[lostnspace]

Okay so my wife bought this cheap dock with speakers that can be used with any mp3 player it came with a usb cord. She plugged it into the front of my desktop then she tells me that a window opened on the monitor stating something about the devise drawing too much power or something to that effect then the screen froze up she tried cntrl/alt/del but that did'nt work so she unplugged my computer. I plugged it back in and see that the tower power light is on and you can hear it running but I get no picture on the monitor. I borrow a monitor that I know works hook it up and nothing. Before this incident I had noticed that the monitor was slow to come on but this makes no sense to me. Anybody have a clue what I should suspect is wrong.

[seahwk83]

Try taking your monitor to another computer to see if it starts up to tray and eliminate one thing from issue

[lostnspace]

Thanks for your reply. I would do that but as I stated I borrowed a monitor from my dad that I know works and still it would not come on either.

[seahwk83]

So the known working monitor does not boot up either?

Does the PC start and go through process of booting and just nothing on the screen?

It is possible that the video card may have been going and finally stopped working

[lostnspace]

Correct, I am certain the borrowed monitor works. The PC turns on the light comes on on the front and you can hear it running,I believe its not just the fan. Also along with the fact that it was slow to come on before this incident I also noticed several times that the screen would get wavy for a few seconds when I was reading an article. I first suspect the video card but I am NOT anywhere near knowledgeable in these areas I just can't afford to spend a bunch of money on this if its not worth it.

[seahwk83]

You can purchase a video card for about $30 and is simple enough to install on your own.

Could help out with this, but at this point everything would indicate a video card issue as your monitor and another working one is not showing anything - these things do happen but the benefit of desktop computers is they are easy enough to do without taking in for service, of course that is up to the owner.

Again, not saying it is video card but as mentioned above it does look like that would be the place to start

If not the video card the other possibilities would be the system board itself or power supply as you mentioned message about power.

So, 3 possibilities are video card, power supply or the system board itself

The 4th possibility would be the mointor and you pretty muched ruled that out

[IDEAS]

When you power the computer on, does it go through the POST (Power On Self Test) and give you a series of beeps? If you hear several normal sounding and then three consecutive beeps, you can almost certainly assume it is the video card. If your wife plugged in a USB 2.0 Device to a USB 1.0 port, you could have suffered a shortage or surge. This would explain the message and potential affect on an already failing video card. If this is a standard card (in a slot) then you can most likely replace it inexpensively. Hope this information is helpful.

[lostnspace]

Well its has never beeped it does however make two sounds that are hard to describe as it has always done.Its a compaq desktop.

[seahwk83]

See if any of the beep codes is what you hear
BiosCentral - Compaq BIOS Beep Codes