[Anil Kagi]

Hey guys,

I have an old Celeron, Windows XP Desktop PC. My son uses it to play games, while I am busy on my Laptop.

Thing is that, since Windows XP updates have been stopped, I have stopped internet access to the Desktop, and it does not update and most of its drivers are outdated, if that is any reason for this problem.

On one bad day, the desktop suddenly shut itself down automatically while he was playing some game.

When restarted, the CPU starts booting. But now, nothing is displayed. The monitor has turned itself off. If I restart it, the LED of the monitor turns green but in a moment again turns red. Even sometimes the Keyboard and the Mouse too are not detected.

I connected the Laptop to the Desktop with an Ethernet cable, and tried to remote desktop, but the PC is not visible. May be Remote desktop is not enable on it.

And then I saw this CNET video, on using the laptop monitor for the desktop, I did do as suggested, chose the VGA mode for the Desktop monitor, but nothing happened. So I disconnected the cable and started the Desktop.

To my surprise the Desktop started displaying. I immediately, checked the "Base Video" checkbox in the BOOT.INI in msconfig. And then connected the Desktop to internet and tried to update the Display, Graphics drivers. Just while doing so, the computer shutdown itself again.

Now I repeated my experiment as mentioned in the CNET video, but now the same thing does not happen again. The monitor won't start.

I tried the cmd prompt and tried the "net view" command, as suggested in some tutorials on the web to remote-logon. But no list comes up.

I tried to boot from Installation CD. Still the monitor does not start.

I tried to start the system with a Linux Live USB. That too does start the monitor.

Hey guys, please help me, I need this Desktop.

Thank you

Anil

[Infinitе]

Okay from what I can gather from what you're saying;

Computer died randomly. Stuff to do without and internet connection and old drivers is not needed.

Monitor, I'm going to assume it's an old CRT (fat back). That whole "turns on then off" thing with the monitor was a problem I had a while back, loong while back, to where it was the monitor that was dead as opposed to the PC.

When you said the desktop started displaying, do you mean on the monitor?

Do you have another screen in the house, maybe a TV, that you can connect the VGA from the desktop too?

[Anil Kagi]

Thanks Infinite for coming and,

sorry for my delayed reply. Since for two days, there were no replies, I felt my problem may be a bit weird and nobody would give it a try, and so, I was away from the forum. Today I just checked in to take a peep, and behold, you were there. Thanks again. I am grateful to you.

Monitor, I'm going to assume it's an old CRT (fat back).

Yes you assumed right, the Monitor is CRT with protruded back, Model - "LG Studioworks500G".

That whole "turns on then off" thing with the monitor was a problem I had a while back, loong while back, to where it was the monitor that was dead as opposed to the PC.

However in my case, may be the monitor is not dead, on the grounds that, when I connected the Desktop to my Laptop with Ethernet and then again restarted without the connection to laptop the Monitor would start displaying everytime and I could logon to the system. But once I changed the system setting i.e, 'checked the "Base Video" checkbox in the BOOT.INI in msconfig', and tried to update drivers, the Monitor went in standby mode. And now when I again connect it to Laptop and back, the display does not come up. The monitor does not come out of standby mode.

When you said the desktop started displaying, do you mean on the monitor?

Yes, the monitor started displaying. Moreover, if I disconnect the Monitor now from the CPU, and only connect the power cord of the Monitor and power it on, the display comes up and shows the "There is no signal", screen saver. And the power 'on' LED is green.

Now when I connect to the CPU the monitor goes into 'standby mode' and the LED turns orange.

So, that shows, I suppose, that the Monitor is working properly, and it goes into standby mode if connected to the system.

Do you have another screen in the house, maybe a TV, that you can connect the VGA from the desktop too?

Yes, I have a CRT TV and a Laptop.

Thank you Infinite, for your compassionate reply.

Anil

[Ajs Nigrutin]

From what you wrote i think there is a serious problem with the GPU.
I can say 2 things.

If it starts and you see screen but it dies soon that usually means GPU is overheating. Reason why there is no screen is safe switch from GPU that doesnt give GPU power to start when it hits high temperature. Problem is that with old pcs that gpu need only 1 overheat to die or something to get broken.

I think there is not a lot of solutions i can only say that leave it for some time and next time you start cool it with something. IF it still crashes i GPU is basically dead and there is not alot you can do

I really think its a hardware problem, cause if PC runned fine with old drivers its a small chance something got corrupted by itself.
And you say that monitor wont work even when you start your PC you cant go into setup and that usually means GPU has it own problems.

[Virgoh]

Thanks Infinite for coming and,

sorry for my delayed reply. Since for two days, there were no replies, I felt my problem may be a bit weird and nobody would give it a try, and so, I was away from the forum. Today I just checked in to take a peep, and behold, you were there. Thanks again. I am grateful to you.

Yes you assumed right, the Monitor is CRT with protruded back, Model - "LG Studioworks500G".

However in my case, may be the monitor is not dead, on the grounds that, when I connected the Desktop to my Laptop with Ethernet and then again restarted without the connection to laptop the Monitor would start displaying everytime and I could logon to the system. But once I changed the system setting i.e, 'checked the "Base Video" checkbox in the BOOT.INI in msconfig', and tried to update drivers, the Monitor went in standby mode. And now when I again connect it to Laptop and back, the display does not come up. The monitor does not come out of standby mode.

