PC building trouble...

Sonet · 01-25-2006, 07:35 AM

Hey peoples...

As the topic title makes reasonably obvious, I'm trying to put together a PC. Well, no, that's misleading. The thing is, for all extensive purposes, put together. There's a bit of a snag, though... It doesn't work. At all. Here's what I've got going...

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3800+
Motherboard: Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe Socket 939
PSU: Antec 500W ATX12V
RAM: 2GB Patriot DDR400 PC3200
Video card: ATI Radeon X1800XL (Asus)
Hard drive: Hitachi Deskstar 7K80 (x2)

And I've also got an Asus CD-RW drive, and Samsung floppy drive (as incomprehensible as that seems to be to some people). Well, like I said, I've got all of that put together, and the case stuff all hooked up, but when I turn it on, not a damn thing happens, and the monitor says it's getting no input signal. Now, I've never built a computer before (I put it together with a friend who has), but apparently what's supposed to happen is the BIOS will load up, where I can then tell it to boot from the CD drive to install the OS. But, like I said, nothing even shows up on the monitor. Everything should be connected properly - the motherboard's light turns on, the video card's light turns on, all the fans start spinning, the case lights turn on... Just nothing shows up on the monitor when I switch it on. And I've tried on both my monitor and the aforementioned friend's.

One thing mentioned to me is that it ought to beep when I turn it on, which it doesn't. The sound wires are connected to the motherboard (to the four red-orange pins in that group where the power switch, reset switch, etc. are connected to), so that might indicate... what?

Someone please help me out here... I dropped about $1400 on this setup (and I was lucky enough to get a free case), so I'm a bit less than pleased, and a bit more than disheartened over the fact that it's thus far been completely unsuccessful. There are a few possiblities I'm considering, but I'm certainly no expert, so I'm hoping someone here can suggest what the problem might be. Or better yet, what the problem definitely is.

run4it · 01-25-2006, 08:40 AM

do you have a different mobo you could hook all this stuff up to to see if you still get the same result?

Sonet · 01-25-2006, 08:46 AM

That would be nice, but sadly, I do not. The video card is PCI-Express, I should mention. I don't really have anything that I can test parts with.

**ceewi1** · 01-25-2006, 09:33 AM

Try unplugging the IDE connections from the motherboard and seeing if it will boot up then. This can happen if one of the connectors is plugged in the wrong way around.

sw2001 · 01-25-2006, 09:44 AM

Is there a jumper on the mobo for FSB?

statue12 · 01-25-2006, 03:26 PM

I had a the same problem when building my pc. The fans would spin but not a thing would come on the screen no beeping nothing. I tried nearly everything i could think off. It ended up i just left 1 stick of ram in and it booted up. try with just 1 stick of ram if it dont work swap the ram about and try just 1 stick in different ram slots.

gamerman4 · 01-25-2006, 03:54 PM

Try unplugging everything except 1 hard drive, keyboard (no mouse), and your motherboard power cords. Take all RAM out and leave only 1 stick in. Reset your CMOS/BIOS jumper (your motherboard manual should have instructions on a CMOS jumper, it is a 3-pin jumper that you need to switch over and then back, you might need to take the CMOS battery out too. Also, the X800XL probabyl needs a power cord hooked up to it too, did you plug the PCI-Express 6-pin power cord into it? There should be a little black box where a 6-pin (3x2) power cord should go. The box is probably on the side with the fan and heatsink of the gfx card. If your PSU doesn't have a PCI-Express power cord, either the gfx card should have come with one or you need to buy one.
The 6-pin power cord...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16812201004
if you look at the picture, there is a 4 pin (4x1) molex connector and a 6pin (3x2) PCI-express connector. This should be plugged into your X800XL.

Sonet · 01-26-2006, 05:34 AM

I've tried it with just one stick inserted, and I've also tried resetting the CMOS, both by changing the jumper switch, and by removing the battery. The video card is plugged into the power supply via the six-pin power cord. So, when I head back, I guess that leaves me to try unplugging the IDE connections.

gamerman4 · 01-26-2006, 03:12 PM

If all that doesn't work, you either have a bad graphics card, mobo, or CPU, possibly RAM you mgiht want to try each RAM stick in there to make sure one wasnt bad. This happened to me before and I had to replace the CPU. Graphics card is usually large cause with this but it can be caused by any other component.

