I need hardware help
 

Today I went over to my computer and the screen was totally frozen on what I had been doing last. I was running eDonkey/eMule/Overnet and downloading some stuff, but the mouse would not respond at all and everything was frozen. I tried crtl/alt/delete but could not even get the Task Manager up. I rebooted my computer but now my monitor shows nothing. All it has now is the little "test" screen that bounces around the screen like its not attached to anything. I tried rebooting the system with some Win 2000 boot discs but still nothing on the monitor. I hooked up my laptop to the monitor and the monitor works fine so I am thinking it might be the video card, hard drive or worse - the motherboard.
I am running Win 2000 and the hard drive is only probably about 12 months old. I have no clue where to start testing or what to try. Any suggestions would be appreciated and any other info that you need - let me know and I will glady provide. Thanks for your time in reading this.

Well, if you have a Best Buy near, you can always go get your parts from there and take them home to test. Easy way to test hardware. If you don't need them, just take them back. Best Buy will take most items in the store back within 30 days, opened or not, used or not. Just make sure it's not damaged. I do this when I need to so I can at least get my money back if something didn't work correctly. I might also tell you to use Debit/Credit card if you go with this solution, because when the items are returned, the credit will go right back onto your card.

I thought about that too. Thanks, it does give me some comfort when others are thinking the same. I hate it when these things happen.

I'd simply start switching out the components like bendsley said. That's really the only thing you can do. I'd also check to see if all of the fans are spinning inside of your case when you turn the PC on. If a system fan isn't spinning, some motherboard won't allow the PC to boot. I'd check the videocard after that...VGA errors like what you're describing are usually videocard errors.

-Lasereth