Broken graphics card

[Twisted Again]

I have 2 PC's, which have the same symptoms. 1 is an Acer Aspire 266mhz and a Packard Bell, old. Both stopped displaying the desktop and and both have an onboard graphics card. Is there a way to fix this? I have read about updating bios and info from the device viewer, but I am unable to see what I am doing. I verified that the monitor is ok, it's just the PC's. Can any one advise me on these?
Thanks,

[Dani]

This started happening to both video cards at the same time? Did you recently install software / device drivers that might have caused this? Is there something you did to both of them recently (i.e. ran Windows Update) ??

[Twisted Again]

No, the timing of these just hppens to be coincidental, plus the Acer actually has been this way for a while stuck in the closet. The Packard Bell is a friends and since both seem to have the same symptoms, I thought I would now address the inevitable.

This started happening to both video cards at the same time? Did you recently install software / device drivers that might have caused this? Is there something you did to both of them recently (i.e. ran Windows Update) ??

[DMR]

Can you get a screen if you start up in safe mode? If so you could be looking at a corrupted driver, as safe mode loads the generic/stock vga.sys driver instead of your card's driver.

Speaking of what you can't display, is it just GUI mode that isn't working, or do the monitors not display anything at all?

[JR85023]

He cannot even see the bios screen so drivers is out of the question. Is your PC booting up with no screen. Clue* hard drive LED lights up, or if you got speakers you might hear windows annoying music when you boot up.

[DMR]

I have read about updating bios and info from the device viewer, but I am unable to see what I am doing.

I could be wrong, but I didn't take that to explicitly mean that he couldn't even see the BIOS info on the screen.

[Catweazle]

Sure you haven't adjusted the monitor brightness down all the way to black? Might sound silly, but I've seen sillier things happen.

Do either of these systems work with a different monitor connected? A different monitor cable? Does the monitor in question work OK on a different PC?

Edit: Sorry, please disregard that - I just reread your question a bit more attentively.

Have you tried using a PCI or AGP add-in display card with them?

[Twisted Again]

I get all indications that everything else is working ok. All led lights are on appropriately & I thought of the brightness on the monitor, but it's ok. (That something I could see myself doing) That's why I checked. The only thing is I don't hear ny sound. But that could be off (muted) I generally do that.

[alc6379]

I'm thinking it may be time to buy/borrow a PCI video card. Put that in, and see if you can get any boot messages.

[Twisted Again]

Thanks, I will give the PCI card a try.

[caperjack]

Just because the lights are on doesn't mean the computer posted ,do you hear the first beep to indicate it passed the post test ,the beep will come from the internal computer speaker .

[JR85023]

Just because the lights are on doesn't mean the computer posted ,do you hear the first beep to indicate it passed the post test ,the beep will come from the internal computer speaker .

This is very true, you should always be able to hear your system beep when booting up. Unless the system speaker is broken or disconnected.