No Video On Screen

There are many reasons why your computer might have no video on the screen.  These reasons can be hardware or software issues with your PC or the monitor itself could be defective. The logical steps to troubleshoot this issue require you to take a step back and think about the types of issues your computer was having prior to this occurring  or if you recently made any software of hardware changes to your computer. Was there a storm the night before, did you spill anything on the computer? If you feel you directly had a part in the video failing, you can usually easily resolve the problem. It’s when you did nothing unusual but try to boot up your PC and have nothing show up on the screen that you have a hard time troubleshooting and repairing your computer.

Steps To Resolving No Video On The Monitor Problems

Run through the following checklist to quickly troubleshoot video problems:

1. Does the computer even power up? Are the fans spinning? A no power or partial-power scenario is usually the result of a bad power supply or motherboard.
2. Does anything show up on the screen in the very beginning, when the BIOS splash screen loads before Windows? If so, you can rule out a hardware problem. Generally, this will be a driver or other software configuration within Windows. Try tapping F8 when booting to get into Safe Mode to correct the problem. Usually, a system restore from within safe mode will fix driver issues.
3. Do you receive the monitor diagnostics on the screen? Most modern monitors will have a diagnostic screen that flashes on the screen, telling the user the problem is not with the monitor. If you see a No Signal message (or something similar) on the monitor, then this means the display itself is good and the problem lies withing either the monitor cable or the PC itself.
4. Is the brightness turned all the way down? It happens. If you have pets or kids, it can happen with a few keystrokes.
5. Do you see a flashing white cursor on  a black background? If you see this, thy re-seating the video card. If your card is integrated into the motherboard, then there is some other reason why the motherboard cannot initialize the video adapter.
6. Examine the video cable for a bent pin. This won’t spontaneously occur, but if you recently moved the computer or changed monitors it’s possible a pin could have gotten bent while reconnecting it to the computer.
7. Is the computer beeping at you? If you hear several beeps when booting, this means there is an issue with the video adapter. Try re-seating it. You can also be having a problem with your RAM modules. Re-seat these as well.

Following the above steps will either resolve your no video on the display issues or at least help you eliminate possibilities. If you continue to have issues, be sure to join our free computer repair forums at PCTechBytes.