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A relative of mine has some problems with the computer. The screen is blank all the time (thus you can't enter bios, ...).

This happened after a computer restart, before it used to work normally. The computer "works" (you can hear the fan and the lights are also working). The screen should still be working, because it displays no signal found if you disconnect it from the computer. The screen is properly connected to the computer. There were no hardware changes in the computer. The computer probably had some viruses, but I don't know if a virus could do this. Also the computer is quite old so maybe something isn't working anymore (I assume the graphic card).

Any ideas what could be wrong and how to fix it? Because the only reason that I can think of is that something isn't working anymore (graphic card).

Thank you for your time and answers.

* UPDATE: * The last restart was caused by the user (pressed restart button), because the mouse icon disappeared or froze (didn't quite understood).

The "POST" beep could be heard, but not the "windows" sound. Also other "sounds" (fan, ...) can be heard from the computer.

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  • sounds like video card issue
    – Shekhar
    Commented Dec 20, 2011 at 17:39
  • If you hold your hand over the screen to darken it and look at the screen, can you see very, very dim images?
    – music2myear
    Commented Dec 20, 2011 at 19:03
  • I tried with a different monitor and it is the same. I guess it is the graphic card...
    – Ben
    Commented Dec 26, 2011 at 19:05

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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Long list of issues could potentially be wrong. A bad video card maybe... but you would still hear the first "beep" indicating that the BIOS has performed it's POST and everything seems ok. You would also hear the hard-drive ticking as it's booting... and possibly the startup sounds of Windows (assuming you're running Windows or whatever startup sounds)

If you don't hear the initial beep (from the BIOS's POST) ... it's very likely something is very wrong with something on the motherboard itself and/or the power-supply.

More information would be helpful... (what caused the "last" restart... user-choice? programs crashing? BSOD? ???) Do you hear the "POST" beep? Does the hard drive sound like it's booting your OS? What else have you checked?

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Unplug the computer and monitor for at least 10 minutes to let everything de-energize. Plug them back in and try again. If that doesn't work, try another monitor on this PC. If that monitor doesn't work, the graphics card is dead.

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