Hey everyone! I'm pretty new to PCs, and I'm having a bit of trouble with one I just bought on eBay. It was a custom build with solid reviews, so I thought I'd give it a shot for gaming. When I turned it on yesterday, it booted to the start screen, but then the display went black, and my TV says there's no signal even though the PC is still on and the lights are lit up. I've done some basic troubleshooting like trying different cables and unplugging the CMOS battery (which seemed fine), but nothing has worked so far. If anyone has any tips or advice, I'd really appreciate it!
3 Answers
Have you checked if there’s an OS installed on the PC? It could just be that there’s no operating system set up yet. If you have a bootable USB, you could try booting from that. It's a good way to narrow down the issue with your boot drive!
You might have escalated your troubleshooting too quickly. In my experience, removing the CMOS battery isn't usually necessary unless you're dealing with specific issues. Since you mentioned you're using a TV, it might be worth finding a monitor to test. If there’s a video card, you should have multiple ports; make sure to connect to the right one.
I don’t have a monitor, but my friend has a similar setup that works fine with the TV. I’ll see if I can borrow one to troubleshoot.
First things first, make sure your display cable is connected to the GPU and not the motherboard. It’s a common mistake! Also, instead of using your TV, try connecting a monitor to see if you get any output. Normally, if there's a dedicated video card, you'll want to plug into that rather than the motherboard's port. Just worth checking!
Yes, I made sure it's connected to the GPU.
I’m not really sure what that means or how to do it. Can you explain a bit more? Thanks so much!