Board died - not sure what's wrong - GA-G31M-ES2L

[JoeW]

Hi,
My machine very suddenly died while I was using it. Main symptom is the screen went blank.  Power all seems fine, CPU fan on, disks running. No bleeps at startup,  no screen. Tried connecting via network, but can't see it, so it's not *just* the screen that's gone.

I've looked at the board for any obvious problems - burns, capacitors blown, but can't see anything obvious.

What can I try/look at next?

Cheers

[ac]

I would start troubleshooting with the monitor.  Are you using an pci-e video card, or on board video.  If you are using a add on card, try reseating the card.  Try a different Dvi monitor cable.

It does not sound like your board died.  It is a video problem. I had something similar happen.  On one system the dvi cable was bad.  On another system the video card just needed to be removed and reseated.

If you remove and reseat the card and it happens agan, try a new cable.    If the problem still occurs after that try a different Pci-e slot if available.

[JoeW]

Hi thanks for reply. I'm using the on-board graphics, and the monitor and cable are fine on another PC.

The fact that the PC is not visible on the network also made me worry that it was more than just a graphics problem.

[JoeW]

Any more thoughts on what I can try/look at with this?

[JoeW]

Turned out to be the power supply. I guess it was not supplying enough power - I plugged in a pci-e video card, and the thing (PSU) blew up!

Got a new power supply, and all back to normal, on board graphics working fine.

Moral - don't skimp on a cheap power supply (as I did). Luckily it didn't take anything with it.