Video Card Driver Issues
by Dave@BytesThis article in our ultimate computer troubleshooting guide will be focussing on video failure in your PC. Loss of video may not indicate a problem with your monitor or video card. It could be a problem with the power supply, motherboard or even the CPU. This article will give you some pointers on video troubleshooting.
Gather as much information about your monitor, the video card int he computer and any driver disks you may have. This article will help you determing what has gone bad, so having this information will help.
Check The Monitor First
Is the monitor getting any power? The fist thing we’ll check is the LED light on the front of the monitor. It changes color due to the current start of the PC. If the monitor is getting power and if the monitor is connect to a working PC, then the light should be “green.” If the monitor is getting power but not receiving a signal from the PC but is still getting power, then the light will be “amber.” An amber colored light probably indicates a problem with the computer itself. No light means the monitor isn’t getting power and the power transformer on LCD monitors should be tested and replaced. CRT monitors (Monitors more resembling TVs) are ofter less expensive to replace than to service.
Check the brightness and contrast witht the knobs on the front panel. Hey, it happens. Especially if you have kids. If the light on the monitor is green, try adjusting these setting before moving onto anything else.
Next, inspect all of the cables. Start with the power cable and move upward toward the transformer on an LCD flat panel. Make sure the transformer and cable going from the ransformer to the PC are secure. Next, check the video cable going to the PC.
Hear Any Beeps?
If the problem resides within the PC itself, hopefully the computer will be producing a beep code. A BIOS beep code can be looked up and will quickly pinpoint the problem area on the PC. The code may reveal a video card issue, memory or even CPU problems. If your computer is issuing a beep code, please be sure to check our BIOS beep code chart.
If the system boots to the BIOS screen then disappears when loading Windows, you may have a bad driver installed. A driver is a piece of software that tells the hardware how to behave. If a bad video driver loads when Windows boots, then we can try reinstalling a driver from Safe Mode. Tap the F8 key when booting to bring up the boot options screen. Choose Safe Mode. If you are able to see the Windows environment, you will be able to reinstall the driver CD that came with the video card. If you do not have a driver CD, try to determine what video card you have in the system and visit the manufacturer’s website. Download the driver and put it on CD.