Note: I think all mobo makers should do what Abit did and put a POST digital display screen. This would make things much easier to troubleshoot sometimes because a sometimes there won't be any beeps for some problems, while for every problem I've had, my POST display always displays a code.

Dngrsone · 01-26-2006, 08:15 PM

Try booting with no memory in it. If it beeps at you (assuming you have a speaker properly connected or one is itnegral to the motherboard), then we know that you at least have some motherboard/processor capability. If you try booting without the PCI-e card in (and memory), you should also get some beeps. Same with keyboard.

If you don't get any beeps that way, then the system isn't getting to or completing POST. Ensure the PSU is putting out what it's supposed to (check the motherboard manual for minimum PSU current requirements and bounce against the PSU you have, should be min 16a on the 12v rails). Verify the processror is well-seated and get ready to RMA either the Processor or motherboard.

01-25-2006, 07:35 AM	#1 (permalink)
Sonet New Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 7	PC building trouble... Hey peoples... As the topic title makes reasonably obvious, I'm trying to put together a PC. Well, no, that's misleading. The thing is, for all extensive purposes, put together. There's a bit of a snag, though... It doesn't work. At all. Here's what I've got going... CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3800+ Motherboard: Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe Socket 939 PSU: Antec 500W ATX12V RAM: 2GB Patriot DDR400 PC3200 Video card: ATI Radeon X1800XL (Asus) Hard drive: Hitachi Deskstar 7K80 (x2) And I've also got an Asus CD-RW drive, and Samsung floppy drive (as incomprehensible as that seems to be to some people). Well, like I said, I've got all of that put together, and the case stuff all hooked up, but when I turn it on, not a damn thing happens, and the monitor says it's getting no input signal. Now, I've never built a computer before (I put it together with a friend who has), but apparently what's supposed to happen is the BIOS will load up, where I can then tell it to boot from the CD drive to install the OS. But, like I said, nothing even shows up on the monitor. Everything should be connected properly - the motherboard's light turns on, the video card's light turns on, all the fans start spinning, the case lights turn on... Just nothing shows up on the monitor when I switch it on. And I've tried on both my monitor and the aforementioned friend's. One thing mentioned to me is that it ought to beep when I turn it on, which it doesn't. The sound wires are connected to the motherboard (to the four red-orange pins in that group where the power switch, reset switch, etc. are connected to), so that might indicate... what? Someone please help me out here... I dropped about $1400 on this setup (and I was lucky enough to get a free case), so I'm a bit less than pleased, and a bit more than disheartened over the fact that it's thus far been completely unsuccessful. There are a few possiblities I'm considering, but I'm certainly no expert, so I'm hoping someone here can suggest what the problem might be. Or better yet, what the problem definitely is.

01-25-2006, 08:40 AM	#2 (permalink)
run4it Silver Member Join Date: Jun 2005 Age: 21 Posts: 235	do you have a different mobo you could hook all this stuff up to to see if you still get the same result? __________________ Intel Quad-Core Q6600 G0 2.4 GHz Kentsfield XFX nForce 680i SLI Socket 775 Motherboard XFX GeForce 8600GTS 256 MB PCI-E G.Skill 2 GB DDR2 SDRAM 800 MHz 320 GB Seagate Sata, 2 x 80 GB WD Pata Hard Drives Xp Pro x32

01-25-2006, 09:33 AM	#4 (permalink)
ceewi1 Moderator Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Melbourne, Australia Age: 21 Posts: 5,299	Try unplugging the IDE connections from the motherboard and seeing if it will boot up then. This can happen if one of the connectors is plugged in the wrong way around. __________________ CPU: Core 2 Duo E6600 / MOBO: Gigabyte 965P-DS3 / GPU: Gigabyte HD4870 RAM: 2GB G.Skill F2-6400CL4D-2GBPK / HDD: 2TB Total HDD / PSU: Antec NeoPower 480W Cheap PSUs - 2% of system costs, responsible for 28% of system deaths As Sealed Stick was removed, lost or damaged, it shall be out of warranty validity. - The "Warranty void if removed" sticker on numerous CoolerMaster PSUs. Useful PSU Guides

