Accidental system reset during format, now no video

H

[H]ardwaremanic

Weaksauce
Joined
Oct 19, 2002
Messages
66
Heres the deal. I was formatting the hard drive on a friends computer with the plan of reinstalling XP. However, at 98% complete, i hit the reset button with my arm. When it restarted, there was no response from the monitor. The computer booted up, hdd clicked away like normal, but the monitor wouldnt recognize that the system was powered up. wtf did i do? and how do i freaking fix it?

I already swapped out the ram, changed which slots the ram were in, finished installing windows on its hdd on a separate computer and swapped in back the hard drive, cleared the cmos, removed the battery for 30 seconds.... nothing.

Its a Athlon 62 x2 cpu, Asus M2A-VZ mobo, and EVGA GTX 260 gpu, although im using onboard VGA since i have no dvi hookups.
 
Are you sure that the reset button is not stuck? Can you get to the BIOS setup screen at all?
 
Im positive the reset button is not stuck. And no, i can't get to anything. From the second you power up the tower, the screen does nothing. No backlight, no flickering, only stays off. Im completely stuck on this one.
 
Troubleshooting is not fun, and it takes time, but you're going to have to keep at it.

You could swap out the monitor as a test. Test your friend's monitor on another known working PC, then test another known working monitor on your friend's PC.

If things are still funky, then let us know and we'll help you narrow it down further. Personally i suspect a borked OS install because you mentioned "finishing" the OS install, and if this is true, you should have started the OS install all over again, and not continued the old install.
 
see if your motherboad has a post code header and check if it is showing an error during post, if not remove the bios battery while totally unplugged from the wall for at least a few minutes, 30 seconds sometimes isn't long enough to clear the bios. replace battery and try again to boot.

and double check the monitor by powering it on without being connected to any signal, only power, it should at least power on out of standby and so "no signal' or something, also double check the monitor isn't looking for a signal on the DVI input only if you are on VGA, it might be stuck in a sleep mode if it never gets an active signal


if the monitor does display the no signal message it is probably ok so then pull all the ram, if it only gives an error beep after you pull some ram, you might have a bad stick of ram.

try and enter the bios by jamming del or F1, even if the OS install is corrupted, the bios should give display or at least show a keyboard error or at least beep so you know the mobo/cpu are working.
 
Sorry, i should have clarified about the OS install.

After i interrupted the format with the reset button, i removed the hard drive from that system, installed it in my known-to-be-working system, and reformatted and reinstalled XP. Then i removed it and reinstalled the hard drive with its fresh copy of xp back into its original computer.

The monitor I also know is good; its the one im using now. Works fine on my dell 8400. But when i try it on my buddies comp, no go. It does show a no signal icon, thats it. And as far as his system is concerned, i also tried removing the video card to see if that would affect the monitor, but it didnt.

I did also remove the battery, but it is possible it wasnt long enough. I'll attempt it again and leave it out for a while.
 
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