Showing posts with label Display Problem Troubleshooting. Show all posts

Video Problem Solutions

Video problems are the most devastating of the troubles your computer may have. It shown a dead blank display and leaves you clueless of what is happening inside of it. Don't get too anxious about it - we will solve your computer's video problem.

Having problematic video display may just be caused by a minor problem like loose cable connection to a more concerning defective video card or the display monitor itself. To be able to spot the real problem, it does not necessarily require you to become a computer technician. All you need is this short tutorial and some common sense at your disposal.

First, we need to find the root cause of the problem using a troubleshooting technique called "Zeroing of a Problem". The question is how do you spot the problem? Here are some questions that you should ask yourself while solving video problems.


Ask Yourself About:


  • Does my LCD or LED display monitor have the right cable configuration or connection?

  • Is it receiving power from the AVR?

  • Are all the cables leading to LCD or LED display in good condition?

  • Does the fan of the Power Supply Unit of the system unit spinning?

  • Is there any whizzing or any other abnormal sound inside the system unit?

  • Have you installed a new hardware or program earlier?

  • Has the computer been moved to another location lately?


Now after trying to trace the last things done or the recent condition of the computer before it had any video problem gives you some sensible clues to where we should begin to locate its cause. Let us take the last question "Has the computer been moved to another location lately?", if you are to analyze the display problem may have been caused by the action. So what might have caused the display monitor to fail? Probably it would be from a power source, or loose cabling, or damaged monitors due to mishandling and other probability. You can then start checking for the suspected cause of the video problem one after the other. Do not check all problems at once - your check may not be thorough.

Loose cabling can easily be solved by reinserting it or as a temporary solution wrap the exterior of the plug with paper adhesive tape to snugly fit it in its socket. If however you have checked the cabling and power source and finds no fault or cause of the display problem, then it is worth to consider that the video failure might be attributed by the components inside of your computer.

To check the inside components of your computers, you must adhere to practice computer servicing safety measures and able to have some background in disassembly and assembly of a computer. So what particular peripherals or parts inside your computers that if it fails, it leaves you some disgusting display problems? Here is a short list of the possible defective peripherals that may contribute to the video trouble.


Defective Peripherals That May Cause Video Problems

  • Video Card

  • RAM

  • Power Supply Unit

  • Hard disk

  • CPU


These are the most common peripherals that if they may fail, are usually the primary things that lead to video or display problems. Use trial and error technique by swapping each individual peripheral with a known good functioning one. In doing so, you will be able to "screen-out" other possible cause of the problem. But sometimes, cleaning the connector edge (the shiny gold colored plates) of the RAM and Video Card usually solves the problem. You can easily clean the connector edge using the commercial electronics detergent spray or a simple rubber eraser.

You don't have to be a computer technician to find video problem solutions. All you should have is common sense and some tips from us. Learn more about computer servicing and troubleshooting by browsing across our pages' topics. You are also welcome to ask questions or ask some assistance about troubleshooting your computer problems.

No Beep, No Video Display, and Fan Spins Erratically


This computer showed no video display, no beep, and as observed the cpu fan spins erratically. The problems seem complicated and our instincts tell us. This Compaq Presario SR1000V had not been used for about five months because of this problem.

Troubleshooting this type of computer problem does require a lot of patience specially that you are not hearing any beeps and seeing no display. You might want to suspect problems with the video card, RAM, power supply unit, or the motherboard itself. Proper troubleshooting procedure and technique, troubleshooting safety, and documentation must be observed so that you may be able to solve the problem quick, systematic, and efficient.

The procedure done below is a very good example on how a computer troubleshooting procedure should be done correct. This is a step by step tutorial and guide on how a newbie should when troubleshooting a computer.



Date Fixed : January 13, 2011


Problem : No Beep, No Video Display, and Fans Spins Erratically


Motherboard : Compaq Presario SR1000V, 2.6 GHz 512 MB
Operating System : Windows Media Center


Technicians : Computer Hardware Servicing Class of CLHIDO
Weblog : http://clhidohsr.blogspot.com


INTERVENING FACTORS

- No Motherboard Support CD


OBSERVATIONS

- No Video Display
- No Beep on POST
- CPU fans spins but erratic


TROUBLESHOOTING PROCEDURE

- Before testing the system unit, we must first ask few questions to the owner of the system unit to give us some clues on what and when's regarding the computer problem encountered. Remember that first hand information about the computer problem encountered by the owner or user is the most near-reliable source of idea on what really is the problem of his or her computer. But be warned, I have had said near-reliable because most users being asked lies on the details fearing that the blame is on them. You must ask them in low tone, soft, non-vindictive, and non-agitating manner. The details they give might be useful for your approach in troubleshooting.

