Hi, I’m pretty sure the onboard graphics has died (no display but powering on) it’s been iffy for a while taking a couple of restarts before it would work.

If I was to buy a cheap graphics card will it automatically detect and run when plugged in, obviously I can’t see to set it up.

I could go to PC world and pick up a card for £35 and it might not work or I could just replace the motherboard with the same one new for £50 from ebay and have a nice new quiet fan in it.

Any advice?

Cheers
Scott

Yes, assuming it is actually the onboard graphics and not Something Else.

Depending on the mobo you might need to worry about compatibility. What’s the board?

If you’re in Nottingham I’m sure I’ve got a PCI-Express ATI Radeon card kicking about you can have for nowt.

The board is an ASUS M5A78L-M/USB3

Thanks for the offer sobriety but I’m in Glasgow, the on board card is an ati radeon 3000 and would prefer something else as they seem to have stopped doing updates years ago. So it leaves a nice border on the TV due to the under/overscan which I did sort by changing the registery values but the PC would eventually correct itself.

I strongly suggest against spending any money on a machine with an unidentified electrical problem of any sort! Much better to isolate and replace the faulty part as these things seldom don’t progress. Fist thing to check would be the BIOS as it could even be a setting or the motherboard battery…

Usually the Bios will beep at you on power up (POST) up if one of the onboard subsystems is down; could it be the monitor?

HDMI to receiver to TV tried a few combos of working cables to TV definitely not that.
Can’t check bios settings as no display

Does the CPU have its own built in graphics? I know mine does.

Could just pop the card out and try it if it does. See if the issue is elsewhere.

No beeps from the bios.
Ghostlymachine not sure what you mean current connection is HDMI straight from the board, no card to pop out.

Ah, sorry. Ignore me.
Misread your posts.
Thought it was a card that’d failed.

Are wearing talking laptop here? Do you mean onboard graphics or integrated graphics?
I thought that anything with ‘integrated graphics’ meant you were stuffed when it came to upgrading or replacing the graphics side of things…

Not a laptop.

The board has basic graphics ability built in to it, 1080p video through HDMI, good enough as it’s not for gaming.

It does have a slot for a separate graphics card.

It also has a monitor (DVI) connection but I’m trying to get someone to let me borrow a monitor to try it.

i have a PCIe card you can have for the price of postage,it low end but works fine

Try connecting with HDMI to your TV. You have to rule out a problem with the monitor and cable, don’t buy a graphics card, the motherboard might be fried if your graphics are built into the chipset. It’s worth trying a graphics card but you just need an old one to test.

The monitor data cable is more likely to fail than the graphics card, is cheaper and easier to replace – try a new cable before replacing the card – especially if you are not getting a beep code on boot.

Other than that, a cheap PCI-e card will do the job for you if you require low res and no gaming.

I’m betting it’s the solder beneath the chipset and that you should replace the motherboard.

Did you reset the BIOS yet?

Replace the motherboard, no beep from bios (what so ever) means the board is not initialising. (it should beep 1long & 2 short for video problems)
If any fans are not running smoothly replace them too, otherwise the new board wont last long. If the power supply fan is bad replace the whole PSU.

The capacitors on the bad will have failed, due to excessive heat with the fans running slow. As someone above said the soldering on the north bridge IC may also be bad.