Hey (I'm typing this off my phone)

So my CPU was overheating last week, and when I took a look I just needed some new thermal paste, so I ordered some and applied it yesterday, it went fine and my PC doesn't power down after 30 seconds, however, my monitor isn't loading now. I've checked my GFX card and it seems fine, I've even tried running it off the onboard graphics, but nothing is working!

After looking around on the net, I haven't found anyone having the same problem as me, so I've decided to ask here and see what you think.

Might sound silly but when I've been messing about in the case I've accidentally knocked the monitor cable or not put it back in right. Tried jiggling it? :]

Lol yeah ofcourse I've tried that :P the monitor just doesn't seem to respond, but it isn't a problem with my monitor as such, since it works on my brothers PC...

Tried other monitor? Just to be sure, you might a harware problem in the motherboard, or you sucesfully fried something, so I would start testing the components(if you can), and go from there.

So the computer is starting up, but is it making the 'POST' noise? Or beeping at all during the boot up? Check your MB for its error display code to see if.
Also, when you tried the onboard, did you pull out your video card? or just connect your monitor cable to the other?

The computer starts up as normal except the monitor, I've not tried another on mine though, and when I tried the onboard graphics, I tried with and without my GFX card in... it's really confusing me

Oops double posted, stupid phone!

So it auto logs into Windows and you can hear that? Then I would just try another monitor or just replace the cable with another to see if that is it. It could be also that your backlight has gone out so its just 'hard to see' even though its on.

have you tried using a different monitor. that will tell you if the problem is with the monitor or the computer. also, try a different cable to see if that might be the problem.

EDIT: lol, i didnt read gubid's post

So I've tried a new monitor and cable and still getting the same results, the monitor just stays on standby... Any other ideas?

It's weird that it's only been like this after I applied thermal paste to my CPU, which I've done dozens of times before, it's not like it's my first time and didn't know what I was doing, lol.

I had a simular problem before... The computer could be on but not display anything.

MY problem was even though everything was hooked in, my monitor had its own power
switch. (button to turn IT on instead of automatically like some computers.)

Don't hate me if this is wrong... just throwing out ideas.

Well, being that you are not getting a signal but it does boot.. and you have tried another known good monitor I can only assume that your video card is bad. Although, usually this will cause the computer to not start with a POST error. You tried that monitor on both your addon card and the onboard one right? The only other possibility is that you have some funny setting in the bios. You could try clearing your bios. (check your MB manual for instructions on that)

Outside of that I dont have any other suggestions that dont involve a soldering iron.

Woo, so I don't know how or what I did but my monitor is now working! I'm using my PC right now, well, all I did was take out everything again, dust and vaccuum it all, noticed a little splodge of thermal paste on the underside of my processor and cleaned it off, and for once in years actually took my PSU to parts and cleaned it thoroughly... guess whatever I did, it did the trick, but the problem now is I'm scared to turn my PC off incase it won't boot up again! D:

Glad to hear it. I wonder what it was. Perhaps maybe your video card was not seated all the way or didnt have all the power it needed. idk. Glad to see you are back though.

Well I'm not too sure myself since the video card seemehd to be fully seated everytime I checked, and even when I tried with the onboard graphics I still had the same problem, the only thing I've done different was cleaning the blob of thermal paste from te underside of my processor (Not sure how it even got there) and taking my PSU apart and cleaning it. So yeah, really weird...

Okay so it's happened again sort of...

About 2 hours ago my computer randomly shut down, until then it was running perfectly, temperatures were low, it was running great, and BOOM random shutdown. After a little more searching it turns out I could have a boot virus or whatever they're called, so using another PC I burned a copy of AVG Recovery CD or whatever it's called, apparently it can wipe this virus off, so I plopped it in, the computer booted and loaded this disc, I chose the option to run the program, and as soon as I did my computer shut down again, only this time, it boots up, but my monitor doesn't work, neither does my mouse, keyboard and even the disc tray doesn't open for me to get the disc out, and the single beep it makes at start up (Apparently to say everything is fine) doesn't happen, right now only the fans power on and that is all, nothing else, completely dead, if anything this disc has made it worse D:

... Any solutions to THIS problem?

