Computer problem

rrlund

Well-known Member
I'm typing this on the laptop because something is wrong with my desk top. I pushed the space bar the other day to wake it up. The blue light came on and the computer woke up, but the orange light stayed on on the monitor. I turned it off and back on. It said DVI No Signal VGA No Signal. It shut right back down and the orange light came back on.

I've unhooked both wires at each end, at the computer and at the monitor. When I do, the blue light comes on momentarily then goes right back to orange. I turned everything off overnight, still didn't work. Unplugged it for a while, still the same thing.

Monitor bad? Bad cable? I wouldn't think it was a cable since it does the same thing no matter which end I unhook? Any tests I can do? I thought I might have another old monitor here or a TV, but nothing that uses the same cables.
 
Well, it's pretty straightforward; either the monitor is bad or the video card is bad. Since you have a laptop, hook your laptop up to the monitor and see if they'll talk. That assumes the video cable for your desktop will work with your laptop.
 
Try hooking your laptop or another computer to the monitor to verify if the problem is in the monitor or the computer. If you have another monitor or an old TV with the right VGA, DMI, or HDMI hookups, try that with the desk top. Depending on how old the desktop is, it could be a failing video card or a bad mother board. Does it have any diagnostic lights on the case? There are ways to start up the computer in Bios without getting into Windows, but that is beyond my abilities.
 
If you decide the video adapter is bad, there's a good chance it's on the motherboard. You can either replace the whole motherboard, or add a video card and use it instead of the integrated video adapter. If it was me, I'd probably change out the motherboard if it's more than a couple of years old. But if you're running Windows, it may decide you're running a pirated copy of the OS and you'll have to get on the phone to MS to get it to work.
 
I didn't think about hooking it up to the laptop. I don't know if this old Acer has the right ports or not. The wife has a newer one. If mine doesn't, maybe hers does. I need to run out and do chores, the rain has stopped for now, need to get done before it starts up again. I'll try it when I get back in.
 
Our desk top did the same trick, and we just gave up on it. Wife uses the lap top we bought instead of another desktop, and I just use my iPhone. This rain is sure making a mess, and has brought outside field work to a halt for a while.
 
I don't think it's going to work. I searched online to see how to hook it up. It said I need Windows 10 downloaded in to the laptop. No way. I'm not infecting my Acer Chromebook with it. I'll have to bring the big flat screen TV in here and see if that'll work to test it. If not, I'll take it somewhere.
 
HMMM, wouldn't that dunk your hat in the creek. I unplugged the monitor and it didn't help, but I tried unplugging the computer too for half an hour or so. Plugged everything back in, turned it in and it worked. A couple of times now Quicken wouldn't start up and unplugging it brought it back. There was something else wouldn't work one time, I forget now what it was, I took it to the shop, they plugged it in and it worked. I don't know if they downloaded some updates that weren't compatible until it was rebooted or what.

We've got one Acer that flat out died. Royse took that home, plugged it in and that worked. That one still does that same thing now and then. Close it up, the blue light stays on, open it and there's just a black screen. The orange light won't come on and nothing works. We have to let that one sit for 12 to 24 hours and let the battery go dead. Plug it in and it works. Charge the battery and its good to go. You just have to let the battery completely die first.
 
(quoted from post at 08:36:19 09/23/21) I'm typing this on the laptop because something is wrong with my desk top. I pushed the space bar the other day to wake it up. The blue light came on and the computer woke up, but the orange light stayed on on the monitor. I turned it off and back on. It said DVI No Signal VGA No Signal. It shut right back down and the orange light came back on.

I've unhooked both wires at each end, at the computer and at the monitor. When I do, the blue light comes on momentarily then goes right back to orange. I turned everything off overnight, still didn't work. Unplugged it for a while, still the same thing.

Monitor bad? Bad cable? I wouldn't think it was a cable since it does the same thing no matter which end I unhook? Any tests I can do? I thought I might have another old monitor here or a TV, but nothing that uses the same cables.
had a laptop that did that once. Monitor was bad. Hooked up a remote monitor, keyboard, and mouse. Now it's a desktop.
 
Probably the monitor is bad. I've had two Samsung monitors go bad after about 2 years each. Replaced with a LG and it works great after 6-7 years now.
 
I've had erratic problems like that just before the hard drives crash. It wouldn't hurt to do a backup and hard drive check soon. Copying a hard drive to a replacement drive before the old drive crashes isn't too tough. A solid state hard drive can make an older computer fly.
 
I had the video part of the motherboard on my last computer quit. I had to put a video card in it.

I'm far from a computer expert, but that's my guess..
 

I've had them do stuff like that where powering off and unplugging it/pulling battery would "repair" it. My IT guy says it's something about the bios or something like that. Might be a good idea to have it run a diagnostic test and if you have Ccleaner run that too. Running Ccleaner fixes a lot of my problems with cookies and crap that follows you around. Ccleaner will check the registry too if you want. And it's free!
 
Now that we have heard all of the guesses, it is finally time to do some actual diagnosis.

First thing - there is nothing in the software that will cause this. This is a basic hardware problem. Cleaning the registry or updating Windows will do nothing. Not even possible without a display. So, disregard the suggestions about anything to do with software.

Second thing - the most likely things to cause this are as follows:
Video display adapter. May be on a card, may be built in. Not making any assumptions.
VGA cable. Possible problem with the cable.
Problem with the monitor. HOWEVER, if there is an indicator light that indicates a standby, sleep, or off line condition, that would mostly rule out the monitor.
BIOS setting. IF (and only if) video adapter is built in, it CAN be turned off in the BIOS. For access to this, you would need to do a cold start with the display working. Sort of like reporting a power outage on the internet - when you need the power to access the internet.
Lest we forget, there is a small CR2032 battery on most motherboards that holds the BIOS settings. If/when this battery fails, BIOS settings are lost and computer will act strangely.
Another possibility is loose connections. Like memory modules, cable connections from keyboard or mouse, internal connections from power supply to main system board, etc.
Power supply is another possible point of failure. If the fan in the power supply fails (they do wear out), the power supply will fail in short order.



Most of these things can be tested or verified by substitution. You can try plugging in a different monitor if you have another one in the house. You can verify the monitor by plugging it into another known working computer if available. Accessing the BIOS is a bit more tricky. Checking the system board for a battery requires opening the case.

As you can see, there are quite a few things that can cause problems. From 2,000 miles away, I could not even make an intelligent guess. Could be something simple, could be something not so simple.
 

Well golly Jim, I guess next time we'll all just shut up and wait for you to provide the answers! So sorry we tried to help and got in your way!
 
So sorry that I stepped on your toes. I wasn't aware that you were the resident computer expert.

I do not claim to be an expert. I am far from it.

But, I have been building my own systems since about 1990 or so. I do know my way around hardware. One thing that I
do know is that you need a working display BEFORE you start cleaning registries or trying to change BIOS settings.
If that somehow offends you, I certainly didn't mean to.
 
(quoted from post at 14:52:12 09/24/21) So sorry that I stepped on your toes. I wasn't aware that you were the resident computer expert.

I do not claim to be an expert. I am far from it.

But, I have been building my own systems since about 1990 or so. I do know my way around hardware. One thing that I
do know is that you need a working display BEFORE you start cleaning registries or trying to change BIOS settings.
If that somehow offends you, I certainly didn't mean to.

I'm no expert nor was I pretending to be. I just found your tone condescending and arrogant. I never said anything about recommending changing Bios settings, just what my IT guy who does this for a living and has since the mid 80's told me. If you meant no offense, fine, we're good.
 

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