[Tikatu]

That may sound like a lame way to put it, but it's the truth.

I have a refurbished eMachine 3400 (Yes, it's old.) running on XP and this morning, the monitor received no signal from the tower. My son tightened all the connections, and it still didn't work. The monitor, a 19" Envision, comes up with no trouble and gives me the "no signal" notice.

I'm sure that the sound/video card (an ATI Radeon Express 200) is the culprit. My question is: is something like that usually integrated with the motherboard, or is it a separate card that I can replace. The motherboard already has a bad memory card slot, and I know I'll eventually have to replace the machine entirely. But if I can possibly just replace the video card so it runs just a weeeee bit longer (until back-to-school or Black Friday sales) I'd probably do it. One of my local computer parts stores has a do-it-yourself tech help desk, and I'd go there for the parts and the help.

So, opinions? Thanks in advance for your help.

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Can you try the monitor on another system or even a laptop to make sure it is not the monitor?

[rshaffer61]

Can you try the monitor on another system or even a laptop to make sure it is not the monitor?

[Tikatu]

I just did; the monitor seems to be working fine.

[rshaffer61]

OK
Your video is onboard so you would need to purchase a video add on card.
Without knowing the exact motherboard model it is going to be hard to tell you a exact video card. Some of the motherboards have a PCIe slot but from what I can tell the original PSU may not have a connection to power it. You could go with a PCI video which would work but not sure what your budget may be.

[Tikatu]

The kind of card is very likely something that the local techs could tell me. Knowing that I can get something that would bypass the current video card is good. I guess I'll take the car tomorrow and head to the store.

Thanks!

[rshaffer61]

Yep as soon as you put the card in then the onboard video would be disabled.
Your current card has 128 megs of memory so make sure what ever you get has at least that.

[rshaffer61]

Are you still having problems with your issue?
It has been 14 days since your last response and I was wondering if the issue has been resolved?
If so can you explain how it was resolved so others may be able to fix it if they have the same issue.
If not please let us know and we can continue with helping you to resolve the issue.

[Tikatu]

Well, it can be marked as resolved because when I took them both to the local tech help desk, I had no problem. The tower worked fine with another monitor. The monitor tested fine, and when I put them together there - voilà! They were on speaking terms again, and have been ever since. I have no idea what caused the problem at the time, and neither did the techs.

Thanks for your input and advice! I'll remember it if the trouble turns up again.

[rshaffer61]

Congratulations Tikatu. for a successful resolution for your issue.

I'm glad we could help and please let us know how everything works out for you. Thank you for letting us know the final resolution.
If there is anything else we can do to help please feel free to ask. I appreciate that you allowed us to assist you with your issue and for your patience.
Thank you for choosing GeeksToGo for help.
This issue now appears to be resolved.


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