Member Avatar for Radio2006

Okay...huge problem with one of my home built computers. I currently live in a small apartment with 2 PC's and one display, my TV. I plugged in one computer to the display and used Team Viewer to remote into the other when I needed to, its running Server 2008 R2 and is not used regularly. The other day I did some rearranging in the living room and I safely shut down both computers. However when I booted them up I could not remote into the Server using Team Viewer...it has IP addresses and its running services because I can ping it by its host name, DNS Server. For some reason Team Viewer isn't starting like normal, so I decided that I would plug in a 22 inch monitor to troubleshoot...thing is, there is no display via HDMI nor DVI when plugged directly in to the TV nor the monitor on all 6 outputs: 4 DVI and 2 HDMI. There is no BIOS display, not boot anything, no windows, its blank the entire time. I even let it sit overnight and nothing. The fans on the video cards are spinning so they are getting power, and I am able to browse the hard drives that are mapped to the other computer which I think rules out the OS and the mobo. I think the video cards are fried...does anyone agree or have another solution to offer. Thanks in advance...

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Dani AI

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Quick note following the exchange between and : here’s a compact, practical checklist and a few precautions to use when a system shows no video during boot (especially with multiple GPUs or when the machine is headless). These steps help distinguish a truly failed GPU from display/handshake, BIOS, or service-start issues.

  • Try a known-good monitor and cable first. TVs often refuse or fail to show BIOS/POST because of EDID/handshake or unsupported low resolutions; a basic PC monitor will eliminate that variable. Test every output on every card, and try both DVI and HDMI where possible.
  • Isolate hardware quickly: remove extra cards and start with one GPU in the primary PCIe slot. Swap cards between slots to see whether the BIOS initializes one card but not the other. Reseat power connectors and the GPU itself.
  • Add simple diagnostics: plug a small motherboard speaker onto the front-panel header to catch POST beep codes, and keep a single RAM stick + CPU + GPU attached for a minimal POST test. Clearing CMOS can fix a corrupted configuration that prevents video.
  • If the machine is accessible over the network while there’s no console, focus on display-handshake and service-start order on the OS side. Configure remote-access tools to run as services or use “delayed start” / network dependency so they come up reliably after the stack is ready.
  • Preventive steps: keep a cheap spare GPU and a small monitor/cable for troubleshooting, enable visible POST messages in BIOS (disable “quiet boot”), and consider out-of-band management (IPMI/KVM) on machines you need remote access to regularly.

Safety/caution: always unplug power and ground yourself before touching internals. These checks narrow the problem without assuming a dead card right away.

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Member Avatar for Radio2006

I always forget other info...its a self built computer: AMD 965 Black Edition, Gigabyte mobo that has no onbaord video, 12 GB of Corsair DDR3, Ultra X4 1200W PSU...and thats all I think of at the moment.

Member Avatar for aVar++

Have you tried taking a gpu out & then booting it. Are there any beeps when turning the PC on? Check the cables work as well.

Member Avatar for Radio2006

There no beeps from the mobo and cables were known good and were connected properly. Problem is solved though. Somehow the PC showed up in Team Viewer as online after monitoring the IP address assignment from the monitor. I think what happened is when I booted up the first time and did a hard shut down after no IP that the computer went into a disk check. Since I have over 10 TB across 5 hard drives, it would have taken it a while. All is good and thanks for the help aVar++!

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