Yes, the monitor started displaying. Moreover, if I disconnect the Monitor now from the CPU, and only connect the power cord of the Monitor and power it on, the display comes up and shows the "There is no signal", screen saver. And the power 'on' LED is green.

Now when I connect to the CPU the monitor goes into 'standby mode' and the LED turns orange.

So, that shows, I suppose, that the Monitor is working properly, and it goes into standby mode if connected to the system.

Yes, I have a CRT TV and a Laptop.

Thank you Infinite, for your compassionate reply.

Anil

When you power on the machine do you hear like a loud fan noise? or does everything seem to be working properly? It could be a bad power supply that has enough power going through it to kinda power on the machine but just can get it fully up.

[Anil Kagi]

From what you wrote i think there is a serious problem with the GPU.
I can say 2 things.

If it starts and you see screen but it dies soon that usually means GPU is overheating. Reason why there is no screen is safe switch from GPU that doesnt give GPU power to start when it hits high temperature. Problem is that with old pcs that gpu need only 1 overheat to die or something to get broken.

I think there is not a lot of solutions i can only say that leave it for some time and next time you start cool it with something. IF it still crashes i GPU is basically dead and there is not alot you can do

I really think its a hardware problem, cause if PC runned fine with old drivers its a small chance something got corrupted by itself.
And you say that monitor wont work even when you start your PC you cant go into setup and that usually means GPU has it own problems.

How to know for sure, that the problem is with the GPU?

---

When you power on the machine do you hear like a loud fan noise? or does everything seem to be working properly? It could be a bad power supply that has enough power going through it to kinda power on the machine but just can get it fully up.

Hello Virgoh,

Thank you for coming.

No, there is no noise and everything seems to be working properly.

Moreover, I had a spare new Power Unit. I swapped it with the old one, but nothing changed. So again I reconnected the old one.

Thank you

Anil

[Virgoh]

How to know for sure, that the problem is with the GPU?

---

Hello Virgoh,

Thank you for coming.

No, there is no noise and everything seems to be working properly.

Moreover, I had a spare new Power Unit. I swapped it with the old one, but nothing changed. So again I reconnected the old one.

Thank you

Anil

Try pulling the memory sticks out of the machine sometimes when the memory goes bad you just get a black screen i would try and diagnose it like this say you have 2 memory sticks i would pull them both out then put one in turn it on and see what happens if it comes up try the other stick if it goes back to not working then you know that stick is bad. So I would try this and see what happens since you cant turn on your machine its kind of hard to determine the issue so you are going to have to go part by part to see what could be bad.

[Anil Kagi]

Try pulling the memory sticks out of the machine sometimes when the memory goes bad you just get a black screen i would try and diagnose it like this say you have 2 memory sticks i would pull them both out then put one in turn it on and see what happens if it comes up try the other stick if it goes back to not working then you know that stick is bad. So I would try this and see what happens since you cant turn on your machine its kind of hard to determine the issue so you are going to have to go part by part to see what could be bad.

Hello Virgoh,

Thank you for your compassionate reply.

I have only one RAM stick, 1GB. I have tried the method. I have pulled it out, wiped it and put it back, but to no difference.

Actually, the machine gets turned on, it seems everything is working properly, except the display.

One other thing I tried was, I have old Hard disk 8GB, which is formatted and blank. I swapped the current HD with the old one, and started the system. With a blank HD, I should have got the command prompt symbol "_" on the screen. But that too, made no difference. I still had the same problem. The system starts but without display. The monitor is in Standby mode, and it does not wakeup.

Thank you for being there, Virgoh.

Anil

[Virgoh]

Hello Virgoh,

Thank you for your compassionate reply.

I have only one RAM stick, 1GB. I have tried the method. I have pulled it out, wiped it and put it back, but to no difference.

Actually, the machine gets turned on, it seems everything is working properly, except the display.

One other thing I tried was, I have old Hard disk 8GB, which is formatted and blank. I swapped the current HD with the old one, and started the system. With a blank HD, I should have got the command prompt symbol "_" on the screen. But that too, made no difference. I still had the same problem. The system starts but without display. The monitor is in Standby mode, and it does not wakeup.

Thank you for being there, Virgoh.

Anil

Hmmm it really could be a ram issue do you have another machine you can pull it from to check? I don't want to say buy some cause it could end up not being the issue. You should also check your motherboard for blown capacitors they are the little battery looking things in the motherboard check and see if any are bulging or blown out and have stuff coming out the top. They should all be perfectly flat.

[Anil Kagi]

Hmmm it really could be a ram issue do you have another machine you can pull it from to check? I don't want to say buy some cause it could end up not being the issue. You should also check your motherboard for blown capacitors they are the little battery looking things in the motherboard check and see if any are bulging or blown out and have stuff coming out the top. They should all be perfectly flat.

Oh thanks & sorry for the delay, Virgoh.

It was the RAM.

I changed the RAM, and the system started normally.

Thanks a lot

Anil ✌

[Virgoh]

Oh thanks & sorry for the delay, Virgoh.

It was the RAM.

I changed the RAM, and the system started normally.

Thanks a lot

Anil ✌

Perfect I'm glad we were able to diagnose the issue properly!