Member Avatar for Christoff

Last Wednesday (5th December 2012) I switched my computer on in the morning to do some work on it. It failed to boot up. What I got instead was a black screen with a little box in the top left corner of both of my monitors (24" Samsung SyncMaster P2450 with HDMI connection & 22" Samsung SyncMaster 2033sw with a DVI connection) that kept flicking between 'Analogue, Digital & HDMI'. I'm not too sure how long it does this for, but it certainly goes on for about 5 minutes - I got bored timing it after then.

After some assistance from a friend, we figured out it was the Power Supply that went in the machine (was a CoolMaster 1000W Silent Pro). After replacing it with a Corsair GS850W Power Supply it had taken the GFX card (was a GTS 250 NVidia card) which has now been replaced with a GTX660 NVidia Card. This card has been in the machine for around an hour now and this little window is still popping up on Boot up.

It is doing my head in. I've changed ALL of the connections from the monitors to the tower, all the components inside the computer have been removed and placed back in one at a time and appear to be working - all the lights and fans turn on when I plug the machine in at least. I've spent the good part of a week trying to solve this problem on my own and I'm completely stumped. Any ideas?

If this little tidbit of information is useful, the PC was freezing up on me Tuesday evening. I installed Speedfan to see if the temperatures of the fans weren't ridiculously high and they weren't. They were running at a cool 60 degrees - even whilst gaming on Planetside 2 (which is what I was doing at the time).

Thanks in advance folks.

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Dani AI

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That little Analogue/Digital/HDMI box just means the monitors are scanning for a live signal and not finding one. You can calm the on-screen flicker by locking each display to the actual input (use the Source/Input button and pick HDMI or DVI), but that only masks the real issue: the PC is not completing POST.

Building on ’s BIOS reset tip, do a bare-minimum POST test outside the case (cardboard under the board). Leave only: CPU + cooler, 1 RAM stick in the slot your manual recommends, GTX 660, PSU. Disconnect all drives and front USB. Then:

  • Plug in the 24‑pin ATX and the 8‑pin CPU/EPS power. Make sure both halves of the 4+4 EPS are fully seated.
  • Plug in every required PCIe power lead to the GTX 660 (some models need two 6‑pin; check the sticker on the card).
  • Use a single known‑good DVI cable to a single monitor set to DVI (avoid HDMI for this test).
  • Add a tiny case speaker to the speaker header so you can hear beep codes.
  • Power on. If you get beeps with no RAM installed, the board is alive and RAM is suspect; try different sticks/slots. If you get no beeps at all, think board/CPU/power.

Two easy-to-miss gotchas for your exact mix ():

  • The Gigabyte 970A‑DS3 has no onboard graphics. Plugging the monitor into the motherboard will never work; you must use a discrete GPU.
  • Verify the board’s BIOS revision supports the FX‑4100. A board that shipped with an older BIOS can fail to POST with some FX chips. Borrowing an older AM3 CPU to flash the BIOS (or asking a shop to flash it) is a quick rule‑out.

Given the original PSU failure, also test RAM one stick at a time and, if possible, meter the PSU rails or use a PSU tester under load. A single bad stick or weak 12V rail can mimic a dead GPU.

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Member Avatar for BigPaw

When you look in Device Manager, under Displays Adapters, what do you see?

From here you could try completely uninstalling your video card(s), and then install the latest drivers. (even if you feel you already have the latest video drivers) Be sure to download the drivers before your computer restarts so that they are available to install.

Member Avatar for Christoff

I can't actually get to the device manager to even look at it. The machine doesn't even get as far as the BIOS loading screen :(
A friend suggested that I test it with a different GFX card - which I did - same result occurred. I even plugged my monitor cables directly into the Motherboard and still no go.
I'm getting worried that whatever caused the Power Supply to go also took the Motherboard with it :(
Thanks for the response BigPaw

Hatchy

Member Avatar for BigPaw

Ouch.... sorry to hear this.

There is just one last thing that might be worth trying, reset your BIOS. There are three ways to do this, but only two are available to you at the moment...

With power disconnected:

(a) Use your motherboard manual to locate the BIOS reset jumper. Or, (b) remove the CMOS battery temporarily and then reinsert it.

Hope it works matey.

Member Avatar for Christoff

BigPaw, thanks for the advice. Tried that and it still did the same thing. I bought a new Motherboard (Gigabyte 970A-DS3), fitted it in and the same problem occurs. Apart from the Harddrives, I've replaced EVERY SINGLE BIT of the PC (this was the plan after Xmas anyway) and the same problem is occuring. So currently the PC has;

Motherboard mentioned above
Corsair GS850 Power Supply
NVidia GeForce GTX 660
AMD FX 4100 CPU Black Edition

I assumed new components would be plugged in and would work instantly (after installing drivers etc but the screens still keep flicking between the different signal outputs...even when they are properly connected.

Any more advice folks.
Thanks again
Hatchy

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