- After gathering the information provided by the user, you must verify it by checking and testing the system unit. Be sure to physically check the peripherals first before testing. Try to see if there are missing, blown, or poorly attached cables and peripheral cards. Then after a thorough check, test the system unit and do a detailed observation.

- Upon turning on the system unit, we have noticed that there was an obvious whining sound inside the DVD ROM. There was no video display, no beep or beeps heard, and we can see the fans spinning erratically by when it spins fast then slows down to the extent of almost stopping then turns fast again. This must be a PSU or RAM or motherboard problem. Since there were drives attached, they need to be removed. Once the hard drive, floppy drive, and DVD ROM were removed, the system was powered on and again carefully observed for. The whining sound was gone but there was still no video display or a beep and the fans still spins erratically. The whining sound must have been caused by either of the drives which we verified later.

- Having eliminated the observed whining sound, we must now find out which peripheral or peripherals are failing. On our list we had the PSU, then the RAM, and finally the Motherboard. But among the three, PSU is the nearest candidate to be failing because it main function is to supply power to all the components of the motherboard including the CPU fans. But the RAM is also suspected to be defective so we have to check the easiest component to test which is the RAM. We cleaned the RAM's connector edge with an eraser and powered the system, but it was all the same. The fans still spins erratically. So we transferred the RAM to the next slot and again observed if CPU fans will spin regularly but it didn't. The RAM or the slots must be defective. Since we have an extra RAM, we swapped it with a known good RAM and powered the system unit again. Alas! the fans spins quite regular and we now have a clear display but we can still observe a little erratic spinning.

- Knowing that the RAM was indeed defective and has been tested, our attention switched back to the PSU. It doesn't mean that when as the RAM was initially replaced, it had already solved the problem. Logically, what made the RAM failed is either the motherboard or the PSU. So knowing this, the PSU must be checked.

- Upon checking the PSU, we were not surprised to see three blown capacitors. Though it may be ok to replace the blown capacitors, it is recommended to buy a new one. The system unit that we were troubleshooting had its defective PSU replaced by a new one.

- Two problems found and solved. Now let us go to the whining sound observed earlier. When we plugged in the drives we could hear that the source of the sound is really coming from the DVD ROM and as we tried to open the rack tray, it was stuck. So we manually opened the tray by pinching an eject hole of the DVD ROM and found a CD in it. When we closed the tray back and powered on the system unit, the sound was no longer heard.

- Installation of the operating system was done, appropriate drivers, and the necessary programs were finally installed. The system is now up and running.


SUMMARY

- Troubleshooting problems like this seems so common. The most common problems we have encountered are these the ones we have just worked on. No video display, RAM, and PSU problems are the most common computer problems.

- As we have made the troubleshooting procedure above, problems with display are commonly caused by a failing RAM provided that the video card is ok. Fan problems are generally attributed by a failing PSU or worse a failing of defective motherboard. Also, abnormal sound produced by a system unit may be coming from a CD or DVD ROM, Hard Disk Drive, and or Fans.

No Display, Continuous Short Beeps , All Fans Spin, No Keyboard Response on a P4GE-MX Motherboard


Troubleshooting this P4GE-MX motherboard is not as easy as one may think. I have encountered a lot of computer troubleshooting similar to the problem of having no display, continuous short beeps and with all the fans spinning. But as guided with the knowledge of beep code errors, continuous short beeps leads us to say that there is something wrong with the system board. Of course, we can't directly jump into conclusion that the motherboard is defective. I have taken detailed observation and verification before making such conclusion. See the text below how I did the troubleshooting procedure for this computer problem.




Date Fixed : September 26, 2010


Problem : No Display, Continuous Short Beeps , All Fans Spin, No Keyboard Response on a P4GE-MX Motherboard



Owner : City Livelihood and Home Industries Development Office
Motherboard : ASUS P4GE-MX, P4 2.4 Ghz
Operating System : XP / Ubuntu



Technician : Drokz



INTERVENING FACTOR :

- No Installation CD



OBSERVATIONS :

- All Fans spin
- No Display
- Continuous Short Beeps
- Keyboard will does not lit



TROUBLESHOOTING PROCEDURE :

*****Please turn off the AVR and unplug the power cord if you'll replace or test any peripheral in your computer system unit*****

- Before the troubleshooting was started, I asked a couple of questions to the students who has used and observed the behavior of the computer before it totally broke. So here are the following observations as said by the students.

Question :
- "What happened before the computer completely shuts down and never give a display again?"

Answers :
- "It keeps on freezing."
- "It won't restart if the restart button is pressed"

Question :
- "Did it only occur once?"