I've got computer access now though since I'm using ol' rusty, which is an 11 year old PC which absolutely sucks!

If the computer does not 'POST', the beep, then you are running into something within the bios that is not allowing the system to finish its boot process. However, this always means that you have something wrong with one of the following: MB/CPU/GPU. I would start by
1. Clearing your cmos using your MB manual.
2. Start replacing pieces.

So for the last three hours or so me and my brother have been trying to figure it out, we've tried two motherboards, two CPU's and four GFX Cards, so far we've had no luck at all, clearing the CMOS did nothing either, so we're really stumped as to what it could be...

The computer is pretty much a potato with a power light, lol.

try a different hard drive

hard drive failure may be a remote chance as being the culprit. it's usually easy to tell ... when they fail, they may click or make a grinding noise. you can pick it up and listen to it and if it's not making noise, that'd be your problem.

usually that would be a mobo, GPU/CPU, vid card, or [remotely] possibly, RAM problem.

you haven't mentioned that you cleared the cmos, jbrist.

turn the whole thing off. de-static yourself (take off your socks, touch something metal). unplug. pull out the lithium battery in the mobo. let the battery stay out of the computer for like 7-10 minutes.

you're going to find a little cmos jumper prong-thingy somewhere near the lithium battery on your motherboard.

looks like: http://www.nordichardware.com/skrivelse ... 2/cmos.jpg

it will have a little cap over 1 & 2.

So: (X= covered by cap; O = uncovered prong)
[XXO]

Pick up the little cap and put it over 2 & 3:
[OXX]

Put the battery back in.
(Having the battery out usually is all you need but this is just to be on the safe side.)

Plug everything in and turn it on. If you can get to the BIOS, reset to the default settings and save & exit. Turn off the computer (entirely--using the switch in the back, or unplug).

Move the cap back to 1&2:
[XXO]

Then turn it back on. It should work.
It's a good idea to do this when you change out video cards or RAM sticks etc.

If it's still not working:

- There may be a wire needing to be connected to the mobo from the vid card, in addition to the PCI slot. Have you checked?

- If the monitor comes on but it doesnt complete the POST, your hard drive is malfunctioning.

- Try unplugging all peripherals (mouse, keyboard, audio, etc.). I once had a keyboard that shorted and did that same thing. You can also try unplugging the CD/DVD drives, resetting the CMOS, tell the BIOS not to check those drives, then see if your OS starts.

- Try different RAM sticks, purge the CMOS, and see if it posts.

- VERY remote chance here, but it could also be that your power supply is starting to die out and isn't supplying enough juice. Again, pretty remote.

If none of that works ... IDK!

"clearing the CMOS did nothing either" is what I said, lol, I have tried it

I've tried pretty much everything anyone has suggested on the net, and I haven't found the problem yet, I mean, here's a quick rundown of what happens when I press the power button:

Power light turns on
Fans start spinning

This is all. Nothing else whatsoever, no matter what I try, it's really weird o.O

The only thing I could do now is to buy a barebones and put my stuff in it, although I've seen a pretty nice cheap computer on eBuyer which seems a little TOO good for the price, all I'd do is switch the processor with mine and slap my GFX Card in, the problem is it's £230 and right now I have £90, and there's 4 birthdays coming up (3 family members and my girlfriend) in the next 2 weeks, so that will vanish pretty quickly D:

Do you have any lights on your mobo? Like the NIC light when its plugged in etc? I am gonna bet its either the Mobo or PS. If you have another computer, grab its power supply and plug it into yours to determine if that is the cause. Outside of that, yeah, with mobo, you usually have to replace a fair bit because they get outdated by the cpu/ram so quickly. But you can likley still find another board that supports it. Just a little more expensive.

So I've tried a 700W PSU (Mine was only a 500W anyway lol) and still no luck, it's still doing the same potato-like thing of just showing the power light and the fans spinning (Technically that's not potato-like since y'know... potatoes don't do that)

I am out of suggestions to get it running. I would recommend you take your HDD out and slave it in that other computer you have access to, and get your data off of it. That way you dont loose anything. After that, good luck in finding the piece that is bad or finding the mulah to buy another.

what model motherboard is it