Monitor displaying "No Signal" on startup

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Karina M

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I really hope someone can help me with this. My monitor is displaying a no signal message at startup, not even showing the windows boot screen. However, I plugged the cable into the on board graphics card and it works fine, it's only when I try it on my other card that there's a problem. I've cleaned and reseated the card, but no joy.

This is a completely out of the blue problem. It was working fine last night, tried to turn it on this morning, and this happened. Any advice? Or do I just have to get a new graphics card?

Thanks for any help you can give.
 
Try to check if it is well plug in the AGP or PCI Express slot in you PC. If yes then you Graphic card is dead you will need to change it.
 
Graphics cards are now the second most unreliable item in the computer, next to the DVD and CD Drives. When they burn out, you just get another.
 
Graphics cards are now the second most unreliable item in the computer, next to the DVD and CD Drives. When they burn out, you just get another.

I think even the most important as if both internal and external graphic get damage thus the PC becam useless whereas DVD and CD drive I can still use the PC and move file etc by pen drive.
 
So it's pretty much had it then? I'm definitely going to have to change the graphics card? Anyone got any (fairly cheap) recommendations?

Thank you for the help!
 
We need more information than you've given us (which was practically nothing). :) We would need to know what kind of graphics slot is available on your motherboard, PCI-E, AGP or only PCI. Also, what do you use your PC for?

If you want more or less the same performance you have now, what is your current graphics card?
 
Well the monitor works so I would use the onboard graphics for now and uninstall the display drivers (from Add/Remove programs) for the graphics card. After they are unistalled, run Driver Sweeper and restart the computer. Attach the monitor to the card and boot into BIOS disabling onboard output (if possible). If the card still doesn't work without drivers installed then it's likely it may be junk, but that's as thorough as you can get before dishing out money for a replacement.
 
Sorry for the lack of info :) It has 1 PCI-E slot and (I think) 2 PCI slots. I ran a program called PC Doctor which came with the pc and the test (PCI Express Status Test) it ran on the PCI-E slot came up as failed, so maybe it's the actual slot that's the problem and not the card.

The one I'm trying to use is Nvidia Geforce 7300. I'd like slightly better performance, but pretty much anything would be better than the onboard card (Geforce 6150 I think).
 
Yea that's not good... there's nothing you can do with a failed slot except replace the motherboard. It might just be referring to the card though, if it was installed. Do you know what motherboard make/model you are using? We might be able to point you in the right direction with a replacement if the slot is confirmed dead.
 
To test your current graphics card can you try it in another compatible PC or, alternately, can you try a known good card in your PC?
 
Time for a visual inspection?
Look very carefully at the graphics card connector tab and the gold finish on the connections. If any of them are damaged thats the problem. Note that not all of them are always used.
Also have a look at the PCI slot on the motherboard to make sure there are no foreign bodies in there perhaps and that none of the connections are out of place or jammed into the base of the slot.
 
I think I have gremlins.
When I switched the computer on this evening, the monitor displayed no signal again, but with the cable plugged into the onboard graphics card this time. I switched it to the other card and it worked! Started up, displayed a message saying that the new hardware was installed but I needed to restart. So I restarted and it came up no signal again. Switched back to the onboard card and that was working! This is very weird.

I'm taking the whole machine over to my father-in-laws house on Saturday to test out whether it's the graphics card or the slot. Hopefully I'll figure out for sure what's wrong then.
 
Is it possible that the card has got slot creep? Try running it with the lid off the case and the card not screwed down, just in case it is not sitting square in the slot.
 
Well, my father-in-law took it to his computer guy who installed a new graphics card (Radeon HD 4350), and all seems to be working again. Thanks for all your help people :)
 
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