pc and monitor not talking

[Lindy66]

My brothers has a dell desktop and tho both the tv and system boot up there is nothing displayed on screen.

He had a pc repair man around who connected another monitor still nothing checked leads cables graphics card power units etc etc and came to conclusion he thinks the motherboard has gone.

How likely is that to be true and could it be anything else ?

Thanks

[theo_wyvern]

when you say he checked leads etc, did he actually swap them for known working components ?

if he did then it is possible it may be the motherboard

[theo_wyvern]

also did your brother change anything on the pc before it stopped displaying anything ?

[Lindy66]

I understand he did swap some components over but still no joy.

My brother did not change anything on his pc when it was working.

[peanut]

a reliable repairman would not tell you what it " could be " . he would find the problem and tell you what it is. you cant just go and replace a motherboard just to see if thats the problem. replacing a motherboard is a lot of work unless you get the exact same board. also dell boards are designed only for dell computers. they will fit in another computer but the plugs are totally different . you can put a different board in there but the plugs on the dell will have to be cut off and rewired. i dont even want to know what dell will charge you for a new board.

[spacechimp]

well, I had this problem before and if you

• hit F8 lots of times after turning on the PC, the advanced windows set up should appear


• select VGA mode.

You should get some basic colours with poor resolution.

• Change it back to normal settings for single monitor and restart (unless it works straight away).


• If, when you restart it doesn't work, then you can reinstall the graphics driver, if you have access to it.

[spacechimp]

notice my poor use of bullet points, that is truly the mark of a genius.

[peanut]

Hey Spacechimp, how did you do that?

[peanut]

I can do this � or � but cant find the dot.

[spacechimp]

lol, click the button 3rd from the right, when you're typing your answer.

[spacechimp]

Some feedback would be nice Lindy66

[Lindy66]

Sorry for lack of feedback, I told my brother about pressing the f8 key and will do so when he can as hes working 18 hours shifts at moment.

He rang dell and they quoted him 160 for motherboard but told him problem might be his pentium processor, he will do the F8 key thing and if that doesnt work will look at his options.

Will keep you posted once Ive heard from him

[spacechimp]

Any more developments?

[Lindy66]

He tried the F8 method but still no joy nothing happened.

Hes now waiting for a friend to get him a new pentium chip (another suggestion by dell that might be the chip) if that fails then will need try and get new motherboard or ask a local company to have a look.

Will keep you posted of any developments and thanks for answering