No Video Output From Computer

[BrknFngrs]

Computer was running a bit slow earlier this evening so I checked out the task manager and my physical memory usage was showing 85% of 2gigs. Since I physically have 6gig's installed I figured that something just wasn't seated properly.

Unplugged the tower, blew it out with canned air and removed and reseated all three 2gig sticks. Plugged it back in, went into the BIOS and it was now showing 4gigs instead of 2gigs. Figuring I'd give it one more show I unplugged, unseated all the ram and moved it over into the other 3 color coded slots. Try to boot it up and now I get no output over HDMI to my tv.

Things I've tried so far:
- resetting everything incase it was an HDMI issue
- using a different HDMI cable
- using a different HDMI input on my tv
- upgrading the firmware of my tv
- returning the ram to their original 3 slots
- using the video cards mini-display port output (to HDMI with an adaptor) instead of it's HDMI output
- using the video cards DVI output (to HDMI with an adaptor) instead of HDMI output
-using the video cards DVI output converted to VGA to my TV
- tried running all of the above output from my computer to my home theater receiver as well (also saying it's getting no signal over HDMI)
- I'm also getting no audible beeps from the MOBO that would suggest any common issues and the fan on my video card is still spinning when the computer is powered.

I'm entirely at a loss; is my video card just all the sudden dead? Too tired to troubleshoot anymore tonight but if anyone has ideas I can try tomorrow night I'd appreciate it.

[JustinMCS]

Put one stick of ram in only and make sure it is in slot 1 (as depicted by your mobo diagram). If it is in the wrong slot it won't boot. Does it turn on now? Ram in the wrong slot on some mobos won't cause a beep. Take all the ram out, you should have a beep.

[firebane]

Motherboards don't generally come with a speaker on them anymore hence why you need one that comes with the board or spare one. There is a place on motherboard where the other jumpers go for the HDD lights and such.

Being that you give us ABSOLUTELY no details on what type of system it is.. we can just guess till the cows come home.

If your running Windows 7 you'll always see higher than normal ram usage due to caching by the OS and thus is quite normal.

Not seeing all the memory on the other hand is not.

Seeing as you said you have 6 gigs I'm going to assume this is a X58 system and your running 3x2gb? If so as stated above you need to figure out what banks will allow the system to boot and you start with 1 stick and work your way back to 3.

[BrknFngrs]

Does it make sense that dead ram would cause no video output at all though? I literally can't even get an HDMI, Mini-Display port or DVI signal out to the TV or my receiver.

What specific details would be helpful in this situation?
- Windows 7 machine (64 bit)
- 3 x 2gig corsair sticks
- Radeon HD6950 video card
- MOBO I believe is an Asus Sabretooth X58

[revelations]

Try a different PSU, if you can.

[firebane]

Originally posted by BrknFngrs
Does it make sense that dead ram would cause no video output at all though? I literally can't even get an HDMI, Mini-Display port or DVI signal out to the TV or my receiver.

What specific details would be helpful in this situation?
- Windows 7 machine (64 bit)
- 3 x 2gig corsair sticks
- Radeon HD6950 video card
- MOBO I believe is an Asus Sabretooth X58

Yes. Dead RAM won't let the board POST properly.

This is why you need to take the GPU out and reseat it as well as use only 1 stick of ram at a time.

Also reseat the 24 pin and the 4/8 pin ATX connector and make sure they are seated properly as well.

[Seth1968]

If all that doesn't fix the issue, then download the latest driver for the card, uninstall the current driver, restart, then install the new driver.

[BrknFngrs]

Originally posted by firebane


Yes. Dead RAM won't let the board POST properly.

This is why you need to take the GPU out and reseat it as well as use only 1 stick of ram at a time.

Also reseat the 24 pin and the 4/8 pin ATX connector and make sure they are seated properly as well.

Hmm ok, I'll remove all the ram this evening and start adding in one stick at a time to try and find the issue. Hopefully that solves it.

My troubleshooting abilities are extremely limited so I'm weary of removing the video card, etc.


Originally posted by Seth1968
If all that doesn't fix the issue, then download the latest driver for the card, uninstall the current driver, restart, then install the new driver.

