PC help
My PC screen randomly went black while I was playing a game, and the VGA light turned on. When I rebooted, the cpu light turns on for a second, then turns off and the DRAM light turns on for a second, them the VGA light turns on permanently, screen completely black and unable to do anything. I have already tried clearing the CMOS, reseating and testing RAM, and the cable to my monitor. Any other ideas?
Edit: Just got it back from Office Depot. It worked in store according to the tech but when I brought it back home it did not work again. Possibly my Displayport cable? The VGA light is still on, so maybe it’s my outlet? Any ideas would be nice.
Edit 2: Thunderstorm must have messed with my cable running between my PC and Monitor. After rerunning it at Office Depot, a new cable and a deep clean fixed my PC. Thanks for everyone’s help.
In addition to the other idea about trying a different power supply (pro tip: PC nerds should always have a known good power supply lying around on a shelf somewhere, for situations like this), also try yanking out and reseating your graphics card. If neither of the above do it, try sticking in a known good graphics card. Also check the power socket(s) on your graphics card for signs of having become cooked.
In addition to the Shelf O' Power Supplies, I also keep a couple of rinky-dink and/or several generations old graphics cards in a box (I even still have a couple of AGP ones!) because they're not worth anything but definitely do at least kick out a video signal, which is useful for troubleshooting a potentially bad card and also keeping you going — albeit maybe only in Flatland — while you wait for warranty or a replacement to show up in the mail.
This is my first real computer so I do not have any spare parts laying around. I unplugged the graphics card, the plugs look fine to me. I plugged the card into the same slot and have the same issue, I then olugged it into the second, lower slot, no more cpu light but the dram flash and vga light persists with the black screen still.
I might just take it into Office Depot, seems easier since I don’t have all the tools to fix the computer.
The motherboard is telling you; it's unhappy with the graphics card. (VGA = Video Graphics Array) Try reseating it and its power connectors. If that doesn't fix it, ideally you should try plugging in a different card, if you have one.
I do not, any way to check for driver updates or anything from outside the computer? The screen won’t display anything.
Not that I know of. But it won't be a driver issue if nothing at all is displayed. The boot screen should show up at the least. Basic video functionality shouldn't need a specific driver at all. There is a good chance, the graphics card has gone faulty, but with no alternative hardware for testing, it's almost impossible to reliably diagnose.
That’s going to hurt, hopefully it is the PSU like other comments mentioned and not the GPU.
Do you have a second power supply you can try?
Unfortunately no, the computer gets power, I can hear it turning on and booting up, all the rgb lights turn on too.
Intel i5 14400F, RTX 4070 Super, 32gb DDR4 ram, Windows 11, and a 650w power supply.
Kratos Gold P1 650G
No I bought it prebuilt and cheap.
But the PC still turns on. I can hear it through my speakers, and all the lights turn on. Even the lights on the GPu. It is just the GPU not putting out a signal.