Video card?

[Ext User(Crash Lander)]

The Father-In-Law rang me last night wanting me to 'fix' his computer. (He
lives in Perth and I'm in Melbourne!)
Seems the Mother-In-Law was playing her 'Mah-jong game, (probably the most
graphics advanced program they run!), and the screen went black on her. Now
apparently, all he gets on the screen is a question along the lines of
"Video Cable Connected?" and nothing else.
I suggested either the monitor or the video card may have died, and advised
him to pull the video card and re-insert it, and whilst he was there to blow
what I can only guess is a huge amount of dust away.
He hasn't done it yet, but said he would in the next day or so. Was my guess
at the problem correct?
Crash Lander

--
I'm not always right,
But I'm never wrong!

[Ext User(Crash Lander)]

He has confirmed by the way that the cable from the monitor to the card was
in fact connected properly.
Crash Lander

--
I'm not always right,
But I'm never wrong!
"Crash Lander" <here@there.com.za> wrote in message
news:43d56866_1@news.iprimus.com.au...
> The Father-In-Law rang me last night wanting me to 'fix' his computer. (He
> lives in Perth and I'm in Melbourne!)
> Seems the Mother-In-Law was playing her 'Mah-jong game, (probably the most
> graphics advanced program they run!), and the screen went black on her.
> Now apparently, all he gets on the screen is a question along the lines of
> "Video Cable Connected?" and nothing else.
> I suggested either the monitor or the video card may have died, and
> advised him to pull the video card and re-insert it, and whilst he was
> there to blow what I can only guess is a huge amount of dust away.
> He hasn't done it yet, but said he would in the next day or so. Was my
> guess at the problem correct?
> Crash Lander
>
> --
> I'm not always right,
> But I'm never wrong!
>

[Ext User(Moses Lim)]

Crash Lander wrote:

> Seems the Mother-In-Law was playing her 'Mah-jong game, (probably the most
> graphics advanced program they run!), and the screen went black on her.
> Now apparently, all he gets on the screen is a question along the lines of
> "Video Cable Connected?" and nothing else.

Well, you have screen output by way of the error msg so it is reasonable to
expect that the screen to be working.

Could be the video card or the slot in which the video card is plugged into.

[Ext User(Alpha_77DX)]

"Crash Lander" <here@there.com.za> wrote in message
news:43d56866_1@news.iprimus.com.au...
> The Father-In-Law rang me last night wanting me to 'fix' his computer. (He
> lives in Perth and I'm in Melbourne!)
> Seems the Mother-In-Law was playing her 'Mah-jong game, (probably the most
> graphics advanced program they run!), and the screen went black on her.
> Now apparently, all he gets on the screen is a question along the lines of
> "Video Cable Connected?" and nothing else.
> I suggested either the monitor or the video card may have died, and
> advised him to pull the video card and re-insert it, and whilst he was
> there to blow what I can only guess is a huge amount of dust away.
> He hasn't done it yet, but said he would in the next day or so. Was my
> guess at the problem correct?
> Crash Lander
>
> --
> I'm not always right,
> But I'm never wrong!
>

The error message is from the monitor (lost the signal) so that is probably
working.

Ask is the computer "alive"? Are there lights? If they reset it does it
appear to boot up, lights blinking, hard drive accessing etc??

If it appears to be working then it may be the video card. A bit hard to fix
over the phone eh

[Ext User([BnH])]

Possibilities :
- Cable loose
- Cable broken
- AGP voltage 3.3v suddenly goes caput [assuming the PC is not running PCI
video card]
- VGA card goes caput

hmm anything else

=bob=




"Crash Lander" <here@there.com.za> wrote in message
news:43d56866_1@news.iprimus.com.au...
> The Father-In-Law rang me last night wanting me to 'fix' his computer. (He
> lives in Perth and I'm in Melbourne!)
> Seems the Mother-In-Law was playing her 'Mah-jong game, (probably the most
> graphics advanced program they run!), and the screen went black on her.
> Now apparently, all he gets on the screen is a question along the lines of
> "Video Cable Connected?" and nothing else.

[Ext User(crazy frog)]

try cleaning the contacts on the card and mobo
ive had this prob with my card, move the card
a cupple of times in its slot.

"Crash Lander" <here@there.com.za> wrote in message
news:43d56866_1@news.iprimus.com.au...
> The Father-In-Law rang me last night wanting me to 'fix' his computer. (He
> lives in Perth and I'm in Melbourne!)
> Seems the Mother-In-Law was playing her 'Mah-jong game, (probably the most
> graphics advanced program they run!), and the screen went black on her.
Now
> apparently, all he gets on the screen is a question along the lines of
> "Video Cable Connected?" and nothing else.
> I suggested either the monitor or the video card may have died, and
advised
> him to pull the video card and re-insert it, and whilst he was there to
blow
> what I can only guess is a huge amount of dust away.
> He hasn't done it yet, but said he would in the next day or so. Was my
guess
> at the problem correct?
> Crash Lander
>
> --
> I'm not always right,
> But I'm never wrong!
>
>

[Ext User(Crash Lander)]

The Father-in-law rang today to say he'd pulled out the video card. I told
him to send me a photo of it and if I had one that would fit, I'd mail it to
him. (I have a few lying around). He sent the photo via the phone, and I
rang him to get more details as the pic wasn't very clear or detailed.
During the discussion, he asked why a video card would have sockets on it
that looked like telephone sockets. You guessed it, he'd pulled out the
modem! LOL!
He'd recently upgraded to broadband, so couldn't understand how it could be
the modem, because that was still sitting on his desk! LOL!
Turns out, the modem was the only card in the computer, so it sounds like he
has an integrated video setup. Anyhoo, I told him to blow out any dust,
which apparently there was hardly any, and then start it up again. It
appears to be working fine now! He's now using the modem as a paper weight!
Thanks anyway guys.
Crash Lander
"Crash Lander" <here@there.com.za> wrote in message
news:43d568b9_1@news.iprimus.com.au...
> He has confirmed by the way that the cable from the monitor to the card
> was in fact connected properly.
> Crash Lander
>
> --
> I'm not always right,
> But I'm never wrong!
> "Crash Lander" <here@there.com.za> wrote in message
> news:43d56866_1@news.iprimus.com.au...
>> The Father-In-Law rang me last night wanting me to 'fix' his computer.
>> (He lives in Perth and I'm in Melbourne!)
>> Seems the Mother-In-Law was playing her 'Mah-jong game, (probably the
>> most graphics advanced program they run!), and the screen went black on
>> her. Now apparently, all he gets on the screen is a question along the
>> lines of "Video Cable Connected?" and nothing else.
>> I suggested either the monitor or the video card may have died, and
>> advised him to pull the video card and re-insert it, and whilst he was
>> there to blow what I can only guess is a huge amount of dust away.
>> He hasn't done it yet, but said he would in the next day or so. Was my
>> guess at the problem correct?
>> Crash Lander
>>
>> --
>> I'm not always right,
>> But I'm never wrong!
>>
>
>