How does a person go about doing this if you can't see anything on screen? Is there some kind of audible tone or status light that would make this possible?

[Seth1968]

Originally posted by BrknFngrs


How does a person go about doing this if you can't see anything on screen? Is there some kind of audible tone or status light that would make this possible?

For some reason I assumed that you had a working dvi or vga connection to a computer monitor.

[BrknFngrs]

Originally posted by Seth1968


For some reason I assumed that you had a working dvi or vga connection to a computer monitor.

That would be ideal; unfortunately I hook this computer up directly to my TV.

Likely a dumb question; but should I plug in headphones/computer speakers into the headphone jack of the computer to see if it's giving me some kind of beeping to suggest that the problem might be? (I don't currently have speakers plugged in as I use the TV/home theater whenever it's on)

[Seth1968]

Most computers don't have beep codes.

Trying one ram stick at a time is a good idea. Does the mobo have onboard graphics that you could try? If so, remove the separate card before trying that.

[firebane]

Originally posted by Seth1968
Most computers don't have beep codes.

Trying one ram stick at a time is a good idea. Does the mobo have onboard graphics that you could try? If so, remove the separate card before trying that.

Most computers DO have beep codes. Its just MOST computers don't have a speaker attached to here them.

[BrknFngrs]

Unfortunately I don't believe my MOBO has any kind of integrated video; it's this board here:

http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/SABERTOOTH_X58/#overview

[firebane]

Originally posted by BrknFngrs
Unfortunately I don't believe my MOBO has any kind of integrated video; it's this board here:

http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/SABERTOOTH_X58/#overview

It doesn't. You need to do some basic troubleshooting as I have suggested above.

[hrdkore]

also, probably might need to update the bios?

[firebane]

Originally posted by hrdkore
also, probably might need to update the bios?

If a person can't do or know how to do basic troubleshooting I highly do NOT recommend updating a bios.

[BrknFngrs]

Alright so took the advice above when I got home and worked my way up from one stick. With one stick in I was able to boot the computer fully, same with two sticks and weirdly....it also worked with all three sticks back in.

No idea how or why this would make sense, maybe the ram is on its way out and is working intermittently? Feeling less than comfortable with this I found a USB bootable memtest online and I'm running it right now to see if it provides any insight (never used it before though so I'm not sure I'll even understand its output)

Thanks for everyone's help!

[firebane]

Originally posted by BrknFngrs
Alright so took the advice above when I got home and worked my way up from one stick. With one stick in I was able to boot the computer fully, same with two sticks and weirdly....it also worked with all three sticks back in.

No idea how or why this would make sense, maybe the ram is on its way out and is working intermittently? Feeling less than comfortable with this I found a USB bootable memtest online and I'm running it right now to see if it provides any insight (never used it before though so I'm not sure I'll even understand its output)

Thanks for everyone's help!

This memtest?
http://www.memtest.org/

Also memtest is fairly straightforward.. if it passes.. its usually good.. any red errors = bad.

[BrknFngrs]

Originally posted by firebane


This memtest?
http://www.memtest.org/

Also memtest is fairly straightforward.. if it passes.. its usually good.. any red errors = bad.

Yep, that's the one. Having not used it before I assumed I should run it with all 3 sticks in and would tell me which was was faulty...not so much.

With all 3 sticks in it reported 4 errors.

Since I didn't know which stick was the culprit I ran it again with each of the 3 sticks on their own...no errors on any of the sticks when tested individually.

Going to continue testing tomorrow by running an individual stick in the other two slots individually but I'm assuming this would suggest a slot is the issue, not the stick?

[firebane]

Originally posted by BrknFngrs


Yep, that's the one. Having not used it before I assumed I should run it with all 3 sticks in and would tell me which was was faulty...not so much.

With all 3 sticks in it reported 4 errors.

Since I didn't know which stick was the culprit I ran it again with each of the 3 sticks on their own...no errors on any of the sticks when tested individually.

Going to continue testing tomorrow by running an individual stick in the other two slots individually but I'm assuming this would suggest a slot is the issue, not the stick?

