Nothing after post...

[GT]

OK, this is a strange one...

Shuttle SK41 motherboard with on-board graphics, plus an old Radeon 8500 AGP
card (64mb I think). The PC is used for basic kids internet, hotmail and
watching DVDs. Has been working just fine for ages. I recently swapped out
the desktop athlon 2400 for a mobile 2500. Cooler, quieter etc. Just got a
new HD1080 TV in the living room and it is connected to that, but had a post
last week about it not managing 1080 from the DVI to HDMI lead (720 is
fine). I mention it again now simply as it might be related... The PC shut
down as normal and refused to come on again.

Stripped it right back to Power + Motherboard + either/both of my 2 sticks
of DDR + CPU. With on-board graphics or with the AGP 8500 card the PC Posts
just fine. no problems reports, but when I press Del for the BIOS, or press
f1 to continue to a boot screen, the screen goes blank and doesn't come
back. Machine sometimes responds to ctrl-alt-del, so its not dead.

I've tried both processors
I've swapped the ram sticks over and tried them each on their own
I've tried with on-board GPU only. With AGP, but using on-board GPU and
through the AGP card.
I've reset the bios
I've removed the CMOS battery and started it up

Nothing makes any difference - same results every time - no video signal
after a healthy post.

I have not yet crawled round the back to disconnect the cables to try it on
my monitor upstairs.

Any ideas before I try this?

 

[GT]

It sounds like you are saying that you are getting the
text display, from post, while the card is operating in
the default VGA mode. The description you provide
seems to be saying that your HD TV is providing that
from an HDMI input, and with it set to display at 720p.
Is this correct?

Sorry - a rushed post from me. I'm using a VGA cable to test this at
present. It is connected to the TV right now, which can handle up to
1300x720 resolution. Until the failure, I could see the post information,
boot screen, complete XP loading screens and then XP desktop. I included the
information about not getting the 1080 signal over the DVI-HDMI cable just
in case it was relevant. I have not been testing using the HDMI cable.

Now while still in VGA mode you lose the display when
going to the BIOS screen or the boot options screen?

This is correct.

You talk of an on board "GPU" and making changes in
your use of that and an AGP card. How are you doing
this without access to your BIOS settings? MB Jumpers?

I can't get into the BIOS settings, but have reset the BIOS to defaults
using a jumper. I assume the on-board GPU is the default. When I connect the
VGA cable to the onboard connector the PC uses it. When I connect the VGA
cable to the AGP card, the PC seems to switch to it automatically. I can't
get to any settings to see what is default/auto etc.

It would be of some help if you would provide the make
and model of your "new HD 1080 TV", that you are trying
to use as a monitor. Could you tell us if you still have these
problems when using a PC monitor?

Yes this would have been handy! Its a new Toshiba Regza 40". Full HD 1080p.
Manual lists the resolutions accepted and over the VGA cable it can handle
just about any resolution up to 1360x768.

I will test the computer on a normal monitor as soon as I get a chance.

 

[GT]

OK, until we can rule out the video interface as a source
of the problem, (by trying it on a normal monitor) there are
a few other things to rule out.

The first I would normally advise would be trying it with
all USB devices disconnected, then with no hard drives
connected (a bad hard drive can throw in unexpected
problems during post as well as boot), but it appears that
you already tried that. I bring it up again just in case you
missed something the first time.

The "Shuttle", being a proprietary system, may have
"features" that don't follow the normal practices for PCs in
general. I can't think of anything that would blank the
screen or crash the video display when going from a good
display of the post data, to the display of the BIOS screen
or Boot screen. There should be no change in display mode.

The one logical potential culprit might be the keyboard. You
mentioned that the "machine 'sometimes' responds" to a
keyboard input, you could try a different keyboard and try
changing from PS2 to USB or vis versa.

Luck;
Ken

An update - I finally found time to unplug everything and take the PC up to
a proper monitor where everything worked just fine. Either the cable I have
downstairs has magically broken, or the TV is not working as a monitor
properly... At least the PC is OK!