A Total Black Screen on 2 Computers

Does anyone have an idea on what to do about this problem I am having with 2 computers that I picked up at a garage sale. One is a Packard Bell A940-TWR and the other a Compaq Presario 5242. Both when attempting to boot up, you here the sound of everything working on the inside, but nothing showing on the screen. Seems like there is no signal sent to the monitor at all. You can open and close the CD-ROM on both, can even use the floppy drive. I was thinking that maybe a video card would do the trick, but the connection is all on one motherboard. No slots to remove a card.
Anyone have any idea about what to do about this? Should i just trash them and use them for scraps or can anything be done without coming out the pockets with large amounts of money? All help and replies are truly appreciated.

 

Hi rev son- I think my first move would be to replace the motherboard battery and see if you can get into the BIOS setup program. If you can, choose the option for default settings or optimized defaults, if available and reboot. You should only be out about four dollars for the two of them to try it. Let us know, clydeo22