no video output to monitor

[da_grinch]

I'm working on a friend's PC with an integrated video card. I get no output from the onboard card so I went out and bought a PCI video card. I plugged it in and still no output to the monitor. Any suggestions? Oh yeah, I took out the hard drive and put it in my computer and it works fine, no viruses. Thanks in advance.

[Imagenatas]

Are you getting any beeps from the motherboard? Is the video enabled in the bios? Is the RAM properly secure?Is the CPU properly secure? Are you sure the monitor is working?

Take all the cards out and unplug all the controller cables. Turn the unit on with only the MB, CPU, FAN, RAM, and Video. Check for video.

[KINGofBLEH]

Check the CMOS to see if the Default Graphics Adapter is set to PCI card.

[Rkring1]

Is there more than one stick of RAM , and does the computer show the right amount. Some opboard videos require that DIMM 1 be populated , if that stick is bad I suppose it is possible that the computer will start w/ no video , that doesn't explain why it wont run with a PCI card though. Does it have ISA slots , and can you try it w/ an ISA card ?

[da_grinch]

Wow, you're all probably not going to believe this, but the mobo is jumperless. Yeah, I know, who's idea was that. Needless to say I can't get into the bios because I'm still not getting a signal from the video card. The bios also doesn't give any beeps. The weird thing is that it seems to start post, but it surely doesn't finish. The CDrom light flashes, then the floppy, but that's about it. I didn't swapping the memory yet. I'll try it later and let you all know the results.
Thanks for everybody's input, keep em coming.

[flyboy747]

You may have already done this, but have you tried the monitor on another machine to make sure it's not bad?

[Gameguru]

It could be a cable problem too. IDE or floppy. You won't hurt anything by unplugging them both and then see if you get anything on the screen. Once you make it into the BIOS and set things the way they need to be, just shut it down and hook the IDE and floppy cables back up.

Another thing you may need to check is the cmos reset jumper is in the right position. I know you said the MB doesn't have any, but I expect there has to be one for the cmos somewhere. Look near the battery and make sure its shorting the correct pins.

[Ruslan]

Besides IDE cable insterted wrong way to motherboard, it can bad BIOS problem as well. If that motheboard has an ISA slot - try ISA videocard (if BIOS chip is partially erased or secondary voltage regulator (3,3v) is fried, only ISA video card will work).

What the motherboard, by the way?

[da_grinch]

I've found the problem. The IDE cable to the CD-Rom was faulty. I've replaced the cable and the computer now boots. Thanks again for all of your help.
Damn, I love this site.