01-25-2006, 03:26 PM	#6 (permalink)
statue12 Silver Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 120	I had a the same problem when building my pc. The fans would spin but not a thing would come on the screen no beeping nothing. I tried nearly everything i could think off. It ended up i just left 1 stick of ram in and it booted up. try with just 1 stick of ram if it dont work swap the ram about and try just 1 stick in different ram slots. __________________ AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Venice :) 2GB Kingston pc 3200 400 Ram 120 GB Seagate Hrd Drive IDE 256mb ATI X800 pro AGP Aspire Xplorer Gaming case 400 watt jeantech psu Windows XP Home Edition

01-25-2006, 03:54 PM	#7 (permalink)
gamerman4 Diamond Member Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Arkansas Age: 18 Posts: 1,621	Try unplugging everything except 1 hard drive, keyboard (no mouse), and your motherboard power cords. Take all RAM out and leave only 1 stick in. Reset your CMOS/BIOS jumper (your motherboard manual should have instructions on a CMOS jumper, it is a 3-pin jumper that you need to switch over and then back, you might need to take the CMOS battery out too. Also, the X800XL probabyl needs a power cord hooked up to it too, did you plug the PCI-Express 6-pin power cord into it? There should be a little black box where a 6-pin (3x2) power cord should go. The box is probably on the side with the fan and heatsink of the gfx card. If your PSU doesn't have a PCI-Express power cord, either the gfx card should have come with one or you need to buy one. The 6-pin power cord... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16812201004 if you look at the picture, there is a 4 pin (4x1) molex connector and a 6pin (3x2) PCI-express connector. This should be plugged into your X800XL. __________________ NZXT Nemesis Elite Black Intel Q6600 @ 3.20 Ghz COOLER MASTER RL-EUL-GBU1-GP Watercooling Gigabyte DS3R P965 HDDs: 2 x 80GB 1 x 250GB 1 x 500GB 1x 750GB 2 x 1GB Patriot Extreme Perf. DDR2 nVidia 8800GT 512MB Antec Smartpower 2.0 400 Watt Last edited by gamerman4; 01-25-2006 at 04:00 PM.

01-25-2006, 08:46 AM	#3 (permalink)
Sonet New Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 7	That would be nice, but sadly, I do not. The video card is PCI-Express, I should mention. I don't really have anything that I can test parts with.

01-25-2006, 09:44 AM	#5 (permalink)
sw2001 New Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 21	Is there a jumper on the mobo for FSB?

01-26-2006, 05:34 AM	#8 (permalink)
Sonet New Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 7	I've tried it with just one stick inserted, and I've also tried resetting the CMOS, both by changing the jumper switch, and by removing the battery. The video card is plugged into the power supply via the six-pin power cord. So, when I head back, I guess that leaves me to try unplugging the IDE connections.

01-26-2006, 03:12 PM	#9 (permalink)
gamerman4 Diamond Member Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Arkansas Age: 18 Posts: 1,621	If all that doesn't work, you either have a bad graphics card, mobo, or CPU, possibly RAM you mgiht want to try each RAM stick in there to make sure one wasnt bad. This happened to me before and I had to replace the CPU. Graphics card is usually large cause with this but it can be caused by any other component. Note: I think all mobo makers should do what Abit did and put a POST digital display screen. This would make things much easier to troubleshoot sometimes because a sometimes there won't be any beeps for some problems, while for every problem I've had, my POST display always displays a code. __________________ NZXT Nemesis Elite Black Intel Q6600 @ 3.20 Ghz COOLER MASTER RL-EUL-GBU1-GP Watercooling Gigabyte DS3R P965 HDDs: 2 x 80GB 1 x 250GB 1 x 500GB 1x 750GB 2 x 1GB Patriot Extreme Perf. DDR2 nVidia 8800GT 512MB Antec Smartpower 2.0 400 Watt

01-26-2006, 08:15 PM	#10 (permalink)
Dngrsone VIP Member Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Centrally located far from everywhere Posts: 544	Try booting with no memory in it. If it beeps at you (assuming you have a speaker properly connected or one is itnegral to the motherboard), then we know that you at least have some motherboard/processor capability. If you try booting without the PCI-e card in (and memory), you should also get some beeps. Same with keyboard. If you don't get any beeps that way, then the system isn't getting to or completing POST. Ensure the PSU is putting out what it's supposed to (check the motherboard manual for minimum PSU current requirements and bounce against the PSU you have, should be min 16a on the 12v rails). Verify the processror is well-seated and get ready to RMA either the Processor or motherboard. __________________ Dngrsone Saving lives, one protein at a time. Team 12912

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