ASUS PC Powers on but no Display

[holydumpsterdiver_]

Hi All -

New to this forum and have a possibly unique scenario. Mostly been a laptop user my whole life (teen so by necessity, not choice because of money) but have always wanted to be a PC user.

Recently, went to drop some trash at my mom's apartment complex and somebody had left an ASUS computer tower sitting by the garbage. Decided to bring it home and lucky for me, the computer seems to have decent components but for some reason, I cannot get it to display anything. Powers on just fine, and seems to whir up as it should but have tried a couple of different monitors at friend's houses and nothing seems to work.

The weird thing is, I am not sure if the previous owner took out some of the components because there are a lot of loose or disconnected wires inside the PC. Don't know if these are necessary or if they are just extras but some are connected to the video card. Video card seems good and there is a green light on the motherboard close by but there is also a red light. Have tried to provide as many pictures as possible here but not sure what to do.

Please help! ComputerForum, you're my only hope.

 

[johnb35]

It looks like the cd drive and hard drive is not connected. You would still get bios screen to show up though. Do you have the cable from monitor plugged into video card or the actual motherboard output? You can't try only using 1 stick of ram. Without a system speaker attached to motherboard you won't really know what the error is.

 

[holydumpsterdiver_]

Would you be circle which cables I need to connect for the CD drive and HDD? I know the part but not the right cable which should plug in.

I have tried connecting two separate monitors to both the video card and the mother board via HDMI. Do I need to try a DVI/VGA connection to the mother board?

What do you mean I can't only use one stick of RAM? I thnk there are four currently plugged in? Should I reduce that?

I have speakers but what sound would I be listening for? Does it read out errors even if there is no display? I can try connecting it for sounds and let you know what sound it makes.

 

[johnb35]

It seems there is power connected to both drives but the sata data cable which is the cable you are holding in 5th picture next to the white 4 pin molex. You'll need 2 cables, 1 for cd drive and 1 for hard drive.

What do you mean I can't only use one stick of RAM? I thnk there are four currently plugged in? Should I reduce that?

Yes, there are 4 currently installed but the system may fail to boot if there is a faulty stick. So you can try removing all and try 1 stick at a time in different slots to see if it boots up.

You'll need to remove the video card if you want to use the onboard video connection on the motherboard. I can see lights on the video card so it looks like its getting power.

have speakers but what sound would I be listening for? Does it read out errors even if there is no display? I can try connecting it for sounds and let you know what sound it makes.

If the OEM motherboard even has a spot for one, you would need a speaker like this in order to hear bios beeps. Regular computer speakers wouldn't work.

But to be honest, it was probably put near the garbage for a reason. It doesn't work. If you don't have experience diagnosing then you'll be needing to take that somewhere and have them determine was in wrong.

 

[holydumpsterdiver_]

I really do appreciate all of your help. I am going to try and give it a fighting chance before giving up since this is the closest I have come to owning my own PC and want to try my best at least. If I do need to take it in somewhere for diagnosis, is there somewhere you suggest? GeekSquad maybe -- i have heard they are a scam though?

For the HDD, I went ahead and plugged in the one Red SATA cable you mentioned into this but am less concerned about the CD drive so didn't have one for that.

It seems there is power connected to both drives but the sata data cable which is the cable you are holding in 5th picture next to the white 4 pin molex. You'll need 2 cables, 1 for cd drive and 1 for hard drive.

If the OEM motherboard even has a spot for one, you would need a speaker like this in order to hear bios beeps. Regular computer speakers wouldn't work.

Unfortunately I can't seem to find any cables like this connected to the motherboard so that may not be an option.

You'll need to remove the video card if you want to use the onboard video connection on the motherboard. I can see lights on the video card so it looks like its getting power.

The video card seems to have two loose 4-pin cables that are not connected to anything. do these need to be plugged into the power supply or motherboard somehow? It is plugged into the mother board through a slot similar to what the RAM are plugged into.

Yes, there are 4 currently installed but the system may fail to boot if there is a faulty stick. So you can try removing all and try 1 stick at a time in different slots to see if it boots up.

Is there any order I should try unplugging these? Is it left to right or right to left or sequenced somehow or do I just randomly try? Is it just the two clips on the ends and then i pull them out or is there a trick to removing them? don't want to damage anything

 

[johnb35]

If I do need to take it in somewhere for diagnosis, is there somewhere you suggest?

A local mom and pop store preferrably as any big box store would cost more.

he video card seems to have two loose 4-pin cables that are not connected to anything.

Can you post a picture of this? Video cards usually don't have cables coming out of them but get connected to them.

Is there any order I should try unplugging these? Is it left to right or right to left or sequenced somehow or do I just randomly try? Is it just the two clips on the ends and then i pull them out or is there a trick to removing them? don't want to damage anything

Release both ends and pull up. Make sure when reinstalling them that you did it with them oriented the correct way with the notch on the ram stick match the notch on the memory slot. If don't, you'll damaged one or both.

 

[holydumpsterdiver_]

Can you post a picture of this? Video cards usually don't have cables coming out of them but get connected to them.

Picture 6 from the original post shows the two cables I am referring to. Seems like they are directly connected to the video card. Can also be seen on the bottom of Picture 4

Release both ends and pull up. Make sure when reinstalling them that you did it with them oriented the correct way with the notch on the ram stick match the notch on the memory slot. If don't, you'll damaged one or both.

Thanks will keep this in mind and try it out soon.

 

[johnb35]

I'm gonna need an actual model number on that video card. I've never seen molex's coming off a video card. From what I can see the video card is getting power as its lit up red right?

Just so you know that computer was released over 12 years ago.

 

[holydumpsterdiver_]

MSI GTX 950 2G - I believe this is the one below

https://www.msi.com/Graphics-Card/GTX-950-GAMING-2G/Specification

The cables attached to it are visible in pictures 4 and 6 and are actually 3-pin connectors. Not sure what they go to but they aren't visible in the spec sheet photos.

Also, thanks for the info on the computer. still better than the POS standard issue laptops our district gives us I think so hopefully I can figure out how to get it going but if not, no harm and no loss i guess. was just excited at the thought of something more powerful than my brick HP elitebook 8440 that our school gives us (we get to keep them if we actually graduate but they're so slow and outdated. some kids get a google book but hear they aren't much better)

 

[holydumpsterdiver_]

I'm gonna need an actual model number on that video card. I've never seen molex's coming off a video card. From what I can see the video card is getting power as its lit up red right?

Also the red light visible in photo 4 is actually on the motherboard. there is a green light under the video card which also seems to be on the motherboard, the only light on the video card itself is the MSI logo near the ports also in photo 4

 

[johnb35]

Can you check to see if the video card actually has a 6 pin pci express power connector going into it? Maybe that power supply just has some weird connectors. You really need someone there with you to go over that with a fine tooth comb to figure out what is going on.

 

[johnb35]

I got to thinking earlier, I don't think that power supply has any pciexpress power connectors. So maybe they used a molex to 6 pin connector, which you really shouldn't do because that is only a 350 watt power supply. You'll most likely need to try a power supply that has the 6 pin already included like anything around 430 watts or above. Those lower wattage units usually doesn't have a connector for the video card.