Video Adapter

Video Adapter

Also known as a graphics card, video card, video board, or a video controller, a video adapter is an internal circuit board that allows a display device such as a monitor to display a picture from the computer. Today video cards are most commonly connected to the AGP slot or PCIe slot on the motherboard, however, can also be found on-board or in a PCI slot.

Troubleshooting the video card with no display.

Problem. Just after turning on the computer, you get power and you can hear the fans but then these problem symptons occur:

• The computer's internal speaker emits a "one long beep two short beeps" error code.
• The monitor is blank and the monitor indicator is orange or blinking orange.
• Nothing further appears to be happening. The computer just sits there.

The beep error code may not occur and you could still get the other two symptons. The beep code described is the beep code commonly used for a computer to signal that it can't "see" the video card on boot.

Another thing to consider if this type of problem occurs is whether or not the Power Supply in the computer is sufficient in terms of quality and wattage as I discussed on the My Super PC - Video Card page. If it should be sufficient then it could be that the video card is not installed properly or it could be that you have what I call the "video card boot problem". And it's possible that the video card and motherboard are incompatible, even though it would seem that they should be.