I have a spare unit for guest in guest bedroom with old P III 450MHZ on FIC 601 MB. Have ATI 128 rage AGP graphics card and system has worked well for almost 9 years now. Unit sat idle for about 3 months and tried to start up and it has a black screen except for message to check connection. Connected to different monitor and just black screen. Both monitors had solid green lite. Thought video card bad so removed and installed another ATI rage 128 card with exact same results. No error beeps on startup and cannot even see start up checks for memory etc. Any thoughts? Thanks

Originally Posted by ssswbob

I have a spare unit for guest in guest bedroom with old P III 450MHZ on FIC 601 MB. Have ATI 128 rage AGP graphics card and system has worked well for almost 9 years now. Unit sat idle for about 3 months and tried to start up and it has a black screen except for message to check connection. Connected to different monitor and just black screen. Both monitors had solid green lite. Thought video card bad so removed and installed another ATI rage 128 card with exact same results. No error beeps on startup and cannot even see start up checks for memory etc. Any thoughts? Thanks

Have you tried connecting the display to the computer with a different cable?

Hi and welcome to D-A-L

do the monitors work on other machine?

do you get any flashing lights on the unit when turned on (ie hard drive / power)

Originally Posted by Tecumseh

Have you tried connecting the display to the computer with a different cable?

Well each monitor had a different cable so yes. Also the monitors work with other computers.

Yes both work with other units and normal lights on startup

have you checked all the connections, are the fans working OK?

you should normally get one beep to say it's past POST

try removing the graphics card and see if you get any beeps.

Originally Posted by brain_damage

have you checked all the connections, are the fans working OK?

you should normally get one beep to say it's past POST

try removing the graphics card and see if you get any beeps.

Removed card and no beep. red light for HDD on steady but only short time and then nothing. All fans running.

It is not unsual for AGP slots to go bad. If the computer was sitting idle for 3 months and it was not pluged in, then there is a chance that static electricity buildup might have damaged components . You verified that there is nothing wrong with your monitor and the origianl cable. Now, if you can try the AGP card on another computer and see if it works ok, then there is a good chance it is your slot. Use a flash light and look inside the AGP slot, clean the slot with high pressure canned-air computer cleaner, look inside and verify contacts are all ok and there is no damaged contact or something caught in between. Unfortuantly, the slot can not be checked via software. Lets hope is that there is a setup problem with the AGP and somebody can suggest a fix.

This is probably very unlikely but worth checking... Check the power cable to the pc. I just helped a friend as his machine was working fine and then one day his monitor just displayed "No Connection". There was lights to the hard drive which stayed on for a few seconds - the problem was with the power cable which i guess has been twisted too many times and the inner cable was damaged and so only supplying power enough to turn on the lights... Like i say probably not this but its sometimes the most unlikely of things...