I think I alreay know the answer, but I'm hoping its not true.

 

My desktop was working fine, then graphics card fan started playing up (not shocking tht card has been dying for a while), boot get no display. Card sounds aweful, deffo dead. Got a new one. Installed it.

 

Press power button, everything lights up and works, all the fans, harddrives, disc drives etc etc. But absolutely no display at all, not even BIOS. So what could be the problem?

I guess its probably the MOBO, but I'm kinda hoping its not.

You installed a new GPU and you're getting no display anymore? I'm going to say it's the GPU not the mobo...

Not quite.

 

Old already dying gpu started making funny noises.

Turned off for night.

Turn on next morn, no display but everything seems to be booting (cept gpu which makes funny noises and doesn't work)

Install new fully compatible gpu.

Turn on, no display, but everything seems to be booting (now including gpu)

mobo's dead. I had the exact same thing with my last Computer.

Yeah I feared as much. Bit of a sod cause its still under a yr old. Just one of thoose things I guess, mobo fail probably short-circuited the old gpu hence causing its fail or sumat like tht.

 

Guess it culd be a blessing in disguise as I need to take mobo out neway to chance bk plate for new cpu fan

Have you tried replacing your RAM? I've had a case where everything except the display booted up, and replacing the RAM fixed it.

While it is likely the motherboard, PCs can be odd beasts at time. I'd try removing various components and swapping them if possible before drawing any conclusions.

My brother came over with his board testing gear as I had tried everything I could.

 

Turns out my old gpu dying did trip the mobo, but instead of killing it my mobo simply went into a kind of lock down state to save itself. Jumped the relevant reset pins and its all bk up and running.