No video????

I was testing a new CPU cooler tonight, and when I got my system back together I'm not getting any video! I use a Sapphire HD4870 card, and there are three red LEDs on the back that stay lit and I get no signal at all to my monitor. Some searching has led to this being a power problem, but I have tried reseating the card, tried the card in different slots, tried reseating all my power connections, different PCIe cables (modular PSU), and even a different PSU and a different video card (identical card), all with no change at all. I am baffled and more than a little pissed.

The only thing I've done is change the CPU cooler twice. Now the one I tested has a very strong retention clip, and I felt the board flex a little when I removed it, could I have done something there? This board doesn't have onboard video so my system is completely dead until I get this resolved. Thank God for the wife's laptop. :D (Yes, I am an addict, I admit it freely.)

Anyone have any ideas?

Might try resetting the RAM as you could have bumped it when changing CPU coolers.

I've personally had very interesting things happen with graphics cards. I once dripped a single drop of coolant on my graphics card when trying to tighten the clamps on a CPU barb. I watched in slow motion as it flew towards my $600 piece of hardware and it laughed off my efforts to prevent it from causing damage. As soon as it hit there was a beeping sound from the MBB speaker, the screen displayed some sort of alien pattern and then went blank. The computer shut down. I yelled and broke things on my desk.:whistler: After drying the card thoroughly, it refused to work. I threw in an inferior card that I keep around for emergencies and troubleshooting to get the machine to boot. It could not run games higher than say 15fps. I was mad. Being in denial, I played around with my main card in different PCIe slots but couldn't get it to work. Since I'm lazy, I just threw the spare card in a lower slot and powered on. I was doing some stumbling when I realized I had forgotten to switch the DVI cable to the spare card. So the main card worked fine when there was another card in the system! What a delightful discovery. It eventually stopped working and I played around with other configurations until I was satisfied that it was dead and went back to using the spare card again. A few weeks later, on a whim, I put the main card back in and it worked fine by itself. Go figure. I don't know what the hell it's problem was, but to this day it still works fine.

I know this was an unnecessarily long story, but it's meant to inspire!:D Try different slots, throw in an additional card, mix it up a bit! Sometimes things work when they shouldn't and don't when they should.

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Originally Posted by blueonblack

I felt the board flex a little when I removed it, could I have done something there?

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Not likely. PCBs are able to flex a bit, but repeated strain can break traces. As long as you didn't hear the board straining, there shouldn't be a problem.

Does the PSU have different connectors on it's body to plug the modular cables into? If so, try a different slot. I've seen some short out before.

Be strong man!

Well, it seems I was sadly correct. I got a new board, hooked everything back up and it works great. Damndamndamn.

I'll get a PCI video card later and see if maybe it will work with the old board, since none of the PCIe slots seem to work. At least then I could use it as a spare. Otherwise it's a large shiny well-cooled paperweight.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by blueonblack

Well, it seems I was sadly correct. I got a new board, hooked everything back up and it works great. Damndamndamn.

I'll get a PCI video card later and see if maybe it will work with the old board, since none of the PCIe slots seem to work. At least then I could use it as a spare. Otherwise it's a large shiny well-cooled paperweight.

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Warranty?:(

What is this "warranty" that you speak of?

Since I cut the heatpipes off of the factory chipset coolers that's shot. I seem to have a habit of voiding warranties on just about everything I own.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by blueonblack

What is this "warranty" that you speak of?

Since I cut the heatpipes off of the factory chipset coolers that's shot. I seem to have a habit of voiding warranties on just about everything I own.

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I figured as much...was just trying to stay positive as long as I could.:)

Since it's shot, you might as well try something extreme on it like reflowing the solder:
http://www.overclock.net/intel-mothe...obos-well.html