Correct and one of the easier ways to do this is run with all 3 sticks of ram and when it errors start removing a stick of ram until memtest stops erroring out.

Or as your going to do just try one stick each time in a different slot and see what happens.

Since you took the ram out and cleaned out the system make SURE 100% that there is no dust in the slots at all which could cause issues

[BrknFngrs]

So this is becoming increasingly annoying.

- Ran Memtest with 3 sticks in = errors
- Ran Memtest on each stick individually in a single slot = no errors
- Ran Memtest with a single slick across each slot = no errors
- Ran Memtest with sticks in slots 1 and 2 = no errors
- Ran Memtest with sticks in slots 1-3 = errors again

[firebane]

Originally posted by BrknFngrs
So this is becoming increasingly annoying.

- Ran Memtest with 3 sticks in = errors
- Ran Memtest on each stick individually in a single slot = no errors
- Ran Memtest with a single slick across each slot = no errors
- Ran Memtest with sticks in slots 1 and 2 = no errors
- Ran Memtest with sticks in slots 1-3 = errors again

So now what you want to do is make sure in your bios that you have setup your memory to not be auto. Meaning you specify the timings and voltage for the ram.

If this isn't set properly the system can error out like you are experiencing.

[Seth1968]

I gave up on memory testers a long time ago, as I didn't find them to be accurate. Besides, it's much easier, faster, and 100% accurate to just swap out the ram.

Here's an easier way to do it all BF:

- Put one stick in the first slot (first slot facing toward the middle of the mobo).

- If all is well, continue the process with the next slot.

- If all is not well, use another stick in that slot and try again.

This will quickly determine if you have a bad port, or a bad stick.

Also note that if you use your computer like 99% of the population does, that is, email, internet, pictures, watching DVD's, etc, then 6 GB is overkill.

For example, on my Vista system, I can open multiple programs along with multiple tabs in IE that include streaming, and under those worst case scenarios, it uses between 1 and 1.3 GB of ram.

[BrknFngrs]

I've never really worked in the BIOS to change things but when I look most everything related to Power is set to auto. What also seems strange, the bios is saying "Target DRAM Frequency: 1066mhz" even though the sticks I have in there are 1600mhz.

Any suggestions on how to manually set the voltages and timings keeping in mind that I'm a complete layman at this stuff?

[revelations]

Try resetting the BIOS to factory defaults. Use the jumper if one is available.

I still feel like this is a board or a PSU issue - esp since the memory individually tested OK.

I have the X58 on my rig as well - heres a discussion of the issues : http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1546247

[firebane]

Originally posted by BrknFngrs
I've never really worked in the BIOS to change things but when I look most everything related to Power is set to auto. What also seems strange, the bios is saying "Target DRAM Frequency: 1066mhz" even though the sticks I have in there are 1600mhz.

Any suggestions on how to manually set the voltages and timings keeping in mind that I'm a complete layman at this stuff?

Its a matter of reading the manual for board and it will explain how to do all of this.

The fact your sticks are running at 1066 and not 1600 says to me its all set to automatic settings.

[BrknFngrs]

Originally posted by Seth1968
I gave up on memory testers a long time ago, as I didn't find them to be accurate. Besides, it's much easier, faster, and 100% accurate to just swap out the ram.

Here's an easier way to do it all BF:

- Put one stick in the first slot (first slot facing toward the middle of the mobo).

- If all is well, continue the process with the next slot.

- If all is not well, use another stick in that slot and try again.

This will quickly determine if you have a bad port, or a bad stick.

Also note that if you use your computer like 99% of the population does, that is, email, internet, pictures, watching DVD's, etc, then 6 GB is overkill.

For example, on my Vista system, I can open multiple programs along with multiple tabs in IE that include streaming, and under those worst case scenarios, it uses between 1 and 1.3 GB of ram.

Thanks, that's essentially the approach that I took with the physical sticks. I walked in sticks from the centre of the board out and even with 3 sticks in everything seems to boot up fine all the sudden. I'm not too sure why it's booting now but didn't before; maybe I swapped the sticks into different slots in all the shuffling?

