You did restart when swapping cables around? Sometime the video signal isn't picked up with out doing that. Silly question, is the monitor power turned on?
Let's see...
Display stays black,
PC lights and fans all run
Changing GPU was no help
Using onboard graphics didn't help
Using different video cables no help
Given all the above is true I would think the motherboard is bad, it seems the only other possibility.
Yes, everything above is true and I did cycle power when switching cables. Is there a way to know motherboard is bad for sure? Is swapping it out a relatively easy job for someone withrelativley medium electronic knowledge, or am I looking at taking the comp in to a pro servicer?
Two things can't always be tested to make sure they are bad, one the PSU and the other the motherboard. The only way is to try a new, or at least a different one.
Swapping a board is fairly easy but I'd recommend looking on YouTube for some instructional videos. Also on how to apply thermal pastes since you'd remove the CPU as well.
Taking it to a good PC shop may be a good idea, they might find something we've overlooked.
Just as a quick 'afterthought', did you enable onboard graphics in the BIOS after you swapped the cables to your motherboard outputs?
No, I did not enable the onboard graphics in BIOS prior to swapping cables. By that time everything had deteriorated to all black screen with no options to access anything whatsoever.
Is there a way to access files on my hardrive before I take it in to fix? Do you think that when I get the motherboard or video card swapped and fixed that the hardrive will have to be erased?
You can make an image of you HDD as it is at this moment so if they erase it you can restore it to exactly where it is now.
Imaging with free Macrium
The drive doesn't need to be erased if the techs are half-way intelligent. The only thing is they may have to install new/different drivers for the board or GPU.
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