no screen

[igs942]

Hi all,

I having problems with my old pc. I have just replaced it and need to transfer old files to my new one but whenever i turn it on there is no screen. The system seems to boot ok but the screen stays dormant. is there anything i can do on the keyboard to sort this or is it an internal problem???

Ian

[Scottler]

Not to make you sound completely incompetent, but is your monitor plugged in (to the CPU and the power supply) and is it turned on?

You'd be surprised.  LOL

[igs942]

Hi Scottler,

Yep it is. I thought I missed something obvious myself but i havent got a clue with this one. The screen is turned on and connected to the tower, the light on the screen is slowly flashing as it does when its on standby. Normally when I turn the tower on the screen 'picks up' the pc and comes on too but this aint happening no more. I have tried two other screens which I know work but no joy.

Was just wondering if any1 has any ideas???

Cheers

Ian

[bm]

I don't have any ideas re the screen. If you are just wanting to transfer files over to the new PC you could connect the old harddisk to the new PC (changing it from master to slave). AFAIK that should work ok (not totally sure) but presumably you are wanting to get the old PC up and running again.

[congo]

Does your old PC have onboard graphics and an addon graphics card as well?

You will see a second monitor connection on the back of the PC if it does. Try plugging into the other one and watch it light up!

I suspect that you have moved the cable to the other connector, the graphics card that isnt set in BIOS... or BIOS has reset to defaults and you now have the onboard one activated as the primary display, so you cant see a picture until you move the cable over to the other connector.

[igs942]

Thanks to all who replied- especially Congo...did what you said and it worked- Thanks!

[congo]

No prob,

Remember to go into your bios and set your preffered video device, (your addon card), it will give an option like:

Primary VGA Device:  Onboard  /  AGP slot

or something like that.

You will have to connect the monitor cable to the selected device of course.

[FridayChild]

Not for the guy who posted this (who solved the problem otherwise) but for the future occasional user; remember that not all monitors support all combinations of resolution and refresh rate. The same symptom (no image and blinking yellow led) can be due to the monitor only supporting lower settings.
If that is the case, boot in safe mode and lower the resolution and refresh rate settings to 640x480 60Hz (every VGA monitor supports this) and then reboot and ensure that the PnP monitor driver is installed and choose the highest supported combination.