Computer Has No Video Output

[davidleehansel]

I have a friends computer that Im working on and when I had it on at hos house, the computer came on all the way too the blue screen that displays the Hp Logo. Then it completely stops, I tried to put in a windows xp disc to see if it will do anything from the disk, at fast it did, it said to boot from cd press any key, so I did and then i let it sit for about 30 min and it still didnt change, well except for the screen was black. We both have the same monitors which are HP Pavilion M90 Monitors and his computer is a Hp Pavilion XT936.
Computer details:
AMD Athlon 1ghz Processor
128 mb of SDRAM
40gig hard drive
CD-RW
DVD-ROM
56k momdem
no video card (built in video)
I was thinking it either has to the onboard video went bad or the driver got corrupted. Anybody with any questions or responses to this question will greatly be appericated. Thank you and have a nice day. Also, does anybody know where I can get SDRAM memory fot this computer.

 

[electronicsfreak]

Start by stripping board all the way down and listen for beep codes. Like undo the cd and dvd rom drives, pull out the modem and if your using 2 64MB chips pull one out , if your just using 1 128 leave it in. See what beeps you get. Try minor things like that. Also if you have a spare video card around put one in pci slot and see if you get video from it. Another useful tip , look on the board itself for swollen or leaking capacitors or any obvious bad spots.

 

[garebo]

electronicsfreak has given you good advice but first i would re-set the bios as the bios often gets changed without our knowing about it.
Check the manual to get the info on how to reset the bios, but usually you unhook all power to the mobo, then take out the coin battery and move the jumper from its standard one and two position to the two and three position, leave it a few minutes, then put all back as it was and reboot.


Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[davidleehansel]

Thanks for all your help but I still havent been able to fix it. I called hp and to there help still havent been able to fix it either. Can you believe that HP the maker of the computer doesnt even sell replacement parts. At least for this type of computer. How stupid is that. I was wandering about just buying a replacement motherboard, but I have no clue on what motherboard would be compatable and still work woith all of the orignal hardware. If anybody would like to find one for me than would be very helpful. Ive finally decided that the problem with this type of pc, is that the motherboard will kinda of melt two capacitors on the motherboard and make the motherboard unuseable.
The computer still has the orignal specs:
1ghz AMD Athlon Processor
128 mb of SDRAM
40 gig ULTRA DMA Hard Drive
CD-RW
DVD-ROM
FLOPPY
56k momdem

 

[KevinADC]

considering HP uses a lot of proprietary hardware that only works in their proprietary cases, with their proprietary power supplies, you may not be able to buy any replacement parts at all. I'm not sure if thats the situation with your particular HP computer, but it could be. HP even used proprietary versions of Windows in the past so only that version of Windows would work with their hardware and software applications. I don't know if they still do that or not.

 

[garebo]

I didnt know that HP uses proprietary power supplies?
I would say that the best way to get yourself up and running at a low price would be to join one of the forums that have buy\sell\trade sections, like anandtech, techimo, etc. You can google them. Once there you will find links to other forums as well. You can buy yourself a used, good board that will work with not only the cpu you have but all the other pc parts you listed as well. And people will also help you out with what motherboard you can use and which you cant. Tell them nork sent you, thats me. I havent been on them a while but older guys will know me.
You can also find out there wether or not your power supply is proprietary or not. But you only have to be concerned about the motherboard and maybe the power supply. Since you are replacing the motherboard its only the power supply you have to be concerned about. You can find out there if you can use the current power supply you have or if you have to get another, which you can buy there as well.
Good luck on that.
Let us know how you did.

And remember, all these other parts you listed can go on any motherboard. The processor, you have to find a compatible motherboard, but the ram will work on that. and the other parts listed below, from your list, no problem on any motherboard.

1ghz AMD Athlon Processor
128 mb of SDRAM
40 gig ULTRA DMA Hard Drive
CD-RW
DVD-ROM
FLOPPY
56k modem



Good advice + great people = tek-tips