It also booted fine with each stick on it's own and in all slots :dunno:

I definitely don't push my system; it's hooked up to my TV and mainly used for XBMC, gaming over Steam and Citrix access for work.

[firebane]

Originally posted by BrknFngrs


Thanks, that's essentially the approach that I took with the physical sticks. I walked in sticks from the centre of the board out and even with 3 sticks in everything seems to boot up fine all the sudden. I'm not too sure why it's booting now but didn't before; maybe I swapped the sticks into different slots in all the shuffling?

It also booted fine with each stick on it's own and in all slots :dunno:

I definitely don't push my system; it's hooked up to my TV and mainly used for XBMC, gaming over Steam and Citrix access for work.

If you try to run to much memory in the memory slots it can be difficult for the memory controller to remain stable. By adjusting the voltage and timings to their proper specs this helps in the memory controller not having to struggle so much and causing errors.

[ipeefreely]

Originally posted by firebane
If you try to run to much memory in the memory slots it can be difficult for the memory controller to remain stable. By adjusting the voltage and timings to their proper specs this helps in the memory controller not having to struggle so much and causing errors.
Post the model # of the corsair sticks... they probably want to run at 1.6v or 1.65v if they're 1600MHz and you have 3 of them.

It's not hard to setup the voltage and timing in the BIOS... we can help you! :thumbsup:

Or it could be this... :(

Originally posted by revelations
I have the X58 on my rig as well - heres a discussion of the issues : http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1546247

[BrknFngrs]

Originally posted by ipeefreely

Post the model # of the corsair sticks... they probably want to run at 1.6v or 1.65v if they're 1600MHz and you have 3 of them.

It's not hard to setup the voltage and timing in the BIOS... we can help you! :thumbsup:

Or it could be this... :(


I'm really hoping its not the main board itself, pretty sure its still under warranty but RMA'ing it seems like a huge pain in the ass.

My memory sticks say "Corsair XMS3 DDR3". On the back of the sticks they say:

TR3X6G1600C9
1.65V ver2.3A

9-9-9-24
1600MHz
2048MB
6GB (3X2GB)

Also, not sure if it matters but when I hover over DRAM Frequency in the bios thes a side note that says "For "locked" CPU only DDR3-800 and DDR3-1066 can work". No idea if I have a locked CPU though; the CPU is a "intel core i7 CPU @ 3.07 GHz" per the Bios

[firebane]

Originally posted by BrknFngrs


I'm really hoping its not the main board itself, pretty sure its still under warranty but RMA'ing it seems like a huge pain in the ass.

My memory sticks say "Corsair XMS3 DDR3". On the back of the sticks they say:

TR3X6G1600C9
1.65V ver2.3A

9-9-9-24
1600MHz
2048MB
6GB (3X2GB)

Also, not sure if it matters but when I hover over DRAM Frequency in the bios thes a side note that says "For "locked" CPU only DDR3-800 and DDR3-1066 can work". No idea if I have a locked CPU though; the CPU is a "intel core i7 CPU @ 3.07 GHz" per the Bios

The bios should specify what type of CPU you have. Current Intel chips are preceded with a K to mean they are "Unlocked" and if they don't have a K they are locked.

Locked CPUs mean you will get VERY limited overclocking ability out of them and because of this you may have to downclock your memory to run at slower speeds.

If your willing to learn this is a good experience but this is why lots of people just buy prebuilt systems LOL

I should also mention if your looking for a place that has a TON of people with a plethora of information who could perhaps really give you a hand check out http://www.hardwarecanucks.com

Its a Canadian site with a huge amount of knowledgeable people who are willing to give a hand.

[rlim891]

The ram you have should run at 1.65 volts.
Speed you are running at should not affect your no video output.

Your board is a lga1366 socket, the only unlocked cpus out there for that socket are the extreme series. which at one point were $800-1000.

As for your memtest showing errors when all 3 sticks are seated, it could be a new bios update is needed, something wrong with the ram slot, etc etc...

If your problem has not been fixed, i would strongly recommend to take it in to a shop to have them diagnose it for you.