# [SOLVED] Monitor gets no signal from GPU after dust cleaning it



## Sirion (Sep 26, 2012)

Hi everybody, I'm new around here and I would like to hear your opinions on this matter. So, yesterday I cleaned my pc of dust - did a full sweep, cpu, hard drive, gpu, front case. In the process I accidentaly damaged the already weakened cables connecting the power on button and the restart button, but I can turn on my computer by connecting the 2 cable heads that were once linked to the power button. The real problem though appeared when I powered on my pc: fans start spinning and everything seems in order but the display would not receive any signal from the gpu. I tried reseating the gpu, shifting its location slightly in the PCIe socket, tried reseating ram, cpu, disconnected HDD and DVD-ROM drive, removed the CMOS battery and tried each and every one of the above mentioned several times. My display would not get any signal. I tried listening to the speakers, hoping that my display was the problem, but i did not hear the specific tune from the windows login. I made a reasonable guess that my GPU is the problem, since the display was fine before starting to clean my pc and i did not touch it in the process.
My specs are as follows: 
CPU : AMD Athlon 2 x3 450 3.2 GHz overclocked 5%
GPU : Gigabyte HD 6850 1 GB overcloked at 840 MHz core speed and 1100 memory clock through Catalyst Control Center
RAM : 4 GB DDR2 Kingmax 800 MHz
HDD : Western Digital 500 GB
Motherboard : ASUS M4A78
PSU : 500 Watts
Sidenote: while cleaning my pc I removed the CPU heatsink and cooler, cleaned any dust with a dry piece of cloth and blew it with my mouth, did the same thing with my GPU which has a Windforce cooler(pretty big one, has 2 fans). Maybe I messed something up while doing this? I was careful and it wasn't the first time I had cleaned my pc. I did not get a chance to try booting up my computer with a different gpu and while I'm working on that can anyone please help me figure out what is going on with my pc which was working fine prior to my dust cleaning?


----------



## JTWStephens (Sep 26, 2012)

*Re: Monitor gets no signal from GPU after dust cleaning it*

Have you tried systematically removing your ram sticks and booting from there? Also, I assume your mobo doesn't have a BIOS bootcode LED display or anything like that?


----------



## Sirion (Sep 26, 2012)

*Re: Monitor gets no signal from GPU after dust cleaning it*



JTWStephens said:


> Have you tried systematically removing your ram sticks and booting from there? Also, I assume your mobo doesn't have a BIOS bootcode LED display or anything like that?


I have tried booting with each of my 2 ram sticks and even in different sockets, and no, my mobo doesnt have a bootcode LED display..


----------



## shotgn (Aug 10, 2008)

*Re: Monitor gets no signal from GPU after dust cleaning it*

When you removed the cpu heatsink, did you remove the old thermal paste and replace with fresh paste?


----------



## Sirion (Sep 26, 2012)

*Re: Monitor gets no signal from GPU after dust cleaning it*



shotgn said:


> When you removed the cpu heatsink, did you remove the old thermal paste and replace with fresh paste?


no, i left the old thermal paste


----------



## Sirion (Sep 26, 2012)

*Re: Monitor gets no signal from GPU after dust cleaning it*

Update: i tried with another gpu and the monitor is still not receiving any signal. I think I'm gonna try with a new display just to be sure.


----------



## shotgn (Aug 10, 2008)

*Re: Monitor gets no signal from GPU after dust cleaning it*

Anytime you remove the cpu heatsink. The old thermal paste needs to be removed and fresh paste added.


----------



## Sirion (Sep 26, 2012)

*Re: Monitor gets no signal from GPU after dust cleaning it*



shotgn said:


> Anytime you remove the cpu heatsink. The old thermal paste needs to be removed and fresh paste added.


My older dual core CPU didn't seem to have a problem when i removed its heatsink without putting any fresh paste on, but you may have a point


----------



## JTWStephens (Sep 26, 2012)

*Re: Monitor gets no signal from GPU after dust cleaning it*



Sirion said:


> My older dual core CPU didn't seem to have a problem when i removed its heatsink without putting any fresh paste on, but you may have a point


He's right, but I seriously doubt that old thermal paste would bring your CPU to temps that would prevent posting.


----------



## Sirion (Sep 26, 2012)

*Re: Monitor gets no signal from GPU after dust cleaning it*

Solved. I did as shotgn suggested, bough a tube of thermal paste and applied it - my pc is back in the action. Thx Guys!


----------



## Tyree (May 10, 2009)

*Re: Monitor gets no signal from GPU after dust cleaning it*

Glad you got the problem resolved and thank for posting back with the resolution.


----------



## shotgn (Aug 10, 2008)

Glad you got it going again


----------

