Monitor won't display

Hope someone has a thought. I have an HP a1330n desktop that is about 6 years old running XP. Last weekend the screen started freezing up to the point that the on/off button wouldn't work - nothing would except unplugging it. So I'd unplug it and then the same thing would happen again. That was on Saturday. On Sunday when I tried that the monitor wouldn't display at all. If I turned the monitor off and the back on I got a box that said no vga input. These are the steps that I have tried. 1. I hooked a new monitor and new cable up and got the same results. 2. I turned the machine off and held the start button in for about 45 seconds or so. 3. I pulled the RAM out and cleaned them. 4. I replace the motherboard with an identical one. 5. I had the power supply tested. Best Buy tested the power supply, said it was good and couldn't get a display either. Their guess is I got a bad board. I'm wondering if anything could be corrupting the board somehow because the on/off button no longer turns the pc off and the other monitor that I tested now doesn't work on the machine I borrowed it from. I really haven't played with it much but just plugging it back in it wouldn't display so I had to hook up a third monitor to that other machine. I don't know what else to try. Another question: I have 2 sata hard drives in that machine. If I can't get that thing working can I buy a new box and put my 2 hard drives in and download new drivers and still run XP. I don't like 7 and I sure as heck don't want to go to 8. I want to stay with XP. Thanks for any help.

Problem 1: You can try adding a video card, PCI, AGP or PCI-E, whatever the computer will take. It's possible that pulling the power cord damaged some components on the mother board, but it's also possible it only affected the onboard video chip, so adding a card may get you going again.

Sorry, I missed your statement about replacing the mother board. Is the video onboard or is it an add-in PCI/PCI-E or AGP card? Also, test both monitors you tried on this computer on another to make sure either or both are good.

Problem 2: No. OEM versions are tied to the hardware so you can't legally move the drive to another computer and continue to use it. It may work though most likely it will fail and you will have to reinstall anyway and you will probably run into activation problems.

You may also run into different drive types. Older computers had IDE mostly, new ones have SATA so you may not be able to physically install the drives.

XP is 11 or 12 years old now. A bit long in the tooth so to speak. If I were you, I would upgrade to Windows 8. Ignore all the BS floating around about how bad it is, it isn't. The Metro interface is terrible I agree, but I have mine setup so it boots directly to the Desktop, has s normal Star button and working Gadgets. Looks and feels like Windows 7.

I know you said you don't like Windows 7 but if you take the time to learn to use it, you'll find that it's an excellent operating system.

You can upgrade to Windows 8 for $39 which is less than you could buy a Windows XP install CD from Ebay for.

Thanks for the response. The video is onboard. I'll try the monitors on a third machine but I don't thnik that is going to be the problem because when Best Buy tested the power supply they also tried to hook up to their monitor and we got the same response. I understand what you are saying about legally it being tied to the box but I'm not sure why you think it would fail. I neglected to mention that my drives are sata (I replaced them recently). I have 7 on a couple of machines currently and am not fond of it for several small features that drives me bonkers so that is why I want to keep this machine running XP. Hell, I still have one machine running 95 so I can still run a DOS program. Ever hear of DOS, lol? I was really looking for something that I may have overlooked as to why I'm having this problem and how to solve it. Thanks again.

There really isn't much more you can swap out. You replaced the display and mother board. You tested the power supply but did not replace it, so that is one thing you could try. You did not replace the ram, just cleaned and reseated so that's another possibility. Disconnect everything inside the computer except power supply connections to the mother board. By this I mean hard drives and optical drives. Sound/USB/Firewire/Media card readers. Remove any add-in cards. Leave just the display, mouse and keyboard connected, everything else disconnected. Remove all memory.. You will get some beeps but at least they will not be able to interfere with video. That leaves you with the mother board, power supply, mouse, keyboard and display. If still no vidoe output then it has to be the mother board, video cable or display. There is nothing else left.

Ok, I tried your suggestion. Did not fix the problem. I tried my monitor and cable on another pc and they worked fine so that seems to indicate the board. I'll see about getting another board. One other thing to note is my cpu fan is running very fast. I took the cpu out, cleaned and re-greased it but it is still running fast. Is it possible that the grease went bad over time and the cpu got fried? Could that cause not only the fan to run fast but also for the monitor not to work?

Does it run fast as soon as you power on? If so it's more likely a defective sensor or some other problem on the system board.

Yes, it runs fast when you initially power it on. After I replaced the board it slowed back down to a normal speed for a couple of power ups but it is back no high speed now like it was doing before. It was running fast on the old board when I noticed the problem and is now running fast again with the new board.