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My Mom's computer basically isn't working. It is doing something that I have never seen, and I have really messed up a computer before. The computer is on and running, the monitor is on. But there is no picture. If you turn the computer off then on, the screen will flash "No Signal" for about three seconds then go dark.She said that the power went out and then came back on when she wasn't home. When she got home the screen saver was frozen on a picture. She tried the control, ALT, delete and the escape button but nothing would work. So she did a "hard" shut down, and now this is happening.My only guess is that the power failure might have fried something in the monitor or one of the wires leading from the computer to the monitor. Before you ask, no she did not have a surge protector because of reasons that would take too long to explain. So if any computer guru's have any ideas on what may have happened or may be wrong I am all ears.It is a home built computer that my brother in law made, but he is really really sick right now and 300 miles away so he can't look at it. So if any computer guru's have any ideas on what may have happened or may be wrong I am all ears.

Difficult to tell from your explanation of what it's doing. When the computer starts up, do you see the normal bios stuff on the monitor before windows starts up? If you are seeing "no signal" or something when it's in the middle of rebooting, that could be perfectly normal because the monitor isn't receiving any signal for a second or two while the computer is rebooting. If you are seeing that message, I'm guessing the monitor is ok.My guess would be a video card went bad, or windows is locking up during bootup at a point where there's a blank screen and no logos or anything are being sent to the monitor at that point.Can you take the monitor off and put it on a different computer to see if it works?

I'm almost positive the video card fried.

Yup Yup. If the monitor would be able to display the words "no signal", then it sounds as though the monitor works and is getting just that.....no signal from the system. I would try pulling the video card out and reseating it....or better yet.....if you have an extra lying around.....try popping in an old card to what happens.Jim

I would almost guarantee the video card is gone. Hopefully it is not integrated on the board, you could always disable the one on the board and buy another and put that in.

Could be that part of the power supply is gone, like maybe the -12V, and the power LEDs and fans run, but none of the real electronics have what they need to work right.

Definately your Video Card.If you have on-board Video you might wanna look into some Aftermarket Cards

Quote, originally posted by cohocarl »Difficult to tell from your explanation of what it's doing. When the computer starts up, do you see the normal bios stuff on the monitor before windows starts up? If you are seeing "no signal" or something when it's in the middle of rebooting, that could be perfectly normal because the monitor isn't receiving any signal for a second or two while the computer is rebooting. If you are seeing that message, I'm guessing the monitor is ok.My guess would be a video card went bad, or windows is locking up during bootup at a point where there's a blank screen and no logos or anything are being sent to the monitor at that point.Can you take the monitor off and put it on a different computer to see if it works?No, none of the logos or bios is coming up at all. It is just a blank screen then it says "no signal" then it goes blank again. I think the monitor is ok as well, someplace the info from the computer is not making it to the monitor. I think I have a video card laying around I can use. Thanks for the info guys.

I have a slight problem. I am having my brother-in-law build me a new computer and I need to transfer all of my music from my old computer to my new one. The problem is that my external burner crapped out on me so I can not copy my files onto a CD. My new computer will have a built in cd burner so I don't want to buy a new burner to transfer the files. My Bro in law suggested that I buy a USB cable with the two "flat" type A connectors on the ends and connect them up like a mini network and transfer the data that way. He wasn't sure if it would work because he has never done that before. I was wondering if anybody knew for sure if that would work or if they had any other ideas that didn't cost an arm and a leg.

I have a couple of questions/suggestions,1. Do have broadband?2. If so, Do you have your computer set up on a router?3. If that's the case, then just setup your network and share all of your music files and then just do a copy paste with the new computer.Inder

I'm not sure how a USB crossover would work, but you could use a category 5 crossover cable (special ethernet cable, they have them at best buy) and set up a cheap home network that way.

Since your computer is being built, you could temporarily take out the hard drive from the old computer and install it into the new computer as a slave drive, and copy those files to the new computer's hard drive.

Quote, originally posted by TRD4reel »I have a couple of questions/suggestions,1. Do have broadband?2. If so, Do you have your computer set up on a router?3. If that's the case, then just setup your network and share all of your music files and then just do a copy paste with the new computer.InderNo broadband, no router.I thought about the hard drive idea and about putting in the new burner, but both of them were a lot of work and a pain in the (removed).I might ask him about your idea Kari. I was going to order some more computer stuff from tigerdirect and was going to buy the cables but didn't know which ones to get for sure. Both computers have an ethernet port so that might be what he ment and I just misunderstood him.

How about 1 of these? My bro has 2 and it comes in handy. He has a laptop and a desktop and he transfers stuff back and forth. Also when he needs something from me I just put it on this removable drive and he puts it on his computer. Good little tool.http://www.bestbuy.com/site/ol...oduct

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/ol...oductYou need this package. Nothing more. Don't buy just an A to A cable, as you need software to do it, which is included in this package.Install the software on both computers, plug in the cable, and simply copy from one to the other. No mess.Jumpdrives are too small to do what you're trying to accomplish, external Harddrives are a pain as well.Edit > Cheaper TigerDirect product. http://www.tigerdirect.com/app...d=445

I would probably just slap the old drive into the new box and copy files over... That would be your fastest and most cost effective solution ($0.)Or, Kari's idea about the crossover cable is a good one... Do both computers have network cards? If not, you'll have to buy them...The USB cable looks interesting as well... I didn't even know such a thing existed. Good luck, many different ways to accomplish this.

Quote, originally posted by Jahntassa »http://www.bestbuy.com/site/ol...oductYou need this package. Nothing more. Don't buy just an A to A cable, as you need software to do it, which is included in this package.Install the software on both computers, plug in the cable, and simply copy from one to the other. No mess.Jumpdrives are too small to do what you're trying to accomplish, external Harddrives are a pain as well.Edit > Cheaper TigerDirect product. http://www.tigerdirect.com/app...d=445thanks! that's what i was trying to look for as well!

gotta remember to pick this up on friday!