Hello Everyone,

My name is Michael and I'm close to going bald with this problem that I'm having. I would really appreciate some help if possible before I waste any more money.

Well, I have a Asus P5KC motherboard running on win xp pro and an Nvidia graphics card, everything has been working fine on my machine when just last week for no explicable reason, when I booted up my machine... It would go through POST and then the Windows XP splash screen would come on... an before it loads the monitor would switch off and I get a "no digital signal" .

So me thinks originally it must be the graphics card... out I go and get a new one and the same thing happens... POST... Splash screen... "no digital signal".

Rang the shop where I bought the replacement graphics card and they said they'll have a look. An anxious week later... Gary the nice technician tells me that after testing... my original graphics card is working fine and it might be the controller on the motherboard and that he'll call me when he has done more testing.

This morning he rings me and tells me that it is Windows that's causing the problem because when he booted up my machine with another hard drive
It worked fine. So he advises me to back up info and do a clean install of XP.

This I did and after installation as soon as I load the original graphics drivers... It installs well... but before it refreshes the screen same thing... all goes black and "no digital signal":confused::confused::mad:

SO I really don't know what's going on. Is it the motherboard?. The graphics card? Or the hard drive?

Any direction here or advice on how to maximize limited dollars would be greatly appreciated. Thanking you in advance...

Warmly,
Michael Nair

Hi Mike,

I have a few steps for you to follow so you don't lose any more hair. After carefully reading your post, I've noticed some key pieces of information that brought me to what I believe is the solution to your problem.

1: If your graphics card was toast, you would not have seen the splash screen, but a blank monitor from startup.

2: If it was windows, a clean install would have fixed the issue.

3: If it was your motherboard, it would have stopped you at POST.

The only other option then is to look at your monitor and Video card together. Im thinking your Monitor does not support the resolution you have it set to, and that is why you would see the splash screen, but not the desktop.

Why it started all of a sudden, would have to be a windows update holding a nVidia driver, new and improved, and when it installed, your monitor went off because it tried to push a resolution higher than what your monitor could support.

To see if I'm correct, restart your PC and press F8 repeatedly until a dos menu pops up.
One of the menu items should read "Safe Mode". Choose that and see if it will bring you to the desktop.

If it does, then you have just solved your problem, now you need to fix it.

If you want you could do this yourself by removing the video drivers and restart your computer, or if you have a little extra coin hanging around, I would go out and get a new monitor. They come as cheap as 130 bucks now.

Best of luck to you,
--Matty

I had a similar problem to this.
Boot to safe mode , then right click on the desktop , click Properties.
Click the settings tab.
Move the screen resolution slider to a lower setting. Click Apply.
Reboot and login as usual.
Hope this works.
C.

Most times when getting a No Signal message from monitor, it is usually either the Video Card or the Monitor itself

In all this confusion, have you been able to hook up another monitor to the computer to see if it would work or not?

Now if you have changed the card and tried another 'known working' monitor and still the same issue, then would look at motherboard.

Nothing to do with the operating system (Windows Software)

Would suggest to try another monitor to see if that may be the issue if you have not already tried.