Hello

I have a problem with my monitor. I turn on my PC and the CPU light and disk drive lights come on (and look as though they begin to load) but my monitor does not come on at all (just sits in standby mode!)
I just cannot get past this point! My Operating system is Windows XP home edition SP2 and I have the full copy CD of windows should I need it. It runs an AMD Athlon XP 2600 processor and an Asrock K7S41GX. It hasn't been overclocked and there is no sign of burning or smell of anything burnt. I have my drives set as Hard drive (Master) and dvd rom drive (slave) as shown on my Hard drive configuration. All wires are inserted correctly and they all seem in working condition. I have tested my working hard drive to see if it is a hard drive problem, but even with that in the machine the monitor still didn't power on (again just stayed in standby - so I cannot get to any menu's?)
I was wondering if there was anything that I could do to resolve this problem. Any suggestions would be of a great help. If I need to check any components I have a fully working computer to test them on.

Kind Regards, James (please reply as soon as you can - I hate to be beaten by electronics)

Pop the cover on the computer, pull the graphics card out and re-seat it.
Try it again.
If it's still not working try the monitor and cable on another computer if possible.
You can also try to pickup a cheap graphics adapter and swap it out with the old one.

jstrike gave you good advice. You need to determine if the problem is the monitor or graphics card. If the monitor works on another PC its not that. If another monitor works on your PC its not the graphics adapter.

So far I've popped off the cover and tried jstrike's advice as listed above. The monitor works on another computer so its not the monitor or its connecting cable (eg power lead). I've tried an old graphics card onto the motherboard and tried that but again that didn't get the monitor to turn on. I have tried a different power supply, a different hard disc drive that I know works, different ram, different disc drives all to no avail. The graphics card I think is built into the motherboard and therefore I'm not sure how to take it off and reseat it (mainly cosi'm not sure if its fused on). Other than that, I bought the PC at the weekend and the guy who I bought it off said it had just had a new motherboard in it and would just need a hard drive with windows on it (which I've tried but no success)
Not sure what else to do??

so far i've popped off the cover and tried jstrike's advice as listed above. The monitor works on another computer so its not the monitor or its connecting cable (eg power lead). I've tried an old graphics card onto the motherboard and tried that but again that didnt get the monitor to turn on. I have tried a different power supply, a different hard disc drive that i know works, different ram, different disc drives all to no avail. The graphics card i think is built into the motherboard and therefore i'm not sure how to take it off and reseat it (mainly cosi'm not sure if its fused on). Other than that, i bought the pc at the weekend and the guy who i bought it off said it had just had a new motherboard in it and would just need a hard drive with windows on it (which i've tried but no success)
Not sure what else to do???
How big is your power supply? It could be inadequate but I doubt that it's bad as this is not typical behavior for a bad power supply. If it's at least 400W you should be fine.

Since you have an AMD CPU make sure your memory is certified to work with AMD... they used to be picky about the memory. I don't think this is quite as true with the X2 processors but it won't hurt to check.

Also make sure your CPU fan is plugged in and working. That will cause boot problems as well. My Asus will not boot if the CPU fan is not plugged in.

As a last resort you might want to try this:
Remove all unnecessary cards and leave them out. Pull the memory out and reseat it. Make sure you hear it click into place. Unplug the cables for the CD/DVD, hard drives and floppy if you have it, also remove all the power connectors to those devices. Make sure the monitor is hooked up and powered on and the keyboard is plugged in (take the mouse out for now) then power on the computer. You should hear it beep. Take note of how many times it beeps because this may be important. If it doesn't beep then chances are you have a bad motherboard or a bad CPU. If the fan was not working right or died the CPU could have fried. There are ways you can visually inspect for this, I think they're on AMD's web site.

There should be a switch on the back that turns the voltage of the power supply, I would try to switch it and see if the monitor works..

If not, then I would try unplugging the processor and plugging it back in

I have just switched the voltage and something popped and smelt of burning. I think that was the power supply dying... not the greatest advice in the world so anyone with the same problem... I would probably try and aviod this! I'll try unplugging and re-plugging the processor instead (hopefully without anymore bangs!! )

Ouch,

This shouldn't happen,

But if your power supply was thye thing that popped, it was probably your problem all along...

I have tried a different power supply (that I know is working - taken from a working system) and it still didn't work?? Not too sure how to remove the processor and re-sit it without damaging it?? Any tips (or even a step by step guide)

I have no clue how to remove a processor...

But if your computer is crashing every time you hit the button then its probably because the fan isn't running...

How many gigs is your computer running on?

I have tried a different power supply (that i know is working - taken from a working system) and it still didnt work??? Not too sure how to remove the processor and re-sit it without damaging it??? Any tips (or even a step by step guide)

Depends on the processor. Most are held in by a spring clip and they just pop out. Some are screwed in though.

At this point the only reason to remove the processor is to see if it's fried. It could be any number of things and I'm sure we could eventually figure it out just like 1000 monkeys with typewriters will eventually type out the works of Shakespeare. ;) You said you just bought it, I would take it back to the guy you bought it from and see what he has to say about it... it could very well be that he sold you a bad motherboard... especially since you've never seen it work.