Okay so I wake up and turn on my computer, print out some school papers and turn off the computer.

I come back from school and when I turn my PC on the monitor stays blank. After performing the obvious troubleshooting (checking the power cord, using a different monitor etc.) I still found no luck in brining the display back to life. So I unplugged my monitor from my ATI Radeon X700 PRO VGA and plug it into my default motherboard VGA. Wha-la. The screen comes to life and I'm greeted by the friendly XP loading screen.

So after this, I am assumed my video card was fried. So I open up my case and check for signs of 'frying' such as something 'broken'. I found none.

So does any one know what the problem is and how it can be possibly fixed?

Thanks in advance

You need a new power supply. Go for 350 to 400 watts.

If the problem was the power supply, wouldn't other components also have problems?

Not necessarily, I don't believe. Although how many watts is your power supply, and what all is in your computer.

Umm.. I'm not sure of the power supply. I have an HP Pavillion a656x and the ATI X700 PRO required 300 Watts or more to operate. I don't have anything in there except a 9in1 media reader and my video card.

... Where in reading that did you determine that his power supply was the problem? Are you magical electronic psychics? Seriously.

If you're getting video on your motherboard, but not getting video out of the AGP / PCIX / PCI video card, then your computer is choosing the wrong source. This could be because it doesn't detect the add-in video adapter, or it could be because of a setting that got switched in the BIOS, or worst case scenario the card slot is fried.

If you get video with the on-board, reboot the computer and get into the BIOS. Look for an option to determine which adapter to use. If it's set correctly, assume it's the card and replace it. Here, the worst case scenario is you find out the new card does nothing and you return the video card to wherever you bought it.

Ok I will give that a try. But what could be a possible reason for the BIOS error?

Not sure, but with what you're describing, the first thing I would do would be to check to be certain that the card is seated properly and then reset the CMOS via the BIOS or a jumper on the motherboard.

The exact same thing happened to my best friend this week. Problem was his power supply.

If on-board works and the video card doesn't, the video card might have overloaded the power supply if it's going bad. More or less happened to me; my performance in games was gradually decreasing as I played, I eliminated everything but the power supply. Replaced it and I was running perfectly again.

Yecti, you're probably on to it, but I don't have a clue on how he could have accidentally changed the settings.

No luck after changing the BIOS.

I opened up the case and tried to remove my card and the damn thing wouldn't budge!

I think I busted it...

That's no good. I didn't mean to jump on anybody here, but when somebody says video output, the last thing I'd check is power. Especially since he said it's an x700 and that thing could run on a toaster with only one prong plugged in the wall.

When you're looking at the card, is there a little lever or "lock" at the back of the slot?

Bah, no worries; I was just trying to help a bit, whether I gave dumb-*** advice or not.

Out of curiosity, you never said if the fan was spinning on the the card; check to make sure that the card is actually getting some kind of power.

The fan on the video card seems to be working fine. In fact, when I think about it, my computer has been louder than usual after the incident.

Can you determine where the new excess noise is coming from?

I think the noise is just the fan on the heatsink but I'm not really sure...

Okay so I was finally able to remove the video card from my computer. So when I turn the computer on without video card, the extra noise had been significantly reduced, meaning the noise was from the fan on my X700. So what I don't understand is: why the hell won't the video card work??

The fan on the card gets power directly from the bus, it has nothing to do with the card working.

Drivers!!!!!!!!!!!!

Please don't contribute when you don't know what you're talking about.:downswords:

It's a possibility that they got uninstalled.. maybe his printer sent a virus to the speakers because it couldn't "see" the monitor? And what about monitor cable ghosts?:psyduck:

I already tried installing the drivers. I even updated all other drivers on my computer. Still no luck...:mad:

Wow Reid, I can only hope you are joking.

Okay so I have checked the video card for signs of damage, I updated all drivers. How do I know if the AGP socket's blown?

Smell it. If it smells like burnt electronics...

Nope. I think my AGP socket is fine becuase I put in my old video card and it worked fine...

el o el

Probably time to RMA your card if it is still under warranty.

Two things I'd check though:

1. If your computer got bumped at some point and the card was unseated (unlikely), it could be that the contacts aren't making a good connection. Try cleaning the contacts on the card with isopropanol.

2. Could be that your CMOS battery is dead, so that when you turn your computer off and on the BIOS gets reset to default, which would be onboard video. Change the BIOS setting, then check it after you shut down the computer.