Computer won't boot up! PLEASE HELP !

[brett74]

it's okay I know it's frustrating. What kind of video ports are on your mac? The reason I'm asking is if you can plug the monitor into the laptop and it works then it will show that the vid card is the culprit

[brett74]

I'm sorry that we could not fix your problem the only thing that's left is to buy a new video card if that works great if not then you can return the card and keep the old one. Did you build the computer or did you buy it custom built?

[patio]

Sorry, I need to make it clear that I don't have access to any computers other than a Mac laptop and the machine which has the problem.

There's not much more i can suggest...part of the process of troubleshooting is eliminating possibilities one by one.
Without being able to do this it is merely guesswork at best.

[brett74]

I agree patio

[tomama]

I'm sorry that we could not fix your problem the only thing that's left is to buy a new video card if that works great if not then you can return the card and keep the old one. Did you build the computer or did you buy it custom built?

It was built by someone else for a friend of mine. The person who built it has moved away, and didn't leave any of the software for any of the components. Nice, huh? That's why I was installing drivers.

Also, the first thing I looked at when this problem first occurred was whether I could connect the monitor or the CPU to my Mac. The Mac only has S-Video Out and a monitor port which does not match the cable to this monitor.

[stevejohnson1958]

We could really get a lot more done with this if there were another monitor we could use to test it against.

Other than that...everyone will just be giving it their best guess...which patio has already stated.

Problem could be the monitor...video card...device drivers, etc., etc.

So we need to test this against a monitor that's known to be working...or test the current monitor on another system to see if it works.  If it doesn't...it's the monitor...if it does...it's either the video card, or a device driver...simple as that.

[tomama]

I realize everyone is just guessing, but I really appreciate everyone's ideas. And I'm kicking myself because I recently gave away an older PC, which I could have used to test different solutions.

[brett74]

aww don't kick yourself you couldn't have known this was going to happen at all. So don't take too hard.

[patio]

It must be a very remote location you are in if you don't have access to another machine somehow some way...

[tomama]

Not a remote location, it's just that all of my friends have switched to Mac.

Anyway, I was able to get hold of a DVI-to-VGA adapter, connected the monitor to my Mac, monitor seems to work just fine.
Installed a new video card in the PC, tried the monitor, same problem as before. Tried suggestion of removing, replacing CMOS battery, still not working. Should I get a new motherboard?

[tomama]

Guess what? Right after my last posting, the computer started working! Now I just have to make sure to remove the drivers I installed before the problem happened, and get the correct ones.

[brett74]

hey that's GREAT woohoo  what I would do is roll back the driver to the previous one unless you had trouble with it before.