm using IntelG31 MB with on board VGA.

Thanks,
Lakmal

Member Avatar for Suspishio

It works sometime with my machine.This is occurs randomly.2-3 times I connected to another pc that time Monitor worked. One day it works but next day it failed.
No PCI cards. I'm using IntelG31 MB with on board VGA.

Thanks,
Lakmal

We need to be clear about this. The monitor could fail on the second PC? If so, that most probably rules out a fault on the first PC.

The other point I picked up was that you changed you graphics card, as you put it. But you've also mentioned that it's integrate graphic - so you can forgive me for thinking you'd swapped out a PCI graphics card.

If the monitor always behave perfectly on the second PC, then I'd suggest you have motherboard issues on the first PC. If the mnitor is intermittent on two PCs then I'd suggest a cable issue or a dry joint in the monitor interface.

Always difficult to diagnose at a distance.

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