[aznblade1]

hi,

i am new to the forums.

when i turn on my computer, the monitor wont show anything, the cpu is loading, but doesnt make this beep beep noise when it gets turn on. i was thinking that it was the video card, but im not sure, i thought it was the monitor, but then there nothing wrong with my monitor sicne it didnt work for my friends monitor. after reading a whole bunch of topics. i read that it could be the mother board. it was working before when i tried to take out my video card. i kno what u guys thinking like what the [bleep] is he doing? well i had a new video card, which i was going to buy, so i wannted to see how u insert it and that.

note - im only 16

EDIT - plz help... i really want to get my comp running again.

[Samm]

Are you currently using the original video card again and is it integrated into the motherboard or agp?
Can you just confirm for me, does or doesn't the system make the beep beep noise now?

[aznblade1]

my pc was fine and it did make the beeping noise, but then i took it out to look at it and then it didnt do the beeping noise anymore. my video card is agp

[Samm]

You mentioned something about a new video card. Is the new card in the machine now or the old one?
Was the agp card the only thing that you touched in the system?

[aznblade1]

yes its the only thing I touched, and the agp video card is the old one, and my only one. It was fine before.

[Samm]

Start by just reseating the agp card. They can be notoriously twitchy when it comes to being inserted absolutely right.
When you reinsert it, don't screw it back in too tightly just yet, just tighten the screw enough to hold it the card in place so that if you need to reconnect the vga cable, it doesn't move about in the socket.

Next, do you know where the clear cmos jumper is on your motherboard? If you do, then clear the cmos for about 10 secs before replacing the jumper on its original pins.

Then try & boot the system up.

[aznblade1]

ok i did reseating the video card, now the jumper, I read in the forums about it, and I'm not sure which jumper is it.

[Samm]

OK, remove the power lead from the back of the computer & look carefully at the motherboard without touching it! If you need to move any drive cabling aside, then thats fine. You may find a spot light or a torch is useful as this is going to be tricky to spot without one.

Look for the motherboard battery (round flat silver disc).
Locate the nearest jumper (or jumpers) to the battery & let me know whats written next to them.
You should see something such as : Clear_CMOS, CLR_CMOS, JP1 or letters JP followed by something else. Let me know whats written next to each jumper even if none of them match these examples exactly.

[aznblade1]

ok, well its hard to see what it says but it looks like theres only one jumper near my silver battery, it has 3 pins, and the jumper is on two pins starting from the left. so its like this:

[. .] . <------------ occupied jumper. and its blue

[Samm]

That should be the one.


The jumper is currently placed on pins 1-2, leaving pin 3 exposed.
[. .] .
1 2 3

You need to move the jumper so that it covers pins 2-3 instead.
. [. .]
1 2 3
Leave it like this for 10 seconds or so, then replace it back over pins 1-2 as it was before.

[aznblade1]

ok i tried that before, but i'll do it again, thanks so far. this will take a few minutes

[aznblade1]

I have question, on my other computer, it has an itegrated video card, and I want to add a newer and better video card. how do you install it, and my friend said that if a computer is slow and you put a good video card in it, it'll cause problems, is that true?

[Samm]

For your old system :
If it has an agp slot then you can add an agp video card. But, different motherboards support different revisions of agp (ie 1x 2x 4x & 8x). The x values indirectly relates to the speed (MHz) at which the agp bus runs. So a 8x agp card won't work in a system that only supports agp 1x & 2x for example. Also the voltages differ with different agp interfaces. (they are 3.3V for 1x, 1.5V for 2x & 4x and either 1.5V or 0.8V for 8x)
You would need to find the motherboards manufacturer & model number, then look the mobo up on the manufacturers website to find out which AGP interface your mobo supports. (or look it up in the mobo manual if you have it).
Then make sure that the agp card you buy matches what your mobo can support.

Alternatively, if the mobo doesn't have an agp socket, you can put a PCI video card in instead.

[aznblade1]

so same voltage differences goes with the pci video cards then?

[Samm]

No, PCI cards run on a different frequency to AGP (PCI = 33MHz). The AGP uses this frequnecy but multiplies it up (eg 66MHz for AGP 2x for example).
A PCI video card should run on any system that has a spare PCI slot. (Note, we are talking about standard PCI, not PCI Express which is the latest type of video card available)