Monitor always in power saving, even on startup

[zzaio]

Fairly new computer, intel Motherboard, Pentium D 3.0 GHz, 2 GB RAM, Nvidia Quadro FX 540 video card, Dell 2005 FPW monitor.  Computer working fine until now.  Now, monitor will not light up, even upon startup.  Monitor has a status button.  When pressed, says monitor is in Power Saving Mode, press key or move mouse to wake (which does nothing)  Monitor works fine when connected with my Apple PowerBook G4.  Removing video cable puts monitor in Self-Check mode, so monitor at least recognizes that it is connected to video card.  DVI-D or VGA cable, same problem.   Dont think it is a windows problem, can't even see the BIOS screen on startup.  I don't have another videocard to try to isolate the problem.

Thanks in advance for the help,

Daniel

[squirrel]

does another monitor do the same thing on this PC?

[zzaio]

Don't have another monitor to check with.  I have apple laptops and an I-mac (ball model)

[squirrel]

Can you borrow one from somebody?

[zzaio]

Not easily.  What are you thinking?  

The monitor worked fine before, and also still works when connected to my laptop, so I think that rules out the monitor being the problem.   Do you suspect the monitor is not working just with this computer?

[squirrel]

I'm thinking maybe that particular monitor may not be compatible with that particular computer. i just want to make sure that a known compatible monitor will work.

[zzaio]

The monitor has worked fine with this computer until now.

[zzaio]

Drivers were working fine 3 days ago.  I shut down the computer.  Now, 3 days later, when I try to start-up, nothing.  The info on the computer is in the first post.  Additionally, the mother board is an Intel D945Pvs, the computer sports one hard dreive (seagate, I think) and one DVD/CD burner/player.

[squirrel]

you'll just have to get a videocard from somewhere to try in your machine, then.  let us know. 8-)

[zzaio]

Any other ideas?  I'm thinking of going to buy a cheap video card, but it'll still cost me.

[zzaio]

Ok.  I just installed a brand new video card, and I'm getting the same problem.   I also just re-tested my monitor by plugging it into my MacBook and it works just fine.

I'm really stumped now.  Should I now be replacing the motherboard, or can anyone think of anything else that would be causing this behavior?  I really appreciate the help.

By the way, the fan on the videocard turns, so it is getting (at least some kind of) power.

[zzaio]

I think it's a motherboard problem.  I'm using an intel desktop D945PVS with a 945P express chipset.  If I try to boot without any video card in place, I should get a beep code.  I get silence.  

[Fed]

Monitor OK.
Video card OK.
No POST.
No 'Power good" signal.
Swap the PSU.
BTW, I've read that hitting the reset can achieve a power good signal but I've never seen it 1st hand so you might want to try what Quatroking suggested.
Let us know what happens?

[Dam1an]

It may be the slot that your video card is in (AGP or PCIe) that is not working properly.  It could also be your chipset (BIOS) that gave up the ghost.  No telling if you can't get any output.  New mobo should fix it tho.

[zzaio]

If by reset, you mean the button next to the start button, did that to no avail.

Is there any chance the BIOS code could simply have gone bad (is it in flash memory?)  and that I could fix the problem by reloading this (moving a jumper on the motherboard and booting with a CD containing the BIOS code)  This procedure is described in the Intel documentation for the motherboard.  However, I'm not clear on the symptoms of such a failure and whether this could be my problem.  Any ideas on that?

I also like the idea that I might just have a power supply that has gone bad.  I will get my voltmeter and check all the output voltages.

Thanks again for your help,

Daniel