Ok, in a previous thread I thought that my video card was about to die. But I tried a different monitor, and still the same thing. I changed out the card but going from an NVidia Geforce to an ATI Radeon made Ubuntu wack out. Tomorrow I'll try it with Windows. This is what happens: All of a sudden, the monitor blanks out, and says "No Signal". At first I thought that the computer programs would still keep on going, (like while watching a movie, or listening to music the sound would still play). But I tested that theory, and what happens is the screen blanks out, and then the sound stops. The LEDs and the fans keep going as normal, but the HDD light doesn't come on anymore. No matter what keys I press nothing happens. I'm using a different keyboard and mouse right now while I have Ubuntu installed, and I have installed it to another HDD,(not just reformatting the original). Could this be a memory issue? I'm willing to try anything to test the system, but I don't want to just go blindly into the dark. I have other RAM, but not as good as the current PC3200 Corsair Platinum. Also the other video card is an ATI 9200se (as opposed to an NVidia 4200TI). Should I first check the BOIS settings? I did change the memory timing from "aggressive" to "optimal". My mobo is an ASUS A7N8X Deluxe, and I have a Barton processor. Also, I've had this system for a couple of years now, and never had this problem until a few months ago. Old stuff that still works, somewhat....

"I did change the memory timing from "aggressive" to "optimal"." It should have been set to optimal all along. FLATURIN - Hand-to-mouth goodness. It's good!

have you pulled the componets and bench tested the board out of the case, with just video and one stick of memory? is the cpu seated well with no bent pins??

The A7N8X series was a hot setup back in it's day, but the BIOS has to be properly configured to get the best performance out of it. Using defaults or auto settings is NOT the way to go. EDIT: this is from a previous thread that I replied to that lists best BIOS settings for your configuration: Under ADVANCED / Advanced Chipset features: CPU Ext Freq = 166MHz CPU Freq Multiple Setting = AUTO (or 11.0x) System Performance = USER DEFINED CPU Interface = Optimal Memory Freq = 100% Memory Timing = Optimal FSB Spread Spectrum = disabled AGP Spread Spectrum = disabled CPU Vcore Setting = Menu CPU Vcore = 1.65v Graphics Aperture Size = 128MB AGP Freq = 66 Or you can manually set the RAM timings. Try 2.5-3-3-7. FLATURIN - Hand-to-mouth goodness. It's good!

You can check your RAM with memtest: Memtest has an ISO for creating a CD http://memtest86.com/ Run it overnight and any failure at all is unacceptable.

I set the BIOS to Jam's suggestions, and so far so good. Most of the settings were already configured this way, but some like "AGP freq" was set as auto. Let's see what happens next!! Thanks. Old stuff that still works, somewhat....

So I just got back to my computer, and the screen was blank. "No Signal" came up again. I hit every key on the key board, and moved the mouse around and still nothing. The funny thing is that the light for the NumLock was on, but I couldn't turn it off. I couldn't turn on the caps lock light either. But when I moved the mouse, the optical light would get brighter, as if it was working fine. Also, one other thing to add, sometimes when I boot up, the light on the mouse won't come on until the OS boots, and the keyboard isn't recognized until then. Other times, everything works just fine. Old stuff that still works, somewhat....