Gateway....

[ameilius]

working on a gateway desktop

it SOUNDS like it boots up - no beeps etc, but no video

has onboard video, so tried a PCI generic card - still no video
power supply tested good - tried in another machine.....
hard drive tested good - powered up in another machine
memory seems ok (would give beeps and errors rather than just no video)

any ideas? - im @ a loss

 

[kcnychief]

Can you try another monitor? I wouldn't think the video is bad if both onboard and PCI didn't work.

 

[LeeJend]

Sounds like it boots? If the PC boots and POSTs you will see the keyboard lights flash, the HD and optical drives will spin up and you should hear at least one beep. If this does not happen then there could be a CPU or MB chipset failure. Pulling out the RAM will cause a different beep pattern to confirm the CPU and chipset are working.

Assuming the PC does POST:
If the on board video is hosed and needs to be disabled then the plug in video card may not work. And you can't get into bios to disable the onboard video if it is not working. Ugly problem...

As Kynchief said - Verify you have a good monitor and a good cable. Check the pins and sockets in the video cable plugs.

If the monitor and cabling is good look in the manual to see if there is a jumper to disable on board video. If not try a cmos reset to see if the MB will release video control to the add in card.

After that you're stuck. Assuming the MB is bad and no way to use add in video cards. Test each other part seperately (RAM, CPU, Drives) to confirm.

 

[ameilius]

monitor is surely good - its on a kvm which im on another computer hooked up to it as im typing now....

hard drive does spin - keyboard lights up/flashes -

ill try takin the ram out and see what i get

 

[ray_gillespie]

Most mobos will automatically use a plug-in video card if it detects one, so even if the onboard video is fried it should automatically detect and use anything you plug in. If it doesn't do this it could be that the mobo itself is knackered, in which case there's nothing you can do but replace it.

I'm sorry if I'm partronising you here but when you plug in a new video card make sure that you attach the monitor cable to that rather than the onboard one.

Also, what happens if you let the PC boot up completely? Can you plug and turn on some speakers, then boot up the PC to see whether Windows boots (you'll hear the windows logon tune if it does)?

 

[ameilius]

im just calling it a bad mobo and/or processor

thanks for the advice everyone - you'v been more than helpful