HP power light off, fans on, back green light on, no video signal

[TazBunny]

This started with me powering on my PC today for the first time after shutting it down properly last night ("properly: meaning: making sure open programs were properly exited, going to start, and choosing to shut down the PC). Everything seemingly worked fine, except my monitor (HP 2311x) wasn't receiving a signal from the PC, but was receiving power.

I tried

• Reseating the DVI cable on both ends [no change]
• Trying a different DVI cable [no change]
• Trying a VGA cable [no change]
• Plugging in a spare monitor via both VGA and DVI [no change]
• Unplugging the original monitor's power supply and the PC's power supply, waiting 20 seconds, plugging both back in, powering up the original monitor, waiting until the monitor went to sleep, then powering up the PC

and this is where a new problem sprung up:

• Now when I hit my tower's power button, my power light on the front of the tower doesn't turn on
• Both fans DO turn on
• the green light on the back of the tower is on and in a solid state (not blinking)

For this second issue I:

• tried to release a residual charge by unplugging everything from the tower and holding the power button for 20 seconds, then replugging only the power cord, monitor DVI cable and keyboard USB back in, then restarting the PC [no change]
• tried to plug my PC into a wall socket with just the power cord plugged in and still, the power light on the front of the tower won't turn on, but my 2 fans are on and my back green light is on and solid [no change]

More information:

• I have not changed any hardware on this PC ever.
• 2 days ago I had a Windows Update, that is the most recent.
• I have not updated any drivers in the past month.
• I have not had any other issues I am aware of with this PC.

Please help!

[Grzwacz]

Hi TazBunny

You're running Windows 7 and did not update to Windows 10?

Do you clean the inside of the PC on a regular basis? Excessive dust buildup can cause all kinds of bad things. Are chassis, CPU, and graphics card fans spinning?

You have a hardware or power supply problem. A solid green LED on the power supply is a good sign but you can't rule it out unless you swap in a known good power supply. When is the last time you replaced the CR 2032 MB battery? Doing this will also reset CMOS.

Finding the bad component requires swapping in known good replacement components.

There are a couple of quick things you could try:

1. Disconnect all unnecessary peripherals. Try only a monitor and keyboard. Try the keyboard on a front USB port. Try only the monitor.

2. Disconnect power to the the optical drive and the HDD. See if you can get a boot device error warning on screen.

3. Pull all RAM. See if the PC gives an error message with no memory installed. Try one stick of RAM in each memory slot. Try swapping in known good RAM.

4. Install a discrete graphics card if you are using onboard graphics. Remove the discrete graphics card and try onboard graphics if this applies.

5. Disconnect the front USB 2 media card reader by removing the connector from the USB 2 header on the MB.

No video at this point leaves the motherboard or processor. Examine the MB for any signs of thermal damage or bulging/leaky capacitors.

Sometimes it is easier and less expensive to have a local tech check it out.

Grzy