Answer :
- "It did a couple of times as we power it back. But on our fifth or sixth attempt trying to turn off (turning off the AVR) and turn on the system back again, it did not give any display but the fans still spin."

It must be noted that it freezes upon operation and could not be restarted using the restart button. We can speculate that the operating system is least to blame for this trouble. So there are six things to check for this problem. And we need to isolate each of our suspected troubles to screen off mistakes in troubleshooting.

Suspected troubles in the order of priority to check :

- Video Card (improper seating and fan speed)
- RAM
- Power Supply
- Hard Disk Drive
- Operating System
- Motherboard

- Please remember that we will be doing "Isolation Method" of troubleshooting. We will be testing each peripheral one after the other so be careful with power. Always turn off the AVR and unplug the power cord each time you swap a peripheral.

- Since there is an integrated vga port, we can use it instead of the video card. Upon removing and checking the video card for physical defects, we found none. So we proceeded with the checking by using the integrated vga port and turned on the system. But still there was no display but continuous short beeps. We also inserted the removed video card to the other computer system and found out that it just worked fine.

- Video defect has been eliminated. It's time to check the RAM. We simply swapped the existing RAm with a known good RAM from a running system unit. We also used one slot after the other and still got no display but continuously gives out the repeating short beeps again.

- RAM defect suspicion was also eliminated. Since stubborn computer problems like this is attributed by a defective Power Supply Unit (PSU), so the system's PSU MUST be checked. And as it was checked using a multimeter, the power output were ok. Not contented, I opened the PSU to see if there are blown or burnt capacitors on its board but has seen none. So I decided to swap it with a known good PSU then powered on the system. Again, there was no display but a continuous short beep.

- Suspicion on the PSU was again eliminated. So I switch my attention (a little attention) to the Hard Disk Drive and the Operating System. To check two things that are relative in one time. I decided to remove the Hard Drive immediately from the system unit then powered on the system unit. Again, there was no display but a constant repeating short beeps. It seems the solution will go no further. I have suspected the bios to have crashed. All of its peripheral just works fine. I even swapped the processor but still has no difference or changes.

- So I search for the documentation for Pheonix BIOS and found tons of documentation about the matter. The dreaded constant repeating short beep was an indication of a failed BIOS and the only way to fix it is to hot-swap. There was no way to flash it because there was no display and hot-swapping was the only solution. I cannot afford to hot-swap it with the other working system unit because it might end out having two computers broken and the training center had only 4 working computers. Too bad I can't perform such hot-swapping for the computer. But anyway, the computer didn't go to waste, it is now used by students to practice assembly and disassembly of the system unit.

- Problem not solved or was limited to solving it



SUMMARY

- It is good to note and check the beep errors given by a failing system unit. Just like a repeating short beep that indicates a BIOS problem. The troubleshooting should have not taken long enough to spot the cause of the problem. It is also noteworthy to check documentations on the CMOS manufacturer to confirm or verify your suspicions.

No Fan Spins, No Power and No Display on a JetWay PM2MP

Troubleshooting this Jetway PM2MP computer seems easy to do. We know that is has no power and no display and what directs us to check is the PSU. So my c0-computer technician checked the PSU (Power Supply) by removing it from the system unit and opened it. As computer technicians, it will not be surprising for us to see burnt components on the board of the PSU but in this case we were. The burnt components were completely fried and really surprised us how it did happen. See how we did our computer troubleshooting in this example.




Date Fixed : September 12, 2010


Problem : An PM2MP computer has no power and display


Owner : Ms. Scarlet Manoit
Motherboard : JetWay PM2MP - Pentium 4 2.4 Ghz 1 Gb
Operating System : Win XP / Ubuntu (Dual OS)


Technicians : Drokz & Dboi


INTERVENING FACTOR :

- No Driver CD


OBSERVATIONS :

- No Power
- No Video Display


TROUBLESHOOTING PROCEDURE :

*****Please turn off the AVR and unplug the power cord if you'll replace or test any peripheral in your computer system unit*****

- Based upon our observations earlier, the system has no power and display. Knowing this, we can directly zero in our approach to the following :

a. Power Supply Unit (PSU)
b. Video Card (there is none so we should check c.)
c. Look for burnt or leaking capacitors in the motherboard

- Starting to troubleshoot the PSU, drain ESD first then open the system case's side cover and flip opened side up.

- Remove the PSU and open it. With the PSU opened, it is evident that the components are totally fried out and a new PSU must be replaced. It is not recommended to replace the burnt capacitor or capacitors even if you are able to. Replacing capacitors in the PSU will lead further damage in the motherboard.

