Hello friends - long time lurker first-time poster, dealing with a frustrating situation.
Two Weeks Ago:
I was using my desktop (to play WoW) and my girlfriend called and I spent ~15minutes on the phone with her. While we were on the phone I noticed the monitor go to sleep because I hadn't moved the mouse or used the keyboard. When I finished the call and went to move the mouse and use the keyboard I could not get the monitor to wake-up. This had happened occasionally in the past and was always fixed by restarting the computer. This time, however, no matter how many times I started and restarted the computer the monitor would never turn on - I kept getting a "No Signal - Monitor Going to Sleep" message.
First I tested the monitor - I plugged it into my roommates desktop and the monitor worked fine, ruling out the monitor and HDMI cable as the culprit (in my mind...). I figured there was some issue with the hardware in my computer sending the graphics signals to the monitor. I was able to boot with CPU graphics by removing the graphics card and plugging my monitor directly into the motherboard. I replaced the graphics card and I was back to being unable to see anything on the monitor.
At this point I figured it was the graphics card (GTX 1080 Ti...) and I was very upset because the card is just about two years old. I never play anything more graphics-intensive than Rust, and have never used the card for BitCoin mining or anything like that. I didn't experience any graphics tearing or any symptoms that would suggest the graphics card was dying. Either way, I figured it must be faulty and placed an order for a new MSI Gaming GeForce GTX 1660 Ti and figured I'd try and make a warranty claim on the 1080 Ti.
As soon as I replaced the graphics card and installed the new drivers my computer was working like new - no issues and back to normal.
This Weekend:
I was away for the long weekend (Friday-Monday) and when I got home Monday night my computer was on and running. This happens occasionally - I've never been able to diagnose how or why, but sometimes the computer starts by itself. I chalked it up to a strange quirk of the computer and it has never caused any issues before. I figured the computer was in sleep mode - I tried moving the mouse/keyboard and could not get the monitor to come to life. I turned the computer on and off and could not get the computer to come to life. Despite the new graphics card, it appears as though I'm back to square one.
I'm figuring that the absolute worst case scenario is that my computer was on 24/7 from Friday evening to Monday evening for 72 hours. I can't imagine that would be long enough to cause a new graphics card to fail. My room does not get that hot and my computer was cool to the touch when I felt it.
I'm thinking (and worrying) that it might be a motherboard issue, but I'm at a loss for what precisely could be causing the problem. I'm especially confused that I got it up and running with a new graphics card before I left for the weekend and now it's back to the same problem.
I'm not eager to sink any more money into graphics cards before I can really diagnose the issue.
Any help/ideas friends?
Two Weeks Ago:
I was using my desktop (to play WoW) and my girlfriend called and I spent ~15minutes on the phone with her. While we were on the phone I noticed the monitor go to sleep because I hadn't moved the mouse or used the keyboard. When I finished the call and went to move the mouse and use the keyboard I could not get the monitor to wake-up. This had happened occasionally in the past and was always fixed by restarting the computer. This time, however, no matter how many times I started and restarted the computer the monitor would never turn on - I kept getting a "No Signal - Monitor Going to Sleep" message.
First I tested the monitor - I plugged it into my roommates desktop and the monitor worked fine, ruling out the monitor and HDMI cable as the culprit (in my mind...). I figured there was some issue with the hardware in my computer sending the graphics signals to the monitor. I was able to boot with CPU graphics by removing the graphics card and plugging my monitor directly into the motherboard. I replaced the graphics card and I was back to being unable to see anything on the monitor.
At this point I figured it was the graphics card (GTX 1080 Ti...) and I was very upset because the card is just about two years old. I never play anything more graphics-intensive than Rust, and have never used the card for BitCoin mining or anything like that. I didn't experience any graphics tearing or any symptoms that would suggest the graphics card was dying. Either way, I figured it must be faulty and placed an order for a new MSI Gaming GeForce GTX 1660 Ti and figured I'd try and make a warranty claim on the 1080 Ti.
As soon as I replaced the graphics card and installed the new drivers my computer was working like new - no issues and back to normal.
This Weekend:
I was away for the long weekend (Friday-Monday) and when I got home Monday night my computer was on and running. This happens occasionally - I've never been able to diagnose how or why, but sometimes the computer starts by itself. I chalked it up to a strange quirk of the computer and it has never caused any issues before. I figured the computer was in sleep mode - I tried moving the mouse/keyboard and could not get the monitor to come to life. I turned the computer on and off and could not get the computer to come to life. Despite the new graphics card, it appears as though I'm back to square one.
I'm figuring that the absolute worst case scenario is that my computer was on 24/7 from Friday evening to Monday evening for 72 hours. I can't imagine that would be long enough to cause a new graphics card to fail. My room does not get that hot and my computer was cool to the touch when I felt it.
I'm thinking (and worrying) that it might be a motherboard issue, but I'm at a loss for what precisely could be causing the problem. I'm especially confused that I got it up and running with a new graphics card before I left for the weekend and now it's back to the same problem.
I'm not eager to sink any more money into graphics cards before I can really diagnose the issue.
Any help/ideas friends?