Screen stays black at all times

[wenbo]

A problem my friend is having...this does seem like the trouble-shooting section xD please move if there's a better place to put this though

So, my computer has had this as a recurring problem for about a year now. After suffering some form of trauma, (a small child running into, someone tripping over it, etc.) my computer screen will turn a solid color, usually gray or blue. After shutting it down the monitor turns black and attempting to boot up the computer causes the monitor to stay black, though the fans in the case turn on and machine makes various clicks and whirs.

Every time this has happened in the past I have gone into the case, disconnected all outside cables, the video card, the battery on the motherboard, and occasionally other things as well, sort of haphazardly. I let the thing sit for a while and then plugged everything back in and after maybe one or two iterations of this process the thing eventually booted up.

After it's most recent trauma (having a laptop dropped on it =_=; ) it hasn't booted up properly after several unplug-and-replug-everything routines. The fans still start up, like before, but I haven't been able to get video to work. I have tried disconnecting the video card and plugging the monitor into the built in graphics on the motherboard but that still didn't work. While "on" I tried pressing various "locks" on the keyboard and found that numlock caused a light to light up, but neither caps nor scroll lock did ( I don't know if this means anything, but I figured I'd throw it out there ). No sounds are emitted by the speakers, but I don't know that any are normally on bootup. I attempted to blindly enter my password an log in, but this elicited no change or sound from the speakers.

I recently rebuilt my computer, and the only thing that're still really old in the case are the power supply and one of the two hard drives, which are five years old (came with the original case). Could this problem possibly be rooted in the power supply? I am thinking about replacing it anyway, as I want a new case with better airflow.

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-G31M-2L
Graphics Card: KFA2 Nvidia GeForce 8500GT PCIE

*Edit*
Perhaps this was meant for the general hardware section <.<

[shadowpr]

PROBLEMS with a NEW BUILD? Try This!!

And if that doesn't work, please list all parts, make and model, including the power supply.

[wenbo]

I feel like he's basically done that before.

He's just brought up that his power supply is...250 W. <___<

Will update when he gives me a parts list, but...250 watt power >.<

[Khalil]

Why is this on 2 forums?

[wenbo]

Originally Posted by Khalil Why is this on 2 forums?

My friend finally got this account to work, even though I already told him I'd posted it. >_> blame him for things one haha

[miyamamo]

Sorry, pcmech wasn't sending me a confirmation e-mail.

Um, other parts:

2 x Kingston KVR800D2N6/1G 1GB 800MHz DDR2 Non-ECC CL6 DIMM
Dell HP - P2507FW Power Supply (250w)
12v DC 1.8A Nidec TA350DC Cooling Fan
12v DC 0.6A Intel DTC-AAM13 CPU Fan
Intel Celeron Dual-Core E1200
Western Digital WD1600JD - 75HBB0
Western Digital WD4000YR - 01PLB0

[miyamamo]

Also, I did try putting the computer together outside the case, as instructed in that guide, but to no avail. It booted up with a black screen after shorting the pins, like normal. I tried rebuilding it and plugging the monitor into the motherboard's graphics as well, but with the same result. To get the cpu model I removed the thermal grease from the processor, so before testing that I will have to acquire some more (which is cheap, as I understand it) I'll try to test the other parts in my brother's machine now.

[shadowpr]

So with just the motherboard, one stick of ram, cpu w/heatsink, and power supply you still don't get a post screen?

Have you tried resetting the bios to make sure the onboard video will work?

Have you tried both sticks of ram indivudually and then in different slots?

Do you have a different power supply?

[miyamamo]

I put my RAM, the WD4000UR, and graphics card in my brothers computer and it booted up just fine. Unfortunately before I doing any more testing on my motherboard I'll have to go out and get some thermal grease, which I intend to do as soon as possible, though this may take as much as a day.

[glc]

You need a lot more than a 250 watt power supply to power those components. I won't even use the G31 onboard graphics with less than 300.

[miyamamo]

I am currently looking to buy a new power supply and case (I'm still using the case that came with my Dell something or other I got 5 years ago). Right now I'm looking at http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811156062 Will the 500w power supply included be sufficient or should I get that case w/o power supply and then something a little bigger/ higher quality like http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139006 or http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139005 ?

Also, I know that the celeron e1200 isn't great as processors go. Should I think about going ahead and rebuilding everything while I'm at it? ( My brother's been running a Dell Dimension E520 and has become rather enamored of my RAM and graphics card ).

I still haven't had a chance to go out and buy thermal grease what with not having a car, but I should be able to get some by the end of the week. I reset the CMOS and turned on the computer very briefly, being afraid to turn it on for extended periods without proper cooling, and plugged the monitor into the motherboard's graphics and it did work, at least for a moment, but then I pulled the plug because I was afraid of damaging the processor.

[miyamamo]

Ok, so I purchased some arctic silver 5 and reinstalled my heatsink, reset the cmos, shorted the pins to turn the system on with the monitor, keyboard, 1 stick of ram and psu. System booted up, screen no longer black.

Listed some thing, then said
Verifying DMI Pool Data ...............
DISK BOOT FAILURE. INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER

I shut the system down and plugged in the WD4000YR

came to a similar screen but after verifying DMI pool data it booted up Windows. I plugged in my mouse and logged in. It took an unusually long time to boot up, I don't know if that's because of having less RAM or what, and then ran the Found New Hardware Wizard for Video Controller (VGA Compatible) It could not find the driver and prompted me to connect to the internet so I plugged in my wireless adapter (Netgear MA101) logged onto my home network and told it to search the internet for drivers. It didn't find any so I clicked the finish/exit button. I increased the resolution to 1024 x 768 (from 800 x 600) successfully.

I have yet to reinstall video card and stuff. I still intend to replace power supply but don't know what to get, especially considering I want to upgrade my computer.

[Khalil]

Is your mouse USB or PS2?

[miyamamo]

usb

[miyamamo]

After buying a new psu and resetting the cmos, everything boots up fine, with all the old specs and the psu I mentioned earlier (Corsair, 650w).

I was messing around with looking at settings and found that the computer believes its system temp to be -1C. Does this mean that the device that checks the temperature has probably gone bad? Is there some way to fix this or will I be without temperature monitoring until I replace my mobo?