This led us to suspect that the motherboard capacitors may have burnt as well so we proceeded to checking the motherboard.

- Upon checking the motherboard, it shows 10 capacitors that leaked. The capacitors really have to be replaced. So we replaced all capacitors with its appropriate voltages and capacitance.

- There was no video card of the system unit, so we cannot troubleshoot for the video card. We can use the integrated video systems and hope for it to be ok after the the motherboard capacitors are replaced.

- With the new PSU and capacitors replaced, the system now powers up, shows POST screen and seems ready to boot an operating system. But the installed operating system doesn't work so we tried fixing it using ERD Commander 2010 but failed. Realizing that the data needs to be backed up, we fixed the operating system using the XP SP2 installer and after that we were able to backup the files and installed a fresh copy of the operating system.

- Problem Solved!


SUMMARY :

- Power related troubleshooting is not limited to the power supply unit only. Sometimes, the motherboard capacitor will get burnt or leaked if the power supply itself is defective. Consider to sharpen your soldering skills - you are to replace the leaky motherboard capacitors remember? :-) .

- One important point... do not just replace the leaky capacitors of the power supply but instead replace the whole unit with a new one.

No Video, No Beep, MoBo LED Lights on, Fans don't spin, on a Biostar TF7100P - M7

The issues of the Biostar TF7100P - M7 Computer comes quites complicated. It shows no display, No beep, both fans of the CPU heat sink assembly and power supply fan won't spin, but the motherboard LED lights on. We may suspect that the video card or RAM must be failing but we can't be too sure. A thorough check must be done at the beginning of every computer troubleshooting. Assessing the present condition of the computer and observing for physical damage and other minute details must be carried out before anything else. To find out how we made the fix, see below.




Date Fixed : 07.11.10

Problem : No Video, No Beep, Mobo LED Lights on, Fans won't spin.



Owner : Anonymous ( Church Employee )
Motherbaord : Biostar TF7100P - M7
Operating System : XP SP2

Technicians : Boging and Tomasito


INTERVENING FACTORS :

No Motherboard Support CD


OBSERVATION(S) :

Trying to turn on the system unit, the HDD LED on the front panel of the computer doesn't light. It has no display and there was no beep sound heard. The fans as we checked didn't spin. Our suspicion led us directly to the fault of the PSU but we cant be too sure.


TROUBLESHOOTING PROCEDURE :

- Based on our earlier observations, we need to open the side cover of the system unit to check if there are observable physical defects on the components of the motherboard like burnt capacitors.

Of course safety is primarily considered. So every time you need to open the system unit case, always turn off the computer and unplug it from the avr.

- With the side cover removed, we then inspected for physical defects. We did not find any burnt capacitor or other components showing bold physical defect. So we considered removing the data and power cables from the drives and turned on the system unit to find out if the drives might be shorted and have cased the problem. Again, there was no change on the status of the computer.

- As the system unit "runs" with power, there was this hardly audible whistling sound coming from within the system unit. We furthered our observation and sharpened our listening and finally found out that the sound came from the Power Supply Unit.

- So we opened the PSU and found 1 burnt and 3 leaky capacitors!!! The PSU is defective! So we requested the owner of the system unit to buy a new 450 W ATX PSU rather than to replace the capacitors. We may be able to change the components (the leaky and burnt capacitors) but I strongly recommend to replace it a new one.

- After the replacement of the PSU with a new one, the system then powers up and displays the POST. We turned off the system unit and connected back the data and power cables to the drives. Turned it on and found out that we were not able to boot up. The operating system was corrupted and needs to be fixed.

- Trying to fix the operating system using the XP Installation CD, it failed. We also tried Spotmau and still did not succeed. So we just reinstalled XP without formatting the drive and backed up the files.

- After the file backup, we re-installed the operating system with fresh install. Since there was no motherboard support cd, we downloaded and installed the drivers of this Biostar TF7100P - M7 motherboard from the their website.

- Problem solved!


SUMMARY :

- Stubborn problems are most probably be caused by the the Power Supply Unit ( PSU )

- Use you senses in troubleshooting computers, like to listen for abnormal sound. Most likely, a whistling sound is caused by a leaky capacitor. That capacitor might be from the motherboard or power supply and in our case, from the PSU.

No Video, Has Power on a P4VM - MX Motherboard


Troubleshooting Video Problem poses a challenge amongst Computer Technicians. There will be a hard time pointing out or zeroing in of the problem in terms of which peripheral is failing. Most of the time, Video Problems are attributed to a Video Card, RAM, or PSU failure. But in some cases, the RAM, PSU or the Video card hardly be suspected to cause the Video Problem but other devices such as the Hard Disk Drive, burnt capacitors on the motherboard, burnt or grounded card peripherals, and other components least expected to cause the problem.

