Troubleshooting Video Problem poses a challenge amongst Computer Technicians. There will be a hard time pointing out or zeroing in of the problem in terms of which peripheral is failing. Most of the time, Video Problems are attributed to a Video Card, RAM, or PSU failure. But in some cases, the RAM, PSU or the Video card hardly be suspected to cause the Video Problem but other devices such as the Hard Disk Drive, burnt capacitors on the motherboard, burnt or grounded card peripherals, and other components least expected to cause the problem.
The question is, how are we going to find and fix the cause of the problem and try to stop it from recurring and what Methods of Troubleshooting are we to follow. Try to see below how we did the fix.
Date Fixed: 07.02.10
Owner : Mr. Marcial
Unit / Motherboard : P4VM -MX 2.4 Ghz with 512 Mb of RAM
Operating System : Win XP SP 2
Technicians : CLHIDO Computer Hardware Servicing Students
PROBLEM :
No Video but has Power
INTERVENING FACTOR :
No Driver Support CD
OBSERVATION :
When the Computer was turn on, there was no video but has power. The fans of the power supply turns and the indicator led of the motherboard lights. The PSU must less be suspected and we can directly assume that the video system or the RAM must be the failing the component.
TROUBLESHOOTING PROCEDURE :
- Since we found out that there is power from the PSU, the fans are all spinning, and the indicator LED is lighting; checking the power system will be done later after checking all the other peripherals if we can find fault or faults.
- To be able to accomplish such check, we removed all connectors to the drives including the power and data cables and also removed the card peripherals virtually leaving just the RAM, the Processor and the motherboard power connector. There is no video card connected and what we can only check at this moment is the RAM and the Processor.
- Having only the RAM and Processor to check first, we turned on the system unit and observed if there will be a continuous beep that might indicate a RAM problem. But there was no beep. The RAM's are ok and surprisingly there was a live screen and we were able to navigate in the BIOS. The RAM's, Processor, and the Integrated Video System are discarded to suspected of causing the problem.
- The next thing to do is to check the card peripherals. So we turned off the system for safety and then inserted the internal modem. As we turned on the system unit, we pinned it! the video was gone! The modem caused the problem! So again we turned off the computer then removed the internal modem and physically inspected it. We then found out a little burnt area on the largest chip of the modem. The problem was caused by the burnt internal modem!
- We then inserted and connected all peripherals to its proper cabling and header then turned the computer on. It was then O.K. The modem really is the failing component.
SUMMARY
- In troubleshooting video problems, we cannot suppose to suspect the video card, RAM, or PSU to cause the problem all the time. Sometimes, the least suspected modem can cause the problem or other peripherals likely to be expected to fail.
- As we ask the owner of the computer how his system unit failed, he said that the computer did not have video display on the morning after the evening storm. Lightning was everywhere during that night and must have caused the modem to burn in anyhow.
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