No Display

I had problems with my computer when playing AOE III. It shut down very often
so I thought the processor might overheat. I also thought that a better fan
would do the trick. Now I see that it didn't necessarily have to do with
processor heat because the behaviour persists. To make things even worse: now
when Windows starts I don't get any display on the screen. Before that I had
a couple of restarts (which worked before) but this time it just kept either
restarting or running with no display visible. At one point - I could see the
Windows logo - I considered it a good idea to try a system repair so I
accessed Setup and set one of my disc drives first for booting. Now I don't
even get the 'Windows' screen any more, cannot set the first boot back to the
harddrive and am completely lost.
I checked my wifes graphic card and the problem persists - so I guess it's
not the card. What can I do?

I have an Intel BX38BT motherboard with GForce 6800 graphic card. I only had
this problem when playing AOE III!

Don't overlook the possibility of a faulty PSU. Or other hardware trouble.

See if the machine will POST with no HD connected, or if it will boot from a
bootable CD.

> I had problems with my computer when playing AOE III. It shut down very often
> so I thought the processor might overheat. I also thought that a better fan
> would do the trick. Now I see that it didn't necessarily have to do with
> processor heat because the behaviour persists. To make things even worse: now
> when Windows starts I don't get any display on the screen. Before that I had
> a couple of restarts (which worked before) but this time it just kept either
> restarting or running with no display visible. At one point - I could see the
> Windows logo - I considered it a good idea to try a system repair so I
> accessed Setup and set one of my disc drives first for booting. Now I don't
> even get the 'Windows' screen any more, cannot set the first boot back to the
> harddrive and am completely lost.
> I checked my wifes graphic card and the problem persists - so I guess it's
> not the card. What can I do?
>
> I have an Intel BX38BT motherboard with GForce 6800 graphic card. I only had
> this problem when playing AOE III!