The question is, how are we going to find and fix the cause of the problem and try to stop it from recurring and what Methods of Troubleshooting are we to follow. Try to see below how we did the fix.



Date Fixed: 07.02.10


Owner : Mr. Marcial
Unit / Motherboard : P4VM -MX 2.4 Ghz with 512 Mb of RAM
Operating System : Win XP SP 2


Technicians : CLHIDO Computer Hardware Servicing Students


PROBLEM :

No Video but has Power


INTERVENING FACTOR :

No Driver Support CD


OBSERVATION :

When the Computer was turn on, there was no video but has power. The fans of the power supply turns and the indicator led of the motherboard lights. The PSU must less be suspected and we can directly assume that the video system or the RAM must be the failing the component.


TROUBLESHOOTING PROCEDURE :

- Since we found out that there is power from the PSU, the fans are all spinning, and the indicator LED is lighting; checking the power system will be done later after checking all the other peripherals if we can find fault or faults.

- To be able to accomplish such check, we removed all connectors to the drives including the power and data cables and also removed the card peripherals virtually leaving just the RAM, the Processor and the motherboard power connector. There is no video card connected and what we can only check at this moment is the RAM and the Processor.

- Having only the RAM and Processor to check first, we turned on the system unit and observed if there will be a continuous beep that might indicate a RAM problem. But there was no beep. The RAM's are ok and surprisingly there was a live screen and we were able to navigate in the BIOS. The RAM's, Processor, and the Integrated Video System are discarded to suspected of causing the problem.

- The next thing to do is to check the card peripherals. So we turned off the system for safety and then inserted the internal modem. As we turned on the system unit, we pinned it! the video was gone! The modem caused the problem! So again we turned off the computer then removed the internal modem and physically inspected it. We then found out a little burnt area on the largest chip of the modem. The problem was caused by the burnt internal modem!

- We then inserted and connected all peripherals to its proper cabling and header then turned the computer on. It was then O.K. The modem really is the failing component.


SUMMARY

- In troubleshooting video problems, we cannot suppose to suspect the video card, RAM, or PSU to cause the problem all the time. Sometimes, the least suspected modem can cause the problem or other peripherals likely to be expected to fail.

- As we ask the owner of the computer how his system unit failed, he said that the computer did not have video display on the morning after the evening storm. Lightning was everywhere during that night and must have caused the modem to burn in anyhow.

No Display | 1 Beep Sound | Monitor Pilot Lamp Steady Green

Owner: City Periculture Office of Dumaguete
Address: Dumaguete City

Motherboard : ASUS P4PG - MX
Processor : Intel P4
Memory : 512 Mb
Operating System : Win XP Sp2

Technician: Rogin Diez


OBSERVATIONS

- A beep on boot-up
- No Display
- Display Monitor pilot lamp is at steady green.


SUSPECTED TROUBLE

- Peripheral connection / failure
- Video Card


TROUBLESHOOTING PROCEDURE

- Unplug the system unit from the AVR
- Drain off any ESD (Electro-static discharge) by holding the system chassis for a minute

- We unscrewed and remove the left side cover of the system unit. Turn the side down with the open side facing up.

- Removed the peripherals ( HDD, CD - ROM, Sound Card, and the WLAN Card) Thus leaving just the ram and video card intact.

- Turned on the system unit, we then observed the system now beeped once indicating that the system is ok. CRT Pilot lamp flashes a steady green light and having no display.

- We turned off the system then unplugged, we removed the video card and depended on the VGA port instead. And upon turning it on, still 1 beep, a steady green light on the CRT, and NO VIDEO DISPLAY.

- We checkedif the RAM is defective, cleaned its connector edges and transferred it to another slot. And then again, 1 beep, steady green light, and no display. RAM and the slots should be ok.

- The CPU was then reseated and applied with a thermal paste on its heatsink contact surface. The heatsink will increase or fill the micron gaps between the cpu and the heatsink.

- But when the system was turned on again, the result were stiull the same. A beep on boot up, green steady light on the CRT, and NO DISPLAY. The CRT must be defective.

- We borrowed another CRT and connected it to the system unit we were fixing and as it was turned on, there was a display. The CRT is found to be defective.

- The removed peripherals were then installed back and upon turning on the system using the good CRT. Everything is just OK.


DEFECTIVE PERIPHERAL

- Cathode Ray Tube (CRT)

In checking display problems, stick to checking the display peripherals rather than jumping from one that is non-relative to the probable cause of the display problem.

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