A few days ago, I noticed flickering and strange graphical artifacts while watching a video. The next day, the computer crashed, and ever since then the monitor has shown no signal. The PC appears to start normally: fans spin, lights look normal, and the usual boot sounds are present. It is an older system from around 2012, so hardware failure seems possible.
I have already tried powering it off and on, resetting the CMOS by removing the motherboard battery, reseating the RAM and graphics card, using a different display cable and GPU port, and testing the monitor and cable with another device. I also tried connecting the monitor to the motherboard's video outputs, although I am not sure whether my CPU has integrated graphics.
Could the graphics card have failed, and what other tests would help narrow down whether the problem is the GPU, RAM, motherboard, or CPU? Is malware a realistic possibility here?
3 Answers
One rough POST check is to tap the power button repeatedly after starting the computer, without holding it down. If the PC eventually responds by shutting down, it may be completing POST and the problem is more likely the GPU or display path. If it never responds, the system may be failing before POST, which points more toward the motherboard, CPU, or memory. Malware is very unlikely to cause this kind of immediate no-signal hardware failure.
The flickering and visual artifacts followed by a complete loss of signal strongly suggest that the graphics card has failed. Testing it in another working computer should confirm that. Given its age, replacing it with an inexpensive modern card may be the practical fix if it fails there too.
This could also be a failure to complete POST rather than only a display problem. For testing the motherboard video outputs, remove the graphics card completely; many systems will continue trying to use the installed card otherwise. Check the exact CPU model as well. Many Intel i5 and i7 processors from that era include integrated graphics unless they have a suffix such as F or P.
Try booting with only the essentials connected: CPU, one RAM stick, motherboard, power supply, and monitor. Test each RAM stick individually in each slot, waiting roughly two minutes after each startup so the system has time to retrain the memory. Disconnect USB devices, extra expansion cards, and storage drives temporarily. If the system still cannot POST with known-good memory, the motherboard or CPU becomes more suspicious.
Thanks, I’ll try those steps. I’ll remove the GPU before testing the motherboard outputs and check the CPU model. For the RAM test, should I wait the two minutes after turning the system on before switching sticks?