PC Broken?

[Vaanish]

Hello. Whenever I startup my pc, threre is a message on the screen (17" BENQ) saying 'signal not detected'. So I tried a different screen (crappy CRT) and it also just stayed blank. But, i used a different VGA wire with the CRT screen, so i take it that it can't be the wire. So, after that, I tried the BENQ screen on my laptop, and it worked. I used the same wire as on the other PC, the one that the screeen didnt work with. So I came to the conclusion that it must be the graphics card in the PC. I have fixed the problem before by taking out the VGA cable and swapping the ends (the screen to the graphics card, and the graphics card to the screen) but i have tried this numerous times, and it didnt work this time.

The question I ask is: have you got any ideas on any other things that it may be? I really dont want to waste £20 on a card that won't fix my system.

Also do you think that my hard drive may have failed on me without me knowing (or it is noticable when they fail?) because i have been having hard drive trouble.

my hard disk trouble: http://www.techist.com/forums/f77/computer-making-strange-sound-startup-146390/

Thanks for help.

 

[viper880]

update your display driver ?

 

[jayhawker01]

Sounds like a video card issue. Try a new vid card and if it doesn't work then return it.

 

[Nick]

try booting without any RAM

 

[Vaanish]

Okay i will firstly try to boot with no RAM, then try a new vid card. Do you think that they will let me take it back if it dosent fix the problem?

 

[Brinson]

Pretty much ANYTHING you do inside a pc voids a manufacturer warranty if you bought it at a normal store.

Do you have a cheap *** video card to try it with? Or onboard video?

 

[jayhawker01]

I have returned stuff with no worries. Read the receipt before you open the box. You can always tell them you bought the wrong card.